Program

Education Programs: Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities

Period of Performance

9/1/2022 - 8/31/2025

Funding Totals

$149,994.00 (approved)
$149,994.00 (awarded)


Revitalizing the Liberal Arts through the Health Humanities Minor

FAIN: AA-284520-22

Bucknell University (Lewisburg, PA 17837-2005)
John David Penniman (Project Director: May 2021 to present)

A three-year project to develop a health humanities minor.

Bucknell University’s Health Humanities Working Group proposes the development of a new interdisciplinary minor in the health humanities as a means of revitalizing the liberal arts core, expanding students’ humanistic knowledge of health, and contributing to the University’s already well-situated rural and community partnerships. The minor will have three basic components: 1) a gateway course entitled Humanizing Health; 2) three electives drawn from different humanities departments; and 3) a capstone experience placing students in civic engagement with our rural local communities. Funded activities include summer workshops; curricular development grants; funding for the program director; and external review. Through its emphasis on the urgency of the health humanities for all students--not just those pursuing careers in biomedicine--this project will amplify the humanities’ contribution to understanding health, illness, and medicine within our campus and our regional communities.





Associated Products

Website for Health Humanities at Bucknell (Web Resource)
Title: Website for Health Humanities at Bucknell
Author: John Penniman
Abstract: In AY 23-24, we engaged with the Communications Office at Bucknell to increase the footprint of the Health Humanities program so that prospective, current, and former students would be exposed to the work and ambitions of the program.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.bucknell.edu/academics/beyond-classroom/academic-centers-institutes/humanities-center/bucknell-health-humanities-initiative
Primary URL Description: The home page for our program, nested under the University's Humanities Center page.
Secondary URL: https://www.bucknell.edu/news/more-medicine-humanities-grant-funds-new-health-minor-liberal-arts-focus
Secondary URL Description: A press release on the new program.