140.04: MEDICAL HUMANITIES AREA OF CONCENTRATION

Brian Dolan, PhD, Department of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine
dolanb@dahsm.ucsf.edu

This course fulfills the seminar requirement for the Medical Humanities Area of Concentration. The seminar introduces students to a range of methodological approaches within the humanities. Sessions focus on specific topics that lend themselves to compelling discussion and debate in relation to medicine and its cultural representations.

Where and when:
The Humanities in Medicine Core Course will take place in the Fall Block 2. We will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays in Block 2, Fall term, 4:30 to 7:30 PM at Laurel Heights, Suite 485 .

Course Objectives: 1. Demonstrate broad familiarity with methodological approaches to the medical humanities (defined to include the arts and social sciences). 2. Discuss how the humanities react to and engage with the clinical experience. 3. Draw connections among a variety of disciplines in exploring a range of themes, including: aging, death, health and gender/race/class, depression, public health, disability. 4. Interpret the social and cultural context in which medicine is practiced. 5. Focus individual medical humanities projects, and develop a clear proposal for the development and completion of the final project.

The overall aims of “Humanities in Medicine” are for students to:
* Understand how humanities-driven perspectives interpret and represent medical theory and practice by exploring topics and themes that are framed by larger social and cultural contexts

* Gain insight on how humanities-driven theories and methodologies can be applied to scientific and clinical practice and how practitioners within medicine draw on humanities

* Investigate how perceptions of identity, health, illness, disability and gender have been molded by various media, including literature, art, and movies and how this impacts the ‘public understanding of medicine'

Assessment:
* Attendance and class participation (presentation of written or oral assignments and engagement with seminar discussions) is required for successful completion of course

* Completion of all assigned readings and mentor evaluation of all student materials submitted

* Completion of course evaluation by students

* Completion of the course assignments noted in the syllabus

Click here for syllabus page .