Global Classrooms: Health Humanities and Geographies
| Module title | Global Classrooms: Health Humanities and Geographies |
|---|---|
| Module code | HASM031 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Gemma Lucas (Convenor) Dr Michael Flexer (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
This module is a paradigm-shifting, transnational, trans-institutional and transdisciplinary exploration of pressing, contemporary concerns in health humanities and geographies, delivered through transformative and innovative sensorially rich methods, both digital and in person.
You will have an unprecedented opportunity to engage with students from across prestigious partner organisations exploring and sharing disciplinary and cultural differences in relation to concepts of health, care, wellbeing, ableism and disability, shame, ‘madness’ and embodiment.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This is highly recommended for interdisciplinary pathways, and you will not be expected to have prior knowledge or experience. A keen interest in health humanities and geographies, in the use of innovative technology in learning environments and in transdisciplinary and transcultural exchanges of knwoledge and skills is all that is required. Your lectures and study groups will be international and will take place on an immersive digital campus, which brings together research-led teachers and innovative pedagogic practices from the University of Exeter alongside our international partner HEIs that may include: Duke School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of South Florida, Tampa, University of British Colombia, Okanagan. You will engage widely across disciplines, delivered by a range of individuals that may include clinicians, health researchers, philosophers, geographers, sociologists, disability studies and literary/cultural studies scholars.
The virtual campus will be both a learning space and a space of research praxis, enabling a critical interrogation of some of the core intellectual questions at the heart of the module: what does it mean to be a well/sick body; how do social and interpersonal and affective networks inform health and our embodied sense of self; what are the complex relationships between spatial configurations and experiences of disability and (mental) estrangement; what are the different cultural expressions and epistemologies that comprise global health?
These themes will be grounded in discussions of specific literatures, considerations of how interdisciplinary research explores these topics, as well as experiments with our own bodies in a series of practical tasks. These practical tasks are based on the understanding that to really learn about bodies, we need to connect with our own bodily experiences. They will underpin your developing understanding of how we might document bodily experiences (which will inform your creative summative assessment).
For assessments, you will work on a creative response to the module, supported by a reflective journal of your practice, and also write a 2,500 word essay reflecting on themes and topics from the module content. The creative practice element in particular will involve forethought and planning, and we will ensure opportunities throughout the module to discuss your evolving ideas. You can submit for feedback a formative creative assessment created through groupwork with students from the five partner HEIs. This will enable you to develop your thinking and practice throughout the project.
In terms of employability, you will learn transferable skills for: group working on problem solving; communicating across disciplinary and cultural and epistemological divides; using immersive and innovative tech (including AI and VR) critically and thoughtfully for understanding complex issues; developing global citizenship.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate a sophisticated critical understanding of heterogeneous medical epistemologies and culturally situated practices, and how these interact with group and individual intersectionalities
- 2. Demonstrate an ability to engage with, discuss and critique materials from different cultures and disciplines, and to synthesise information for group problem solving
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Communicate transdisciplinary health humanities and geographies ideas, principles and theories effectively using oral, written and embodied skills
- 4. Create challenging, imaginative and original responses to pre-eminent health and medical problems using a range of creative digital and analogue tools including video and audio technology, digital storytelling techniques, creative writing, visual and plastic arts skills and embodied practice.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Develop group working and communication across cultures, institutions and time-zones, developing global citizenship skills and understanding
- 6. Think through doing, using creative methodologies to explore issues and solve problems
- 7. Engage with cutting edge digital tools to communicate and interrogate complex ideas
Syllabus plan
The module will be co-taught across the partner organisations, with all teams contributing research-led teaching.
The module comprises several different modes of learning:
- Synchronous online/hybrid weekly lectures taught to students across the partner HEIs using novel, innovative, immersive digital technologies. The lectures taught by Exeter staff will have an in-person option for Exeter students.
- Asynchronous and synchronous online learning through trans-institutional study groups.
- Traditional classroom F2F seminar teaching in smaller groups on the Exeter campus for Exeter cohort.
