Sharra Vostral
vostral@illinois.edu

This course examines the history of material cultures of health care. The class will analyze how technological innovation has become central to medicine over the last two centuries and how we are coping with the consequences, both intended and unintended, of our reliance upon such devices. We will look at the ways in which disease is constructed, and how technologies contribute to the naming of maladies and the identities associated with “sickness.” Attention will given to race, class, and gender, in term of implications for emergent biotechnologies.