BIOMEDICAL HUMANITIES

Erin Gentry Lamb (2009), Chair, Herbert L. and Pauline Wentz Andrews Chair of Biomedical Humanities, Associate Professor of Biomedical Humanities; Director of the Center for Literature and Medicine
B.A., University of Iowa;
P.G.Dip., Nottingham Trent University (England);
Ph.D., Duke University
Academic Interests: aging studies, cultural study of science and medicine, global health and social justice, health humanities pedagogy, bioethics

Carol Donley (1974), Professor Emerita of English
B.A., Hiram College;
M.A., Case Western Reserve University;
M.A., Ph.D., Kent State University
Academic Interests: literature and medicine

Sandra I. Madar (1994), Director of Strategic Academic Initiatives; Professor of Biology
B.S. University of Michigan;
Ph.D. Kent State University & Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Academic Interests: mammalian paleontology & human evolutionary biology

Emily Waples (2016), Assistant Professor of Biomedical Humanities
A.B., Vassar College;
M.St., University of Oxford (England);
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Academic Interests: medical humanities, literature and medicine, 19th-century American literature, autobiography, feminist theory

Department web address: www.hiram.edu/biomed/

INTRODUCTION

The biomedical humanities major at Hiram College is an innovative and interdisciplinary area of study geared toward preparing students for successful careers in a range of healthcare fields. Our graduates have gone on to be physicians, physician assistants, veterinarians, physical therapists, genetic counselors, and to work in areas like bioethics, public health and the law.

The biomedical humanities major couples an intensive science core with equally rigorous study in the humanities for the purpose of exploring the intersections of medicine, science, literature and culture. The major’s relational core prepares students for the interpersonal and group level interactions that are quintessential to health and healthcare delivery. Collectively, our coursework provides students with a broad perspective on twenty-first century healthcare.

With built-in flexibility in major requirements, biomedical humanities majors are able to tailor their course of study—in consultation with their departmental advisor—to meet their particular interests and career goals. All biomedical humanities majors are required to participate in three hundred hours of experiential learning spanning biomedical research, clinical/job shadowing and service learning.

Requirements for the Major

Biomedical Humanities Pathway

I. Medical Humanities Core (four courses selected as specified from the categories below, and two 1-hour seminars):

These courses examine questions of human values in health and quality of life through study of literature and the arts, as well as the roles and limitations of bioethical principles.

A. Choose one course from the following (these courses carry an ethics designation): BIMD 34000 Health and Social Justice; BIMD 35600 How We Die; BIMD 37500 Issues in Women’s Health; INTD 28000 The Science and Ethics of Human Cloning; INTD 29700 Obligation to Others; INTD 29900 What is Human?; INTD 30200 Narrative Bioethics

B. Choose one course from the following (these courses prepare students for the medical humanities portion of the capstone. Students cannot use the same course to satisfy both categories A and B): BIMD 34000 Health and Social Justice; BIMD 35000 Autobiography, Illness, and Embodiment; BIMD 37500 Issues in Women’s Health; INTD 30120 Aging, Sex, and the Body; INTD 38910 Going Viral: Epidemics in American History, Literature, & Culture

C. Choose two more courses from: BIMD/RELG 38000 Mindfulness, Meditation, and Healing; INTD 20200 The Science and Culture of Sleep; INTD 21500 Pushing Up Daisies: Western Perspectives on Death and Dying; INTD 28000 Gimpy Geezers: Stereotyping Disability and Age; INTD 28000 Images for the Living: Artistic Manifestations of Death, Burial, and Grief; INTD 28000 Sex Panic: Sexual Health and Outbreaks Through History; INTD 28900 Genetics, Identity and Popular Culture; INTD 30020 Global Health and Human Rights; INTD 32650 Exploring Ability and Disability Through Performance: Autism Spectrum Disorder; PSYC 25500 Abnormal Psychology; PSYC/EDUC 32400 Exceptionality; PSYC 36700 Drug Use and Abuse; SOAN 32200 Social Inequality; SOAN 35100 Stratification and Health; SOAN 35400/35410 Sociology of Age, Aging, and the Life Course; SOAN 35800/35810 Sociology of Institutionalized Long-Term Care; SOAN 35900 Medical Sociology; or any course from list A, B, or other courses as approved by the department.

