SEMINAR PROFILE

S01 -
Making Modern Medicine: Local Explorations

This two-day course offers an opportunities to sample episodes in the history of the making of modern medicine that are grounded in Boston's rich history. Two stories in particular will ground our work together: the first use of ether as an anesthesia in surgery (which happened at Mass General Hospital), and the famous case of a young railway worker Phineas Gage, who survived an iron rod through the brain, and became one of the most famous cases in the history of neurology (his skull and the rod itself are preserved at Harvard Medical School's library). We will spend our mornings in a highly interactive classroom setting, and will then venture out after lunch to historically rich field sites to tour spaces and discover artifacts relevant to our work. As we do all this, we will also talk about how the history of medicine (and science) as a discipline can offer ways of enriching students' understanding of science and medicine as human activities that interact with a range of technological, political and social forces and raise a range of ethical concerns.

Scholar:

Anne Harrington

Location:

Harvard Hillel

Dates:

3/3/2017, 3/10/2017

S01 -	Making Modern Medicine: Local Explorations

	This two-day course offers an opportunities to sample episodes in the history of the making of modern medicine that are grounded in Boston's rich history. Two stories in particular will ground our work together: the first use of ether as an anesthesia in surgery (which happened at Mass General Hospital), and the famous case of a young railway worker Phineas Gage, who survived an iron rod through the brain, and became one of the most famous cases in the history of neurology (his skull and the rod itself are preserved at Harvard Medical School's library). We will spend our mornings in a highly interactive classroom setting, and will then venture out after lunch to historically rich field sites to tour spaces and discover artifacts relevant to our work. As we do all this, we will also talk about how the history of medicine (and science) as a discipline can offer ways of enriching students' understanding of science and medicine as human activities that interact with a range of technological, political and social forces and raise a range of ethical concerns.

		Scholar:	Anne Harrington
		Location:	Harvard Hillel
		Dates:	3/3/2017, 3/10/2017