Medical Humanities Requirements
To complete the certificate, students must take two required courses and three electives.
What do I do when I'm done?
To get a certificate, simply take the required courses. When you have completed them, fill out the Certificate Clearance form and send to program director Sophie Horowitz for her signature.
Required Courses
To find the availability of a course, follow the links to the UMass Course Catalog.
- Philosophy 164: Medical Ethics (4 credits, SB)
- History 264: History of Health Care and Medicine in the United States (4 credits, HS)
Elective Courses
To find the availability of a course, follow the links to the UMass Course Catalog.
- Art History 304: Biology and Art
- Classics 250: Classical Origins of Western Medicine and Medical Terminology (HS)
- English 317: (Dis)Ability and Literature (3 credits)
- English 391NM: Narrative Medicine: How Writing Can Heal (3 credits)
- French Studies 333: Medicine in France: Intrigues, Ethics, and Universal Healthcare (conducted in French)
- Italian 333: Representing Women's Bodies: Poetry, Politics, and Power (4 credits, AL)
- Japanese 353: Japan through its Afflictions (3 credits)
- Judaic 251: Jews, Medicine, and Healing in the Premodern World (DG, HS)
- LLC 451 Working with Trained Interpreters (2 credits)
- LLC 552: Medical Interpreting (3 credits, language proficiency and department acceptance required)
- Philosophy 180: Death and the Meaning of Life (DG, SB)
- Psychology 327: Disability Advocacy and its History
- Psychology 356: Disabilities and Development
- Psychology 387: Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Sociology 353: Sociology of Medicine
- Spanish 356: Spanish for the Medical Professions
- Spanish 456: Spanish Translation for Community Health Services
- WGSS 205: Feminist Health Politics (3 credits)
- WGSS 230: The Politics of Reproduction
- WGSS 285: Introduction to the Biology of Difference (4 credits, SI, DU)
- WGSS 286: History of Sexuality and Race in the United States (DU, HS)
Discretionary Elective Option
A student may petition to have a maximum of one course not on this list counted as an elective, at the discretion of the Certificate’s academic advisor. Courses must cover a significant amount of material related to health and medicine, and related concepts such as disease, disability, etc., from a humanistic perspective. Neither of the required courses, Phil 164 or Hist 264, may be replaced by the discretionary elective.