Background and Overview of the Program
Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives
The Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health (SM-MMH) draws on mass media, narratives, and the arts and humanities to elevate patient and community voices, create health initiatives and improve health education, and analyze and enhance evidence-based interventions. The program provides rigorous training in both theories and methods of storytelling and social medicine from Harvard Medical School faculty and culminates in a mentored Capstone Project in which students develop a novel health intervention.
The target audience for this program includes physicians, residents, fellows, nurses, and health professionals; recent college graduates planning on attending medical school; people in health communications and public relations; health journalists, writers, and editors; bioethicists; patient advocates and health educators; people in health administration; people who work for foundations and NGOs; and others who have a stake in communicating the lived experience of illness to a broad audience.
Program graduates will acquire a wide range of knowledge, analytical, and practical skills (along with career advising) necessary for using media and the principles of storytelling to create successful and measurable health programs for the multitude of health crises facing our nation and the world. Graduates will also learn the importance of grounding their stories and projects in science and drawing on evidence-based, rigorously reviewed programs that have shown success. The program will prepare students for a range of jobs in traditional and social media, journalism, foundations, direct health care, health care policy, and community organizations, and provide valuable networking opportunities with experts in various industries and storytelling modalities. MMH provides outstanding mentorship to each student, with each mentor selected to match the student’s interests to prepare them for leadership roles in patient-oriented safety, quality improvement, improved access to health care and health outcomes.
Harvard Medical School has a history of revolutionizing medical education and improving patient care through storytelling. The New Pathway curriculum, which has influenced medical education throughout the world, departed from the traditional division of biological science and patient care and, instead, placed an innovative emphasis on learning medical science by exploring and understanding the lived experiences and stories of patients. The Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health extends the innovative medical education and storytelling tradition of Harvard Medical School and draws on the expertise of our faculty to improve how we understand the root causes of illness and suffering; why our best-intentioned interventions sometimes fail to heal or comfort; how bias and structural racism, gender discrimination, homophobia, and transphobia perpetuate unequal access to care and increased morbidity and mortality; and how those storytelling interventions can help patients achieve the highest attainable health with the benefit of a novel media and narrative approach.
This is the only master’s degree program in the United States to offer evidence-based multidisciplinary storytelling and arts-driven curriculum focusing on health education and interventions to improve health outcomes for the poor and vulnerable. The program embraces a biosocial approach, as developed in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine (GHSM) by Paul Farmer, Arthur Kleinman, Anne Becker, Jim Yong Kim, and Salmaan Keshavjee. A biosocial approach examines how governments, institutions, and histories intersect to create illness and poor health, especially for those overburdened by poverty, gender discrimination, homophobia, and racism. Just as former GHSM Chair Jim Yong Kim transformed the department’s mission from solely conducting research to help others deliver care to a mission that also
focuses on the delivery of care itself, this program will guide students in actively highlighting and mitigating inequalities. In this way, the program aligns with the departmental mission.
The major goal of the program is to provide an innovative comprehensive curriculum that allows participants to pair knowledge and skills with practical experience. The learning model builds upon theoretical knowledge of healthcare quality and safety and expands to include practical applications to assess and improve processes of care. With the opportunity to gain experiential knowledge, students will be well-poised to take on leadership and management initiatives.
Learning Objectives
The Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health draws on mass media, narratives, and the arts and humanities to elevate patient and community voices, provide patients and communities with the tools to tell their own stories and advocate for change, improve health education, and analyze and enhance evidencebased interventions. The curriculum provides rigorous training in both theories and methods of storytelling and social medicine from Harvard Medical School faculty. The program culminates in a mentored Capstone Project in which students develop a novel media intervention in conjunction with an evidence-based research paper that serves as the foundation and empirical support for their project.
Graduates of this program will acquire a wide range of knowledge, analytical, and practical storytelling and media skills (along with networking opportunities and career advising) necessary to create successful and impactful health programs for the multitude of health crises facing our nation and the world. Guest speakers and lecturers will provide valuable networking opportunities in various industries and storytelling modalities. Each academic year, a renowned artist-in-residence will join MMH, offering an elective in their field, lecturing on their practice and its unique role in promoting health, and advising and mentoring students.
