Module:

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

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Module Title
Module Code	(ITS: HY206)
Faculty		School
NFQ level		Credit Rating

Description

Recent scares over swine flu, avian flu, Ebol and Zika virus have brought epidemic disease to the front pages of our newspapers. The way that we respond to the contemporary risks posed by these diseases is shaped in many ways by our history. Have you ever wondered why we fear some diseases more than others? Or why plague has disappeared and new diseases have appeared? Have you ever considered why we visit doctors instead of some other kind of healer when we are sick? This module looks at the history of medicine as well as a number of specific diseases (some confined to history, some still with us). We try to understand how European society has responded to illness from the early modern period up to the twentieth century. We ask how medicine became a prestigious profession and doctors a part of our everyday lives. Through lectures, class discussions, document analysis and a field trip, we will try to understand how the European experience of death and diseae has changed over four centuries.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify significant changes in European society’s ideas about disease and medicine in the past.
2. Explain how ideas about disease and medicine have consequences for patients and society.
3. Relate changes in medicine to changes in society in the past.
4. Analyse primary and secondary sources in the history of medicine.
5. Use their knowledge of the past to think critically about medicine and disease in our world today.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Lecture	22	Lectures and seminars
Independent Study	48	Readings
Assignment Completion	55	completion of CA
Total Workload: 125

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Assignment	Weekly reading journal, 2 document analyses, seminar participation, short presentation	100%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Lectures and seminars will cover topics such as:
Early modern medicine and ideas of the body, the rise of professional training and of the hospital, public health and social medicine. In parallel we will examine specific epidemic diseases which might include plague, syphilis, cholera, influenza, tuberculosis, sleeping sickness, HIV, smallpox, malaria or yellow fever.

Indicative Reading List

Books:

P. Elmer (ed): 2004, The healing arts: health, disease and society in Europe 1500-1800, Manchester,
D. Brunton (ed): 2004, Medicine transformed: health, disease and society in Europe 1800-1930, Manchester,
Mary Lindemann: 2010, Medicine and society in early modern Europe, Cambridge,
Mark Jackson: 2014, The history of medicine: a beginner’s guide, London,
Roy Porter: 2002, Blood and guts: a short history of medicine, London,

Articles:
None

Other Resources

0: The module Loop site includes a key reading for discussion each week and an extensive reading list.,