Birkbeck offers both taught and research postgraduate degrees, with a unique focus on the application of critical ideas from the humanities to clinical practice and patient care.
Our postgraduate programmes in Medical Humanities draw together the emergent fields of medical humanities and intercultural medicine to explore and develop the lived experience of clinicians in the everyday complexities of real-life clinical settings as they interact with patients and cultures.
Two years part-time
Birkbeck’s MA Applied Medical Humanities is designed to help medical practitioners explore and understand their complex, everyday clinical experiences with diverse patients and cultures. Medical humanities is a rich interdisciplinary field of study in which medicine and its practices are examined through the lenses of the humanities disciplines, including art, cultural and critical studies, film, history, law, literature and philosophy.
This practice-based programme utilises the insights and skills of the humanities disciplines to support the development of the professional capabilities, values and behaviours defined by the GMC and NMC and core to clinical practice. This programme is relevant for practitioners across all stages of medical and healthcare careers: in medicine, from foundation years, through speciality training, to consultant level; in nursing, from early career through to specialist and consultant levels. Its intensive delivery makes it possible for full-time clinicians and healthcare professionals, from the UK and overseas, to combine study with clinical commitments.
Read more about the MA Applied Medical Humanities on the course page.
One year full-time or two years part-time
Scientific and technological advances are constantly pushing the bounds of medical possibility. But what role is played by the humanities? How is the practice of medicine represented in art, literature, film and other media, and how do those representations, in turn, determine how we understand and experience our own bodies and the realities of sickness and health?
Taught across our School of Arts and our School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy, Birkbeck’s interdisciplinary MA Medical Humanities explores human health through the lenses of culture and history, covering topics including infectious disease, diet and exercise, mental health and wellbeing, and disability.
Read more about the MA Medical Humanities on the course page.
Two years part-time
Birkbeck’s Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Medical Humanities is designed to help medical practitioners explore and understand their complex, everyday clinical experiences with diverse patients and cultures. Medical humanities is a rich interdisciplinary field of study in which medicine and its practices are examined through the lenses of the humanities disciplines, including art, cultural and critical studies, film, history, law, literature and philosophy.
The programme is ideal if you are interested in studying applied medical humanities at postgraduate level for personal or professional reasons, but you don’t want to commit to a full MA.
Read more about the Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Medical Humanities on the course page.
Two years part-time
Birkbeck’s Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Medical Humanities is designed to help medical practitioners explore and understand their complex, everyday clinical experiences with diverse patients and cultures. Medical humanities is a rich interdisciplinary field of study in which medicine and its practices are examined through the lenses of the humanities disciplines, including art, cultural and critical studies, film, history, law, literature and philosophy.
The programme is ideal if you are interested in studying applied medical humanities at postgraduate level for personal or professional reasons, but you don’t want to commit to a full MA.
Read more about the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Medical Humanities on the course page.
We also welcome applications from both humanities postgraduate students and clinicians who are interested in undertaking PhD research in medical humanities. More information, including details of how to apply, is available on our course listings.
