The Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine is an interdisciplinary concentration of courses designed to address the needs of 1) undergraduates preparing for one of the health professions and 2) social science and humanities undergraduates who wish to gain a broader interdisciplinary understanding of medicine and health issues.
The Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine presents medicine as a complex network of institutions, cultures and political relations embedded in the institutions, cultures and political relations of the larger society. Courses are divided into three groups: History of Medicine, Anthropology of Medicine, and Sociology of Medicine.
The Minor consists of 18 credits. Students are required to take at least one course in each of the three groups. NOTE: No overlap is permitted with courses counting towards the student's Major Concentration.
Please see current calendar for prerequisites and courses offered or consult Minerva Course Catalog.
Search the Class Schedule by term for course sections offered. This includes class times, locations and instructors.
Please note: not all courses are offered each year.
The department of Social Studies of Medicine is in the process of revising its minor program. In the meantime we will accept the following courses in addition to the approved course list:
ANTH 385 (can count towards your one course minimum in each group)
HSEL 309 (can count towards your 18 credits requirements, but you still need at least one course in each group (HIST, ANTH, SOCIOLOGY)
Offered by: Social Studies of Medicine (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences) The Minor Concentration in Social Studies of Medicine presents as a complex network of institutions, cultures, and political relations embedded in the institutions, cultures and political relations of the larger society. Courses are divided into three groups: History of Medicine, Anthropology of Medicine, and Sociology of Medicine. The Minor consists of 18 credits. Students are required to take at least one course in each of the three groups. Note: No overlap is permitted with courses counting towards the student’s major concentration. Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 9, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized. 18 credits from the following (at least 3 credits from each of the three groups): Health and the Healer in Western History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The natural history of health and disease and the development of the healing arts, from antiquity to the beginning of modern times. The rise of "western" medicine. Health and healing as gradually evolving aspects of society and culture. The Scientific Revolution. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The intellectual and cultural history of science and technology, in Europe and in the wider world, from the time of Leonardo to the time of Newton (c. 1500-c.1700). Science and Medicine in Canada. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social and intellectual history of science and medicine in Canada, from early exploration, through the rise of learned societies, universities and professional organizations, to World War II. Medicine in the Medieval West. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The history of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine in western Europe in the Middle Ages (ca. AD 300-1500), with particular attention to their social, intellectual, cultural and religious context. Colonial Africa. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the history of foreign intervention and anticolonial resistance in 19th and 20th century Africa. Topics include: theories of colonialism, the scramble for Africa, colonialism and disease, indirect rule, labour, nationalism and resistance, and changing gender roles. Gender, Sexuality and Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Gender, sexuality, and medicine since the colonial era, with a focus on North American experience. Topics will include reproductive medicine (puberty, childbirth, fertility control, menopause), changing perceptions of men's and women's health needs and risks, and ideas about sexual behaviour and identity. Topics in Modern Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected topics in the history of medicine in the 19th, 20th and/or 21st centuries will be explored through discussion of primary and secondary historical sources. Medicine in the Ancient World. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The evolution of ideas about the human body, disease, and therapeutics, and the diverse practices of medicine in Graeco-Roman antiquity (ca 800BC - ca 600CE), with particular attention given to their social, political, cultural and religious context. Topics in Pre-Modern Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The history of the evolution of ideas about the human body, disease and therapeutics and the diverse practices of medicine prior to the advent of modern clinical and laboratory medicine in the 19th c., with particular attention to social, political, cultural and religious context. Topics in Medical History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores different topics in medical history. Topics to be explored include the role of medicine from ancient to modern times. Modern Medicine: Seminar. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The emergence of scientific medicine, medical professionalization, the development of public health and the process of medical specialization since 1700. Modern Medicine: Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Supervised design, research, writing, and discussion of a major research paper on a theme in the history of modern medicine since 1700. Seminar: Medieval Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship. Seminar: Medieval Medicine. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Models of the body, disease and medical intervention current in western Europe between 400 and 1500 AD will be examined through analysis of primary sources in translation, and modern historical scholarship. The sequel to this course is HIST 496. Medical Anthropology. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Beliefs and practices concerning sickness and healing are examined in a variety of Western and non-Western settings. Special attention is given to cultural constructions of the body and to theories of disease causation and healing efficacy. Topics include international health, medical pluralism, transcultural psychiatry, and demography. New Horizons in Medical Anthropology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Using recent ethnographies as textual material, this course will cover theoretical and methodological developments in medical anthropology since the early 1990's. Topics include a reconsideration of the relationship between culture and biology, medical pluralism revisited, globalization and health and disease, and social implications of new biomedical technologies. Psychological Anthropology 01. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of current theories and methods employed in psychological anthropology. Some areas considered are: cross-cultural studies of socialization and personality development; cultural factors in mental illness; individual adaptations to rapid socio-cultural change. Anthropology of the Self. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A review of the anthropological problematization of the self. The course examines ethnographically how illness, mental illness, pharmaceuticals, psychoanalysis, possession, death, violence and colonization disrupt our commonsense notions of the self and its relation to the other. Anthropology of the Body. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will survey theoretical approaches used over the past 100 years, and then focus on contemporary debates using case studies. The nature/culture mind/ body, subject/object, self/other dichotomies central to most work of the body will be problematized. Mind, Brain and Psychopathology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Evolutionary origins of the human mind and the 'social brain', and the psychopathologies that are said to provide access to this evolutionary history, through the perspective of the anthropology of science and psychiatry. Topics in Medical Anthropology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Conceptions of health and illness and the form and meaning that illness take are reflections of a particular social and cultural context. Examination of the metaphoric use of the body, comparative approaches to healing, and the relationship of healing systems to the political and economic order and to development. Special Topic 5. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Supervised reading in advanced special topics under direction of a member of staff. Special Topic 6. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Supervised reading in advanced special topics under direction of a member of staff. Medicine and Health in Modern Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Socio-medical problems and ways in which sociological analysis and research are being used to understand and deal with them. Canadian and Québec problems include: poverty and health; mental illness; aging; death and dying; professionalism; health service organization. Health and Illness. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Health and illness as social rather than purely bio-medical phenomena. Topics include: studies of ill persons, health care occupations and organizations; poverty and health; inequalities in access to and use of health services; recent policies, ideologies, and problems in reform of health services organization. Sociology of Mental Health. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Three broad areas of sociological research on mental health and illness: definitions and measurement; social origins; and societal responses. Mental health and illness as a product of social circumstances. Health and Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Main concepts and controversies linking health to broader social and economic conditions in low income countries. Topics include the demographic and epidemiological transitions, the health and wealth conundrum, the social determinants of health, health as an economic development strategy, and the impact of the AIDS pandemic. Gender and Health. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Key conceptual and substantive issues in gender and health since c1950: stratified medicalization of women's and men's health; social movements in health including the women's health movement; gender inequality in morbidity and mortality; gender, power and control in patient/physician interactions; embodied experience; politics and policies of gender and health. Medical Sociology and Social Psychiatry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social construction of mental illness and disease, the personal and professional definition and recognition of illness, the distribution and determinants of illness, disease, sickness in the population, and the politics of medical research. Medicine and Society. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The sociology of health and illness. Reading in areas of interest, such as: the sociology of illness, health services occupations, organizational settings of health care, the politics of change in national health service systems, and contemporary ethical issues in medical care and research. Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative perspective to illustrate processes involved in the development and evolution of health care systems around the world. Countries examined will represent different welfare state regimes, health care system typologies, levels of development and wealth. Selected Topics in Sociology of Biomedical Knowledge. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The seminar will examine recent work in the sociology of biomedical knowledge. It will focus on the technological shaping of biomedical knowledge, i.e., on the impact of new technologies and equipments on the development of biomedical knowledge. Biosociology/Biodemography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will explore linkages between social and biological systems, their influence on health and well-being over the life course, and on health disparities. Topics include classical sociological approaches to biosocial processes, sociobiology (reductionist, but population-based), and newer demographic studies on gen-environment, epigenetic, and stress-metabolic/allostatic processes.Social Studies of Medicine Minor Concentration (B.A.) (18 credits)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 18Program Description
Course and section availability for the 2025–2026 academic year is now live on Visual Schedule Builder.Complementary Courses (18 credits)
History of Medicine
Course List
Course
Title
Credits
HIST 249 Health and the Healer in Western History. 3 HIST 319 The Scientific Revolution. 3 HIST 335 Science and Medicine in Canada. 3 HIST 356 Medicine in the Medieval West. 3 HIST 381 Colonial Africa. 3 HIST 424 Gender, Sexuality and Medicine. 3 HIST 430 Topics in Modern Medicine. 3 HIST 449 Medicine in the Ancient World. 3 HIST 452 Topics in Pre-Modern Medicine. 3 HIST 457 Topics in Medical History. 3 HIST 558 Modern Medicine: Seminar. 3 HIST 559 Modern Medicine: Research. 3 HIST 567D1 Seminar: Medieval Medicine. 3 HIST 567D2 Seminar: Medieval Medicine. 3 Anthropology of Medicine
Course List
Course
Title
Credits
ANTH 227 Medical Anthropology. 3 ANTH 302 New Horizons in Medical Anthropology. 3 ANTH 314 Psychological Anthropology 01. 3 ANTH 325 Anthropology of the Self. 3 ANTH 407 Anthropology of the Body. 3 ANTH 423 Mind, Brain and Psychopathology. 3 ANTH 438 Topics in Medical Anthropology. 3 ANTH 480 Special Topic 5. 3 ANTH 481 Special Topic 6. 3 Sociology of Medicine
Course List
Course
Title
Credits
SOCI 225 Medicine and Health in Modern Society. 3 SOCI 309 Health and Illness. 3 SOCI 310 Sociology of Mental Health. 3 SOCI 365 Health and Development. 3 SOCI 390 Gender and Health. 3 SOCI 508 Medical Sociology and Social Psychiatry. 3 SOCI 515 Medicine and Society. 3 SOCI 525 Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. 3 SOCI 538 Selected Topics in Sociology of Biomedical Knowledge. 3 SOCI 588 Biosociology/Biodemography. 3