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DSCY10120

Academic Year 2025/2026

Contagion & Control (DSCY10120)

Subject:
Discovery
College:
Arts & Humanities
School:
History
Level:
1 (Introductory)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Manikarnika Dutta
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
On Campus
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

The explosive outbreak of COVID-19 has transformed the world we inhabit. Within months of its first report in late December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 infected hundreds of millions of bodies, triggered quarantine of billions of people, and wiped out trillions of dollars of market value. Like perhaps no other disease, COVID-19 has highlighted both the interconnectivity of global environments and societies and the fragility of the health systems we have put in place to control emerging disease. But were we always so vulnerable to disease? And how did previous generations deal with emerging and existing health challenges? Contagion & Control draws on new research from across the medical humanities and sciences to introduce students to over 200 years of disease control efforts, the effects of globalisation in spreading disease landscapes and health systems across the world, and the conflicting pressures shaping current global health.

Students will learn how crises like COVID-19 are rooted in the dramatic changes that global disease environments and the way humans manage their health underwent over the past 200 years. During this time, population growth, mass migration, climate change, and ever faster travel connected and transformed once distinct disease environments. Biologically, once local diseases like cholera and HIV spread around the globe. Culturally, the rise of medical science in the nineteenth century replaced older humoral understandings of illness. Politically, these changes were closely associated with the rise of powerful industrialised nation states and colonial empires, which depended on new forms of medicine to secure their hold on power. Thus on one hand students will explore the relationship between disease, race, climate, environment, and imperialism in the nineteenth century and on the other study biomedical interventions like vaccines against smallpox, typhoid, rinderpest, and other diseases, improved sanitation, and how drug treatments like antibiotics played an important role in improving human and animal health in the twententh century. The health systems these medical interventions were embedded in, such as the socialist systems of the communist sphere or the semi-private systems in the Americas, as well as the increasing international coordination of health politics, enabled unprecedented levels of centralised control over individuals' lives. Resulting tensions between the desire to implement uniform top-down health policies and calls for more nuanced, culturally-attuned policies, which co-rely on local actors like traditional healers, persist to this day – as do tensions between strengthening basic health care and prioritizing more targeted technological interventions like vaccines. Understanding these tensions as part of the broader mutual evolution of societies, disease, environments, and health systems improves our knowledge of the past and provides valuable insights for the global health challenges of the present.

To facilitate interdisciplinary attendance and scheduling, this module will be delivered lectures and seminars.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students:
1) Should acquire critical skills through the assessment of a range of historical and multi-disciplinary approaches (history, the social sciences, and biomedical sciences) to studying global health.
2) Develop a critical understanding of the major historical changes in the nature and context of disease and health systems since c.1800 in the context of colonialism and modern medicine.
3) Enhance their analytical and presentation skills in presenting their work to peers.
4) Enhance their ability to evaluate a range of primary and secondary sources

Indicative Module Content:

Topics and Themes covered include:
(1) Disease and Environment since 1800; (2) Disease and colonialism (3) Foundations and Evolution of Medical Microbiology: ‘One Health’ and the Management of the Microbial Commons; (4) Healthy Environments – Urban Systems and Health; (5) Public Health and Sanitation; (6) A Therapeutic Revolution? antimicrobials, vaccines, and international disease control; (7) ; (8) Health for All? Welfare and Health Care Systems since 1800; (9) Governance by Numbers: DALYs, QALYs, and the rise of global health; (10) The End of Capitalism or the End of Disease? Future Imaginaries of Health; (11) Epidemics.

Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

45

Autonomous Student Learning

45

Lectures

10

Seminar (or Webinar)

10

Total

110


Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module combines weekly lectures, small-group autonomous learning, and seminars. Weekly lectures provide overviews of individual topics, with a focus upon key trends, debates and events. Weekly seminar discussions focus on active / task-based learning using both secondary and primary sources related to the topic covered in the lecture. Autonomous learning is nurtured through required preparatory reading each week. Key research and presentation skills are explicitly incorporated into weekly discussion forums and are assessed and advanced from the formative to the summative assignments.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): ACADEMIC POSTER PLAN (300-350 WORDS)
This is a scaffolding assignment which requires students to complete a plan linked to the final assignment
Week 7 Graded No
30
No
Assignment(Including Essay): ACADEMIC POSTER (1000 words and 3 graphics)
An academic poster is a graphically-based approach to presenting your research and arguments in a clear and concise manner.
Week 14 Graded No
50
No
Participation in Learning Activities: Participation in the weekly lectures/seminars Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10 Graded No
20
No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback on the continuous assessment is given on during seminars and on appointment in one-to-one meetings.

Name Role
Professor Catherine Cox Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor Susi Geiger Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor Stephen Gordon Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Professor Thilo Kroll Lecturer / Co-Lecturer