Classics 373: Sex, Gender, & The History of Medicine

This course examines topics in the history of medicine that can be traced from their ancient Greco-Roman roots to the modern period, with a particular focus on the intersection of medicine with sex and gender. We assess how disease, pathology, and medical interventions are culturally situated and gendered. For instance, what was “mobile womb” in ancient Greek medicine comes to be hysteria in the 19th century and has its legacy in modern medical dismissals of menstrual and uterine pain. Topics include sexuality, dissection and anatomy, reproduction, masculinity, menstruation, circumcision, trans bodies, intersex bodies, and fat bodies.