Health, Humanities, & Society (Minor)
Program Director:
Vania Smith-Oka, Professor, Anthropology
Knowledge about health—whether from the perspective of the public health professional, doctor, policy maker, or patient—is not merely a collection of technical skills and academic knowledge. Medical practice is always simultaneously technical, scientific, humanistic, and social. In this minor, health and medicine are lenses through which to analyze and understand a variety of contemporary issues. By integrating health, medicine, the humanities, and society this minor will provide students with an interdisciplinary approach and framework to understand the myriad ways of conceptualizing the body, the profound effects of illness and disease on people, the impacts of policies and structures on the lives and practices of health professionals, and the complex historical and social worlds in which they live and function.
Health, Humanities, and Society prepares students for the technical, scientific, humanistic, and social facets of health simultaneously. The goal is to broaden students’ views and encourage them to embrace new ways of thought and experience by taking classes across the College of Arts and Letters. It serves the intellectual needs of any student interested in matters of health, regardless of what their career paths may be. The learning goals for the program are for students to:
- Understand that medicine is more than a technical body of knowledge
- Learn the deeper social and humanistic factors underpinning of health
- Be exposed to an interdisciplinary body of knowledge that spans humanities and the social sciences
- Engage with or master perspectives that will better prepare them for careers in health care
In addition to our wide selection of interdisciplinary courses, the minor offers opportunities for undergraduate research and internships in the health fields. The Reilly Center already hosts a number of lectures, forums, and seminars relevant to students in the minor, such as Educating the Whole Physician.
All students will take two core classes and three electives, which they can select from the list of available courses or, in consultation with an adviser, they can create classes within thematic concentrations, such as Health and Equity; Inequality, Justice, and Race; Gender and Health; Medicine and the Arts; History of Biomedical Sciences; Global Health.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| HHS 20556 | US Healthcare in Perspective | 3 |
| HHS 20555 | Contemporary Concerns in Medicine | 3 |
| Three Elective Courses | 9 | |
We offer a wide selection of elective courses across Arts and Letters. One course may be substituted by a single-semester senior essay or capstone project. | ||
| Total Hours | 15 | |