Health Humanities Minor

A brand new minor launching Fall 2026!

This page will continue to be updated throughout the year.

Interested in declaring? Sign up here to be contacted in Fall quarter when the minor is officially live.

The Health Humanities minor explores vital topics and questions at the heart of health, illness, and health care, illuminating dimensions of lived experience that laboratory results and clinical findings alone cannot fully explain. In addition to examining the varied ways health is defined, the minor investigates how people make sense of suffering and healing, what it means to care across differences in culture and experience, how empathy is practiced, and how power and inequality shape clinical encounters. It invites students into conversations that expand how they see and imagine the worlds of illness and care.

Through a core course, interdisciplinary electives, and a capstone project, students study literature, art, film, music, philosophy, and theory alongside the biological, clinical, social, and cultural dimensions of health and health care. They develop the analytical and interpretive skills to approach health and illness from humanistic, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Whether pursuing careers in health care, public health, the humanities and arts, or related fields, students gain the insight and critical perspective needed to analyze, navigate, and address the complexities of health and health care.

To enter the minor, students must be in good academic standing with an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. Students must have also completed the required lower-division course (Comparative Literature 1H or Cluster 73B) with a C or better. Students may then declare the minor in consultation with the Student Services Advisor, Brianna Boling (bboling@humnet.ucla.edu).

Lower division requirement

Note you must have taken one of these courses or received substitution credit for another course via petition before you can be declared for the minor

  • COM LIT 1H: Introduction to Health Humanities OR CLUSTER 73B: Brain, Bodymind, and Society: All in Your Head?
Upper division requirements
  • Two courses selected from the COM LIT 180 series:
    • COM LIT 180: Variable Topics: Health Humanities in Comparative Contexts
    • COM LIT 181: Philosophies of Illness
    • COM LIT 182: Balancing Act: Comparative Approaches to Wellness, Health, and Medical Practice
    • COM LIT 183: Literature and Madness
    • COM LIT 184: Moving Images: Mental Health on Film
    • COM LIT 185: Health Humanities Perspectives on Hip Hop
    • COM LIT 186: Film on Brain
  • Three elective courses (one of which must be from the Humanities i.e. American Sign Language, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, English Composition or Philosophy). Humanities courses are denoted with an asterisk (*).
    • See PDF here for full elective list
      • Note that courses on this list may have prerequisites or have enrollments limited by the originating departments.  Enrollment is entirely controlled by that specific department. It is the student’s responsibility to check the General Catalog and Schedule of Classes for specific information regarding the availability of these courses. Substitutions may be allowed via petition in consultation with the Student Services Advisor and Director of Undergraduate Studies.
  • COM LIT 187 – Capstone in Health Humanities
    • Plan to take this course as a junior or senior

Download: Health Humanities Minor Worksheet
Complete online: Course Substitution Petition

Minor Policies

A minimum of 20 units applied toward the minor requirements must be in addition to units applied toward major requirements or another minor.

Each minor course must be taken for a letter grade, and students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better in the minor. Successful completion of the minor is indicated on the transcript and diploma.