HHUM-MAJ Health humanities

Health and illness are fundamental experiences in the human life cycle. Supporting human flourishing requires a holistic approach that incorporates multiple perspectives on experiences of wellbeing, health, illness, disease and healthcare. Health Humanities is an expanding interdisciplinary field that combines humanities and social science approaches with medicine and healthcare to broaden the scope of understanding human wellbeing. 

While healthcare and medical education has traditionally been taught separately from the humanities and social sciences, this major bridges this gap to enhance the learning of all students with an interest in human wellbeing. Health humanities explores the relationship between health, knowledge and power to more deeply understand the interconnections that structure patient experience and the delivery of healthcare. It examines the ways in which we conceptualise disease and illness, shape the roles of patient and doctor, and understand the broader social context of healthcare and medicine.

This major is structured to progressively develop a range of skills and knowledge. Critical analysis, clear writing, close reading and robust research sit at the heart of the major. In the major’s core units, particular attention is paid to a dynamic, interdisciplinary approach that puts different qualitative and quantitative fields into dialogue to reveal a complex picture of health as lived experience. Based in anthropology, history, sociology, bioethics, literary studies, communications, and other disciplines, the elective units engage with a range of themes, especially gender, sexuality and reproductive health; narrative, performance and representation; and ecologies and economies of health. This major will prepare you to consider the experiences of health and illness of past and present, urban and rural, local and migrant, in peace and conflict. 

This major provides a unique experience of co-learning across biomedical science, medicine, arts, humanities and social sciences, enabling all students to deepen their understanding and skills in this area. For medical and health students, units within the major offer tools to enhance your future practice as a healthcare practitioner. For students interested in a career in the care, health, NGO and governmental sectors, the major provides a unique qualification and set of skills for the Australian and international job market. This training will expand your toolkit for tackling concerns at the heart of human flourishing.

Availability
Health humanities is listed in A2000 Bachelor of Arts at Clayton as a major and a minor, and in A0502 Diploma of Liberal Arts at Clayton as a major.