Social Studies of Biomedicine

University of Trento, Italy – Spring Semester

General Description

This course discusses key topics in the social studies of biomedicine, including the political economy of biomedical research, standardisation and harmonisation of research practices and clinical trial design, the data-centric turn in biomedicine and the life sciences, and patients’ engagement and new participatory practices in clinical trials.

Course Structure

The course is organised as seminar/reading groups (six lessons of two academic hours) in which students discuss core literature from different sub-fields of social studies of biomedicine with the instructor; the topic is decided together with students based on their main interests. Students wishing to write a thesis should contact the instructor in advance to define the topic and arrange fieldwork, which can be organised at the Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology of the University of Trento.