Admissions Requirements
To apply for admission applicants must submit the following:
- Online BEHH Application
- Personal Statement: In a 1-2 page essay, describe your specific interest in health humanities and ethics:
- Explain how this program aligns with your professional goals
- Share what you hope to contribute to and gain from the program
- Discuss any relevant experience in any of these areas:
- Ethics consultation or committee work
- Public health or clinical work (e.g., direct patient care, population health programs, health education, disease prevention, healthcare delivery, community health initiatives)
- Research (clinical, public health, social science, or humanities/arts-based research)
- Service and community engagement
- Leadership, policy, or administrative work
- Teaching or mentoring
- Creative arts and humanities-related work
3. Professional Resume or Curriculum Vitae:
Include all professional work experience since earning your bachelor's degree; Highlight relevant health-related research, teaching, practice, or other educational experiences; List any publications, presentations, or special projects related to healthcare, ethics, or humanities; Include volunteer work and professional memberships if applicable.
4. Official Academic Transcripts
Submit official transcripts from all institutions where you earned a degree
5. International students must meet ALL of the requirements above and those required by International Admissions.
Certificate Requirements
A total of 12 credit hours in approved courses is required to complete the Certificate in Bioethics and Humanities in Health.
All students must complete one required foundation course (BEHH 5010), which comprises 3 of the total required 12 credit hours.
Selections from the approved elective course list will satisfy the remaining 9 credit hours.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Core Course | ||
| BEHH 5010 | Foundations of Bioethics & Humanities in Health | 3 |
| Elective Courses | ||
| BEHH 5210 | The Art of Observation | 1 |
| BEHH 5211 | The Art of Listening: Music and Medicine | 1 |
| BEHH 5212 | Pain and Dentistry in the History of Western Art | 1 |
| BEHH 5213 | Reflections on Incarceration and Well-Being | 1 |
| BEHH 5214 | From Burned Out & Extracted to Regenerative Healing: William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories | 1 |
| BEHH 5215 | Global Health Humanities | 1 |
| BEHH 5250 | Topics in Media, Medicine and Society | 3 |
| BEHH 5310 | Ethical Care in Patient's Living with Dementia | 1 |
| BEHH 5311 | Moral Distress in Healthcare | 1 |
| BEHH 5350 | Narrative Principles and Practices in Healthcare | 3 |
| BEHH 5410 | Research Methods in Health Humanities | 3 |
| BEHH 5450 | Addressing Health Stigma in Social Contexts | 3 |
| BEHH 5550 | Independent Study in Health Humanities & Health Ethics | 1-3 |
| BEHH 5655 | Introduction to Public Health Ethics | 3 |
| BEHH 5750 | Pain, Its Paradoxes & the Human Condition | 3 |
| BEHH 5850 | Clinical Ethics | 3 |
| BEHH 5910 | Race, History and Health in Brazil | 3 |
| BEHH 5911 | Medicine, Nazism, & the Holocaust Study Abroad Course | 3 |
Learning Objectives
- Apply multiple analytical frameworks to complex health-related challenges
- Demonstrate cultural humility and emotional intelligence in professional contexts
- Analyze social determinants of health and systemic factors affecting health outcomes
- Evaluate and navigate competing priorities in health-related decision-making
- Apply engagement strategies that enhance professional effectiveness and meaning
- Design and conduct research incorporating humanities and ethics methodologies
- Develop tools and practices for professional resilience and wellness
- Demonstrate commitment to ethical principles and practices in health-related work
Courses
BEHH 5010 - Foundations of Bioethics & Humanities in Health (3 Credits)
This course combines two essential areas of study: The first eight weeks focus on the foundations of bioethics, examining moral frameworks used in medical and health settings and their application to clinical, organizational, and population-based cases. The second eight weeks explore the foundations of narrative practice in medicine through engagement with various texts and other materials. Each section maintains its distinct focus while providing students with complementary perspectives on health and health care.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
BEHH 5210 - The Art of Observation (1 Credit)
The Art of Observation is designed to sharpen the perceptual and analytical skills, which are essential for excellence in clinical practice in dentistry, medicine, and other professional fields.
Participants will engage with a selection of visual art pieces and photographic works. Through guided interaction with these materials, students will hone their observational acuity, practice articulating their perceptions and insights, and engage in collaborative analysis reminiscent of differential diagnosis processes.
This course teaches Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a protocol for facilitating group discussions around visual materials. Students will master the methodology of VTS, including careful material selection, silent observation periods, strategic questioning, neutral facilitation, and effective paraphrasing.
