Visual Cultures of Medicine
VMS 346S
In this class, students will examine the visual culture(s) of medicine and the changing role of diagnostic technology and medical imaging from various philosophical and historical perspectives.
This semester we will explore how medical ways of seeing influence broader understandings of identity with a particular focus on chronic illness, disability, and the lived experience of individuals who seek (or have been subjected to) medical treatment for conditions that resist notions of cure. We will ask what does it mean to be visible to the medical gaze and what modes of visibility are employed by individuals and communities seeking to elude or illuminate that gaze and its powers of definition and care?
Instructor: Odendahl-James
Exploration of the visual culture(s) of medicine. The changing role of diagnostic visuality and medical imaging from various philosophical and historical perspectives. The connections between medical ways of seeing and other modes of visuality, photography, cinema, television, computer graphics. The circulation of medical images and images of medicine in popular culture as well as in professional medical cultures.
Curriculum Codes
- STS
- ALP
Cross-Listed As
- ISS 279S