D. Enroll in two 1-hour BIMD 18510 seminars

II. Relational Core (two courses, two 1-hour service seminars, and a shadowing internship):
These courses provide students opportunities to explore the ways in which individuals understand and respond to one another and to apply that knowledge and learned skills in new demographic contexts.

A. Choose one course from the following: COMM 22000 Interpersonal Communication; COMM 22100 Group Interaction Processes; COMM 22200 Organizational Communication; COMM 22300 Family Communication; COMM 22500 Nonverbal Communication; COMM 25000 Communication Between Cultures; COMM 32400 Gender Communication; COMM 32600 Persuasion and Attitude Change; COMM 35300 Intercultural Health Care Communication; or another course approved by the department.

B. Choose one course from the following THEA 12000 Fundamental Principles of Acting; ENGL/THEA 20900 Shakespeare in Performance; THEA 22600 Storytelling in the Natural World; THEA 22900 Creative Dramatics; WRIT 21500 Writing About […]; WRIT 22100 Basics of Creative Writing; WRIT 30400 Craft and Technique: Poetry; WRIT 30500 Craft and Technique: Creative Nonfiction; WRIT 30600 Craft and Technique: Fiction; WRIT 30700 Craft and Technique: Playwriting; WRIT 30900 Craft and Technique: Screenwriting; WRIT 31300 Teaching and Supervising Writing; or another course approved by the department.

C. Two 1-hour service courses – BIMD 61000 and 61100 (each requires 30 hours of approved service work)

D. Shadowing Internship (120 hours)
All students are required to shadow one or more health care practitioners during their time at Hiram College. This experience can help students feel secure in their understanding of professional environments by immersion into the system and by interacting with people who are involved in direct patient care. Students are required to have each practitioner they shadow sign off on the experience and the number of hours completed. Students will also keep a journal of the experience.

III. Science Core (seven courses and a research internship):
These courses enable students to explore the form and function of living systems and to develop the theoretical and conceptual background for independent laboratory work and data analysis.

A. Students must take the following four courses:

BIOL 15100 Introduction to Biology I: How Science Works
BIOL 15200 Introduction to Biology II: How Life Works
CHEM 12000 General Chemistry I: Structure and Bonding
CHEM 12100 General Chemistry II: Introduction to Chemical Analysis

B. Students must complete one of the following courses:

MATH 10800 Statistics
PUBH 20100 Epidemiology and Biostatistics

C. Students must complete one of the following two-course sequences:

BIOL 23000 Molecular and Cellular Biology
BIOL 36500 Genetics
-or-
CHEM 22000 Introduction to Organic Chemistry
CHEM 32000 Intermediate Organic Chemistry

D. Research Internship:

Students must complete a minimum of 120 hours in research in natural or social sciences. Students are required to submit a form from their research mentor certifying completion of the internship.

IV. Capstone
Senior Seminar (1 course)
This capstone, in the form of two formal public presentations, reflects a student’s portfolio of educational experiences in and out of the classroom. The first presentation is a demonstration of the student’s command of her or his research. The second is a reflective, evidence-based argument documenting integration of academic and experiential learning in the medical humanities.

Requirements for the Minor

Students wishing to complete a minor in biomedical humanities choose a departmental advisor and, in conjunction with the advisor, select the courses most appropriate for them. Students taking the minor will participate in BIMD 48000, Senior Seminar or complete another departmental capstone as approved by the Biomedical Humanities Department.

The minor consists of a minimum 20 semester hours of courses chosen from the following:
At least three courses from the following categories:

A. Choose one of the following ethics-designated medical humanities courses:
BIMD 34000 Health and Social Justice; BIMD 35600 How We Die; BIMD 37500 Issues in Women’s Health; INTD 28000 The Science and Ethics of Human Cloning; INTD 29700 Obligation to Others; INTD 29900 What is Human?; INTD 30200 Narrative Bioethics

B. Choose one more medical humanities course from the following (these courses prepare students for the medical humanities portion of the capstone. Students cannot use the same course to satisfy both categories A and B): BIMD 34000 Health and Social Justice; BIMD 35000 Autobiography, Illness, and Embodiment; BIMD 37500 Issues in Women’s Health; INTD 30120 Aging, Sex, and the Body; INTD 38910 Going Viral: Epidemics in American History, Literature, & Culture