The skills cultivated in this course directly translate to clinical scenarios, where the ability to pinpoint key clinical indicators, recognize symptomatic patterns, and interpret patient data flexibly and accurately is paramount for effective patient care. The goals are to increase compassion and empathy, encourage tolerance for ambiguity and diversity, recognize biases in interpretation and foster reflection and honest communication using the arts to gain these skillsets.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
BEHH 5211 - The Art of Listening: Music and Medicine (1 Credit)
The Art of Listening is an innovative course that explores the profound intersection of musical and clinical listening skills to enhance practice in medicine, dentistry, and other healthcare fields. Drawing upon the unique resources of the Anschutz Campus, including a live performance by the Campus Chorus and/or Orchestra, this course develops healthcare professionals' abilities to listen deeply, empathetically, and analytically.
Through immersive musical experiences and clinical scenarios, participants will develop a heightened awareness of auditory nuances, rhythms, and harmonies that parallel the complexities of human health and disease. The course emphasizes how musical immersion - can inform and enhance clinical listening skills. Students will learn to apply these techniques to medical contexts, developing their ability to hear both what is said and unsaid, recognize patterns, and maintain focused attention during patient encounters.
Participants will explore how musical narratives unfold, mirroring the way patient histories are constructed and understood in clinical settings. Special attention is paid to the emotional and cultural aspects of music, encouraging students to reflect on how these elements influence perception and interpretation in healthcare. This approach fosters empathy and cultural competence, crucial attributes in today's diverse healthcare landscape.
By combining experiential learning with practical clinical applications, the course aims to cultivate not just better listeners, but more attentive, empathetic, and perceptive healthcare professionals. Students will develop advanced listening skills essential for excellence in patient-centered care, while gaining a deeper appreciation for the role of music in healing and human connection.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5212 - Pain and Dentistry in the History of Western Art (1 Credit)
If you run a basic search for historical images of pain in Western art since 1500, a curiosity emerges: A significant proportion of the results relate to dentistry and dental pain. In other words, the history of dentistry and the history of pain form overlapping iconography in the history of Western art. Given the near universality of dental pain in human experience, the frequency of its representation is no mystery. However, one of the many paradoxes of pain is that although pain is universal, it is also quintessentially subjective: my pain is different from your pain, even if the cause of the pain is identical. Literature scholar Elaine Scarry notes another paradox: pain is simultaneously one of the most privately certain and publicly doubted experiences. In addition, some who experience pain do not seem to suffer, while others who suffer do not seem to experience pain.
This interdisciplinary short course uses the dual iconography of pain and dentistry as a vehicle to explore the history of pain and its relationship to dentistry in the early modern and modern eras. Learners will acquire historical fluency in key themes and issues related to dental practice and patient experience that they can apply to contemporary dental medicine.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5213 - Reflections on Incarceration and Well-Being (1 Credit)
This discussion-based course focuses on understanding incarceration as a structural determinant of health. Through engaging with written work from incarcerated writers, as well as critical theories and empirical texts, students will explore issues related to how the system of incarceration affects individual, community, and societal health and well-being. Weekly discussions will include topics such as health and mortality data collection and communication, healthcare access and delivery, and conditions of confinement. They also include topics along axes of identity including birthing and parenting, aging inside, and incarceration of transgender individuals. Students will apply their learnings in-class to a final paper.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5214 - From Burned Out & Extracted to Regenerative Healing: William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories (1 Credit)
“Burnout is a Surrender,” said Dr. Martin Luther King. Reflecting on this Robert Coles writes that those who are burned out can “use such low points to become more realistic and reflective and, in the long run, sturdier.” In this spirit, spend a semester surrendering to the joys, hazards, and complexities of a life attending to patients by sitting with The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams. The goal of this course will be to provide opportunities for close presence to these stories. In doing so you may acquire a knack for what John Launer calls “a radical facilitative presence” - both for your own healing soul and for your patients. Each week you will read one story and follow a standard template to reflect on how the story provoked movement inside of you. Then throughout the week you will be asked to take 5 minutes each day to write down how a specific clinical encounter connects to the week’s story. We will meet in person to casually commune over our shared experience with these stories.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5215 - Global Health Humanities (1 Credit)
"Global Health Humanities" offers a unique interdisciplinary exploration of health, illness, and healing across cultures through the lens of the humanities. Participants will investigate how universal human experiences of health and illness are interpreted and expressed differently across diverse cultural contexts. Through analysis of narratives, historical accounts, and artistic representations, we will explore questions such as: How do cultural beliefs and practices influence perceptions of what is considered healthy or pathological in oral health? In what ways do storytelling and artistic expression reveal the lived experiences of mental illness in different societies? How have colonial legacies and global power dynamics shaped health inequities? A key focus will be on amplifying marginalized voices in global health. Students will engage with works by authors, artists, and thinkers from the Global South, as well as from historically underrepresented communities within the Global North. This approach will highlight how diverse cultural perspectives can enrich our understanding of health and contribute to more equitable and effective global health strategies.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5250 - Topics in Media, Medicine and Society (3 Credits)
This interdisciplinary course will explore the interconnections and intersections between medicine and media, investigating a significant collaborative enterprise that characterizes American culture.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5310 - Ethical Care in Patient's Living with Dementia (1 Credit)
The population in the United States aged 65 and older is expected to increase 47% by 2050. Advancements in technology and improvements in care have enabled our population to experience increased age-related disease because of an extended lifespan.
