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The College of Arts & Sciences

Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine

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Making better scientists

Our department is devoted to using a wide variety of historical and philosophical approaches to understand two of the most important conceptual and cultural enterprises of the modern world—science and its related discipline, medicine. Our studies share a common aim of understanding how science works.

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Our degrees

We offers several advanced degrees, including several Ph.D. and M.A. options, giving students multiple ways to develop expertise in the field. Undergraduates can pursue a minor in our department, or explore additional study in our field through the Individualized Major Program. 

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Highlighted courses - Spring 2021

Understanding COVID-19

COLL-X101

What makes a disease? Diseases are more than biological phenomena. They are also socially and culturally created. How do these aspects communicate to “create” a disease, and how does this conception change how we analyze them? In this course, we will examine several key diseases: leprosy, asthma, and hay fever, and consider what “makes” the disease. We will then apply the same strategies to COVID-19 as a class.

Learn more about this course

Cyberpunk History and Philosophy

COLL-X101

This course explores the historical and philosophical aspects of the Cyberpunk genre, including films, literature, and games such as Bladerunner, Neuromancer, and Cyberpunk 2077. They pose questions as relevant today as ever: What happens if science and technology progress, but so do existing institutions and inequalities? What happens as technology takes over peoples’ lives? We will discuss issues such as human nature and identity, the social facets of technology, and the nature of progress itself.

Learn more about this course

A bridge between two cultures

As one of the oldest programs of our kind, we have a long-standing tradition of teaching and research in the history and philosophy of medicine. Our award-winning faculty is active and engaged, serving the academic needs of our students by offering a deep understanding of the field as it evolves.

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Departmental news + events

Congratulations Meagan Allen on her publication!

Friday, November 6, 2020

Congratulations to HPSC graduate student Meagan Allen on her forthcoming publication. Her article, "Roger Bacon's Medical Alchemy and the Multiplication of Species" is due to be published in the book "Roger Bacon and Medieval Science and Philosophy: Studies in Honour of Jeremiah Hackett" (Nicola Polloni and Yael Kedar, eds. Oxford: Routledge) in Spring 2021.

Congratulations to Professor Amit Hagar on his recent achievements!

Friday, November 6, 2020

Amit Hagar, together with former HPSC MA student Josua Aponte Serrano, who is now a PhD student in IU’s Intelligent Systems Engineering department, have published an article entitled “Run for your life – an integrated virtual tissue platform for incorporating exercise oncology into immunotherapy” in Clinical Immunology Immunotherapy. The article will appear on the cover of the journal.Together with former HPSC MA student Luma Melo who is finishing her PhD in Environmental Health, Hagar is also the co-author of a pre clinical study entitled “Effect of endurance exercise training on liver gene expression in male and female mice”, published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.A pre clinical exercise oncology study Hagar published (with Melo and Aponte Serrano) last year in BMC Cancer was recently recognized in a review article in Nature Metabolism for its novel contribution to our understanding of the effect of aerobic exercise on anti-tumor immune response.

Congratulations Professor Bill Newman!

Friday, September 11, 2020

Congratulations to HPSC Professor Bill Newman on his recent NSF grant! He recieved this grant for the project titled "Multidimensional Chronological Analysis of Manuscript Corpora Using Isaac Newton’s Chymical Papers as a Test Platform." to view a short summary of the project click here.

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The College of Arts & Sciences

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