ENGL 2650W. Reading and Writing the Medical Humanities.
Content Areas: CA1: Arts & Humanities, CA4: Diversity & Multicultural
Topics of Inquiry: TOI1:Creativity: Des,Expr,Innv, TOI3: Div, Equity, Soc Just
2650W-01 | T 5:00 - 7:30| Barreca, Gina FALL 2026
This course is designed for serious students who are committed to improving their critical skills through demanding work involving both their willingness to read long texts and write engaging, original prose. Attendance is mandatory. No electronic devices are permitted for use in the classroom; no exceptions. You will purchase and bring to class hard copies of the texts under discussion and you will take handwritten notes in your notebooks. There are frequent graded writing assignments which must be completed in-class, as well as three short papers which will be graded, revised, and graded again. AI will not be your friend in this course; you should not even try.
We’ll be addressing, through fiction and memoir, the largest issues facing the study of medicine, the role of medical professionals, the place of caretakers, patients, and families.We’ll discuss big and small issues: Are the body and mind two different entities? When we ask someone how they are, are we asking them about their physical life, their emotional life, their spiritual life or their mental life?Is there a difference between the self and the physical self? When we talk about illness, when we’re talking about disease, and when we're talking about death, are we talking about chaos? Are health, wellness, and care universal experiences or ones informed by culture, time, gender, and class?
After all, from shamanistic healers to technologically advanced practitioners of nuclear medicine, the question we being asked is always the same: How are you? What brings you here today? How are you feeling? Books include: A COUNTRY'S DOCTOR’S NOTEBOOK, HOSPITAL SKETCHES. GIVING UP THE GHOST, MISERY, THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS and other works.
For more information, contact: Inda Watrous at inda.watrous@uconn.edu