- In person workshop sessions combining embodied practice with immersive AI and VR technologies in collaboration with the University of Exeter’s Expo Lab.
The sessions will be harmonised around these cross-cutting themes:
- Cultural representations of (ill)health
- Social determinants of health and disability
- Embodiment and health
- Cross-cultural understandings and epistemologies of health and disease
- Intersectionality and pathology
- AI, VR and disruptive technologies in health and medicine
Sessions will cover:
- Affective environments and illness
- Shame
- Ableism and the built environment
- Geographies of the body
- Popular cultural representations of ‘madness’
- Health hermeneutics: global perspectives on environments and cultures of wellbeing
- Narrative medicine and illness pathography
- Global constructions of disability
With the digital delivery of the course content, please note scheduled learning activities that involve online teaching by Exeter staff will include in-person options for Exeter students, alongside F2F seminars. The online cross-institutional study groups will comprise part of the course’s independent guided study.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | 261 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 16.5 | 11 x 90 min lectures [Virtual campus and F2F] |
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 16.5 | 11 x 90 min seminars [F2F] |
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 6 | 3 x 2hr workshops [F2F] |
| Guided independent study | 11 | 11 x 1hr study group work including formative work [Virtual campus] |
| Guided independent study | 66 | 11 x 6-hours course reading |
| Guided independent study | 88 | Researching, making and reflecting on the formative and summative creative pieces |
| Guided independent study | 96 | Researching and writing the reflective journal and essay |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group creative piece | 1000 words or equivalent per group member | 1-7 | Peer feedback through showcase Written feedback with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creative piece | 30 | 2000 words or equivalent for an individual project | 1-7 | Written feedback with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Reflective journal | 30 | 2000 words | 1-3, 5-7 | Written feedback with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Essay | 40 | 2500 words | 1-3, 5-7 | Written feedback with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creative piece (2000 words | Creative piece (2000 words | 1-7 | Referral / Deferral period |
| Reflective journal (2000 words) | Reflective journal (2000 words) | 1-3, 5-7 | Referral / Deferral period |
| Essay (2500 words) | Essay (2500 words) | 1-3, 5-7 | Referral/ Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Beresford and Russo (eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Mad Studies, (New York: Routledge, 2022).
- Booth, K., 2018. The places within. cultural geographies, 25(4), pp.637-641.
- David Cooper ‘The Invention of non-Psychiatry’ in Schizo-Culture Semiotext(e) 3:2 (1978)
- Fred Cooper, Luna Dolezal, and Arthur Rose, “Shame-Sensitive Public Health,” Journal of Medical Humanities (2024)
- Luna Dolezal and Barry Lyons, “Health-Related Shame: An Affective Determinant of Health?,” Medical Humanities (2017)
- Dolezal, L. and Lucas, G., 2022. Differential experiences of social distancing: considering alienated embodied communication and racism. Puncta, 5(1), pp.97-105.
- Fanon, Frantz, Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove Press, 1967)
- Fitzgerald, D., & Callard, F (2015). "Social science and neuroscience beyond interdisciplinarity: Experimental entanglements." Theory, Culture & Society 32, no. 1: 3-32.
- Macpherson, H., 2009. Articulating blind touch: Thinking through the feet. The Senses and Society, 4(2), pp.179-193.
- Danielle Ofri, “Ashamed to Admit It: Owning Up to Medical Error” (2010)
- Pan et al ‘Morphological Profiling of Schizophrenia: Cluster Analysis of MRI-Based Cortical Thickness Data’ Schizophrenia Bulletin 46:3 623-632 (2020)
- Rebekah Taussig, “What I Mean When I Talk about ‘Accessibility’” in Sitting Pretty (2020)
- Tanya Titchkosky, “Where?: To Pee or Not to Pee” in The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning (2011)
- Susan Wendell, “The Social Construction of Disability” in The Rejected Body (1996)
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
Core viewing
- A Beautiful Mind (2001) dir Ron Howard
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012) dir David O Russell
- The Soloist (2009) dir Joe Wright
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 20/03/2025 |
| Last revision date | 31/03/2025 |
