Health and Human Values Minor
Program Description
Designed to complement a broad range of majors in the sciences, Health and Human Values (HHV) is an interdisciplinary health humanities minor exclusive to the UArizona Honors College that focuses on understanding how science, biology and society interact to shape health, disease, and health care. HHV empowers students to construct an intellectual framework and community where they can meaningfully integrate scientific knowledge and the human experience. Emphasizing the development of critical reasoning, empathic communication, intellectual humility, and cultural self-awareness, HHV is preparing a new generation of leaders to create a more equitable and inclusive future of health and health care for all of us.
HHV combines coursework in the medical humanities and social sciences with an internship experience and capstone senior seminar. Students have the option of doing their senior thesis under HHV which allows them to choose a faculty advisor drawn from a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines. Courses are designed to build off one another, granting an interdisciplinary perspective, but also allowing students to gradually focus on a more specific area of inquiry for their internship, capstone, and an optional thesis.
Because it follows a cohort model, HHV allows students to develop an engaged and supportive community around shared interests in health, medicine, and society. This facilitates networking, learning, and peer mentorship over the course of the minor and after graduation from the program. HHV graduates have successfully gained admission to schools of public health, nursing, medicine, osteopathic medicine, health professional graduate programs and national service programs. These have included the following.
Health and Human Values Minor Degree Plan
Required Courses
FALL INFORMATION SESSIONS
| Wednesday, September 16th 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | View Recording |
| Tuesday, September 29th 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. | Zoom Link |
| Friday, October 9th 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Zoom Link |
Students apply for admission to the minor during their freshman or sophomore year, completing the introductory, methods-based course (HNRS 250) as a cohort. A series of three electives chosen from the humanities and social sciences then lead to an individualized internship experience (HNRS 393H) and culminates in a capstone seminar (HNRS 498). Students who wish to do so can write an interdisciplinary thesis in their senior year based on individual interests.
Electives are taught by diverse faculty from the Honors College and throughout the University of Arizona. These include faculty from American Indian Studies, Africana Studies, Anthropology, Communications, Economics, English, History, Sociology, Medical Humanities, Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Philosophy.
Contact Dr. Victor Braitberg, victorb@email.arziona.edu for more information.
This minor allows me to understand and interact successfully in new situations because I am able to think critically about the social and cultural environments that produce disease and health outcomes.
ERIN RADEZTSKY, CLASS OF 2020
Internships
Designed to give students a broad perspective on the social and cultural dimensions of health and health care.
Electives
The minor in Health and Human Values requires 3 electives chosen from the following list of approved courses.
HHV in Action
See the projects and research that our students, past and present, have produced.