Medical Humanities

Sven Bernecker, Co-Director
Annalisa Coliva, Co-Director
85 Humanities Instructional Building
www.humanities.uci.edu/medicalhumanities

Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary, humanistic, and cultural study of illness, health, health care, and the body. In contrast to the medical sciences, the medical humanities – which include bioethics, narrative medicine, history of medicine, culture studies, science and technology studies, medical anthropology, philosophy, dance, music, literature, film, and visual and performing arts – focus more on meaning making than measurement.

Students explore the boundaries between sickness and health, and learn to see life through a patient’s eyes. Topics include the authority of the physician, the role of the hospital, the doctor-patient relationship, the social dimensions of racial and gender differences, and changing conceptions of disease and healing.

The minor may be combined with any major and of particular interest to those students planning to attend medical school, nursing school, pharmacy school, and public health school, as well as students in the humanities seeking to pursue graduate work in the field of medical humanities.

Requirements

Requirements for the Minor in Medical Humanities

Seven courses (28 units) are required for the minor.

Electives

1. Each course in the list may be applied only when its content is deemed suitable by the Undergraduate Faculty Director of Medical Humanities. Other courses may be applied by petition with approval from the Undergraduate Faculty Director.

Residence Requirement for the Minor: Four upper-division courses required for the minor must be successfully completed at UCI. Two of the four may be taken through the UC Education Abroad Program, provided course content is approved in advance by the Co-Directors of the Minor in Medical Humanities.