Lynchburg’s medical humanities minor is an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing medical, scientific, and health-related issues from the standpoint of the humanities and liberal arts. Traditional core areas of medical humanities are history, literature and the arts, philosophy, and religious studies.

Although it includes bioethics, medical humanities encompasses all humanities disciplines equally and isn’t limited to ethical analysis. Related areas within medical humanities, which supplement the core disciplines, include law, policy, sociology, psychology, public health, anthropology, economics, and others.

The medical humanities minor integrates science and the humanistic elements in ways that these disciplines cannot do very well just on their own. The program helps students think about how people experience medical care and wrestle with the emotional, ethical, and spiritual impacts of health and illness.

Amy Merrill Willis, PhD, associate professor of religious studies

Faculty Contacts

Laura Kicklighter, PhD
Associate Professor in the Westover Honors College
Associate Director of the Westover Honors Program

434.544.8851
kicklighter@lynchburg.edu

Amy Merrill Willis, PhD
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Chair of the Religious Studies Department
Interim Director of General Education

434.544.8268
merrillwillis.a@lynchburg.edu