Medical standards and procedures have been sharply influenced by the past - shaped by social context and a great deal of trial and error. A new course, GWS 309: Health, History, & Human Diversity, will focus on how health care and the medical field has been shaped around social constructions of gender, race, and diversity throughout its history, continuing to play a role in contemporary medicine.

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Melissa Stein is an assistant professor in the Department of Gender and Women's Studies and researches scientific and cultural constructions of the body around race, gender, and sexuality.