About the Division of Medical Humanities
Created in the mid 1980s, the Division provides a number of learning opportunities for students, residents, faculty, and health care professionals at the Medical Center and in the community to consider critically medical issues and practices using the methodologies and materials from humanities and social science disciplines, including philosophy, history, literature, drama, religious studies, cultural studies, visual arts, law and anthropology.
The Division offers about 30 Medical Humanities Seminars per year, and all students are required to take at least one 8-week seminar in each of their first two years. In addition students participate in clinically oriented medical humanities conferences in the third-year clerkships in medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. Students in their 3rd and 4th years can select from an array of diverse electives in the history of medicine, literature and medicine, fine arts, film, creative writing, clinical ethics, palliative care, and health care law in both the pre-clinical and clinical years. Residents and fellows can arrange with Division faculty to take these electives.
Extracurricular educational activities of the Division include a monthly Literature and Medicine Reading Group for medical students in all years, Medical Reader's Theatre presentations for faculty, residents and students, and the G.W. Corner History of Medicine Society for the URMC and general Rochester communities. The Division also offers a cluster of enrichment programs — Pathways — in Medical Humanities and/or Clinical Ethics as well as others in Deaf Language, Culture, and Healthcare, and Latino Healthcare.
Each year the Division awards a competitive one-year research Fellowship in Medical Humanities/Ethics, and smaller Enrichment grants to medical students.
The Division is closely affiliated with the Program in Clinical Ethics, which is a service entity of the Strong Memorial Hospital.
