Students who study the humanities alongside the sciences develop critical and analytical skills, research expertise, intellectual and cultural community, and balance in their academic careers.
The Medical Humanities Initiative offers a minor in Medical Humanities, Culture, and Society. The minor comes at an opportune time for Georgetown and our greater DC community and brings together traditional strengths of our institution: health education and research and scholarship and teaching in the humanities and social sciences.
The minor is open without application to students across the College of Arts and Sciences, SFS, SOH, SON, and MSB. It is also open (with instructor permission) to graduate and medical student auditors. The minor may be of especial interest to health professions, graduate and medical students, and humanities and social-sciences oriented students drawn to interdisciplinary areas such as history of medicine, science and technology studies, narrative medicine, public health, medical anthropology, sociology, and ethics.
Requirements for the Minor
The interdisciplinary minor in Medical Humanities, Culture, and Society requires six total courses (three core courses and three electives), and is designed to provide students with a firm foundation in the field. Up to 3 credits can be fulfilled by 1-credit courses.
Course Offerings
We are always developing new courses. This list is representative, but not exclusive. For more up-to-date listings, please check the Courses page.
Note: Effective Fall 2023, all main campus courses have been renumbered using a new 4-digit numbering system.
Senior Capstone Seminar in Medical Humanities (MHUM-401)
Elective Courses
Students will be able to use courses from other programs and departments to satisfy the minor’s elective requirements; this list grows each semester, and we will continue to add to it.
The Course list is not meant to be exhaustive. If students identify other courses that provide significant opportunities to engage with disability in theory or practice, they should present them to the Director for approval.
The interdisciplinary minor in Medical Humanities, Culture, and Society requires six total courses: three core courses (MHUM-101: Introduction to Medical Humanities, MHUM-202: Methods in Medical Humanities, and MHUM-401: Senior Capstone Seminar in Medical Humanities) and three electives (view a representative sample in the course offerings section above).
There is no particular order required for you to take your courses, except for the MHUM-401: Senior Capstone Seminar in Medical Humanities, that you should take after MHUM-101: Introduction to Medical Humanities and MHUM-202: Methods in Medical Humanities.
Yes! You can email us at medicalhumanities@georgetown.edu to let us know if an elective that appears in the course offerings section is missing the “Medical Humanities” tag so we can make sure the Registrar adds it and you get the credit for the minor.
The minor is open without application to students across the College of Arts and Sciences, SFS, SOH, SON, and MSB. It will also be open (with instructor permission) to graduate and medical student auditors.
Of course! You can email us at medicalhumanities@georgetown.edu with your questions or you can schedule an appointment with the Director Lakshmi Krishnan.
You should be able to undeclare from this or any other minor if not able to satisfy all the requirements, though we encourage you to reach out to us at medicalhumanities@georgetown.edu if you have concerns about the requirements, so we can help you plan the best way to fulfill them.
Yes, the Medical Humanities courses are open with instructor permission to student auditors. Although Georgetown is currently committed to in-person classes, some of the courses may be offered in a virtual or hybrid format. You can find that information through MyAccess, or you can email us at medicalhumanities@georgetown.edu to learn more.
The Medical Humanities Initiative supports medical student Independent Scholarly Projects through our Research Fellowships, which welcome applications from undergraduate, graduate/professional students from the Main and Medical campuses once every academic year (in 2021, the extended application deadline was November 29).
Medical students can also join the Medical Humanities courses as student auditors (with instructor permission), apply to employment opportunities through the Student Employment Office (SEO), and attend the events we sponsor.
Our Research Fellowships support Mentored Individual or Collaborative research projects, which may (though are not restricted to) be mentored by our Core or Affiliate Faculty. Reach out to faculty members to discuss with them opportunities for mentorship or research assistance. Employment opportunities can also be found through the Student Employment Office (SEO).
