HISTORY 104 201

Currencies of Death and Life Disease, Health, Medicine

A GLOBAL HISTORY

Prof. Carla Nappi OFFICE HOURS WED. 10-12 (& BY APPOINTMENT!) IN BUCHANAN TOWER 1109 carlanappi@ubc.ca

HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

WhatDuring the second term of 2014, History 104 201 will introduce you to the global history of disease, from plague to alcoholism to AIDS to ADHD. Over the course of the term, we will simultaneously be exploring some of the major diseases that have shaped and continue to impact the modern world, while also discussing some key themes in global history. We’ll be doing this by engaging (sometimes explicitly, sometimes subtly) the theme of “Currencies,” things that move and flow and in doing so create spaces, patterns, bodies: money, bacteria, people, rats, water, blood, birds. Also, there will be flesh-eating hordes of the undead.

Where/WhenLectures: Tu & Thu, 9.30-11, West Mall Swing Space 222

Discussion Sections: 1. L2A: Fri 9-10 am, Buchanan D307 (Wang)2. L2B: Fri 2-3 pm, Buchanan B310 (Timmermann)3. L2C: Fri 10-11 am, Buchanan D325 (Wang)4. L2D: Fri 1-2 pm, Buchanan D306 (Timmermann)5. L2E: Fri 11 am -12 pm, Buchanan D214 (Wang)6. L2F: Fri 12-1 pm, Buchanan D306 (Timmermann)7. L2G: Thu 11.10 am – 12.00 pm, Buchanan B312 (Nappi)

WhoYour guides for this journey will be professor Carla Nappi (a.k.a. “The Management”) and intrepid teaching assistants Joshua Timmermann (joshtimmermann@yahoo.com) and Xian Wang (xianwang@interchange.ubc.ca). Together we will laugh, we will hopefully not cry, and we will gaze uncomfortably together at images of Mr. T, Sherlock Holmes, and rabid dogs. It is guaranteed to be more fun than a run-down abandoned prison block infested with zombies!

Nappi loves talking with students and encourages you to come early and often to office hours. If you can’t make the usual time (Wednesdays 10-12), please email to set up an alternative – coming to office hours, especially in a class this large, is good AND good for you. Nappi’s office has an Office Hours Capable coffee machine that operates on a BYOMug system: feel free to come to BuTo 1109 with mug in hand.

TEXTSThe readings for the course include short pieces available on our Connect site and the following four books:

1. Warwick Anderson, The Collectors of Lost Souls: Turning Kuru Scientists into Whitemen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)

2. Susan D. Jones, Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010)

3. Julie Livingston, Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic (Duke University Press, 2012)

4. Lawrence Cohen, No Aging in India: Alzheimer’s, The Bad Family, and Other Modern Things (University of California Press, new edition 2000)

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

The books I’ve asked you to read have each been chosen because they are unusual and inspiring, and because they will help us collectively expand what we think of as the possibilities for doing careful and imaginative historical work. You’ll note that some of these books do not call themselves “history” works in the strict sense, and that is deliberate: as a historian I strongly support interdisciplinary practice – learning from and engaging with many different fields. Among other things, this will help you think hard about what makes something “history.” Some of these books might be disturbing. Some will change you. All of them are worth your time.

For those of you who like to have a textbook to lay a foundation for the more focused primary and secondary sources, I will occasionally make available selections from Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World that correspond with the lecture and reading material, as appropriate. There is no need to buy the textbook and the chapters are NOT REQUIRED: they are instead meant as an optional resource for you. I’m happy to talk about the textbook material in office hours at any time during the semester.

The Importance of Checking EmailIT IS VITAL that you check your email regularly, as email is the primary medium I will use to contact you about the course. These emails will come to the official email address that you currently have on record with UBC.

Thinkpieces You are required to post a thinkpiece (TP) AND respond to the post of one other student in your discussion section every week, unless otherwise indicated by The Management. Thinkpieces and responses must be posted each week by 24 Hours Before Your Discussion Section. These are meant for you to have a space to think about the week’s readings and issues before you come to discussion. They will not receive individual letter-grades, but they will collectively form a significant part of your course grade. Some TPs will have an assigned topic, and some will be completely free-form. There is no required length, but these need not be more than a short paragraph. You should feel free to use the space as creatively as you’d like: raise questions, work through something in the readings that particularly interested or troubled you, etc. We expect you to be careful and thoughtful in your writing and to show us that you’ve done the assigned reading. (Check out the thinkpiece grading rubric for a guide to what we’re looking for.) Aside from that, the format is up to you. Be creative. Use The Force.

Pro Tip: The Connect website can often be very useful, and it can just as often act like a hideous, stinky, dripping death-beast from the lower reaches of Hell. To save yourself from the inevitable frustration of the Connect site crashing on you just after you’ve composed and right before you’ve published The Greatest Thinkpiece Known To Mankind, you are strongly advised to compose your thinkpieces in a separate word-processing program, copy them, and paste them into Connect, rather than composing directly in the Connect window.

