Creating a Collaborative Medical Humanities Major

FAIN: AKA-265633-19

Georgetown University (Washington, DC 20057-0001)
Daniel Marchalik (Project Director: October 2018 to September 2024)
Lakshmi Krishnan (Co Project Director: March 2019 to September 2024)
Ricardo L. Ortiz (Co Project Director: March 2019 to September 2024)

The development of a new medical humanities major for undergraduates at Georgetown University.

Humanities are declining in universities and medical schools across the country. To address this issue, our proposal aims to establish a new medical humanities major through collaboration between Georgetown University School of Medicine and the main University Campus. With the help of a planning committee and experts in the field, we will work to identify key players involved in medical humanities instruction at both campuses and to identify existing coursework that can serve to fulfill the medical humanities major. We will also identify gaps in current course offerings in order to work toward establishing new courses. With increased cross-campus collaboration we anticipate more guest lecturing, joint curriculum planning, student mentorship, and cross-campus course offerings. This project would help make humanities more relevant to undergraduate students interested in the sciences. We estimate that this program could attract 45 students a year (180 students per 4 year cycle).