Coordinator: Michael J. Klein
Email: kleinmj@jmu.edu
Phone: (540) 568-3380
Medical Humanities Minor Website
Program Description
The cross disciplinary minor in medical humanities provides students with a humanistic and social study of illness, health and the body. Typically, we approach the human body from a medical, diagnostic model. But physicians have long recognized that this approach to health and well-being is not sufficient for understanding our somatic life. Drawing upon concepts found in the disciplines contributing to the minor, courses in the curriculum share the common focus of examining how individuals and institutions articulate and disseminate conceptions of the body, including constituent issues such as race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender.
Minor Requirements
Students select a minimum of 18 credit hours taken from a list of approved courses. No more than six credits from a single subject (e.g. ANTH, ENG, SCOM, SOCI) can count toward the minor.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
| 18 |
| Birth, Death, Sex: Exploring Demography | |
| Medical Anthropology | |
| Anthropology of Reproduction | |
| Introduction to Ethnic American Literature | |
| Women's Literature | |
| Feminist Literary Theory | |
| Queer Literature | |
| Advanced Studies in Gender and Sexuality in Literature | |
| Advanced Studies in Women's Literature | |
| The Geography of Human Genetics, Infectious Diseases and Diet | |
| Human Sexuality | |
| A History of the Body in the West | |
| Women at Work in U.S. History | |
| Women in U.S. History | |
| Gender and Sexuality in Modern Europe | |
| Gender in Latin America and the Iberian World | |
| Ethical Decision-Making in Healthcare: An Interprofessional Approach | |
| Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Biotechnology | |
| Gender Issues in Science | |
| Problems in Applied Ethics | |
| The Philosophy of Feminism | |
| Health Psychology | |
| Women and Religion | |
| Religion and Disability | |
| Religion and Medicine, East and West | |
| Race and Religion | |
| Religion and Science | |
| Special Topics in Health Communication | |
| Communication and Gender | |
| Disability and Advocacy | |
| Interpersonal Communication in Health Contexts | |
| Culture and Health Communication | |
| Race and Ethnicity | |
| Sociology of Gender | |
| Medical Sociology | |
| Madness and Society: The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness | |
| Feminist Rhetorics | |
| Scientific and Medical Communication | |
| Writing in the Health Sciences | |
| Total Credits | 18 |