C. Choose one more course from list A, list B or from among the following courses:
BIMD/RELG 38000 Mindfulness, Meditation, and Healing; INTD 20200 The Science and Culture of Sleep; INTD 21500 Pushing Up Daisies: Western Perspectives on Death and Dying; INTD 28000 Gimpy Geezers: Stereotyping Disability and Age; INTD 28000 Images for the Living: Artistic Manifestations of Death, Burial, and Grief; INTD 28000 Sex Panic: Sexual Health and Outbreaks Through History; INTD 28900 Genetics, Identity and Popular Culture; INTD 30020 Global Health and Human Rights; INTD 32600 Exploring Ability and Disability Through Performance: Autism Spectrum Disorder; COMM 22000 Interpersonal Communication; COMM 22100 Group Interaction Processes; COMM 22200 Organizational Communication; COMM 22300 Family Communication; COMM 22500 Nonverbal Communication; COMM 25000 Communication Between Cultures; COMM 32400 Gender Communication; COMM 32600 Persuasion and Attitude Change; COMM 35300 Intercultural Health Care Communication; PSYC/SOAN 25000 Development Across the Life Span; PSYC 25500 Abnormal Psychology; PSYC/EDUC 32400 Exceptionality; PSYC 36700 Drug Use and Abuse; SOAN 32200 Social Inequality; SOAN 35100 Stratification and Health; SOAN 35400/35410 Sociology of Age, Aging, and the Life Course; SOAL 35800/35810 Sociology of Institutionalized Long-Term Care; SOAN 35900 Medical Sociology; THEA 12000 Fundamental Principles of Acting; THEA/ENGL 20900 Shakespeare in Performance; THEA/COMM 22400 Oral Interpretation of Literature; THEA 22600 Storytelling in the Natural World; THEA 22900 Creative Dramatics; WRIT 21500 Writing About […]; WRIT 22100 Basics of Creative Writing; WRIT 30400 Craft and Technique: Poetry; WRIT 30500 Craft and Technique: Creative Nonfiction; WRIT 30600 Craft and Technique: Fiction; WRIT 30700 Craft and Technique: Playwriting; WRIT 30900 Craft and Technique: Screenwriting; WRIT 31300 Teaching and Supervising Writing; or another course approved by the department.

D. At least two other courses chosen from the following:
BIOL 13100: Human Anatomy and Physiology I; BIOL 13200 Human Anatomy and Physiology II; BIOL 15100 Introduction to Biology I: How Science Works; BIOL 15200 Introduction to Biology II: How Life Works; ; CHEM 10600: Physiological Chemistry I; CHEM 10800 Physiological Chemistry II; CHEM 22000 Introduction to Organic Chemistry; CHEM 32000 Intermediate Organic Chemistry. (Students may petition the Biomedical Humanities Department for alternative science courses to fulfill this requirement.)

E. BIMD 48000 – Senior Seminar (Minors are only required to complete the medical humanities capstone presentation.)

F. Service Learning: Completion of 30 documented hours in a healthcare setting.

BIMD 18000: WORKSHOP: 1 hour(s)

Workshops may be taken Pass/No Credit only. Students may take no more than nine workshops for credit toward graduation. Workshops can be used as elective credit only.

BIMD 18100: GLOBAL HEALTH ISSUES 1 hour(s)

This overview course is designed to expose students who are interested in health to a global perspective of select, relevant issues in international health. A wide range of perspectives, including historical, ethical, environmental, cultural, social, economic, political, and policy will be explored. Current trends and future implications will also be examined. This course is a prerequisite for the study abroad trip in the fall three-week semester. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or instructor permission required.