This is the only master’s degree program in the United States to offer evidence-based multidisciplinary storytelling and arts-driven curriculum focusing on health education and interventions. The program challenges students to deeply understand and unmask the structural and political roots of disease, shine a light on the gaps in current health education and delivery strategies, and advocate to correct health inequities through storytelling interventions.
Degree Offered
This program offers a Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health (SM-MMH) degree.
Prerequisites for Admission
To apply to the Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health an applicant must:
Have a bachelor’s degree
For applicants for whom English was not the medium of instruction for their undergraduate or graduate degree, the applicant must take one of the following tests: TOEFL iBT, TOEFL Essentials, IELTS Academic, or the Duolingo English Test. To be considered for admission, applicants must meet the following minimum test score requirements:
TOEFL iBT: 103
TOEFL Essentials: 11
IELTS Academic: 7.5
Duolingo English Test: 130
Instructions to submit official test scores: TOEFL iBT and TOEFL Essentials:
Code 3151: Harvard Medical School Graduate Education Master’s Programs
IELTS Academic:
Contact the test center where you took the IELTS test to request that your scores be sent via e-Delivery to:
Account Name: Harvard Medical School Graduate Education Master's Programs
Address: Graduate Education Master's Programs 25 Shattuck Street Boston, MA 02115 United States
Duolingo English Test:
Search for “Harvard Medical School” and select the appropriate program.
Academic Residence Requirements
The Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health is a residential program. Students complete their coursework at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Course of Study
The curriculum for the Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health includes core courses that introduce storytelling modalities, frameworks around social medicine and use of media in health, and ways to combine this knowledge into robust projects that address health issues through media. Table 6 shows the plan of study for the SM-MMH program. Appendix 3 provides the descriptions for core courses and Appendix 4 provides the descriptions for selected electives (selectives) offered by the program.
Curriculum Requirements
Registration requirement
Admitted students are expected to complete the degree in one academic year while registered as full-time students. With program approval, students may complete the program part-time over two years. Students may also complete the degree as part of a combined MD-Master’s program.
Credit Requirements
Students will complete a total of 36 credits for the master’s degree. Of these 36 credits, students take 20 credits from core courses, including 4 credits for the Capstone Project. Students also take 4 credits from a selected group of electives (selectives) and 12 credits of electives from across Harvard University or at MIT.
Core and elective course requirements
The first semester focuses on mastering the fundamentals of storytelling modalities, exploring the impact of the arts, humanities, and media through the lens of social medicine, and the ethics of storytelling. The theme of the first semester is Exploration— students home in on a health topic that will become their second semester Capstone Project and determine which art modality they will use for their project. During the first semester, students take core courses in storytelling methods, opinion writing, and social medicine. Students take 4 credits of selected electives and another 4 credits of electives from across Harvard and MIT. Students will be encouraged to take elective courses in bioethics, social medicine, and methods (such as courses offered by the English and the Art, Film, and Visual Studies Departments and the Concentration in Theater, Dance, and Music in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences). Students may also take electives at any of Harvard University’s graduate schools.
During the January intersession period, students take the two-credit core course, Illness Narratives. Students also develop a reading list and plan for their spring semester capstone work.
The theme of the second semester is Curation—students delve more deeply into their specific capstone topic by taking electives to strengthen their font of knowledge; conduct extensive reading on their topic in the readings course; and work closely with their assigned mentor on one or more of the storytelling modalities that they are using for their Capstone Project. During the second semester, students take the four-credit capstone course along with a two-credit core course on Introduction to Readings in Media, Medicine, and Health and a two-credit core course in Fundamentals of Visual Narratives. Students take 8 credits of electives from across Harvard and MIT. Potential electives include independent studies with an advisor to develop or reinforce their Capstone Project. For example, a student working on a capstone that involves creating a podcast might complete an independent study or an internship with the instructor who gave a lecture on
podcasts in the first semester. Or a student making a documentary might take a documentary filmmaking course in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies in the FAS.
