Stanford University Explore Courses

HISTORY 183A: Enlightenment and Genocide: Modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire

( History 183A is 5 units; History 83A is 3 units.) In the early eighteenth century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, introduced Ottoman smallpox inoculation to western medicine. But over the next two centuries, Ottoman scientific, cultural, and geopolitical strength disintegrated, while western Europeans colonized much of the globe and industrialized at home. How and why did this happen? This course explores this period of wrenching social change and transformation, and asks how the Enlightenment, with its calls for universal human rights and democracy, existed alongside crimes against humanity such as the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. We inquire into ethical dilemmas from diverse perspectives to better understand the contested heritage of our modern world. Bringing western and non-western philosophy into conversation with history, we study the changing structures of Ottoman and European societies in the context of industrialization, repeated cycles from monarchy to democracy to dictatorship, and the growth of radical strains of Islam as a social protest and revolt against European dominance.

Last offered: Winter 2022 | UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI

HISTORY 228C: Politics and Society in Early Soviet Russia: View from the Hoover Library & Archives (HISTORY 328C, REES 110, REES 211)

The course offers an examination of early Soviet history (1917-1924) based on the archival collections, digital records, and rare books and periodicals in the Hoover Library & Archives, with a focus on the papers of the American Relief Administration and the Soviet famine of 1921. Topics include Bolshevik ideology, the role of the Communist Party, Russian-Ukrainian relations, the formation of the USSR, Soviet economic policy, Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International, the secret police and political repression, culture under the Bolsheviks, demographic shifts and refugee movements, and the famine of 1921, in which six million people perished. Students will become familiar with how to research and interpret primary sources. Class will meet in Hoover Tower, in a secure room where students can work with archival and rare library materials, including early Soviet newspapers and journals. Course is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Students may take the course for either 3 or 5 units. Those enrolled for 5 units will submit a research paper. Russian language ability is not required. Offered in conjunction with the Hoover Library & Archives exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine.

Last offered: Winter 2023

HISTORY 234P: The Age of Plague: Medicine and Society, 1300-1750 (STS 200U)

(Undergraduates, enroll in 234P. Graduates, enroll in 334P) The arrival of plague in Eurasia in 1347-51 affected many late medieval and early modern societies. It transformed their understanding of disease, raised questions about the efficacy of medical knowledge, and inspired new notions of public health. This class explores the history of medicine in the medieval Islamic and European worlds. Changing ideas about the body, the roles of different healers and religion in healing, the growth of hospitals and universities, and the evolution of medical theory and practice will be discussed. How did medicine and society change in the age of plague?

Last offered: Autumn 2020 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

HISTORY 243C: People, Plants, and Medicine: Atlantic World Amerindian, African, and European Science (CSRE 243C, CSRE 443C, FEMGEN 443C, HISTORY 343C, HISTORY 443C)

Explores the global circulation of plants, peoples, disease, medicines, technologies, and knowledge. Considers primarily Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and focuses on their exchanges in the Caribbean, in particular within the French and British empires. We also take examples from other knowledge traditions, where relevant. Readings treat science and medicine in relation to voyaging, the natural history of plants, environmental exchange, racism, and slavery in colonial contexts. Colonial sciences and medicines were important militarily and strategically for positioning emerging nation states in global struggles for land and resources. Upper-level undergrads must apply for 243C; please fill in this short form: https://forms.gle/XpUXwfT6ULiwC8P19 Graduate students taking the course as a one-quarter seminar should enroll in 343C. Graduate students taking the course as a two-part graduate research seminar should enroll in the 443C (Part I) in Winter and the 443D (Part II) in Spring.

Terms: Win | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

Instructors: Schiebinger, L. (PI)

HISTORY 244F: New Directions in Gendered Innovations in Science, Medicine, Technology, and Environment (FEMGEN 344F, HISTORY 344F)

Welcome! This is a new upper-level course in Gendered Innovations that explores how sex, gender, and intersectional analysis in research and design sparks discovery and innovation. This course focuses on sex and gender, and considers factors intersecting with sex and gender, including age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational background, disabilities, geographic location, etc., where relevant. We will read new research touching on basic concepts, intersectional design, gendering social robots, new approaches to sustainability, what's new in biomedicine & public health, facial recognition, inclusive crash test dummies, and more. As Director of Gendered Innovations, I work with the European Commission, Wellcome Trust, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and major journals on policy to support integrating sex, gender, and intersectional analysis into the design of research. The operative question is: how can this type of analysis lead to discovery & innovation while enhan more »