BIMD 18510: SPECIAL TOPICS: 1 hour(s)

These one hour courses allow students to explore contemporary issues within healthcare from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

BIMD 23000: 2 hour(s)

Course Description: STORIES OF ILLNESS AND HEALING: IM This course explores narrative techniques and representational strategies (such as metaphors) in stories of illness and healing. Through readings in a range of genres (drama, memoirs and personal essays, short stories, and graphic novels) we will examine, on one hand, how illness and healing experiences are structured and circulated as stories, and, on the other hand, how stories of illness mediate the social experience of illness and healing. You will learn basic techniques of narrative analysis, including close reading skills, in order to interpret texts within specific social contexts, such as Solnit, «Apricots,» Diaz, « Wildwood, » Edson, W;t; Small, Stitches; Forney, Marbles; medical students in What I Really Learned in Medical School; Danquah, Willow Weep for Me and other stories and essays.

BIMD 28000: SEMINAR 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 28100: INDEPENDENT STUDY 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 29800: FIELD EXPERIENCE 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 33000: 4 hour(s)

Course Description: CULTURES OF MEDICINE: UD This course investigates concepts of health and illness through multicultural fiction, autobiography, and longform journalism. We will consider the topic from a comparative cultural standpoint, looking at medicine in North America broadly defined, including Native American cultures and the immigrant experiences of Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and southeast Asian people. Questions for inquiry include: What is the relevance of culture in conceptualizing and experiencing health and illness? What do cultures outside biomedicine know about illness and healing? What are the concerns of specific cultures and how are these concerns reflected in their literatures/stories? How do issues such as cultural conflict, enslavement, colonization, dispossession, and cultural erosion manifest as illnesses and what are the healing processes? What are some applications for contemporary healthcare? Books include Alvord, The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, Silko, Ceremony, Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory, Kincaid, Annie John, and Farmer/Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains.

BIMD 34000: HEALTH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE:ES 4 hour(s)

“Of all the forms of inequality,” Dr. Martin Luther King once proclaimed, “injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” While Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies health and health care as fundamental human rights, in the United States and elsewhere, health disparities continue to exist on basis of socioeconomic class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability. This course applies the principles of social justice to an examination of American health disparities. Addressing issues such as economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice, reproductive justice, disability justice, and LGBTQ justice, this course promotes an intersectional approach to social justice issues as it seeks to explore the complex relationships among discourse, power, and health. Considering the competing positions of various stakeholders, we will explore population-specific differences in categories such as mortality and morbidity, access to and quality of care, resource allocation, and data collection. Through reading among multiple genres—including memoir, poetry, fiction, journalism, critical theory, and social scientific scholarship—we will also analyze the social determinants of health from a discourse analysis perspective, asking how representation affects policy, practice, advocacy, and activism. Ultimately, we will assess strategies for organized collective action as we work toward an informed response to Thomas Couser’s question in Signifying Bodies (2010): “How can we guarantee, or at least try to ensure, that representation serves the best interests of vulnerable subjects?”

BIMD 35000: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ILLNESS AND EMBODIMENT:IM 4 hour(s)

Where do stories of illness begin—and end? How do experiences of disease or disability shape one’s sense of self? How do patient narratives engage with, respond to, and/or critique medical discourses? In this course, we will examine autobiographical illness narratives in a variety of media—print, graphic, and digital—in order to analyze how patient-writers narrate their experiences of illness and construct themselves as subjects within their wider social and cultural contexts. Engaging with modes of autobiographical expression from nineteenth-century journals to twenty-first century blogs, we will think about how personal narratives use the subjective experience of embodiment as a way to communicate, educate, and connect. We will also read scholarly articles that address the stakes of this kind of self-representation, and use critical theory to consider how the experience of illness intersects with race, gender, and sexuality. Ultimately, this course suggests that the study of narrative both allows us to imagine more empathic care, and helps us to understand how patients participate in the creation of medical knowledge.

BIMD 35600: HOW WE DIE:ES 4 hour(s)

Despite death’s inevitability, we consciously and unconsciously disguise or resist its reality in dreams, fairy tales, allegories, and even jokes. In his book, How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter, from which this course borrows its name and a good deal of its inspiration, Sherwin Nuland describes how we have turned increasingly to modern medicine as one more means of denying the reality of death. As a surgeon with more than forty years of experience in a major metropolitan hospital, Nuland admits to actively participating in this denial. Modern medicine, he argues, influences how we as individuals and as a culture not only view but also experience death. “Modern dying,” he contends, “takes place in the modern hospital, where it can be hidden, cleansed of its organic blight, and finally packaged for modern burial.” This course uses literature, film, and history related to death as points of reference for examining the role modern medicine has come to play in how we die. Some sections of this course may be considered service learning (SL). This course fulfills the Meaning, Ethics, and Social Responsibility requirement. This course satisfies the requirement for a medical humanities course with an emphasis on bioethics.