Table 1. Curriculum/Plan of Study: Full time
4 credits from this list of selectives:
MMH 709: Who do you think you are: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop, 4 credits [Cross-listed with the English Department]
MMH 729: Design for Health: Design Thinking and Social Innovation for Healthcare, 2 credits
MMH 723 Games for Health and Well-Being, 4 credits [Cross-Listed with MIT]
MMH 773 Reimagining Global Health, 4 credits [Cross-Listed with FAS]
MMH INDP 300 Writing and Communication for the Biological Sciences, 2 credits
MMH 712: Dramatic Writing for Social Change, 4 credits [Crosslisted with Theater, Dance, and Media]
Table 2. Curriculum/Plan of Study: Part time
The US. State Department requires that students on an F-1 or J-1 visa complete degree programs full-time, so only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible for the part-time program.
Year 1, Fall Term (September–December)
Year 1, January Term
Year 2, Fall Term (September–December)
MMH 725
4 credits from this list of selectives*:
MMH 709 Who do you think you are: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop, 4 credits
MMH 729 Design for Health: Design Thinking and Social Innovation for Healthcare, 2 credits
MMH 723 Games for Health and Well-Being, 4 credits
MMH 773 Reimagining Global Health, 4 credits
INDP 300 Writing and Communication for the Biological Sciences, 2 credits MMH 712: Dramatic Writing for Social Change, 4 credits [Cross-listed with Theater, Dance, and Media]
*Selectives offered may vary from year to year
Year 2, Spring Term (February–May)
Required Courses by course number with credits, grading, description, instructor(s)
Core Courses
MMH 705: Storytelling Methods to Promote Health and Well-Being
Primary Faculty: Neal Baer, MD, AM, EdM, Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA
There is a growing and influential body of literature showing that promoting positive health-related behavior and change can be influenced by drawing on mass media, storytelling, and the arts and humanities. Traditional public health approaches have included outreach campaigns, but newer and more innovative programs draw on both nonfiction and dramatized depictions of public health issues to create and encourage pro-healthrelated behaviors. This seminar explores a plethora of storytelling methods that can be used to promote health and well-being, ranging from blogs, op-eds, and podcasts to theater, comics, and poetry. We will draw on health communication theories to promote project efficacy and will survey the different methods of messaging, emphasizing which of these methods is most appropriate for a given audience.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Discuss different storytelling modalities available for health outreach and determine which are most effective for behavioral change goals.
2. Describe the benefits of different forms of entertainment and storytelling modalities as a means of creating prohealth behavior with attention paid to cross-cultural approaches.
3. Analyze and cite examples of current initiatives using the arts, humanities, and mass media and technology to promote health change.
4. Consider which storytelling modality to use for their Capstone Project and discuss why that modality is being selected.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
MMH
716 and 721: Illness Narratives
Primary Faculty: Suzanne Koven, MD, MFA, Ricardo Perez Gonzalez, MFA
MMH 716 and 721 is taught as cover the same material
“The kingdom of the sick,” as Susan Sontag called it, is no single place. The experience of each ill person and each caregiver is unique, shaped by psychological, social, biological, political, economic, and other forces
beyond a specific diagnosis. Narratives in the form of essays, memoirs, poetry, fiction, pathography, and other genres help us make meaning and even beauty out of the complex and often bewildering experience of illness. In this course, we will read several such narratives as well as write our own, addressing topics including disability, addiction, mental illness, the role of the family in illness, the role reversal that occurs when clinicians become ill, and the end of life. We will also explore the history of medical narratives, the ethical considerations involved in telling the stories of illness, and the power of such stories to promote healing in individuals and society.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Describe the history and impact of many forms of illness narratives.
2. Analyze written texts of narratives in terms of structure, content, and rhetorical effectiveness.
3. Identify moral questions that arise in illness narratives.
4. Craft personal essays that respond to multiple moral questions about illness.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 725: Opinion Writing for Science and Medicine
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
This course is a practicum in writing publishable op-eds on health, science, and injustice. We begin not with theory, but with models: Pulitzer-winning investigations rendered in the tight, persuasive form of the opinion column. Week by week, we dissect how these writers broke through public indifference—on Medicaid privatization, racist terror, psychiatric abuse, homelessness, and the failures of child welfare. Students will reverse-engineer these pieces to understand not just what was said, but how—structure, evidence, rhetorical strategy, and revision. Then, through an iterative process of pitch writing, peer critique, and rewriting, each student will develop a portfolio-ready op-ed on a topic of their choosing. Emphasis is placed on precision, urgency, and craft. This is not a theory course; it is a deadline-driven writing lab. Students will leave with a revised op-ed and a polished pitch suitable for submission.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Learn how great op-eds work. Students will break down how strong opinion writers build arguments.
