Contact: Kathleen Forni, Professor of English
Office: Humanities 242e
Telephone: 410-617-2816

The minor in Health and Human Experience is an interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences minor that prepares students to understand cultural factors in health and delivery of care. The minor allows students to explore how personal values, feelings of belonging, beliefs, and social forces impact health. Students will build analytical reasoning skills and empathy necessary to engage with individuals of varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. They will reflect deeply on issues of medical ethics, healthcare, and social justice. They will explore written and spoken ways to convey complex truths clearly and compassionately. Students also will be invited to consider the environment and responses to nature as an integral part of the experience of health in history and in current times. They will be introduced to concepts such as narrative medicine, culturally competent care, inclusion and equity in healthcare, and social determinants of health. The minor will offer opportunities for students to learn how to confront medical issues holistically and with humanity, recognizing that health is one of the foundational ways to understand what it means to be human.  

Learning Aims:

• Students will be able to explain the diverse historical, cultural, ethical, social justice, and spiritual dimensions of health and medicine
• Students will be able to analyze and evaluate complex texts relating to the social and cultural components of medicine
• Students will be able to create solutions to ethical, empathetical, and practical challenges experienced by healthcare professionals
• Students will be able to design communications related to a variety of audiences and purposes