MDHM 799 - Introduction to Medical Humanities and Humanism

Medical Humanities is concerned with addressing the human side of medicine and as such draws theoretical, critical and practical insights from across the social sciences and the arts to explore the meanings attached to illness, disease, embodiment, disability and health encounters.  This course will connect today’s medical humanities to the tradition of Renaissance humanism and trace the history of medical humanities from its inception to the present day. Major topics include the relations between medical humanities and the social sciences; origins, development, and appropriate scope of bioethics; literature and medicine and narrative approaches to healthcare and Drew’s initiative to “do the medical humanities.” 14