BIMD 37500: ISSUES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH:ES 4 hour(s)

Women have a complicated and sometimes contentious relationship with the biomedical model of health care. Historically, women have been underrepresented in scientific and medical research, although over-represented as objects on which these disciplines are brought to bear. Much as advertising has long been accused of objectifying and fragmenting women's bodies (displaying just a torso, just legs, etc.), so too has medicine frequently been accused of treating specific body parts, specific diseases, without regard for the whole person. This fragmentation may be even more problematic for women as new screening technologies help to construct the fetus as an entity entirely separate from the woman carrying it. This course focuses on bioethical issues particular to women's health and healthcare experiences across the lifespan. We begin by exploring some of the distinctive contributions of feminist theory to traditional bioethics, focusing in particular on the feminist critique of abstract principals and the call to contextualize, as well as a larger commitment to social justice. We then examine particular women's health issues through the lens of feminist theory. Specific course topics may shift with each course offering, but will likely include some of the following: reproduction (pregnancy and childbirth, prenatal testing, abortion, assisted reproduction, contract gestation), sexuality (sexual autonomy, contraception), disease (breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, clinical research), lifecourse development (menstruation and menopause, aging, physician-assisted suicide), mental health (hysteria, bullying, body image), and configuring the female body (eating disorders, cosmetic surgery). Course texts consist primarily of critical essays with some literature and film. This course fulfills the Meaning, Ethics, and Social Responsibility requirement.

BIMD 38000: SEMINAR 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 38100: SPECIAL TOPICS 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 41000: SERVICE IN A HEALTH CARE SETTING 1 hour(s)

By the end of this course, you will have completed participation in the off-campus volunteer experience(s) of your choice. Your only limitation is that your service must in some way expose you to health settings or work environments that involve close interaction with a population or demographic that is out of your norm. You must demonstrate completion of at least 60 hours, at no more than two service sites, by the end of the semester. We will be drawing on your experiences at your off-campus site during class discussions, for your personal journal, and in brief reflection essays. The service learning is intended to instill in students an appreciation for the community’s strengths, resources, perceived needs and expectations through service-oriented experiences. Our discussions in class will focus on the American healthcare system; students will connect their personal experiences within the system to what is known about access to care, its costs and its outcomes. Pass/No Credit Only.

BIMD 47000: VOCATIONAL REFLECTION 1 hour(s)

This course is intended to help upper-level Biomedical Humanities majors reflect upon and integrate their coursework and experiential learning, with an eye towards their intended career path. Students enrolled in this course will reflect upon their Hiram Connect experience (typically directed research or an internship), discuss issues of power inequality in volunteer situations and in health care more broadly, write their Hiram Connect Capstone reflection (in the form of a personal statement or essay), and prepare for the completion of Senior Seminar the following semester. Pass/No Credit Only.

BIMD 48000: SENIOR SEMINAR 1 hour(s)

This course serves as a capstone experience for the Biomedical Humanities major, and the two required formal public presentations reflect a student’s portfolio of educational experiences in and out of the classroom. The first presentation is a demonstration of the student’s command of her or his research project, and the second reflects the student’s integration of academic and experiential learning in the medical humanities. Students completing the minor are only responsible for composing and presenting the medical humanities presentation.

BIMD 48100: INDEPENDENT RESEARCH 1 - 4 hour(s)

BIMD 49800: INTERNSHIP 4 hour(s)

BIMD 61000: SERVICE IN A HEALTH CARE SETTING 1 hour(s)

Students enrolled in this course are required to volunteer in a health care setting for a minimum of 30 hours, keep a journal of their volunteer experience, and to participate in a weekly class session. Topics covered during the in-class portion will include tips on keeping a reflective journal, working with issues of power inequity in a volunteer situation, dealing with challenges that occur at the volunteer site, and options for other volunteer opportunities. Pass/No Credit Only.

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