FYE 101 - Medical Mysteries

How do we understand what is an illness, disease or contagion? Do individual experiences of illness clarify or muddle our medical mysteries? Can language express physical or mental distress? What role can writing play in making illness or disease into truth? The Medical Mysteries FYE will consist of three connected courses from the disciplines of anthropology, biochemistry, and literary and writing studies. By uncovering medical mysteries, the connected courses in anthropology, biochemistry and literature/writing explore the ways that culture, natural science, and narrative all shape how medical knowledge is created. Culture is central to biomedicine and the anthropological perspective in this FYE challenges the universality of a standard body, the scientific method, and the belief in the truth-to-nature assumption implicit in medical knowledge. Biochemistry focuses on understanding the importance of the patient story, the patient exam, technology, and medical testing in gaining biomedical knowledge and formulating a diagnosis. We will use the tools of literary and writing studies to investigate (in students’ own writing and published works) how the stories we tell about illness shape medical understanding, experience, and practice. The FYE will offer students three core connected experiences: lab-based learning, content from all three disciplinary perspectives, and a shared final project.

Credits 1

Compass Attributes
First Year Experience