2. Write a real op-ed, from idea to final draft. Through pitches, drafts, and revisions, students will develop an op-ed suitable for publication.
3. Figure out how to pitch your story. Students will learn the art of the pitch for newspaper and magazine editors.
4. Put health in its broader social and political context. Students will learn to connect science and medicine to the larger forces that shape them (racism, poverty, policy failure, and power).
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 735 Arts and Social Medicine
Primary Faculty: Doris Sommer, PhD and Marty Zeve, PhD
The arts play an increasingly significant role in the research and recommendations at the core of social medicine, a field of study and practice that uses insights from the humanities and interpretive social sciences to improve medical theory, the delivery of healthcare, and the promotion of equitable health outcomes. This course will introduce students to the principles, frameworks, and methodologies of social medicine. In doing so, it will place special emphasis on the processes and effects of artmaking to identify, disrupt, and reimagine sociocultural structures and processes that generate mental and physical health inequities and harms, in favor of those that improve health and wellbeing. It is a required course for all students enrolled in the Master of Media, Medicine, and Health at Harvard Medical School. It is open for cross-registration to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Learning Objectives:
1. Develop an understanding of the main approaches and methods used in social medicine, including those from the arts, humanities, and interpretive social sciences.
2. Master the skills required for a “resocializing” analysis of social medicine’s three primary objects of study:
1) Sociocultural sources of disease;
2) socioculural understandings of disease (including biomedical understandings);
3) sociocultural responses to disease through medicine and caregiving.
3. Identify the arts as resources for physical and mental health and recognize the long tradition of linking arts with health.
4. Construct proposals to use the arts to prevent and improve care for mental and physical disease.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 730: Readings in Media, Medicine, and Health
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
This course is focused on preparing students to make an original contribution to knowledge in the field of media and medicine in their capstone projects. Through practical exercises and curated readings related to each student’s chosen topic, students will learn the process of turning their research project into a publishable work. While the course readings are highly tailored to each student’s interests, sessions will familiarize students with key approaches and concerns of scholarly practice. By the end of the class, students will demonstrate a command of the historical foundations and current debates about their topic, how to situate their work within the scholarly debates, and how to craft an intellectually rigorous and boldly original argument.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Build a literature review that situates the student’s capstone project in the history of the scholarship on their topic.
2. Understand the current state and debates among scholars and practitioners about their capstone topic.
3. Examine the political, economic, and social world in which their topic is situated.
4. Produce a properly formatted bibliography that is acceptable for capstone submission and publication.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 732: Fundaments of Visual Narratives
Primary Faculty: Brooke DiGiovanni, Joel Katz, Gaël McGill
This course, divided into three distinct parts, focuses on the fundamentals of effective visual narrative messaging for improving health-related behavior. We start with the lens of design thinking to learn about communication and interactive challenges in healthcare and what tools can be used to address these challenges. In the second part of the course, students will explore how the visual arts can contribute to positive engagement in healthcare. Finally, the students will be introduced to the opportunities and challenges of crafting accurate and engaging scientific visualization narratives.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Describe components of effective as accessible visual narratives and storytelling.
2. Articulate real-life applications of visual narrative interventions in healthcare.
3. Understand how to disseminate visual content to a given audience.
4. Recognize the process and coordination of visual production projects, showing the iterative nature of creative projects (phases, skill sets, tools, and budget).
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 750: Capstone
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
The Capstone Course in Media, Medicine, and Health is the culmination of the Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health program. It is the student’s opportunity to use a storytelling method of their choice to craft a novel health intervention. In consultation with program leadership and their mentor, students will decide on both a storytelling medium and message. Students will be expected to draw on the work they completed in the fall and are completing in parallel to produce a written paper that applies to the biosocial analysis of a health problem and a media project. At the end of the semester, students will present their capstone project in a public forum.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Guide students through the process of planning and executing the Capstone project.
2. Learn research skills to apply to the Capstone project.
3. Complete the Capstone project through a series of milestone assignments throughout the course.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
Selective Courses
In the fall semester, MMH students must take at least one of the following the selective courses from MMH. Students may take an additional selective as their required elective. If a student chooses a selective that offers two credits, then the student must take another elective for two credits.
