MHUM 1004 - Introduction to Medical Humanities

1 Course Unit(s)
As an inter- and multi-disciplinary field, medical humanities attempts to understand the human condition with a focus on the body, health, illness and healing. Employing interpretative and qualitative approaches from disciplines such as history, women’s studies, anthropology, philosophy, sociology and art history among others, Medical Humanities analyzes medical care by juxtaposing notions of personhood and cultural narrative with institutional discourses, thereby exposing students to both top-down and bottom-up explanations. What can the humanities teach us about medicine, illness, and health care? What does the term “medical humanities” actually mean? And, most importantly, why does the work in this field matter? This course will explore these questions, offering an introduction to the medical humanities and the broad variety of work done in this field while raising issues related to power, authority, and justice in health care. By taking this course, students will be able to formulate their own definition of “medical humanities,” while also applying some of the field’s theories and ways of knowing to come to a deeper understanding of the complexity of illness and the practice of medicine.

General Education Requirement(s):
Prerequisite(s): None
Corequisite(s): None
Pre/Corequisite(s): None