The Health, Medicine, and Society major is jointly administered by the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Health. This interdisciplinary major focuses on the social scientific, humanistic, and applied community-engaged dimensions of health and medical care to develop an understanding of how health, illness, and medical care impact individuals, families, culture, and societies. The joint major is intended to serve students who wish to be involved in some aspect of the healthcare industry, health policy, or public health and also students who are interested in communications, the pharmaceutical industry, law, business, agency work, and other careers where understanding health care is essential.
Program Learning Objectives
Students who major or minor in HMS upon graduation will be able to:
A. Identify factors, processes, and structures of power that affect:
- a person’s health status and experience of health,
- the health care system.
B. Distinguish among different scholarly approaches to understanding health, including:
- social science approaches,
- humanist approaches,
- natural science approaches.
C. Explain how health-related research is conducted and provides insights into understanding health and healthcare.
D. Analyze the relationship between social justice and health.