see also
Sophomore/Junior/Senior · 3 weeks (June 21 - July 12) · 3 credits
In this program you'll spend three weeks exploring the fascinating past, present, and future of American medicine.
You'll read about the history of diseases and clinical practice, discuss issues in the profession, and view films related to important medical developments and controversies, ranging from inoculation in the eighteenth century to human experimentation today.
You'll learn about the intriguing history of diseases, the changing status of healers (from folk healers, herbalists, and midwives to modern physicians, nurses, psychologists, and social workers), and the clinical and public health challenges facing medical professionals today. You'll also build a solid base of knowledge for enriching your perspective as a physician or as a mental health professional.
Two afternoons a week, we'll view historic and contemporary films portraying medical professionals and/or issues in the history of disease. The films and the topics we cover are related to program lectures and readings. In addition, some films are used as a basis for writing assignments. After each film, students participate in a discussion led by the Academic Director, Professor Janet Golden, and/or advanced teaching assistants.
Possible documentaries may include:
- "The Deadly Deception," about untreated syphilis and medical ethics
- "Nurses Wanted: Sentimental Women Need Not Apply," a history of nursing
- "Typhoid Mary," about contagion and public health
- "Dying to be Thin," about anorexia nervosa
- "A Paralyzing Fear," about the history of polio and the struggle to conquer it
- "Influenza 1918," about the influenza pandemic of that year
- "The Pill," a history of the birth control pill
- "Boy in the Bubble," about human experimentation in modern medicine
To be eligible for this program, you must have completed your sophomore, junior, or senior year of high school by June 2008. You also should be able to handle considerable daily reading as well as an analytical paper and a final exam that will have an essay component.
Course
You'll be enrolled in Body, Mind, and Health (STS 1451). This course meets Mondays through Fridays, 9-11:45 a.m., and Mondays through Thursdays, 1:15-5:30 p.m.
Academic director
"In my teaching and my research I try to connect past and present. When you investigate bodies and minds, health and disease, you have a natural pathway into the important questions about how society is organized and how we interact with our environment. In the classroom we explore these questions using every resource possible: cartoons, movies, songs, books, art, and personal experiences."
A professor in the history department at Rutgers University and a visiting professor at Cornell University, Dr. Janet Golden specializes in the history of American Medicine and American Women’s History. She is the author of several books, including Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (Harvard University Press, 2005) and A Social History of Wet Nursing in America: From Breast to Bottle (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Most recently, Dr. Golden has been co-editing Healing the World's Children: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Child Health in the 20th Century (to be published this fall by McGill-Queens University Press).
At Rutgers, Dr. Golden teaches a variety of undergraduate courses on topics such as Health and Society; History of Women in the United States; America in the 1950s; America in the 1960s; Perspectives on History; and a senior seminar. Her graduate courses include Readings in American History; Colloquium on American Health and Medicine; Colloquium on American Women’s History; and a writing seminar.
Educated at Boston University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as her Ph.D., Dr. Golden is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, most recently a Charles Donald O’Malley Research Fellowship from UCLA Medical School.
Dr. Golden has served as a historical consultant on two documentary film projects: Maggie Growls: Maggie Kuhn and the Grey Panthers (Goldwater, Attie Productions, 2000) and Motherless (Goldwater, Attie, Pontius Productions, 1991). She has published numerous journal articles, including two with Elizabeth Toon on strongman Charles Atlas and one on the American sperm-bank industry with Cynthia Daniels. She is a member of the History Advisory Committee of the Institute for Social Medicine and Community Health as well as a member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia’s Section on Medical History.
Required textbooks
| Title | Author | Cost |
| The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and The Collision of Two Cultures | Anne Fadiman | $15.00 |
| Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes and The Immigrant Menace | Alan M. Kraut | $20.95 |
| Bad Blood: The Scandalous Story of the Tuskegee Experiment -- when Government Doctors played God and Science went Mad | James H. Jones | $17.95 |
| Body, Mind, and Health Course Syllabus | Janet Golden | download |
A typical day in the Body Mind and Health program
| Time | Event |
| 7:00 - 8:30 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 9:00 - 10:15 a.m. | Monday - Friday Lecture with Professor Golden |
| 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. | Monday - Friday Discussion sections with your teaching assistant |
| 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. | Lunch and Break at Trillium |
| 1:15 - 2:45 p.m. | Monday & Wednesday: Directed reading/writing sessions with your teaching assistant |
| 3:00 - 4:45 p.m. | Tuesday & Thursday: Medicine on Film (film and discussion) led by Professor Golden |
| 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. | Dinner - will be served at North Star Dining in Appel Commons |
| 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. | Sunday - Thursday Study Hours; TAs available |
| 11:00 p.m. | Nightly Check-In: Sunday - Thursday |
| 12:00 a.m. | Nightly Check-In: Friday and Saturday |
| Don't miss it... | |
| Friday, July 4 | In observance of Independence Day, we will not have class. |
| Friday, July 11 | College Fair 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. |
| Monday, July 7 | College Admissions Workshop 2:30 - 3:45 p.m. |
Graduation
Students and their families are cordially invited to join the Body, Mind, and Health and Freedom and Justice faculty for an informal graduation on Saturday, July 12 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall. Students will receive a Cornell University Summer College certificate and be able to take farewell photos with their friends and faculty. Note that attendance is not required, but is a nice way to conclude the program.