Remember that you are also required to respond to another student’s post each week. Be respectful of each other! This response does not need to be lengthy. It’s intended to encourage you to begin discussion before you get to class, and to start forming an intellectual community with each other.

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

The Course Website on ConnectThe course Connect site is our virtual classroom for the semester. It is where you will post your thinkpieces, where our online course sessions will take place, and where I will post the short reading assignments and lecture handouts. You can find Connect here:

http://elearning.ubc.ca/connect/

Click the little blue “CWL Login” button and proceed to log in with your CWL. Under “Course List,” click on Tab for “2013W2-HIST104-201-Topics in World History-Nappi.” The “Resources” on the left side of the page contains links to the materials for each week. Click on the relevant link (“Week 2 Materials,” etc.) and it will bring you to that week’s readings, Weekly Guide, any handouts, and other goodies. The “Discussions” link will take you to the discussion boards for each week. This is where you will post your thinkpieces and where we will have stimulating and mind-expanding online discussions.

Posting on the Connect Discussion Board 1. Click the “Discussions” link on the lefthand side of the Connect screen.2. Click on the topic devoted to the discussion for the week (“Week 2” etc.).3. To post a new thread, click the bar for “Create Thread” and follow the directions. You can also post attachments.And so on, and so on. Lather, rinse, repeat. If you have trouble logging in with your CWL, ask the UBC IT Helpdesk using the online form or telephone number available here:http://it.ubc.ca/supportIf you have other questions about using the website, ask The Management!

Grading and RequirementsThe requirements of this class are:

1. Do the readings by the time indicated in the syllabus! Stay awake during lectures! Come to class having thought about the material, and ready to actively discuss it with your instructors and colleagues! Laugh at The Management’s jokes!

2. Submit thoughtful weekly thinkpieces and thoughtful responses to the Connect site on time, and thoughtfully. Late thinkpieces and responses will not be accepted.

3. Complete a take-home midterm examination 4. Complete a final exam that will include TWO components:

a. A take-home disease essay that you will complete in advance and bring to the final exam room at the assigned exam time, and

b. A short-response exam to be taken during the assigned final exam time.The details of the final disease essay will be discussed with you later in the course. It will be good, and good for you.

The grading will be assessed as follows:Participation (including quizzes, thinkpieces, and responses): 40%Midterm Exam: 25%Final Exam: 35%

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

A Note on Grading Grading is my absolute least favorite part of teaching. No question, no competition. The reason for this is that it epitomizes that which continually frustrates me about learning in academia: the constant, unrelenting judgment. The engagement with each other and our ideas and inspirations in terms of Better and Worse. I would prefer us to be able to have a semester-long experience of learning that took the form of an extended conversation about our reading and writing that was not punctuated by periodic grading. Nonetheless, Comrades, the system that we are part of demands that I give you grades.

My grading policy rewards diligence, effort, and hard work wherever possible. Come to class, come prepared, come thoughtfully, come respectful of our space and each other’s time and voices, and extend this kind of coming to your presence on the course discussion board: I will take every opportunity to reward this kind of engagement in your participation mark. The midterm and final examination assignments will be designed to (1) give you the opportunity to synthesize several weeks’ worth of material into a common conversation, (2) review the reading and lecture materials in the course to date, and (3) help both of us (you and me) gauge what aspects of the budding historian’s critical thinking and writing skills you are excelling at and what still needs significant work. This is an introductory history course, and thus the kinds of skills assessed under (3) include those skills that are important to any foundational work in historical writing:

- Reading and observing critically to identify key elements of a text, including the author’s argument and use of evidence to support that argument

- Producing your own argument about what you’ve read- Writing clearly and effectively- Providing evidence (ideally, evidence from historical documents, with “document”

interpreted broadly) for your claims- Ideally, thinking in a creative and original way that reflects your own individual voice and

perspective (or at least starting down the long road of trying to figure out what your individual voice sounds like)

My grading of those assignments will reflect (3), and is NOT a judgment of any other aspect of your self, your ideas, or your person. Of course, we do not assume that you will come to the course already knowing how to do all of these things! Learning these skills (or at least starting along the path to eventually mastering them) is precisely what the course is meant to help you do. The thinkpieces and other discussions and assignments throughout the term are, in part, designed with this in mind.

Ok, but given all of this, it remains that I would be much happier if we could do it all purely in the context of mutual exploration and celebration, without numbered evaluation or letter grades. In that spirit, I will do my very best to be as flexible as I can throughout the semester, to encourage you to experiment with approaches to the course material that inspire or excite you, and to help you use that inspiration as a beacon to guide your training in the skills encompassed under (3). Also, we will have fun, and there will be zombies.

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

Things Not To Do During LectureWhen I’m lecturing, please do not answer or talk on your cellphone; text your friends, family, enemies, or lovers; conduct dangerous chemical experiments involving tuna; do internetty things on your laptop or other internet-capable devices; hold spontaneous séances to communicate with your departed pet iguana; or have private conversations amongst yourselves, especially if they involve topics related to Downton Abbey. Put another way: the lecture is meant as an environment of mutual respect, so let’s use it as a time to pay attention to each other. So say we all.

