Interdisciplinarity: Medical Humanities and Research at the Intersections of the Humanities, the Social Sciences, Clinical Practice and Biom, 3.0 credits

Entry requirements

Entry requirement for studies on third-cycle education courses

• second-cycle degree,
• 240 credits in required courses, including at least 60 second-cycle credits, or
• acquisition of equivalent knowledge in some other manner

Specific entry requirements for this course: Participation in the course requires that the participant is currently accepted in a PhD programme that is relevant for the course.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course the students will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe what interdisciplinarity in medical humanities, understood as including perspectives and methods within the humanities and the qualitative social sciences on health, illness, medical practices, medical technologies etc., can mean;
• Describe what interdisciplinary at the intersection of medical humanities, clinical research, and/or biomedicine, can mean;

Competence and skills

• Discuss the term interdisciplinarity and related terms such as transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity;
• Discuss different understandings of subjectivity and objectivity and the relation between them, and how these can matter for the interdisciplinary areas above;
• Identify and discuss epistemological underpinnings, choices and challenges within interdisciplinary medical humanities research and interdisciplinary at the intersection of medical humanities, clinical research, and/or biomedicine;

Judgement and approach

• Formulate the relevance, strengths, and challenges of working interdisciplinary in relation to the course participant’s research areas.

Contents

The course introduces different understandings of interdisciplinarity in medical humanities, and in work at the intersection of the humanities, the social sciences, clinical practices and/or biomedicine. It engages with concrete examples with the aim of identifying and discussing epistemological underpinnings of different interdisciplinary ways of engaging in medical humanities research and research at the intersection of the humanities, the social sciences, clinical practices and/or biomedicine.

The course introduces and examines conceptualizations of subjectivity and objectivity and the relation between them, within medical humanities and in work at the intersection of the humanities, the social sciences, clinical practices and/or biomedicine – attentive to how such conceptualizations can inform approaches to interdisciplinary research.

Course participants will be familiarized with the discussions on interdisciplinarity in medical humanities. They will be given ample opportunities to discuss perspectives, theories, and concepts, and relate this to their own research.

Educational methods

Lectures, seminars, tutorials.

The course is given in English.

Examination

Examination

The examination of the course consists of the following components:

• Active participation in all course sessions.
• Written course essay of 2,500 words.

Students who fail are offered one re-examination occasion in close connection to the course. After that participation in a coming course examination is offered. The re-examination should be equally comprehensive as the ordinary examination.

Change of examiner

Students who have failed the course or part of the course twice are entitled to request another examiner for the following examination occasion.

Grading

Course literature

A list of recommended literature will be provided by the course coordinator before the start of the course.

General information

The course is planned and carried out according to what is stated in this syllabus. Course evaluation, analysis and suggestions for improvement should be fed back to the Research and PhD studies Committee (FUK) by the course coordinator.

If the course is withdrawn or is subject to major changes, examination according to this syllabus is normally offered at three occasions within/in close connection to the two following semesters.

Course certificate

On the student’s request, course certificate is issued by the course examiner.

Department

The course is given by the Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics (CMHB). CMHB is a LiU center, organizationally situated at the Department of Thematic studies.