Creating Health Humanities Programs at Liberal Arts Colleges: Three Models
In May 2022, Elizabethtown College and Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Humanities sponsored a Health Humanities Conference highlighting programs and initiatives at liberal arts colleges in Central Pennsylvania. The idea was to create a network of interested faculty members, explore the development of curricula at our respective institutions, and consider differences between health humanities programs in baccalaureate and graduate professional training. One lengthy morning session was devoted to presentations by health humanities program leaders at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M), Lebanon Valley College (LVC), and Elizabethtown College. Listening to these presentations, I was struck by the fact that each institution had structured its program differently, responding to college-specific campus cultures, trends in student enrollment, diversity and inclusion issues, institutional challenges, and programmatic goals. Putting short essays together that described those programmatic goals, as well as development timelines and institutional approval processes, felt like an effective way to provide valuable information to other would-be health humanities program developers, especially in the framing of key elements of campus culture that influenced curricular choices. Peter Jaros and Jon Stone, Director and Associate Director, respectively, of the F&M Humanities Initiative, start off with a discussion of the development of a health humanities certificate at Franklin & Marshall College. Kevin Shorner-Johnson, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Elizabethtown College and the primary driver of the regional conference, follows with his essay about the development of Elizabethtown College’s minor in medical humanities. John Hinshaw of Lebanon Valley College wraps up the forum with a discussion of its new medical humanities major. Taken together, these essays provide how-to guidance about developing baccalaureate programs in health humanities that are appealing to students, address campus needs (including retention of and support for students from underrepresented groups in higher education and medicine), and flexibly adjust to changing local circumstances.
This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10912-022-09778-7
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Work Title | Creating Health Humanities Programs at Liberal Arts Colleges: Three Models |
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License | In Copyright (Rights Reserved) |
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Publication Date | January 30, 2023 |
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Deposited | January 22, 2024 |
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