The Medical Humanities is an evolving field in which scholars, artists, and writers explore the relationship between culture and society, on the one hand, and medical science and institutional practices, on the other. A growing body of research in this area examines the experience of embodiment, health, illness, and medical treatment as a question rather than a given.
In this seminar, scholars from a wide range of disciplines—Art History, Communication Studies, Disability Studies, English, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Women’s and Gender Studies—will explore what is possible when the realms currently governed by “the medical” and “the humanities” are allowed to intersect and overlap.
Topics will include health and illness of the mind and body; the visual representation of bodies in art and medical imaging; theories of care and disability; the contemporary anti-vaccination movement; race and biological citizenship; and global and local women’s health. Over the year, we will ask whether there are core questions at the heart of the medical humanities and consider, as well, the role of the field in the academy.