MMH 729: Design Thinking and Social Innovation for Healthcare
Primary Faculty: Emilie Wagner, Paola Abello Design for Health: Design Thinking and Social Innovation for Healthcare is offered by the MS program in Media, Medicine, and Health and open to cross-registration.
The American healthcare system is complex and replete with human-centered design opportunities. For patients and caregivers, there is a steep learning curve to understanding how the system works, accessing information about services, making decisions about treatment and interventions, and advocating for needs. In this course, students will engage in a highly experiential curriculum, applying design thinking methods and tools to improve healthcare navigation for patient populations with more limited healthcare access.
Over seven weeks, students will learn about the empathy, synthesis, and idea generation phases of the design thinking process. Focus will be given to empathy research and practicing several methods that are effective for gathering qualitative data from health system stakeholders. Ultimately, students will define real user needs and conceptualize interventions for a real-world, patient-centered healthcare challenge.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Gain a foundational understanding of design thinking, including the end-to-end process and value of deploying a human-centered approach to problem solving.
2. Develop empathy research skills and best practices, specifically around 4 key empathy research methods: in-depth interviews, observation, immersion, and intercepts.
3. Gain research synthesis skills, including strategies to unpack research and distill it into key healthcare insights.
4. Learn idea generation methods and techniques to lead effective brainstorm sessions that are rooted in human-centered research insights and yield a prioritized set of interventions that meet defined user needs
5. Gain a deeper understanding of healthcare systems and unmet user needs. Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 709:
Special Topics in Media, Medicine, and Health
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
Special study of selected topics in Media, Medicine, and Health. Given on an annual basis, the lecture course is designed by the MMH artist-in-residence for the year to cover topics not covered by regular courses of instruction. A detailed narrative of the year’s course will be made available on Canvas. To enroll, a student must be an MMH master’s student or petition the instructor.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. To develop an understanding of media and storytelling techniques not covered by regular courses of instruction.
2. To use the arts to explore the connection between firsthand experiences and social and political life. To examine a specific storytelling modality’s ability to effect social change.
This is the 2025 Fall description for the course with 2024-2025 artist-in-residence Saeed Jones, MFA, who is remaining on faculty for 2025-2026.
Primary Faculty: Saeed Jones
Enrollment: Limited to 12 students
People don’t just happen. In this workshop-based class, students will explore the capacity of memoir and cultural criticism to illuminate their understanding of memory, connection, and self-making. This course is as invested in the craft of writing as it is in interrogating how storytelling functions within systems of power. Students will be asked to consider what the work is doing to us, and what we are using our own work to do to others. In particular, this course will investigate the role social determinants of health play in self-making. Classes will alternate between workshop discussions, in-class writing exercises and close readings of nonfiction by Lucille Clifton, Eula Biss, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, Vivian Gornick, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kiese Laymon among others.
Applications for this workshop should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry) or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their aspirations for creative nonfiction and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 733: Who Lives, Who Dies: Reimagining Global Health
Primary faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD; Marty Zeve, PhD
How can health care systems be restructured to provide high quality care even to the poorest and most vulnerable people on our planet?
Health care is never just about medicine. It is about people. It is about those pushed to the margins, whose lives are ground down by poverty, trapped by unjust systems, and devalued by forces that declare some lives worth less than others. This course challenges students to reimagine disease, illness, and injury as biosocial phenomena—shaped as much by poverty, racism, and political violence as by pathogens. From rural Malawi to American prisons, from tuberculosis programs to the overdose crisis, we will trace the roots of global health inequities and examine the ideologies that sustain them. But this course is not only about identifying failures. It is about how we stand alongside the sick and destitute to fight for a future where health is a human right.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. A fundamental understanding of the theory and methodology of design as applied to playful experiences.
2. The ability to apply interaction design methods to explore the design space related to their area of expertise.
3. Understand how concepts from play and games can be utilized in the design of a wide variety of social systems and be able to reflect on related issues.
