Introduction to the Medical Humanities
MDHM 201 | 901, CRN 13012
Tuesday, Thursday 1:30PM – 02:50PM
Instructor: Dr. Lan A. Li, LL@rice.edu
Office Hours: Thu 3-4pm & by appt
Virtual Office: whereby.com/LL2419
TA: Andrew Battaglia, andrew.battaglia@rice.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 3-4pm
Virtual Office: whereby.com/a-battaglia
Welcome!
So, you want to be a doctor. Or not. Maybe you want to help people and being a doctor seems like the best option—the most noble, the most respectable, the most gratifying. Yet, there remains an entire constellation of problems in health care that exist beyond the reach of the individual physician. These problems are socioeconomic, infrastructural, financial, political, legal, technological, practical, racial, cultural, and emotional. They entangle the patient and the practitioner. They manifest in issues of health care disparities. They become glaring in limits to one’s ability to access to health care. They creep up in narratives of medical paternalism.
This introduction to the medical humanities aims to address the world of health care beyond medicine. It engages with scholars in literary studies, history, anthropology, art, science studies, sociology, philosophy, and media studies who have wrestled with many facets of medical practice. We will survey a range of topics in the medical humanities, interrogate genres of representation, and explore different research methods. The topics in this course will move in three parts. We first begin in the hospital, then enter the world of patients, and finally open up to communities of care. With each passing week, we will examine one major topic in medicine and link it a major framework in the humanities. We will interrogate both the content and form of a piece of writing, performance, or film that explores important issues in health and healing, such as discrimination, gender, illness categories, disability, economics, and religion, among others.
You will develop skills in analyzing the politics of expertise and gain a better understanding of institutional politics of medical research that shape patient experiences. By the end of this class, you will learn to be critical of narratives of “care.” Where do we take the dual realms of medicine as being able to both help and harm? If you decide to become a health care professional, which communities would you serve? What kinds of shifts do you want to foresee? What conceptual and practical tools will you need to realize those shifts?
Learning Outcomes
In this course, you will learn how to 1) describe the historical, literary, artistic, and ethical domains of medical humanities scholarship; 2) analyze and evaluate complex texts relating to the social and cultural aspects of medicine through close reading and critical interpretation of arguments, metaphors, and images; 3) explain how health disparities and disability shape the healthcare experience for patients; 4) conduct independent research and communicate your own arguments about medical humanities in research papers, class presentations, and discussions.
Group Work: In this course, you will be members of two different groups. The first big group is your discussion section, which will meet on Thursdays. Your second group will be meeting for your Final Project (detailed below), where the class will be divided into 10 groups of six. We will finalize these groups based on time zone, should that be an issue, within the first two weeks of class. During group meetings, you should have resources to screen-share software, Google docs, and the Canvas conference room to review each other’s work. You will also be paired within groups to peer-review each other’s work.
Assignments
Responses
You will be assigned up to 30 pages of reading for each class. Reading responses are due before midnight on Canvas before every Tuesday and Thursday class. These are meant for you to raise questions about concepts that might be unfamiliar to you or ideas that you’d like to discuss further. You are required to submit ten responses total. Extra responses will be counted towards participation, but not towards extra credit.
Final Project
Content: Your final Assignment can be a creative narrative piece or a research paper based on an experience you have had with medicine, whether as a patient, caregiver, intern, shadow student, emergency medical services member, or other role. For instance, if you have a personal experience with mental illness, you can choose to research on the history of American asylums to write a piece of historical fiction. Or you can produce a series of cartoons satirizing health care propaganda. Or you can develop a piece of speculative fiction on what single-payer healthcare would look like from the perspective of an undocumented immigrant. Your topic must be approved by the instructor beforehand. Assignments will be assessed based on demonstration of active critique either implicitly in the form of your work or explicitly through footnotes.
Form: You will have a choice of expressive media for your assignment. You can choose to either produce a written piece, which includes a work of fiction, non-fiction, research paper, poetry, or a play; or, painting, sculpture, graphic novel, short film, or music composition.
Your final assignment must come in three parts:
- Abstract (300 words): Introduce your piece to a broader audience, your intentions behind it, your sources, your inspiration, and your process of creating it.
- Main Body/Content (up to 1500 words for essays, 3-4 minutes for film/music): You will show your own interpretation/process of your piece.
