Undergraduate
At Boston College, Medical Humanities is an interdisciplinary, humanistic and cultural study of illness, health, health care, and the body. Many minors plan careers in medicine, health care policy or law, psychology, public/global health, social work, patient advocacy, or health journalism.
Minor in Medical Humanities, Health, and Culture
Planning Your Minor
For a list of all current and past MHHC electives, please visit our Course Database.
Minor courses should be selected in relation to your major and your interests. Try to take the required Introductory course, ENGL 2212, as early as possible in the minor, as it will introduce you to a range of disciplinary approaches (and to several BC faculty) that will help you to choose subsequent courses. It may be helpful to shape your electives around a thematic cluster, for example:
- Global/Public Health
- Values and Ethics
- Mind and Body
- Health Care Delivery
- Medical narrative, writing, and representation
Electives taken prior to enrolling in the minor will count once you enroll. For students weighing study abroad: we are now able to offer credit for an elective taken overseas, but courses must be approved by the curriculum committee on your return.
Structure and Requirements
The Medical Humanities Minor consists of 18 credits, or six courses:
- ENGL2212, required for all minors, to be taken as early as possible in your career
- Four electives, drawn from a designated list
- An advanced elective, taken in your junior or senior year
Your five electives must be in at least three different departments. (ENGL2212 does not count towards this.) Only one of these courses may “co-count” towards your major, another minor, or the Core.
One of your electives may also be taken abroad upon approval from the Curriculum Committee. Ordinarily, credit will only be granted on returning from the program, on evaluation of the syllabus and graded work done in the course.
Advanced Electives
As part of the minor requirements, you must take a course designated as an advanced elective during your junior or senior year. Please note that you must take this course during your junior or senior year in order for it to count towards the advanced elective requirement. To see a list of courses designated as advanced electives, please navigate to the courses page.
Admissions
Application Procedures
The Medical Humanities minor requires an application and committee approval to enroll. In the fall, we accept applications from sophomores and juniors, and in the spring we accept applications from freshmen and sophomores.
Course Approval and Credit Transfer Process
In order for a course taken abroad to be considered for MHHC minor credit, it should be consistent with the Medical Humanities as the interdisciplinary, humanistic, and cultural study of illness, health, health care, and the body. Consideration requires an application and approval by the Medical Humanities Program. Please access the course approval form for more information and to submit courses for approval.
Courses
Students choose courses from a range of departments in Arts and Sciences, from the social sciences and the humanities to the natural sciences. Throughout, the minor draws from Boston College’s commitment to social justice, ethics, and care for the whole person.
Student Organizations
The Medical Humanities Journal of Boston College
The Medical Humanities Journal of Boston College is a student-run, interdisciplinary journal that seeks to examine and represent ideas of health, illness, caregiving, and medicine.