Major Requirements

Health and medical humanities major requirments

General Education (37-43 credit hours)

For details on required courses, refer to the General Education Program.

Foreign Language Requirement (6-8 credit hours)

For details on required courses, refer to the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Foreign Language Requirement .

Major Courses (36 credit hours)

Introductory Course (3 credit hours)

• HHUM 2100 – Introduction to Health & Medical Humanities (3)

Health/Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary field that uses humanistic perspectives to understand health and healthcare. The humanities have the potential to teach us about the embodied human experience, including suffering, healing, well-being, and flourishing. As an introduction to the Minor in Health/Medical Humanities, this course employs a holistic and integrated understanding of what it means to be human, in contrast to what has been called “biomedical reductionism.” Introduces health and the body through multiple ways of knowing; students experience a holistic, “whole-body” approach to understanding the body. Moving through embodied knowing, heartful knowing, narrative knowing, critical knowing, cultural knowing, collaborative knowing, contemplative knowing, aesthetic knowing, empathetic knowing, social knowing, ethical knowing, and systematic knowing, students are moved through narrative, arts-based, humanities, social science, and dialogic ways of thinking to intentionally and variously use stories, poems, mediated images, cultural artifacts, and artwork; physical sensations and emotions; knowledge of culture, history, and society; and contemplation and dialogue to contribute to deep sensemaking and critical examination of what it means to be an embodied human.

Research Methods Course (3 credit hours)

• IDST 3100 – Interdisciplinary Research Methods (3)

An overview of qualitative and quantitative methods that are commonly used across academic disciplines and in interdisciplinary research. Examines epistemological considerations that go into crafting an original research question, developing an appropriate research design, and critically analyzing evidence. These include exploring philosophical worldviews, reviewing relevant literature, understanding the relationship between theory and methods, considering ethical issues, and assessing the reliability of data. By studying methods across academic fields, students learn to engage with a broad range of existing scholarship and build a foundation for conducting their own interdisciplinary research.

Capstone (3 credit hours)

• HHUM 4800 – Health & Medical Humanities Portfolio Capstone (3)

Students work independently with their advisor or other approved faculty member to create a specialized project emphasizing the student’s cumulative academic experience across the Health/Medical Humanities minor and other related coursework. Coursework typically includes portfolio preparation, a written report, and an oral report.

Elective Courses (9 credit hours)

Select from the following. If selecting a Topics Course from the list of electives below (e.g., AFRS 2050, AMST 3050), prior approval for the topic is required by the Program Director of Health & Medical Humanities.

