Intercalated Global Medical Humanities

Questions students will be asked to consider throughout the programme will include: What is illness? How does Western medicine define disease and wellness? Are these definitions universal? What happens when different cultural understandings of life, health, wellbeing and death come into conflict with one another? How are medicine and healthcare shaped by different social, historical, and cultural contexts?

Housed within the Department of Comparative Literature and Culture, our iBSc will give you a global perspective on key debates in medicine and healthcare (e.g., COVID-19, transplants, disasters, mental health, disability) across a range of cultural contexts. Our Global Medical Humanities programme explores global literary and cultural objects (including fiction and non-fiction, film, visual art) and urges us to rethink our understanding of care, health, risk and vulnerability. You will be challenged to reflect on the complex relationship between medicine and healthcare and social inequalities, human rights, environmental and humanitarian crises, and questions of ethics.

What makes our programme unique?

• It offers a truly global perspective (including the Caribbean; South Asia, East Asia, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe).
• It covers not just literature, but other forms of culture (film, the visual arts, social media, popular culture).
• It provides an insight into several overlapping fields in the humanities (literary and cultural studies, environmental humanities; postcolonial studies; disability studies; communication studies).

Our programme will provide you with a critical introduction to key issues in the medical humanities, raising questions that can help you shape your medical practice.