Program Overview

Minor in Medical Humanities (MHUM-UA)

Introduction to the Medical Humanities

The Minor in Medical Humanities (MHUM-UA) introduces students to the medical humanities, an emerging field that uses the methods of humanistic inquiry to explore and challenge discourses of medicine, health, and medical science.

• The course MHUM-UA 101: Introduction to the Medical Humanities (4 Credits) explores questions such as: What is a human being? How do we know when a body is healthy? How should we treat disease and injury? How are questions of individual well-being, public health, and medical treatment affected by gender, race, and class?
• Over the course of the semester, students examine the overlap between medical and humanistic knowledge by reading various forms of writing and rhetoric that attempt to come to terms with these questions.
• Grading: CAS Graded
• Repeatable for additional credit: No

Pandemics and Plagues

• The course MHUM-UA 102: Pandemics and Plagues (4 Credits) engages with pandemics and plagues using humanistic inquiry.
• Case studies include bubonic plague, tuberculosis, cholera, malaria, 1918 influenza, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19.
• The course explores themes such as historical plagues, plagues in literature, the impact of race, gender, and class on pandemic responses, war and pandemics, plus theatrical, film, and visual representations of disease.
• Grading: CAS Graded
• Repeatable for additional credit: No

Unless otherwise noted, all content copyright New York University. All rights reserved.