Welcome! This is a new upper-level course in Gendered Innovations that explores how sex, gender, and intersectional analysis in research and design sparks discovery and innovation. This course focuses on sex and gender, and considers factors intersecting with sex and gender, including age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational background, disabilities, geographic location, etc., where relevant. We will read new research touching on basic concepts, intersectional design, gendering social robots, new approaches to sustainability, what's new in biomedicine & public health, facial recognition, inclusive crash test dummies, and more. As Director of Gendered Innovations, I work with the European Commission, Wellcome Trust, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and major journals on policy to support integrating sex, gender, and intersectional analysis into the design of research. The operative question is: how can this type of analysis lead to discovery & innovation while enhancing social equity and environmental sustainability? Students will read and report on new research in weekly sessions and present a paper on a topic of their choice. We welcome open and respectful discussion. This course is open to upper-level undergraduate students and to graduate students by application https://forms.gle/2KmxUUnRSG2LNNSS6. Limited to 15.

Terms: Win | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

Instructors: Schiebinger, L. (PI)

HISTORY 247: Gender and Sexuality in African History (AFRICAAM 247, FEMGEN 247, FEMGEN 347, HISTORY 347)

This course examines the history of gender and sexuality in twentieth and twenty-first century Africa. It explores how concepts, identities, and practices of gender and sexuality have changed in shifting social, cultural, political, and economic contexts across the continent and in connection with global currents. This historical journey encompasses European colonialism, independence, postcolonial nation-building, and current times. Course materials include African novels, films, material culture and multinational scholarly research and primary sources. We will also engage multidisciplinary perspectives, methodologies, and theories as tools for critical thinking, writing and varied modes of producing knowledge. Gender and sexuality(ies) as examined in this course act as gateways to explore transformations in : selfhood, peoplehood, and life stage; health, medicine, reproduction, and the body; law and criminality; marriage, kinship, family, and community; politics, power and protest; feminism(s); popular culture; religion and belief; LGBTQI+ themes; and the history of emotions, including love, joy, desire, pain, and trauma.

Terms: Spr | Units: 4-5

Instructors: Jean-Baptiste, R. (PI)

HISTORY 296F: Science and Society in Modern South Asia

(Undergraduates, enroll in 296F. Graduates, enroll in 396F.) Modern science, technology and medicine are global phenomena, and yet scientific knowledge, as the product of human activity, reflects the social, political, economic and cultural contexts in which it is produced, mobilized and used. This course explores the dynamic relationship between science and society in South Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taking scientific practice as not the exclusive domain of the British colonial state, its European personnel or even South Asian scientists, this course explores the knowledge practices of a range of actors in South Asian societies. We will pursue two questions throughout: How and where did South Asians learn, receive, interpret, practice, and produce scientific knowledge? How did they mobilize this knowledge in their own political and social agendas? In these varied practical, social and cultural projects, science became a force for civilization and enlightenment, political domination and national liberation, and economic development and social transformation. In fact, a 'scientific temperament' has also come to be upheld as the appropriate civic attitude of postcolonial citizens. Through these themes, this course examines the making of the power and cultural authority of the sciences and their practitioners in modern South Asia.

Last offered: Spring 2022 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

HISTORY 298E: Chinese Pop Culture: A History

This discussion course examines the evolution of popular culture in the Chinese-speaking world and diaspora from the late imperial era to the present. Analyzing myth, literature, medicine, music, art, film, fashion, and internet culture will help students understand the revolutionary social and political changes that have transformed modern East Asia.

Last offered: Summer 2021 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

HISTORY 328C: Politics and Society in Early Soviet Russia: View from the Hoover Library & Archives (HISTORY 228C, REES 110, REES 211)

The course offers an examination of early Soviet history (1917-1924) based on the archival collections, digital records, and rare books and periodicals in the Hoover Library & Archives, with a focus on the papers of the American Relief Administration and the Soviet famine of 1921. Topics include Bolshevik ideology, the role of the Communist Party, Russian-Ukrainian relations, the formation of the USSR, Soviet economic policy, Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International, the secret police and political repression, culture under the Bolsheviks, demographic shifts and refugee movements, and the famine of 1921, in which six million people perished. Students will become familiar with how to research and interpret primary sources. Class will meet in Hoover Tower, in a secure room where students can work with archival and rare library materials, including early Soviet newspapers and journals. Course is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Students may take the course for either 3 or 5 units. Those enrolled for 5 units will submit a research paper. Russian language ability is not required. Offered in conjunction with the Hoover Library & Archives exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine.

271 - 280 of 730 results for: Medicine