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Medical Humanities and Health Studies

Welcome to Medical Humanities & Health Studies

Medical Humanities and Health Studies (MHHS) is the study of medicine, health, and illness from a range of humanities and social science perspectives. History, economics, anthropology, sociology, literature, geography, philosophy, and religious studies all contribute to understanding the nuances and complexities of human experience with illness. The MHHS Program at IUPUI engages liberal arts and a variety of pre-health professions students in this exciting interdisciplinary study.

In today’s world, medicine is a hot topic.  From access and affordability to the latest drug therapies and technology, the field of medicine and healthcare has advanced far beyond that of doctors making house calls. Health care now employs not only doctors and nurses, but people in many different fields including law, research, administration, public relations, social science, and bioethics. As our society and the larger global community grapples with the increasing complexity of medicine and health, a medical humanities-health studies framework can help you better navigate these issues, both as a consumer and provider of health care.

Click here for the full list of Courses for Spring 2012

Click here to read more »

The MHHS Program offers undergraduate students courses to earn a minor or individualized major in MHHS. Additionally, several graduate-level courses offered annually. Courses cover such diverse topics as ethics in medicine and health care, death and dying, examining medicine in film, health care communication, the history of medicine, and many more. Students benefit from the expertise of faculty from many schools including Liberal Arts, Medicine, Nursing and Law.

MHHS students graduate with an increased awareness of the complexity and distinctly human social and individual experiences of health, illness and medicine. Students may plan to go on to medical, dental, pharmacy, law or business school, or graduate programs in bioethics. But an MHHS program of study also prepares students for a broad range of professional and scholarly paths. Whatever path our graduates chose, their MHHS experience serves them well. One former student, now an educator in the medical field, wrote that she uses her MHHS education daily, both as a practitioner and as a teacher. Another, who has been admitted to a pharmacy doctoral program says the MHHS individualized major program helped her on a journey of self-exploration to find what she sensed she was missing, i.e., a humanistic perspective of healthcare.

The MHHS Program also presents monthly lectures and periodic national symposia open to students, the health and broader IUPUI campus, as well as the interested general public. Its faculty members are active in local and international research projects in areas of medical history, global health, medical ethics and narrative.


2012 Medical Humanities-Health Studies Student Essay Award Deadlines

Submissions for the 2012 MHHS Student Essay Awards are due in the MHHS office by Friday, March 2, 2012.  For more information about submission guidelines, please click on the Student Essay Award tab to the left.


Upcoming Seminars

Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 12 noon-1 p.m.

  • Dr. Andrea Jain, IUPUI Professor of Religious Studies
  • Topic: the applications of yoga in biomedical contexts

Monday, February 13, 2012, 12 noon-1 p.m.

  • Dr. Sarah Neville, IUPUI New Oxford Shakespeare Project
  • "Early English Herbals and the Pragmatics of Print"

Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 12 noon-1 p.m.

  • Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, medical doctor, ethicist, and Fransiscan Friar
  • Co-sponsored with the Spirit of Medicine Program and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 12 noon-1 p.m.

  • Dr. Nancy Rhodes, IUPUI Professor of Communication Studies
  • Topic: gender roles in risky teen driving

Click here for a full listing of upcoming seminars.

Contact Kelly at 278-1669 or medhum@iupui.edu to be the first to receive updates on information about these and other talks for the upcoming academic year.