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Arts and Sciences
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Undergraduate
Minor

Medical Humanities

Seton Hall's minor in Medical Humanities provides an interdisciplinary approach to medicine and healthcare, bringing together fields in the humanities, social sciences and the arts. It utilizes the unique strengths of each of these fields to engender a rich and nuanced understanding of the various ways human beings experience and express their perspectives and narratives on wellness and sickness, life and death, and what constitutes a life worth living, with the primary goal of humanizing and fostering compassionate and more effective healthcare.

This minor is intended to complement student career goals in medicine, nursing and related health professions. It is also an excellent choice for any student who seeks a deeper understanding of the human condition.

Resources:

Curriculum

Required Core Courses (6 credits = 2 courses)

  • PHIL 1130 Biomedical Ethics
  • RELS 2511 Christian Values and Health Issues

ELECTIVES (12 credits = 4 courses; electives must be spread across 3 disciplinary areas): 

  • ARTH 1001 Art and Human Needs 
  • CAST 3004 Catholic Theology of Science 
  • CAST 3031 Catholicism, Healthcare and the Human Condition 
  • CAST 3891 (NURS 3891) Internship in Catholic Studies 
  • CAST 3995 Catholicism and the Social Sciences 
  • CLAS 3300 Death and Afterlife in Antiquity 
  • ENGL 3370 Illness and Literature 
  • NUTH 3912 (CORE 3912) Care of the Dying 
  • PHIL 2100 Modern Society and Human Happiness 
  • PHIL 2175 Philosophy of Death 
  • PHIL 2700 Philosophy of Science 
  • PHIL 2810 ST Philosophy of Medicine 
  • RELS 2520 (CAST 2520) Catholic Social Teaching 
  • RELS 2316 Theology of Death 
  • RELS 3290 (CAST 3005) Christian Theology and Science in Dialogue 
  • RELS 3522 Religion, Morality, and the Problem of Suffering 
  • RELS 3180 Responses to Suffering in the Ancient World: From Bible to Buddha 
  • RELS 3598 ST Mind and Spirit 
  • SOCI 2244 (ANTH 2224) Sociology of Health and Medicine 
  • SOCI 2511 (AFAM 2328) Growing Older: Sociology of Aging 
  • SOCI 3886 Catholicism and the Human Sciences

Capstone Project

Students will work one-on-one with a faculty member and conduct research in the medical humanities and humanistic medicine. Research will culminate in a Capstone Project, wherein the students will explore and produce a final work, such as a research paper or poster relating what they have learned in medical humanities-related courses to a medical or healthcare related practice, e.g., the use of narrative medicine or the application of biomedical ethics training in a clinical setting. This project should demonstrate the student's proficiency in the concept of humanistic medicine and healthcare and humanities-based perspectives on health and illness.

Faculty Listing

Travis Timmerman 222 pic posing
Travis Timmerman
Chair and Associate Professor
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Colleen Conway posing
Colleen Conway
Professor of Religious Studies and Chair
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Yvonne Unna posing
Yvonne Unna
Associate Professor
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Karen Gevirtz posing
Karen Gevirtz
Professor of English
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