• AFRS 2050 – Topics in Africana Studies (3) (Topics: Religion and Racism)
• AFRS 2170 – Introduction to Health and Environmental Issues in the Africana World (3)
• AFRS 2172 – Black Sexuality and Health (3)
• AFRS 3155 – Health and Healing in Africa (3)
• or HIST 3155 – Health and Healing in Africa (3)
• AFRS 3218 – Racial Violence, Colonial Times to Present (3)
• AFRS 3250 – African Americans and Health Communication (3)
• AFRS 3260 – Slavery, Racism, and Colonialism in the African Diaspora (3)
• AFRS 3261 – Psychology of the Black Experience (3)
• AFRS 3278 – Race in the History of Brazil (3)
• AFRS 3692 – Colloquium (3)
• AFRS 4050 – Topics in Africana Studies (3)
• AFRS 4652 – Race, Health, and the African Diaspora (3)
• AMST 2050 – Topics in American Studies (3) (Topics: Race in the U.S. and Latin America)
• AMST 3050 – Topics in American Studies (3)
• ANTH 2020 – Topics in Cultural Anthropology (3) (Topics: Religion and Food)
• ANTH 2122 – Beliefs, Symbols, and Rituals (3)
• ANTH 2126 – World Population Problems (3)
• ANTH 2127 – Environmental Anthropology (3)
• ANTH 2141 – Our Place in Nature: Introduction to Biological Anthropology (4)
• ANTH 2142 – Primate Behavioral Ecology (3)
• ANTH 2143 – The Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution (3)
• ANTH 2144 – Neanderthals and Us (3)
• ANTH 3050 – Topics in Archaeology (3) (Topics: Cemetery Studies)
• ANTH 3090 – Topics in Anthropology (1 to 3) (Topics: Anthropology of Childhood, Anthropology of Violence, Cemetery Studies, Human Osteology)
• ANTH 3122 – Culture, Health, and Disease (3)
• ANTH 3125 – Food and Globalization (3)
• ANTH 3143 – Race and Anthropology (3)
• ANTH 3144 – Evolutionary Anthropology (3)
• ANTH 3222 – Culture, Health, and Disease (3)
• ANTH 4090 – Topics in Anthropology (1 to 3)
• ANTH 4131 – Culture, Pregnancy, and Birth (3)
• ANTH 4140 – Field Biology of the Primates (3)
• ANTH 4141 – Forensic Anthropology (3)
• BIOL 1110 – Principles of Biology I (3)
• CHEM 1111 – Chemistry in Today’s Society (3)
• CJUS 3366 – Domestic Violence (3)
• CJUS 4351 – Violence and the Violent Offender (3)
• CJUS 4360 – Drugs, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System (3)
• CJUS 4363 – Gender, Race, and Justice (3)
• CJUS 4372 – Drug Analytics (3)
• COMM 2107 – Interpersonal Communication (3)
• COMM 3051 – Topics in Health Communication (3) (Topics: Healthcare Narratives; End of Life Communication; Gender and Health; Media and Health; Health, Communication, and Marginal Communities; The Social Construction of Health and Illness)
• GRNT 3267 – Sociology of Dying, Death, and Bereavement (3)
• or SOCY 3267 – Sociology of Dying, Death, and Bereavement (3)
• GRNT 4260 – Women: Middle Age and Beyond (3)
• or HLTH 4260 – Women: Middle Age and Beyond (3)
• or WGST 4260 – Women: Middle Age and Beyond (3)
• GRNT 4290 – The Experience of Loneliness (3)
• or SOCY 4290 – The Experience of Loneliness (3)
• HHUM 3020 – Topics in Health & Medical Humanities (3)
• HHUM 3030 – Health & Medical Humanities Study Abroad (3)
• HIST 2002 – Topics in Non-Western History (3) (Topics: Gender and Sexuality in Latin American History)
• HIST 2140 – Disease and Medicine in History (3)
• HIST 2170 – Latino/as in the United States, 1846 to Present (3)
• LTAM 2002 – Topics in Latin American Studies (3) (Topics: Gender and Sexuality in Latin American History)
• PHIL 2220 – Healthcare Ethics (3)
• PHIL 3079 – Topics in Identity/Society (3) (Topics: Ecofeminism; Philosophy of Sport)
• PHIL 3221 – Ethical Theory (3)
• PHIL 3253 – Science, Knowledge, and Values (3)
• PHIL 3273 – Philosophy and the Body (3)
• PHIL 3272 – Philosophy of Technology (3)
• RELS 2000 – Topics in Religious Studies (1 to 3) (Topics: Religions and Food; Racism and Religion; Death and the Afterlife in Asian Religions)
• RELS 3300 – Religion and Healing (3)
• GRNT 2100 – Aging and the Lifecourse (3) (SL)
• SOCY 2169 – Sociology of Health and Illness (3)
• SOCY 3261 – Human Sexuality (3)
• SPAN 3222 – Spanish for Medical and Healthcare (3)
• SPAN 4050 – Selected Topics in Spanish (1 to 3) (Topic: Medical Interpreting)
• WGST 2050 – Topics in Women’s Studies (1 to 3)
• WGST 2130 – Masculinity and Manhood (3)
• WGST 2160 – Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies (3)
• WGST 3102 – Changing Realities of Women’s Lives (3)
• WGST 3140 – Domestic Violence (3)
• WGST 3310 – Gender and Sexuality (3)

Disciplinary Depth Coursework (18 credit hours)

Select 18 credit hours in a disciplinary field of study that complements your concentration. This may be a minor in a disciplinary department or an alternative course of study approved by the Director of Interdisciplinary Studies. A maximum of two courses (6 hours) from a student’s disciplinary depth coursework can count toward the electives in their Interdisciplinary Studies concentration, allowing completion of the major in 30 credit hours with proper planning. No more than two courses (6 hours) from another declared major can count toward the student’s Interdisciplinary Studies major.

Unrestricted Elective Courses

As needed to complete the credit hours required for graduation.

Degree Total = 120 Credit Hours

Progression Requirements

Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 to continue in the major.