My name is Cristiano Turbil, the course
code is HPSC0002,
and the title for this module is Disease in
History.
The module is about, as the title indicates, 
about the History of Disease from the late 18th century
all the way up to the contemporary debate.
Well, some of the topics are, of course, the History
of specific diseases and their context. 
We're gonna look at diseases like smallpox,
cholera, going all the way up to venereal
disease, eugenics, HIV, or sexual diseases
in the nineteen seventies. What the goal is
for this course is actually to
contextualize the disease and try to
understand how patients, doctors, but also
society and the general public,
react to the spread of specific diseases
in specific moments and in specific
places.
well for this course we actually have two assessments, 
first of all you're going to be asked to write a blog post.
The blog post is very easy, you
will have to pick up an object - it can be
either a book, or a painting, or any sort
of physical artifact related to the
history of one particular disease, and
you will have to write 800 words about it.
You will find on the module an
indication about what type of questions
you have to answer, but what is important
what you need to remember, is that it is not a
formal essay, it's a blog post - so it's an
opportunity for you to experience some
variety in history of medicine. The
second assessment for this course is
more traditional, it's a three thousand
word essay on the history of one
particular disease. You can select a
question from a pool of questions we put
online before the beginning of the
course, or otherwise if there is one
aspect or one disease that is not part
of those questions you can agree a title
with me. This has to be done two weeks in 
advance of the submission of the essay.
There are no prerequisites as such for this module,
but a student needs one fundamental
thing, which is a passion for the history of
medicine. This is a slightly different
course if compared to traditional
history courses, because we're not going
to look into a broader history of one
nation from a long period of time, it's
going to be about a specific flash point,
a specific moment and specific context. So
what you need, and what you should have,
is basically an interest for the history
of medicine and in particular for the history
of specific diseases and for public
response.
