The Georgetown Health Magazine Talks with Lakshmi Krishnan about the New Medical Humanities Minor

The Georgetown Health Magazine talks with Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan about the interdisciplinary minor in Medical Humanities, Culture, and Society, offered for the first time in the Fall 2021 semester. The article stresses the interdisciplinary character of the medical humanities, with a variety of courses from departments that include History, Art and Art History, Anthropology, African American Studies, Performing Arts, and Women’s and Gender Studies, highlighting the opportunities for engagement that it provides for both undergraduate and medical students. It also delves into Dr. Krishnan’s perspective on how the medical humanities contribute to Georgetown University’s core educational mission and Jesuit values of cura personalis: “Georgetown’s commitment to cura personalis makes it fertile terrain for medical humanities. (…) Health practitioners cannot treat ‘the whole patient’ without recognizing and valuing their humanity in its many facets”. Moreover, the work of the Medical Humanities Initiative also helps students envision careers outside the realm of the traditional practitioner, in its exploration of how culture and society affect the implementation of various medical practices.