Global Health and the Medical Humanities

This proposal seeks assistance to support the phased establishment in SHASS of an initiative on “Global Health and the Medical Humanities” (GHMH) that may eventually become a SHASS minor that sits in Anthropology. It is my hope that this initial GHMH endeavor will anchor, and form a branch of, a future interdisciplinary and Institute-­‐wide “Center for Global Health Initiatives at MIT.” The proposed GHMH initiative would combine critical examinations of global health with classical approaches to the medical humanities through a number of existing and new courses, extracurricular events, and eventually, collaborative interdisciplinary research and teaching opportunities, in order to build community and capacity among MIT faculty, students, and staff members who are engaging these topics.