This course is an introduction to medical humanities, an interdisciplinary field that engages critically with various aspects of health care, such as the concepts, practices, values, and experiences of patients and clinicians. Topics may include how medical practice has changed over time; our ideas of health, illness, disease, pain, and suffering; the role of stories in clinical care and patient experiences; aging and dying; and what doctors may know about religion and spirituality. Students will increase their understanding of how medicine, health, and illness are portrayed in fiction, poetry, memoirs, and movies and learn to closely read those texts. Students will be invited to think, read, reflect, and share their reflections across genres and learn to use narrative accounts and concepts from the humanities to expand our understanding of how biosocial, medical, and ethical realities actively shape each other.