Currently, nearly 55 million people worldwide are living with Dementia, with the number predicted to increase to 78 million in 2030. Individuals living with Dementia are often assumed to lack decision-making capacity. However, decision-making capacity is time and decision specific, so individuals with Dementia often have a wide range of decision-making capabilities. Patients in our care with limited capacity are often still able to express preferences and desires.
This condition is complicated by the large transition to a model of aging in place. Aging in place refers to the ability of older individuals to live independently in their homes as they age, rather than moving to an assisted living or nursing facility. This model emphasizes creating a safe and supportive environment that allows individuals to maintain their autonomy and quality of life through connection to community resources, home modifications, support services, and technology.
This course provides and in-depth examination of the ethical considerations surrounding the care of patients living with dementia. Participants will explore key concepts such as autonomy, informed consent, and the challenges of decision-making in the context of cognitive decline. Through case studies and interactive discussions, the course will address the balance between respecting patient rights and ensuring their safety and well-being. Participants will learn best practices for communicating with patients, involving families in care decisions, methods to improve the care setting and navigating complex ethical dilemmas. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped with knowledge and skills to deliver compassionate, ethical care that honors the dignity and individual
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5311 - Moral Distress in Healthcare (1 Credit)
As technology has continued to develop throughout the world and our ability to artificially sustain life has improved, the instances of ethical dilemmas and moral distress have only increased. When an ethics issue arises in healthcare, the ethics issue is typically known but the correct direction of action is unclear or not delineated. This frequently arises in the way of conflicting obligations. For example, a pregnant woman with decision making capacity is in our care and is denying medical interventions to save the fetus. Do we respect patient autonomy and the patients right to decide for themselves, or do we prioritize the good of the fetus?
Moral distress is experienced by workers that encounter an ethics issue where the correct direction for action is clear, but the individual is unable to act. This can be due to institutional constraints, role constraints or even legal constraints based on the location of practice. Moral distress leads to emotional discomfort experienced by healthcare professionals when they are unable to act in accordance with their ethical beliefs and becomes especially apparent when conflict is faced between personal values, institutional policies, patient wishes, or resource constraints.
When individuals come together and recognize issues of moral distress, we can work more effectively as a team to support one another. Since ethical dilemmas have the potential to lead to moral distress, it’s important that medical professionals have some degree of ethical competence to recognize when issues may arise.
This course explores the complex issue of moral distress in the healthcare setting, where professionals confront ethical dilemmas that challenge their values and principles. Participants will examine the causes of moral distress, including systemic issues, institutional policies, and personal beliefs, and recognize the influence of moral distress.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5350 - Narrative Principles and Practices in Healthcare (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to the intellectual and clinical discipline of narrative work in healthcare. Students will explore the theoretical foundations of narrative in healthcare and participate in structured workshops to improve close reading of texts and writing skills. Requisite: 008754
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5410 - Research Methods in Health Humanities (3 Credits)
The Health Humanities Research Methods course provides comprehensive training in qualitative and interpretive research approaches used to understand lived experiences of health, illness, and healthcare through humanities and social science perspectives. Students will gain theoretical foundations in phenomenology, narrative inquiry, ethnography, discourse analysis, and arts-based methods, with particular attention to ethical approaches for working with vulnerable populations in healthcare settings. The course emphasizes how different methodological traditions - from literary analysis to visual ethnography to oral history - can reveal unique insights into how people make meaning of health experiences and navigate healthcare systems. Through hands-on research exercises, students will practice multiple data collection methods including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, close reading, visual analysis, and participatory arts-based approaches. The course pays special attention to power dynamics in healthcare research, trauma-informed practices, and methods for amplifying traditionally marginalized voices. Students will develop practical skills in research design, data collection, interpretation, and presentation while considering how different methodological choices align with research questions about lived experiences of health and illness.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5450 - Addressing Health Stigma in Social Contexts (3 Credits)
This interdisciplinary course will equip students with the tools needed to understand health stigma, to construct an explanation as to why it is so common and to explain what, if anything, should be done to address such stigma. Requisite: 008754
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Spring.
