History of Medicine, MA (On-site)

History of Medicine, MA (On-site)

As of Spring 2025, the History of Medicine CAST-M onsite MA program is not accepting new students. We will consider applications for the one-year MA to matriculate in 2027. 

The History of Medicine department offers two separate in-person MA tracks: 

One-Year Track

Students matriculated into the MD or graduate programs in the School of Medicine or PhD programs in the Bloomberg School of Public Health may apply to the one-year MA in the History of Medicine. The work of this program extends over all phases and dimensions of the development of medicine and related sciences, the history of disease, and the historical analysis of related conceptual, cultural, and social problems. Students acquire facility in the methods of historical research and gain a wide acquaintance with the available literature in the history of medicine, science, and related fields of history.

CAST-M Track

Critical Approaches to Science, Technology, and Medicine (CAST-M) is a new pathway to encourage doctoral student diversity in the fields of science studies, medical humanities, history of science and technology, and history of medicine. We aim to recruit and support emerging scholars from backgrounds that are traditionally marginalized in STEM-adjacent humanities fields. As a special track in the MA program in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, we strongly welcome applicants critically engaging with science, medicine, technology, and engineering, their intersections with questions of race, gender, sexuality and colonialism, as well as in the Global South and in communities subject to systemic discrimination. A focus on the relevance of these histories to STEM-adjacent humanities fields offers urgently relevant insights into the production and reproduction of race, gender, sexuality, and colonialism in everyday life. This competitively funded MA program provides students with training in different disciplines within science studies, and the opportunity to work with faculty to develop their independent research. It also supports students applying to PhD programs at Johns Hopkins and beyond. 

Admission

As of Spring 2025, the History of Medicine CAST-M on-site MA program is not accepting new students.  We will consider applications for the one-year MA to matriculate in 2027. 

Candidates for the on-site one year Master of Arts in the History of Medicine must be enrolled in the MD or other graduate program at the School of Medicine or School of Public Health. 

Candidates for the on-site two year Master of Arts in Critical Approaches to Science, Technology, and Medicine must have a Bachelor of Arts or equivalent degree from an accredited institution by the time of admission. 

For contact information, please access this link: Department of the History of Medicine.

Requirements 

Requirements for the on-site one year Master of Arts in the History of Medicine include the demonstration of competence in the general history of medicine by completing the coursework expected of all full-time first year graduate students in the Department,  passing an examination at the end of the first year of study, completion of a satisfactory research essay, and demonstrated reading ability of one foreign language.

Requirements for the on-site two year Master of Arts in Critical Approaches to Science, Medicine, and Technology include the demonstration of competence in the general history of science, technology, medicine, and other related fields by completing all required coursework and completion of a satisfactory master's thesis.

CAST-M Required Courses

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
ME.150.740	Proseminar I on Critical Approaches to Science, Technology and Medicine 1	1
ME.150.741	Science Studies and Medical Humanities: Theory and Methods	2
AS.145.503	2
AS.140.601	Methods in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology	3
AS.140.621	Historiography in Science, Medicine, and Technology Studies	3
AS.140.641	Departmental Colloquium 3	2
or AS.140.642	Colloquium
ME.150.700	Ethics for Medical Historians 4	1
ME.150.701	Outline of History of Medicine I: Antiquity to Scientific Revolution	4
ME.150.702	The History of Modern Medicine	4
ME.150.801	Research in the History of Medicine: Dissertation	1-18
or ME.150.818	Directed Research
ME.150.814	Directed Readings 2	4
Electives
ME.150.713	Oral History Theory and Practice	4
ME.150.739	Medicine, Race, and Colonialism: A Critical History	3
PH.550.605	History of Public Health	3
PH.550.609	Life and Death in Charm City: Histories of Public Health in Baltimore, 1750 to the Present	3
AS.140.620	Space and Place in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology	3

¹

Repeat 4 times.

²

Repeat 2 times.

³

To be repeated once per semester, for a total of 2 credits. 

⁴

Completion of this course fulfills the SOM Ethics Requirement, and needs to be competed in fall year 1.

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate breadth of knowledge of key scholarship in the history of science, medicine, and technology from antiquity to the present, with special proficiency in a chosen field of study.
2. Recognize the ongoing and provisional nature of knowledge.
3. Identify and critically assess primary and secondary sources.
4. Deploy evidence from primary and secondary sources to build a scholarly argument.
5. Choose among multiple tools, methods, and perspectives to investigate and interpret materials.
6. Practice the ethics and standards of research and writing that require peer critique, citation, and attribution.
7. Develop, plan and complete an independent research thesis that makes a significant, original contribution to existing scholarly literature.
8. Critically apply knowledge and perspectives from science, medicine, and technology studies to contribute to public dialogue and professional life.