Historical Perspectives in Medicine

The first- and second-year of the MD Program curriculum at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison includes an elective course titled Historical Perspectives in Medicine.

Historical Perspectives in Medicine 452-720

Historical Perspectives in Medicine: The Social Dimensions of HIV/AIDS How and in what ways is HIV/AIDS more than a retroviral infection? How does this disease provide a critical filter for mapping the patterns and mechanisms of global interaction in the twenty-first century?

This one-credit elective explores the global AIDS pandemic from social and humanistic perspectives. The course will provide an intensive introduction to the relationships between biology, culture and society in an era of globalization that the pandemic reveals and shapes. A central focus for the course is the inextricability of connections between the epidemiological, political, economic and historical dimensions of HIV/AIDS.

Key themes include:

• The origins of AIDS
• The meaning of risk
• Disease, poverty, and development
• Race, gender, and vulnerability
• The politics of HIV/AIDS research and prevention
• Epidemics and epizootics
• The links between human and simian AIDS
• The experience of AIDS