Who are we?

Founded in 1975, our department has developed into one of the most unique and comprehensive units for the social studies of medicine in the nation. The Department of Social Studies of Medicine is an interdisciplinary teaching and research unit in the Faculty of Medicine. Faculty members represent the fields of history, anthropology, and sociology of medicine and medical science. Teaching and research focus on the institutional, cultural, and technological determinants of medical knowledge and practices. Subject areas include contemporary biomedicine, pre-modern scholarly medical traditions, and indigenous non-Western systems.

What do we offer?

The Department offers courses and programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The undergraduate program is a Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine. The graduate programs in Social Studies of Medicine are jointly administered with the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Sociology. MA and PhD degrees are awarded in these three disciplines. The graduate curriculum is intended to provide students with a strong disciplinary competence (in history, anthropology, or sociology) and a distinctively interdisciplinary perspective.