Medical Humanities

Mark Bliton, Ph.D.	Area Leader
	mark.j.bliton@vanderbilt.edu (615) 936-2686 Office Hours: TBA

Description

The area of Medical humanities encompasses a wide array of disciplines, each with its own literature, methods and issues. What these disciplines have in common is the focus on human experience and an examination of human values. The core activity of the medical humanities is critical reading and interpretation of texts that speak to central human issues in medicine and healthcare. Among the areas available to students are bioethics, philosophy of medicine, history of medicine and science, literature and medicine, religion /spirituality and medicine.

Nature of the Student Experience

Students who choose the focus area of medical humanities will usually select a specific sub-focus in order to achieve some degree of mastery and depth. However, programs of study that combine these sub-focus areas may also be designed and additional sub-focus areas within the medical humanities may be open to students from time to time, depending on the availability of faculty mentors, electives within the medical curriculum or other courses in the university. In all cases, students will be encouraged to design a flexible program that best fits their interests and goals rather than a predetermined path.

During the first semester of VMS I, students will be exposed to the nature of humanities scholarship through lectures, seminars and individual meetings with potential mentors in each sub-focus area described above. In the Spring semester, students will meet with area director and members of the area committee to discuss their projects. Meetings with mentors will be arranged and a course of study devised. In all cases, students will be engaged in independent study as the primary activity of their learning. Students will be encouraged to have a well-designed plan for achieving their goals by mid-semester, including the use of the summer and the second year. Included in this plan will be a scheme for periodic self-assessment based on the student’s goals and the requirements of competency in the chosen field. Students will meet with the mentor weekly to redefine the knowledge, skills and scholarly products they will pursue and to clarify the appropriate activity suitable to each. At the end of Spring semester, students will turn in an annotated bibliography covering the pertinent literature for their projects.

During the summer, students are expected to engage in an independent reading program, which may be combined with other activities such as travel, work, or related research. Student-mentor meetings will be arranged as appropriate. At summer’s end, students will turn in a written summary of their research to date as well as a preliminary idea for their final product.

During the first semester of VMS II, students will continue their independent research. They will meet weekly with mentors to review their progress and to begin shaping their final product. All students working in the medical humanities will meet together with their mentors near the end of the semester for presentations of work in progress and to share ideas and learning strategies. In the Spring semester, students will continue to meet with mentors weekly, complete their research, and present their final work product to peers and faculty.

The expected final product will be a thesis, paper or report. In some cases, it could be a creative writing piece on a topic, issue or area agreed upon by the student and the mentor and approved by the area committee. Such products must demonstrate achievement of new knowledge and skills.