Although we all have such different experiences in life, there may be one that we all share: having a body.
Professor Angela Wentz Faulconer (Medica Ethics) has always had an interest in the ethics of medicine—and it goes back as far as she can remember. As a fourth grader, she became deeply interested in the moral implications of cloning and parthenogenesis (the process of creating an embryo without fertilization), as well as questions about the future of health. Now, as a professor in the College of Humanities, Faulconer wants to share this life-long passion she has with her students, so she helped revamp an old club, one that she says pertains to every person in every major: Students for Health Humanities.
A Club for Everyone
Students for Health Humanities has a similar format to any philosophy club. During meetings, participants debate and discuss hot-button medical topics, as well as listen to lectures about research on medical ethical dilemmas, future careers, and more. They also discuss art and literature that explore health and the experience of having a human body. Because the club’s focus extends across many different disciplines, participants also have the opportunity to make friends and connections outside of their typical circles.
Though Ammon Hawkes (Exercise Science ’26), vice president of Students for Health Humanities, encourages premed majors to become involved, Students for Health Humanities can benefit from having members from a variety of majors—and therefore a variety of perspectives. Premed students can provide informational background on the medical practices being discussed, philosophy students can add moral context, English majors can add their literature analysis skills—and the list could go on forever. In Hawkes’s experience, including students with different skill sets and opinions helps all members become better informed on serious issues.
Faulconer whole-heartedly agrees with Hawkes’s desire for variety in club members. She believes the club is meant for everyone, but especially humanities students. She argues that even though most students in the College don’t typically train to be in the medical field, “every one of us is a person with a body, and every one of us have people we love that have bodies.” As people with bodies, Faulconer believes that learning about art, history, and literature that pertain to experiences within our bodies like healthcare, illness, and healing is naturally interesting to humanities students, and they do it all the time—they just don’t have a name for it. She says, “It can be literature: fiction or non-fiction, and it can be paintings and sculptures. There are so many different ways of expressing this stuff.”
A Club for the Future
To many, this club may seem relevant only to future doctors, surgeons, and the occasional philosopher. But Hawkes says that the club is important to more than just those pursuing careers in medicine. He says, “It’s impossible to find a student, major, or demographic for whom things we cover in our meetings aren’t relevant to and, at some point in their lives, applicable.” Both Hawkes and Faulconer agree that becoming informed and developing opinions on medical-political topics may be the most important outcome of joining Students for Health Humanities. Faulconer says, “You don’t have to be premed or in the College of Humanities to be a person who’s going to be asked to vote on really important topics: everything from abortion policy to euthanasia [to] medical marijuana. All of these topics are part of health humanities. And how can you vote on these things if you’re not informed? We all have a responsibility.” Hawkes echoes Faulconer’s sentiments, adding that “even if you have already experienced health care or already have an opinion on these issues, you can only benefit from having more of those discussions and learning more of those things in this organization.”
Both Hawkes and Faulconer agree that philosophy and literature, among many other mediums, contribute to medical humanities in a big way, and so despite contrary assumptions, humanities students inherently belong—in fact, anyone in any major belongs. Faulconer says, “The truth is, all of us go through these things.” We all face health issues at some point, read literature, see art, and have to face controversial political topics. Medical ethics is so much more than just a branch of philosophical study,” Faulconer says. “It’s the embodied human experience.”
To learn more about the Health Humanities Association, click here.