4. Be able to work creatively with physical and/or digital design materials.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 712: Dramatic Writing for Social ChangePrimary Faculty:
Ricardo Perez Gonzalez, MFA
Stories are a fundamental unit of cultural communication. Our shared cultural mythology is how we disseminate communal values. This course is about harnessing that power to inform, interrogate, and impact. In this workshop style class, students will survey modalities of dramatic writing (theatre, film and TV) as well as embodiment techniques (playback theatre, theatre of the oppressed, improvisation, etc.) and apply them within a healthcare context. Classes will alternate between focusing on the craft of writing one day and embodiment explorations the next. This is a practical course, and though underpinned by theory, students will produce a work of dramatic writing, and, taking into account their abilities, engage in physical theatre exercises.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. Conceive, structure, and outline a work of dramatic writing with an eye to social change.
2. Craft a compelling, character-driven story that resonates in the healthcare arena.
3. To examine a specific storytelling modality’s ability to effect social change
MMH 723 Games for Health
Primary Faculty: Mikael Jakobsson, PhD
What can play offer to the pursuit of health and well-being beyond quantification of eating habits and wellness apps playing sea breeze sounds? This course offers a hands-on exploration of the role of playful experiences to this subject through analysis and design. Students are familiarized with the theoretical and methodological foundations of interaction design and design exploration, as well as practical approaches to working with physical and digital design materials. Each student chooses a topic that they explore through iterative prototyping. As the ideas solidify into artifacts, we engage in critique, refinement, and knowledge dissemination through play. The course is taught as a studio class with on-demand lectures and instruction, collaborative exercises, discussion seminars, and peer critiques of individual projects. There is a strong emphasis on co-learning between students as health subject matter experts and the instructor as game design expert and the facilitator of knowledge and artifact co-creation.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. A fundamental understanding of the theory and methodology of design as applied to playful experiences.
2. The ability to apply interaction design methods to explore the design space related to their area of expertise.
3. Understand how concepts from play and games can be utilized in the design of a wide variety of social systems and be able to reflect on related issues.
4. Be able to work creatively with physical and/or digital design materials.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
MMH 773 Reimagining Global Health
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
Health care is never just about medicine. It is about people. It is about those pushed to the margins, whose lives are ground down by poverty, trapped by unjust systems, and devalued by forces that declare some lives worth less than others. This course challenges students to reimagine disease, illness, and injury as biosocial phenomena—shaped as much by poverty, racism, and political violence as by pathogens. From rural Malawi to American prisons, from tuberculosis programs to the overdose crisis, we will trace the roots of global health inequities and examine the ideologies that sustain them. But this course is not only about identifying failures. It is about how we stand alongside the sick and destitute to fight for a future where health is a human right.
Primary Learning Goals:
1. What is global health? What historical contexts are important to understanding, critiquing, and redefining it?
2. Who works in global health. What do these actors do?
3. How can we use insights from the social sciences to address health inequities and improve medical care?
4. In what direction is the field of global health moving, and how can I get involved?
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 4
Grading: Ordinal
INDP 300: Writing and Communication for Biomedical Sciences
Primary Faculty: Jason Silverstein, PhD
This course prepares students for the demands of writing and communicating in the medical sciences. The class has two linked agendas: students will learn how to turn raw research into polished academic arguments, and students will practice specific lessons through exercises that allow them to think about their developing scholarship. The course is divided into three units. In the first unit, we examine the main components of academic argument (structure, evidence, and analysis). In this section, students will learn how to write with sources. In the second unit, we focus on framing insights, entering the scholarly conversation, and crafting and responding to sophisticated critiques. In this section, students will learn how to frame both the human health and scholarly significance of their work. In the final unit, students will learn how to communicate their work in various forms, including writing an abstract, grant, or blog, before turning to presentation skills, such as crafting an elevator pitch and how to present at a conference or thesis defense. Students will have frequent opportunities for feedback on issues of grammar and syntax. By the end of the course, students will have learned how to communicate their research in a variety of ways to academic and professional audiences.
Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites.
Credits: 2
Grading: Ordinal
Expectations of Students
Students are expected to participate fully in the required components of the program, including the longitudinal seminar, capstone, and courses.
Students are expected to read each syllabus before the course begins to familiarize themselves with attendance, participation, and assignment requirements.
Students will be formally evaluated in each course through participation, online quizzes, homework assignments, team projects, and written work. Attendance is required for all course meetings and students must pass all courses to receive credits.
