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Average Course Rating

Bringing together the medical humanities, disability studies, and musicology, this course examines how music and music-making—practices that engage both mind and body—have shaped and been shaped by evolving notions of health, disease, and disability. How are conditions such as tuberculosis or madness depicted through music, and what is at stake in such portrayals? How did the so-called “Mozart Effect” emerge, and why was it so compelling? How do deaf individuals participate in musical culture, if at all? In what ways might an impaired voice hold musical value? By exploring questions such as these, the course reveals that medicine, far from being an objective, “hard” science, is deeply entangled with cultural forces and therefore open to social critique. Beyond the historical inquiries, this course ultimately encourages students to critically question how we might define wellness, ability, and artistry today.