Advanced Certificate in Health Humanities Curriculum Details

Features and Benefits

The Advanced Certificate in Health Humanities with the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the content, methods, and purposes of the health humanities. The certificate program builds on the principles of the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of medicine, using the humanities to explore the material realities, social implications, and cultural meanings of health and healthcare. Admitted students will learn to apply skills including close reading, visual analysis, synthesis, and textual research to a range of sources. Students will choose and take four courses across the following subject areas: History of Medicine, Narrative and Health, and Culture and the Body.

Learning Objectives

Graduates of the Advanced Certificate in Health Humanities program will be able to:

• Evaluate the social, cultural, historical, and ethical aspects of health and healthcare and reflect on their implications for clinical practice.
• Apply humanistic methods — especially close reading, visual analysis, textual research, and synthesis — to study the ways health and healthcare impact communities, including patients and medical practitioners.
• Explain the foundational works, concepts, and history of the health humanities as a field.
• Produce critical and reflective writing using approaches from the health humanities.
• Communicate effectively using speech, writing, and visual arts to prepare for interactions with coworkers, researchers, and patients.

Required Courses for Advanced Certificate

Students in the Advanced Certificate program must complete four courses across three broad subject areas:

• History of Medicine
• Narrative and Health
• Culture and the Body

Students have two options to complete the certificate program:

1. Take at least one course from each of the three subject areas.
2. Take MHB 412: Introduction to the Health Humanities and three other courses from any combination of subject areas.

Who Should Apply

This program is open to all students with a four-year undergraduate credential, including faculty and staff at the University of Rochester Medical Center and graduate students at the University of Rochester School of Arts and Sciences, Eastman School of Music, and Warner School of Education and Human Development. The program director will review any cases where applicants who have not completed an undergraduate credential seek admission to the program. Rare exceptions may be made based on highly promising transcripts, personal statements, writing samples, and related materials. The program is intended both to bring humanists into the educational and research work of the Medical Center and to train clinicians in humanistic methods.

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