Students will complete a mentored Capstone Project. Students will submit a written research paper that includes the required elements of the capstone to the program leader.
Students are expected to maintain regular meetings with their assigned Program Director at least twice during each semester. Students will also meet with their project mentor as established at the start of the project, at least monthly, and more frequently as the project progresses.
Students are expected to abide by the policies, including attendance and academic integrity, of each school in which courses are taken.
Capstone Experience
Successful completion of the Capstone Project will require submission of a written and media component and a presentation. The media component will include the materials developed toward a health intervention, which may be, for example, a film, a series of op-eds, or a graphic novel. No matter what medium is chosen, students will be required to submit a framing researched essay that contextualizes their capstone and argues for its importance both for scholarly literature and human health.
Assessment
Students receive a final grade for each didactic course they take. This may be a letter grade or a satisfactory/unsatisfactory rating. In addition, students are evaluated throughout each course through regular homework assignments, online quizzes, class participation, and team-based projects that are presented orally and/or in written form. A student must have the equivalent of a satisfactory grade for all courses to maintain satisfactory academic progress.
Students are achieving satisfactory academic progress through the attainment of a B average (numeric value of 80%) or above in all required courses, an “SAT” for electives, tutorials, and seminar courses, with maintaining an overall grade of B average (numeric value of 80%) and by demonstrating ongoing progress with the capstone project.
Students must be evaluated twice a year by their project mentor and submit progress reports mid-year to the Program Director. This report will match elements of the capstone requirements.
Full-time MMH students are expected to complete the degree program in one academic year (September–May). Part-time students are expected to complete the program over the course of two academic years, or four semesters.
Length of Time to Degree
The minimum time to degree for a full-time student is one academic year. (September–May). A part-time alternative is possible for eligible students with a student expected to complete the degree over the course of two academic years, or four semesters. The maximum time to degree is three years. Enrollment beyond one year requires a formal petition and approval of the program leadership and the Office for Graduate Education. (See Section 2.06 for definitions of full-and part-time and Section 2.07 for the policy on the length of time to degree.)
Requirements for Graduation
To graduate, students must complete the 36-credit curriculum, including a Capstone Project with a written research report. Students must meet all academic, professional, and financial obligations required by the HMS Master’s programs and outlined in the HMS Master’s student handbook. A degree will not be granted to a student who is not in good standing or against whom a disciplinary charge is pending. In addition, a student’s term bill must be paid in full before the student is awarded the degree.
Advising
Each student is assigned an individual Capstone mentor/tutor from Harvard Medical School. Students may also be paired with a secondary mentor if they wish to focus on a specific storytelling modality. Students will therefore receive highly personal attention and guidance—particularly on their Capstone Project—in addition to, the iterative experience of courses and seminars.
Mentors will be available to meet with students for one hour twice each month, and more if deemed necessary by the student and/or mentor. Students will benefit from meeting with both the mentors and Program Director to discuss their academic work, developing their Capstone Project, and discussing professional development.
The Program Co-Directors will be available every week to meet with students about any concerns. The Program Co-Directors will be in contact with mentors to ensure ongoing and consistent support across the student body.
In the event of a student-advisor conflict, the student should report the problem to the program leadership. Depending on the nature of the problem, the program leadership will offer the student the opportunity for a mediated discussion with the advisor. In all cases, the program leadership will aim to minimize the impact on the student’s work and offer to replace the advisor. If the issue is sexual harassment, discrimination, or abuse, faculty will follow the Harvard University Title IX policy and the faculty member will report any sexual harassment, discrimination, or abuse to the Title IX coordinator, who will act per the stated policy.
Financial Aid
Students should consult the HMS Masters Financial Aid website at https://hms.harvard.edu/educationadmissions/masters-degree-programs/financial-aid and are encouraged to apply for external grants and fellowships.
Students who are enrolled at least half-time may be eligible for other federal or private aid. See Section 5.08 for additional financial aid information.
Capstone Considerations
Successful completion of the Capstone will require submission of a written and media component and a presentation. The media component will include the materials developed toward a health intervention, which may be, for example, a film, series of op-eds, or graphic novels. No matter what medium is chosen, students will be required to submit a framing essay that contextualizes their capstone and argues for its importance both for scholarly literature and human health.