# GENED 1212: Healing the World Semester: Spring | Year offered: 2027 | Link: [Course Website](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/180846) **How have people understood and managed human health in the past?** Tuesday and Thursday - 10:30-11:45 AM with Professors David Jones and Hannah Marcus This class takes an interdisciplinary approach to the long history of how people have struggled and coped with illness and death. We will move from patients to healers to societies to ask: How have people understood and managed human health and disease in the past? How have they judged individual and societal responsibility for caregiving? How might we think with and against these historical examples to imagine health care for the future? Drawing on historical case studies from across time and around the globe, with an emphasis on Europe and the United States, we will analyze the challenges inherent in healing the world. The course will prompt students to better understand their own position as future patients, healers, and members of society. Students will: become grounded in content through lectures; enhance their understanding of themes and methods through readings, supported by a reading lab; reflect on themes related to their daily lives in their journal; debate and deepen their understanding through discussion sections; and define and defend their positions in midterms and a final examination. --- [### David S. Jones ](/people/david-s-jones) Chair, Department of the History of Science A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine Areas of Research: Science & Race, Global Health / Public Health, History of Biology, History of Medicine, Medical Humanities, Psychology & Theories of Mind, Science & Technology Studies, Technology & Society David Jones completed his A.B. at Harvard... ![Headshot of Professor David Jones](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/jones.jpg?itok=PcMHIu9O) [### Hannah Marcus ](/people/hannah-marcus) Harvard College Professor (2026-2031) Professor of the History of Science Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments Areas of Research: Early Modern Science and Medicine Hannah Marcus is Professor of the History of Science in the Department of the History of Science and the Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University... ![Marcus](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/hannah_marcus_author_photo.jpg?itok=IEEkdYhz)