Our Teaching Innovation Project for 2024 “Literature and Medicine: Medical Humanities Seminar,” aims to create a seminar to introduce undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students to the emerging field of Medical Humanities. This interdisciplinary area explores the experience of illness through its representation in literature and the arts, seeking to improve aspects of patient care beyond medical diagnosis and treatment. These improvements include:

• The reconceptualization of the self during or after illness.

• The humanization of patient care.

• The acceptance and destigmatization of certain diseases and disabilities.

This project is part of the National Science Plan “Gender and Pathography from a Transnational Perspective” (2021-2024), which aims to transfer research results to students for application in teaching.

The seminar will meet once a month, on Wednesday afternoon, and will feature thematic sessions, organized as follows:

1. Theoretical introduction.

2. Study of autobiographical pathographies.

3. Pathographies from the perspective of healthcare professionals.

4. Pathographies from the perspective of caregivers.

Various literary genres (graphic novels, short stories, autobiographies, poetry, film) will be analyzed to reflect on how illness affects identity and how literature responds to the stigmatization of certain conditions.

The seminar not only seeks to increase interest in Medical Humanities, which will result in research work (undergraduate theses, master’s theses, doctoral dissertations), but also aims to improve students’ critical and debate skills. The seminars will be small (maximum 25 people), fostering confidence and autonomy in learning, with outcomes measured through adapted questionnaires.

The results of the project will be disseminated through scientific and outreach publications.