Health & Medical Studies
The interdisciplinary health and medical studies minor provides students the understanding needed to approach challenges in modern healthcare.
Overview
With the large number of current and prospective students interested in health and medicine, this minor will provide a structure for how STEM fields intersect with social science and the humanities. Students, specifically students interested in healthcare, need to understand that the challenges in healthcare and society are complex problems that require an interdisciplinary approach. The minor will pair well with majors both in and outside of Division III (including Business, Politics and Foreign Languages) and will allow students to develop and demonstrate an understanding of health and medicine in the global community.
Throughout the course of this minor students will learn to:
- Describe how the sciences, social sciences and humanities integrate with medical content.
- Connect science, social studies, and humanities to the work of healthcare professionals.
- Integrate the ways of knowing (science, social science, and humanities) to understand the equity issues in the healthcare system, especially related to the variety of socioeconomic, social location, and racial demographics present in the healthcare system.
- Critique forms of systemic oppression and marginalization based on difference and identify how these structures enable and constrain agency and inform visions of equity and justice.
Curriculum
This minor will give students the opportunity to take courses across all three divisions. The foundational level courses in biology, chemistry, Classics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology provide a framework for medical studies. In advanced courses, students will enhance their understanding in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The upper level seminar course for the minor will focus on examining the healthcare system and will engage students in learning about the diverse experiences of people from a variety of identity groups. Students will also engage with their own social position within the healthcare system and consider how it influences their opinions and bias related to patient care.
