Medical and Health Humanities: Creating a New Minor
FAIN: AKA-279356-21
Johnson and Wales University (Providence, RI 02903-3703)
Ann Kordas (Project Director: September 2020 to July 2023)
Dorothy Abram (Co Project Director: April 2021 to July 2023)
A one-year planning grant to develop an interdisciplinary minor in medical and health humanities.
Johnson & Wales University seeks NEH support to develop an interdisciplinary minor in Medical and Health Humanities (MHH) that will enhance undergraduate health education while infusing humanities content and practices into the curriculum, demonstrating to undergraduates the real-world applications of the humanities. Medical and health humanities is a growing field, and there is mounting evidence that education in the humanities not only helps students to develop valuable skills in critical thinking and analysis, problem solving, and communication, but also increases their familiarity with culturally diverse approaches to disease and healthcare, encouraging the development of empathy. Through the MHH minor, JWU will better prepare students for health-related careers and ultimately, to deliver patient-centered, humanistic healthcare. The grant outcomes will help create future programming that integrates instruction in the humanities with professionally-focused subject matter.
Associated Products
Medical and Health Humanities LibGuide (Web Resource)Title: Medical and Health Humanities LibGuide
Author: Meika Matook
Author: Ann Kordas
Abstract: This LibGuide contains links to online resources and electronic books, journal articles, and films held by the Johnson & Wales University library on the Medical and Health Humanities. It covers the following topics: The Body in Art, Culture, and History: The Body, Illness and Technology; Childbirth, Pregnancy, & Reproduction; Medicine across Cultures; Death and Dying; Disability; Disease; Healthcare, Medicine, Nursing; Public Health; Sanitation and Hygiene; Medical Experimentation; Eugenics; Sexuality; Race: Medicine, Healthcare, Disease
Year: 2021
Primary URL:
http://https://pvd.library.jwu.edu/c.php?g=1199579Primary URL Description: This URL directs the reader to a LibGuide on the Johnson & Wales University Library website.
Syllabus for ART2040 Disease and Illness in Western Art (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Syllabus for ART2040 Disease and Illness in Western Art
Author: Maureen Farrell
Author: Joe Delaney
Author: Ann Kordas
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, ART2040 Disease and Illness in Western Art, created for the new Medical and Health Humanities minor at Johnson & Wales University. This course explores the constantly evolving relationship between art and medicine. In particular, students explore the various ways in which the body, disease and illness have been depicted and understood in Western societies both past and present. Students will analyze visual art in historical and cultural context and examine how constructs of religion, gender, sex, race and ethnicity have influenced representations of the body and processes of suffering and healing. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Syllabus for HIST3500 History of Health and Medicine in the Western World (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Syllabus for HIST3500 History of Health and Medicine in the Western World
Author: Ann Kordas
Author: Samantha Rosenthal
Author: Dorothy Abram
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, HIST3500 History of Health and Medicine in the Western World, created for the new Medical and Health Humanities minor at Johnson & Wales University. This course studies the history of health and medicine in the Western world. It examines how scientific, religious and cultural ideas regarding health and wellness have changed over time and traces the development of the institutional framework of healthcare in the West. The course also investigates how ideas regarding sex, gender, race, ethnicity and class have influenced cultural understandings of illness and the effect of these ideas on medical treatment and access to healthcare for women, people of color and the poor. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
This is a syllabus for ILS2135 Health, Healing, and the Humanities (Course or Curricular Material)Title: This is a syllabus for ILS2135 Health, Healing, and the Humanities
Author: Ann Kordas
Author: Dorothy Abram
Author: Samantha Rosenthal
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, ILS2135 Health, Healing, and the Humanities, created for the new minor in the Medical and Health Humanities minor at Johnson & Wales University. This course acquaints students with the medical humanities. Students will learn how studying the humanities contributes to an understanding of issues related to health and illness. In this course students are introduced to the study of disease, disability, healthcare and wellness through the lenses of history, religion, philosophy and the arts. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
This is a syllabus for ILS2145 Imagining the Human Body: Technology Past, Present, and Future (Course or Curricular Material)Title: This is a syllabus for ILS2145 Imagining the Human Body: Technology Past, Present, and Future
Author: Ken Schneyer
Author: Samantha Rosenthal
Author: Nicole Urban
Author: Jonathan Harris
Author: Ann Kordas
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, ILS 2145 Imagining the Human Body: Technology Past, Present, and Future, created for the new Medical and Health Humanities minor at Johnson & Wales University. This course examines the scientific, spiritual, cultural and intellectual meanings of technological innovations and interventions involving the human body. Students will explore a variety of technological interventions, study their scientific roots, examine their historical development, discuss their philosophical implications, and analyze how these interventions have been depicted in popular culture. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
This is a syllabus for LIT2415 Disease in Film and Literature. (Course or Curricular Material)Title: This is a syllabus for LIT2415 Disease in Film and Literature.
Author: Maureen Farrell
Author: Desiree Schuler
Author: Johanna Church
Author: Colleen Less
Author: Geraldine Wagner
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, LIT2415 Disease in Film and Literature, created for a new Medical and Health Humanities minor at Johnson & Wales University. This course focuses on the intersection between disease and the arts, exploring how literature and film reflect and shape our understanding of the human condition through illness as well as the constantly evolving relationship between patient and healer. Students will examine how issues of race, culture, gender and class are represented in text and film, both historical and otherwise, in narratives of illness and treatment. Students will also consider to what extent classic and contemporary narratives construct and deconstruct the boundaries of empathy and compassion. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
This is a syllabus for PHIL3040 Death and Dying (Course or Curricular Material)Title: This is a syllabus for PHIL3040 Death and Dying
Author: Joe Delaney
Author: Ann Kordas
Author: Samantha Rosenthal
Abstract: This is a syllabus for a new course, PHIL3400 Death and Dying, created for a new minor in Medical and Health Humanities at Johnson & Wales University. This course explores the subjects of death and dying. It examines the meaning given to death, rituals associated with death and concepts of the afterlife in a variety of Western and non-Western cultures and religions. It explores the role that death plays in human life, examines the grieving process and considers ethical issues associated with death, such as the artificial prolongation of life. The syllabus will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Workshop on the Medical and Health Humanities (Conference/Institute/Seminar)Title: Workshop on the Medical and Health Humanities
Author: Linda Friedlaender
Author: Sarah Berry
Author: Carol-Ann Farkas
Abstract: A two-day workshop was held at Johnson & Wales University on teaching the medical and health humanities. The purpose of the workshop was to acquaint Johnson & Wales faculty chosen to develop and teach courses for a new Medical and Health Humanities minor with approaches to course design and instructional methods practiced by those currently teaching in the discipline. The workshop featured the following presentations: Teaching the Skills of Visual Analysis by Linda Friedlaender, Yale Center for British Art; Strategies for Teaching the Medical and Health Humanities by Sarah Berry, Hiram College; and Narrative Medicine, by Carol Ann Farkas, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The workshop invitation will be uploaded to the Supplementary Materials section of this report.
Date Range: October 29, 2021 and October 30, 2021
Location: Johnson & Wales University, Providence, Rhode Island and Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island