Medical and Health Humanities Studies Minor

What is Medical and Health Humanities? 

The Medical and Health Humanities is a vibrant interdisciplinary field that examines how people understand, experience, and document health and medicine. With areas such as the literature and medicine, philosophy and bioethics, medical anthropology, narrative medicine, the arts and the history of the human body, and theoretical perspectives such as disability studies, critical race and postcolonial studies, trauma studies, gender, and queer theory, this field is centered around the cultivation of critical, sensitive, informed and innovative approaches to cultures of care.

Why Minor in Medical Health and Humanities?

With an urgent focus, particularly in an era of the pandemic, on narratives, technologies, and ideologies of wellness, care, and illness, and on social and institutional forms of health that can also harm, this minor adds an essential dimension to any undergraduate major–from those working across the humanities to those hoping to work, specifically, in the health professions. 

• The MHHS minor is open to UCR undergraduates from any discipline. This minor can be shaped by each student, allowing you to design a course of study around your own interests, ideally, in conversation with your advisor or the MHHS co-chairs.
   
• MHHS is also extremely helpful if you are a premedical student or a student interested in other health professions (pre-PA, pre-PT, pre-OT, nursing, clinical psychology, etc.). Studies show that health professionals who studied premedical humanities perform better in clinical interactions and are more likely to demonstrate empathy, skillful communication, and a patient-centered approach.
   
• MHHS builds on your interests in diversity and social equity and brings our faculty’s unique strengths in bringing humanities research to medical and health issues past and present. Studies suggest that medical and health humanities will prepare you for critical and creative thinking, identification of internal biases, and ethical reasoning in decision-making processes.
   
• The fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of MHHS, which involves the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts, allows you to bridge areas of study, experience a range of disciplinary perspectives, and have immediate access to a broad range of exceptional faculty at UCR. 

How to Minor in Medical Health and Humanities Studies

The Medical and Health Humanities Studies minor (MHHS) is only five additional courses (20 units).

Enrolling in MHHS is easy:

1. First, consult with your undergraduate advisor to make a study plan.
    
2. Next, you'll complete five courses: 

• Introduction to Medical and Health Humanities (MHHS 001) taught by MHHS faculty
• Three courses of your choice, based on your interests and offered from the many cross-listed courses from participating departments
• A capstone seminar (MHHS 191) taught by MHHS faculty.

The only course with a prerequisite is the capstone seminar (MHHS 191), to be preceded by the introductory course (MHHS 001) and ideally taken after you have taken at least 2 other MHHS courses.

For specifics, consult the UCR course catalogue for information on the MHHS minor, including program rationale, prerequisites and courses counted toward the minor, and then consult the UCR schedule of classes for classes on offer each quarter as you plan out your progress through the minor. 

Don't see a course in the catalogue? You may petition for any upper-division humanities course to count as a minor elective so long as it the emphasis on medical/health humanities is explicit. To do this, please email Professors Mazzio and Wang (carlam@ucr.edu, fusonw@ucr.edu) with the course's syllabus attached. Once you've received approval, forward it to the undergraduate advisor for MHHS (now Elaine Chacon at elaine.chacon@ucr.edu).  To declare an MHHS minor, only after completing the introductory course (MHHS 001), contact Elaine Chacon (see above) for instructions on how to declare. 

QUESTIONS? Contact Professors Carla Mazzio (carlam@ucr.edu)  and Fuson Wang (fusonw@ucr.edu).

See a list of MHHS faculty

Confirmed & Scheduled MHHS Course Offerings (2026-2027)

I. The following confirmed courses all count toward the Medical and Health Humanities Studies Minor for Fall 2026. 

Core MHHS Courses

MHHS 001 — Introduction to Medical and Health Humanities 

MHHS 191 — Seminar in Medical and Health Humanities (prerequisite: MHHS 001 and strongly recommended, a minimum of 1-2 other courses in the minor). 

Society, Culture, and Health

ENGL 122 — Queer Texts and Bodies

GSST 185 / ANTH 144F — Gender, Race, and Medicine

Arts in Wellness

CRWT 130 — Beginning Creative Nonfiction

CRWT 155 — The Graphic Novel

DNCE 181 — Dance Cultures, Culture in Dance

MCS 135 / ART 135 — Intermedia: Art, Media, and Culture

TFDP 191s — Script to Production

II. The following constitutes just a BARE-BONES STARTER list of confirmed upcoming MHHS courses on offer. 

We'll be adding more confirmed courses on offer as soon as they are published in UCR's List of Courses on a quarter-by-quarter basis. 

Winter 2027

Science and Medicine

HIST 106 — Science in the 20th Century

Spring 2027

Arts in Wellness

TFDP 122 — Theatre for Social Change

Summer 2027

Core MHHS & Society, Culture, and Health COURSES

SUMMER STUDY IN TOKY0 with Professor Fuson Wang for five weeks this summer to take TWO MHHS courses (one MHHS Core, MHHS 101 and one elective ENG 141) with him.  We will provide a link to the application process here as soon as it is available 

ENGL 141 — Literature and Disability Studies 

ENGL 191   — Seminar in Medical and Health Humanities (prerequisite: MHHS 001 and strongly recommended, a minimum of 1-2 other courses in the minor). 

Fall 2027

MHHS 001 — Introduction to Medical and Health Humanities 

Winter 2028

MHHS 191 — Seminar in Medical and Health Humanities (prerequisite: MHHS 001 and strongly recommended, a minimum of 1-2 other courses in the minor). 

ENGL 141 — Literature and Disability Studies