- References: Include up to 5 citations in Chicago style from scholars engaging with topics in the medical humanities.
Final Project Deadlines
You will be divided into 10 groups of 6. In each group, find a partner. Discuss if you want to work on similar topics or similar genres for your assignment. You will peer-review each other’s work in pairs and present your ideas as a group. You are allowed to reach out to more members in your group for peer review, and as a reviewer, review up to 2 projects in your group. You will submit different parts of your assignments according to the following deadlines:
PART 1: Express due 9/17 on Canvas before midnight
- Think of a medical experience that you had recently and offer in as MUCH detail as possible how things felt, smelled, tasted, looked. Allow your partner to learn as much about your style of inquiry and reflection through this piece.
- Length: 500 words max, or 5 minutes if an audio recording
PART 2: Proposal due 10/1 on Canvas before midnight
- Describe your intended content and chosen form of media. What is your topic? Which questions are guiding you? What kinds of scholarship are influencing you? What are your chosen methods?
- Do you want this to turn into a graphic novel? Short film? Short story? Will you take on historical ethnography? Actual ethnography? Write a journal article? Will you create a parody? (300 words)
- If you find that your group members are engaging in similar topics, you can share topics. Collaborations must be approved by the instructor.
- Length: 300 words max
- Peer reviews should be completed and posted on Canvas within 48 hours. In your peer review, offer feedback on the intellectual scope of the proposal, its clarity, feasibility, and execution. Late submissions will be penalized according to the Late Submission Policy.
Part 3: Outline due 10/15 on Canvas before midnight
- How do you plan to take on your topic? If you are producing a short story, research paper, or creative narrative piece, discuss the structure of your argument or intended flow of the piece.
- Offer a detailed description of your methods. If you are planning to create a media project, include the kinds of materials you wish to use and how you would source them. Include up to 5 academic references. If you plan to collaborate with your peers, list their individual roles.
- Length: 2 pages max
- Peer reviews should be completed and posted on Canvas within 48 hours. Late submissions will be penalized according to the Late Submission Policy.
Part 4: Draft 1 due 10/29 on Canvas before midnight
- Turn in a draft of your piece and its 3 parts to your group leader.
- Peer reviews should be completed and posted on Canvas within 48 hours. Late submissions will be penalized according to the Late Submission Policy.
Part 5: Revision & Presentation due 11/19 on Canvas before midnight
- Turn in your final piece and its 3 parts to your group leader. Pieces should be posted on the course WordPress template by November 20.
- Peer reviews should be completed and posted on Canvas within 48 hours. Late submissions will be penalized according to the Late Submission Policy
Course Readings
INTRODUCTION: FORM AND CONTENT
8.25 Introduce yourself (quiz on Canvas)
8.27 How to Read for History https://bit.ly/3gmWwTm
How to Read a Book https://bit.ly/3gpVwOp
How to Read a Poem https://bit.ly/3jaI56y
How to Read a Comic https://bit.ly/3aOuOOl
How to Read Beyonce (from film critics) https://nyti.ms/3glaxAT
PART 1
HOSPITALS & THE INFRASTRUCTURES OF MEDICINE
DOCTORS
COVID-19 & burnout (interview & podcast & article)
9.1 Guest: Dr. April Carpenter
Castin, “Physical Therapy Burnout is Destroying Our Profession”
9.3 This American Life, “The Reprieve”
DISEASE & ILLNESS
historical arguments of medicalization & paternalism
9.8 Rosenburg, Care for Strangers “Introduction” and “Life on the Ward”
Rosenburg, Our Present Complaint, “Tyranny of Diagnosis”
9.10 Arthur Kleinman, “Catastrophe and Caregiving: The Failure of Medicine as an Art.”
Arthur Kleinman, “Caregiving: The Odyssey of Becoming More Human.”
