Undergraduate Education
In undergraduate education, the health humanities are transforming premedical and pre–health professional education. With a 266% increase in majors, minors, and certificates since 2001, these courses and academic programs are popular. As a result of changing emphases in the MCAT, US and Canadian universities are responding by offering interdisciplinary health curricula that incorporate the social sciences, humanities, and arts. Teaching undergraduate students is different from engaging with medical and graduate students since they tend to be younger and more diverse and bring less background with them. Undergraduates are more open-minded, have more time in their curriculum, and are in the early stages of developing professional identities, all of which are advantageous for introducing the health humanities. This chapter shares several lessons for work with undergraduates including talking about all health professions, not just medicine; not assuming they bring knowledge or skills to the class; offering practical examples; demonstrating role-modeling; encouraging active learning; enforcing accountability; and teaching less material. This chapter presents several sample assignments, such as Gallery and Illness Narrative Ethnography, to demonstrate different pedagogical approaches in working with this population and discusses popular techniques such as hybrid and flipped classes.