Medical and Health Humanities
Entry requirements
A second-class honours degree (2:2) or above in an arts, humanities or social sciences subject.
Applications are reviewed on their individual merits and your professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be taken into consideration positively. We actively support and encourage applications from mature learners.
Months of entry
October
Course content
Why choose this course?
- This course draws together the diverse experience and interests of students and staff, working across different disciplines, different historical periods and different geographical regions, to offer an interdisciplinary approach to the fascinating, complex relationship between medicine and the humanities.
- It is ideal if you are interested in, or working within, health studies and wish to deepen your understanding of how patients and practitioners interact and how these narratives are negotiated in contemporary culture, theory and artistic practice.
- It gives you the chance to consider further how scientific and technological advances are constantly pushing the bounds of medical possibility. You will explore the role played by the humanities, and how the practice of medicine represented in art, literature, film and other media determines how we understand and experience our own bodies and the realities of sickness and health.
What you will learn
On this MA Medical and Health Humanities you will explore the timely and urgent matters facing people, patients, stakeholders, practitioners and artists as they address issues including identity, gender, sexuality, autonomy, rights, equality and diversity in the broad field of medicine.
You will also consider the development of clinical practices and institutions, the formation of medical expertise and authority, and the role of medical ethics and law.
How you will learn
This course is available to study full- or part-time and has an evening timetable with classes taking place in the evening. You will learn on this course through lectures, seminars and workshops. You will also engage with a range of materials from academic criticism to narratives of lived experience and explore archives and a diversity of literary and artistic works.
The core module for this course examines key themes between medicine and culture and uses them to build a sense of the canonical issues, discourses and methods of the medical humanities. You will explore topics like the birth of the clinic, genetics and ethics, disability studies, assisted reproduction and reproductive loss, narrative medicine, and memoir and lived experience. You will then be able to choose three additional modules to complement your own unique learning journey.
- The course has been awarded a number of fully funded MA studentships by the Wellcome Trust as part of its commitment to building an influential and diverse population of future researchers in the medical humanities.
- All Master’s students are eligible to apply for our prestigious Eric Hobsbawm Scholarships, subject to availability. One of the most influential historians of the twentieth century, Eric Hobsbawm taught at Birkbeck for over five decades and embodied what is central to our teaching and research: a continued commitment to critical enquiry and public engagement. We also offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.
- Birkbeck is at the heart of academic London with easy access to world-class research resources such as the British Museum and the British Library. You could be studying in a building that was once home to Virginia Woolf and frequented by members of the Bloomsbury Group.
- This course grows out of Birkbeck’s Centre for Medical and Health Humanities, an interdisciplinary and cross-College research group that brings together academics and students of all levels to work on issues both critical and clinical. We host visiting speakers, give talks, run a regular reading group, and provide a hub for the College’s diverse research in the field.
- Birkbeck has a number of institutes specifically designed to foster work across disciplines: Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality and Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. These institutes are driven by the work of world-class scholars including Laura Mulvey, Slavoj Žižek, Lynne Segal and David Feldman.
On successfully graduating from this MA Medical and Health Humanities, you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including:
- a sophisticated use of written and spoken English
- an advanced critical ability in the use of theoretical perspectives
- facility and precision in the use of analytical tools
- strong skills and initiative in collecting and organising complex materials and writing up clear, well-presented reports or fluent critical arguments.
Graduates can pursue career paths in a wide range of different fields. including in:
- medicine
- academia
- research
- publishing
- journalism
- healthcare education or administration
- community health
- education
- law.
Information for international students
If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, our usual requirement is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.
If you don't meet the minimum IELTS requirement, we offer pre-sessional English courses and foundation programmes to help you improve your English language skills and get your place at Birkbeck.
Qualification, course duration and attendance options
- MA
- part time24 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
- full time12 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
Course contact details
- Name
- Student Advice Service
- studentadvice@bbk.ac.uk
- Phone
- +44 (0)20 3907 0700