This past fall, I taught a section of ENGL 105i: Writing in Health and Medicine, an interdisciplinary undergraduate course on writing across the disciplines with a specific focus on writing in fields and genres related to health and medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill. This was an in-person course for on-campus learners.
The students performed admirably and created important and historical work as they explored writing and research across a variety of disciplines, genres, and media. We discussed writing and research from a purely biomedical approach and then moved to exploring social health justice, an especially timely topic in 2021, and finished with an exploration of how the lived experience of illness is communicated via illness narratives. Students also had the chance to conduct extra credit assignments via writing in business (application materials for academic/professional opportunities in health or medicine) and in literary analysis (exploring and interpreting a short story through the lens of the health humanities). Students conducted research and writing across a variety of disciplines, fields, genres, modes, and media.
To see their work (and their weekly reflections from the class), visit the course website.
Paul E. Blom 