Medical Humanities PhD emphasis
Requirements: Minimum course work for the graduate emphasis in Medical Humanities consists of three courses in consultation with the Graduate Emphasis director. Students can count courses taken to fulfill their departmental requirements toward their emphasis, if said courses are comprised of pertinent material and art approved by the Graduate Emphasis director. One of the three courses has to be core Med Hum 200. An upper-division undergraduate course with supplemental graduate level work after consultation with the instructor and the director can count toward the emphasis. For more information, please visit the catalog: http://catalogue.uci.edu/schoolofhumanities/specialprograms/medicalhumanities_emphasis/
Admission
Applicants must first be admitted to, or currently enrolled in, a Ph.D. program or state-supported Master’s program and submit an application form to the director of the emphasis. The application should include a signature of approval from the student’s advisor or program director.
PhD Emphasis Medical Humanities 2021-2022
Philosophy 131C - contact the professor to enroll for graduate credit
Medical Ethics
Prof. Brianne Donaldson
The last fifty years of scientific knowledge and technological developments have led to numerous ethical dilemmas that neither medicine nor law alone can adequately address. The emergence of biomedical ethics strains to fill this gap, confronting crucial new questions such as how to define life and death, how to allocate limited resources, how to justify research harms, and issues of social disparity and justice. This course will provide students the philosophical foundations of western normative ethics, with some reference to feminist ethics and non-western views. During the term, we will practice utilizing these ethical tools to examine cases related to: autonomy and confidentiality, pharmaceutical clinical trials, research on animals, reproductive technologies, and end-of-life decisions.
Anthropology 289G
Critical Medical Anthropology
Prof. Sherine Hamdy
This graduate seminar will offer an overview of contemporary theoretical and ethnographic approaches to illness and healing in different settings, while also studying the political economic distribution of risks that contribute to disease. Major themes include the anthropology of trauma, political ecological contexts of illness, and the uneven practices and effects of biomedicine throughout the world. We will also critically interrogate biomedicine's promise to reduce suffering by asking: how is suffering defined, whose suffering is acknowledged, and at what costs does global biomedicine aim to reduce suffering? We will be reading contemporary ethnographies in medical anthropology that speak to broader audiences, and pay attention to how we can translate medical anthropological insights more broadly.
Professor Belinda Campos
This course introduces the student to the history, culture, and social relations of Latinos/as in the United States as it pertains to health and medicine. The course begins with an examination of biomedicine as a cultural system and a critical examination of “cultural competence” to analytically situate the rest of the course material. Historical eras surveyed in the class include pre-Colombian life, the colonial period, and contemporary aspects of Latin American societies. Issues examined include identity and race/ethnicity, gender relations, family dynamics and social structure, and social incorporation, especially of the children of immigrants. In addition, the class will examine alternative healers, non-biomedical illnesses common to Latin Americans and Latinos, and the institutionalization of medicine.
211A – Latinos/Latinas and Medical Care: Contemporary Issues
Professor Alana LeBron
This course introduces the student to contemporary issues relevant to the medical care of U.S. Latinas/os from the perspective of interdisciplinary social and behavioral science. Like the 2nd year class, the course begins with a refresher examination of biomedicine as a cultural system and a critical examination of “cultural competence” to analytically situate the rest of the course material. Issues covered throughout the course include the role of power in health care access, immigration, social relationships and health, gender, reproduction, culture, social structure, and political economy. Discussion will be focused on analyzing how the experience of health and illness is shaped by these factors and, consequently, how Latinas/os are interpreted and constructed through the lens of medicine.
Philos 221
Professor Bernecker
Analysis of epistemological issues concerning medical research and healthcare. Topics may include medical evidence, transmission of medical knowledge in the doctor-patient interaction, medical expertise, epistemology of medical disagreement, classification of illness, well-being, philosophy of pain, or medical decision making.
Restriction: Graduate students only.
210 B
Cultural & Historical Precedent for Latinos & Medical Care
Professor Belinca Campos
This course introduces the student to the history, culture, and social relations of Latinos/as in the United States as it pertains to health and medicine. The course begins with an examination of biomedicine as a cultural system and a critical examination of “cultural competence” to analytically situate the rest of the course material. Historical eras surveyed in the class include pre-Colombian life, the colonial period, and contemporary aspects of Latin American societies. Issues examined include identity and race/ethnicity, gender relations, family dynamics and social structure, and social incorporation, especially of the children of immigrants. In addition, the class will examine alternative healers, non-biomedical illnesses common to Latin Americans and Latinos, and the institutionalization of medicine.
211B
Latinos/Latinas and Medical Care: Contemporary Issues
Professor Alana LeBron
This course introduces the student to contemporary issues relevant to the medical care of U.S. Latinas/os from the perspective of interdisciplinary social and behavioral science. Like the 2nd year class, the course begins with a refresher examination of biomedicine as a cultural system and a critical examination of “cultural competence” to analytically situate the rest of the course material. Issues covered throughout the course include the role of power in health care access, immigration, social relationships and health, gender, reproduction, culture, social structure, and political economy. Discussion will be focused on analyzing how the experience of health and illness is shaped by these factors and, consequently, how Latinas/os are interpreted and constructed through the lens of medicine.
English 210
Ways of Death
Prof. Elizabeth Allen
Chicano/Latinos Studies 289
Culture, Relationships, and Health Research Seminar
Prof. Belinda Campos
Logic and Philosophy of Science 242
Causation in Biology
Prof. Lauren N. Ross
Sociology 279
Sociology of Sexuality
Prof. David John Frank