NARRATIVE MEDICINE
the relationship between writing & medicine
9.15 Guest: Ricardo Nuila
“Dog Bites,” Ricardo Nuila (2011)
9.17 “I am a Rock,” Ricardo Nuila (2016)
Final Project Part 1: Express! Due
GRAPHIC MEDICINE
critique of bad doctors, drugs, offshoring clinical trials, & graphic genres
9.22 The Bad Doctor, Williams, Ian. 2015.
Understanding Comics, McCloud, Scott. 1994. (optional)
9.24 The Bad Doctor, Williams, Ian. 2015.
PART 2
PATIENTS & THE POLITICS OF CARE
DISCRIMINATION
negotiating authority, medical racism, racist medicine
9.29 Guest: Yesmar S. Oyarzun
“Dermatology Has a Problem With Skin Color”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/health/skin-diseases-black-hispanic.html
10.1 Rusert, B. (2019). Naturalizing Coercion: The Tuskegee Experiments Laboratory Life of the Plantation. In R. Benjamin (Ed.)
Final Project Part 2: Proposal Due
GENDER, SEX, SEXUALITY
transgender, pathology
10.6 Guest: Travis Alexander
Reading: TBD
10.8 Reading: TBD
MENTAL ILLNESS
domestic violence
10.13 NO CLASS
10.15 Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House, choose your own selection
Final Project Part 3: Outline! Due
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
bipolar, DSM history
10.20 Guest: Beth Semel
Beth Semel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Speech? Listening Practices in Automated Psychiatric Assessment” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JFCeaUiXA0&feature=youtu.be
10.22 Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays, selections
PART 3
COMMUNITIES OF HEALTH CARE
BIOETHICS
eugenics, death
10.27 Rapp, Rayna. 1998. “Refusing Prenatal Diagnosis: The Meanings of Bioscience in a Multicultural World.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 23 (1): 45–70.
10.29 Margaret Lock, “Death in Technological Time: Locating the End of Meaningful Life.”
Final Project Draft Due
ECONOMICS
costs, accessibility, human rights, undocumented immigrants
- 3 Guest: Yamini Natarajan
“Home,” Ricardo Nuila
“Poor and Uninsured,” Ricardo Nuila
11.5 “Taking Care of Our Own,” Ricardo Nuila
Gawande, “Overkill,” in The New Yorker
PANDEMICS
health of publics, quarantine, government & non-government bodies
11.10 Robin Scheffler, Contagious Cause, selections
11.12 Radiolab, “Contagious Laughter”
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/segments/91595-contagious-laughter
RELIGIONS
buddhism, buddhist medicine, de-centering hospitals
11 17 http://www.jivaka.net/philly/
“Meditation,” “Healing Rituals,” “Traditional Medicine,” “Social Dimensions of Health”
11.19 WRAP-UP
Final Project Due
Course Resources
Reading Tips
Read before you come to class. Readings provide a shared foundation for our discussions. The materials for this course include work by anthropologists, historians, cultural theorists and philosophers. Please bring the readings to class so that we can refer to specific passages in the texts. It is highly recommended that you start reading early for weeks with heavy reading loads. Recommended readings provide additional context and theorization related to the week’s theme, but there is no expectation that you will read these texts during the term. If you have any concerns about the readings, please do not hesitate to come to office hours.
Take notes (in the margins or in a separate notebook) while you read, as well as in class, as this will help you process the materials. Some questions to consider while reading:
- What are the conditions of production of this text? (historical, geographical, etc.)
- What are the author’s central arguments or main points?
- What evidence does the author use to support their argument?
- What ideas or authors are being argued against?
- What assumptions does the author rely on to make their argument?
- Do you find the author’s argument convincing? Why or why not?
- What surprised you about the reading? What did you learn?
- What experiences in your life, or in your research, resonate with the reading?
Safe & Health Protocol
Please be safe during COVID times and follow to the best of your ability the protocol established by your colleges if you are living on campus, or general Rice policies when you enter campus. If you need any additional health resources, please visit https://coronavirus.rice.edu/health-resources
Disability Resource Center
If you have a documented disability or other condition that may affect academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with the Disability Resource Center (Allen Center, Room 111 / adarice@rice.edu / x5841) to determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me on the first week of classes to discuss your accommodation needs.
Technology Resources
Students attending remotely must have a working computer with a video camera, speaker and a microphone, and a working internet connection that allows them to be on video. Please test your equipment before joining class. If you have any concerns about meeting this requirement, please contact the Dean of Undergraduates. You can also request support via the Access and Opportunity Portal (HTTPS://AOP.RICE.EDU/APPLICATION). Equipment can also be borrowed from the Digital Media Commons].