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In dealing with the past, all historians inevitably deal with the dead. Yet few historians primarily engage with the meaning of death to individuals, communities, and societies or how sickness shaped citizenship. In this class, we will explore how historians have theorized death, disease, and health in the United States and greater Atlantic World. How have epidemics impacted a person's social position? How has sickness impacted a victim's identity, their relationships to others, and their relationship to the state? How has mass death changed markets and law? How have the powerful used sickness to their advantage, often while increasing inequality, xenophobia, sexism, and racism? How does immunity to certain diseases, vaccines, and health care become political? The 200-series "Doing History" requirement offers students an intellectual bridge between Sources & Methods courses and 209S. Treating a specific subfield within history as the focal point, these courses will explore how each subfield emerged, how it engages with allied fields outside of History, and how it has changed over time. Students will gain deep familiarity with the primary theoretical frameworks deployed by scholars working in this area as well as the intellectual impetus these scholars articulate to legitimize their inquiries. In learning more about the inner workings, or "backstage," of the discipline students will gain insight into how to ask historical questions and shape historical problems. Ultimately, the course will offer opportunities to reflect on what it means to think historically, to ask historical questions, and to produce historical knowledge.