Plagiarism is a No-NoWe expect all work in this class to be your own, and assignments found to be plagiarized will receive a failing grade. Do not cut-and-paste from websites, do not copy others’ words or ideas without citing the source, and do not hand in work that you have also handed in (or will hand in) for another class. Familiarize yourself with UBC’s definitions of and policies regarding plagiarism: http://learningcommons.ubc.ca/resource-guides/avoiding-plagiarism/, and come talk to us if you have any questions about this, at any time.

Lateness and AbsencesYou are expected to attend all lecture and discussion sessions, and attendance will form a part of your participation grade. The Management practices Random Acts of Attendance-Taking in lecture, so consider yourselves forewarned. All students are allowed one unexcused absence, but two or more absences will start to impact your grade. Late assignments will be penalized: (1) No late thinkpieces will be accepted, (2) The midterm exam will be penalized 5 points per day until you hand it in, and (3) No late final exams will be accepted or permitted! ALL PARTS of the final exam must be completed and submitted at the final examination time scheduled by the University.

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

WEEKLY SCHEDULE* Week 1 CIRCULATIONSTuesday, Jan. 07 INTRODUCTIONS: SETTING THE HISTORY OF DISEASE IN MOTIONThursday, Jan. 09 SYPHILIS

Readings: No discussion sections, and no readings due this week!

Week 2 SKINTuesday, Jan. 14 SMALLPOX Thursday, Jan.16 LEPROSY

Readings: 1. Spend some time looking through “Peter Parker’s Lam Qua Paintings Collection,” Yale University http://cushing.med.yale.edu/gsdl/collect/ppdcdot/ Tu

2. Angela Leung, Leprosy in China (sel.) Th

Week 3 LiquidTuesday, Jan. 21 CHOLERAThursday, Jan. 23 ALCOHOLISM

Readings: 1. Christopher Hamlin, Cholera: The Biography (sel.) Tu2. Georges Canguilhem, “The Normal and the Pathological” (sel.) Th

Week 4 SkullsTuesday, Jan. 28 BERI BERIThursday, Jan. 30 KURU

Readings: Warwick Anderson, Collectors of Lost Souls Th

Week 5 BloodTuesday, Feb. 04 RABIES Thursday, Feb. 06 SLEEPING SICKNESS

Readings: Luise White, Speaking with Vampires (sel.) [online via the UBC Library] Th

Week 6 DeathTuesday, Feb. 11 VOODOO DEATH Thursday, Feb. 13 ANTHRAX

Readings: Susan D. Jones, Death in a Small Package Th

*Personal midterm questions due (emailed to Nappi) by 5 pm on Thursday Feb 13

* The Management reserves the right to alter this as necessary over the course of the semester, depending on the needs of the class. This list will be supplemented with short primary source selections throughout the term. Always consult the Weekly Guide for the most updated information on course materials for each week!

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HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

Week 7 SelfTuesday, Feb. 25 MANIC DEPRESSIONThursday, Feb. 27 ADHD

Readings: Ian Hacking, “Making Up People” TuEmily Martin, Bipolar Expeditions (sel.) Th

Optional: Stephen Fry documentary on YouTube

*Take-home midterm distributed in class on Thursday Feb 27

Week 8 CellTuesday, Mar. 04 ALLERGIESThursday, Mar. 06 SARS

Readings: David Quammen, Spillover (selection) Th

*Take-home midterm due in class on Thursday Mar 06*Disease choices for the final disease essay due with your midterm!

Week 9 SporeTuesday, Mar. 11 CANCER Thursday, Mar. 13 NO CLASS TODAY OR DISCUSSION SECTIONS THIS WEEK: INSTEAD, CLASS DISCUSSION MOVES ONLINE AFTER TUESDAY

Readings: Julie Livingston, Improvising Medicine Tu-Sat

*This week, after Tuesday’s class discussion will move online. See Week 9 Guide for details!

Week 10 VirusTuesday, Mar. 18 RADIATION SICKNESSThursday, Mar. 20 AIDS

Readings: 1. Adriana Petryna, Life Exposed (sel.) Tu2. Steven Epstein, Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge

(selection) [online via the UBC Library] Th

Week 11 SoldierTuesday, Mar. 25 PTSDThursday, Mar. 27 NO CLASS: EXTRA TIME TO WORK ON THE COHEN & DISEASE ESSAY READINGS

Readings: Erin P. Finley, Fields of Combat: Understanding PTSD Among Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan (sel.) Tu

Week 12 AgeTuesday, April 01 AUTISMThursday, April 03 ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Readings: Lawrence Cohen, No Aging in India Th8

HISTORY 104 201 UBC TERM 2 2014

Week 13 DesireTuesday, April 08 ADDICTION Thursday, April 10 CONCLUSIONS

Readings: Eugene Raikhel and William Garriott, eds., Addiction Trajectories (sel.) Tu

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