BEHH 5550 - Independent Study in Health Humanities & Health Ethics (1-3 Credits)
This independent study will permit students to pursue specialized topics and/or previously studied topics in health humanities and health ethics in greater depth and with more flexible scheduling. Requisite: 008754
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Repeatable. Max Credits: 3.
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.
BEHH 5655 - Introduction to Public Health Ethics (3 Credits)
This course provides learners with an introduction to public health ethics. The material explores differences between public health ethics & health care ethics, important frameworks used in public health ethical analysis, and significant practice in analyzing public health ethics cases.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
BEHH 5750 - Pain, Its Paradoxes & the Human Condition (3 Credits)
This course explores the lived experiences of pain, its paradoxes, and the extent to which it is a key feature of the human condition. Analyses will be drawn from history, religious studies, philosophy, literature, poetry, public health, medicine, and law.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring.
BEHH 5850 - Clinical Ethics (3 Credits)
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the theory, methods, history, and application of clinical ethics. Course sessions will include instructor- and student-led didactics. Students will be expected to discuss issues and cases in clinical ethics and critically analyze ethical topics and cases in oral and written formats.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
BEHH 5910 - Race, History and Health in Brazil (3 Credits)
Brazil has a long and extensive history of African enslavement, and in the coastal city of Salvador, African influences are strong and palpable. A large diaspora from different regions of Africa was formed during the colonial period, and this has led to the constant expression--and celebration--of an African heritage in Salvador. Today, Afro-Brazilian cultural elements in music, religion, and capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form, are now realities around the world.
Brazil's legacies of slavery, colonialism, and segregation, along with its stark socio-economic inequalities, have disproportionately affected the health and well-being of its Afro-Brazilian communities. At the same time, the country is known for its leadership in universalizing access to healthcare, including life-saving HIV treatments. Grassroots activists and organizations operate both alongside of and in opposition to state responses to ongoing epidemics, including COVID-19. Brazil's therapeutic landscape is further complicated by a sophisticated system of traditional medicine that serves as alternative and complementary treatments to widespread biomedical options. The country-and especially the city of Salvador--is thus a critical location for the study of race, history, and health.
This course is a 10-day study abroad program in which students will be immersed in the history, culture, and everyday lives of Afro-Brazilians in Salvador, Brazil. The program combines homestays with Brazilian families with classroom and field experiences. Guest lectures from Brazilian experts will discuss topics such as the nation's history, health, politics, music, religion, education, and Carnival. Activities will focus on the interplay of race and health to better understand the lived experiences and rich past of Afro-Brazilians.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Spring.
BEHH 5911 - Medicine, Nazism, & the Holocaust Study Abroad Course (3 Credits)
This immersive course explores the complex and challenging history of medicine, Nazism and the Holocaust – including site visits to Krakow, the Plaszow concentration camp, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps – and the legacy of this history for health care and society today. Its central goal is to foster a deeper comprehension of this history and how it continues to affect contemporary medical and public health research, practice and policy. Through this lens, and in ways only accessible through the power of being present in the place where historical events unfolded, learners will gain invaluable insights into the potential impacts of racism, antisemitism, and authoritarian ideologies on health care and society. The transformative experience of visiting Krakow and Auschwitz with historians, health professionals and colleagues will equip learners with essential skills for personal and professional identity formation, including critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, and ethical reasoning in healthcare.
Brief Course Description: This course includes pre-work and 2 pre-trip synchronous sessions, and then it centers around a 4-day immersive study abroad visit to Krakow, Poland. The onsite experiences include (1) a full-day walking tour with an historian of Krakow and the Plaszow concentration camp, (2) a full day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, conducted in collaboration with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, (3) a day-long international conference featuring experts on the history of medical involvement in Nazism and the Holocaust, and (4) a day of workshops. Each day ends with an opportunity for group debriefing and unpacking the often-intense experiences of that day. Learners will engage in classroom and field activities led by international experts to unpack the complex interplay of medicine, public health, science and ethics during the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.
Grading Basis: Letter Grade
Typically Offered: Fall.
Policies
All students taking a BEHH class (except for CSPH) must enroll in the Graduate School as a BEHH Graduate Certificate student, regardless of the student’s intent to take one class or complete the certificate program. For any questions about this policy, please contact laurie.munro@cuanschutz.edu.
Please refer to the Graduate School Policies page.
Contact Us
Daniel S. Goldberg, J.D., Ph.D
Director of Education, Center for Bioethics and Humanities,
Daniel.Goldberg@CUAnschutz.edu
Kathryn Rhine, Ph.D.
Director of the Graduate Certificate in Bioethics & Humanities in Health, Center for Bioethics and Humanities,
Kathryn.Rhine@CUAnschutz.edu
Laurie Munro, M.A.
Senior Education Coordinator, Center for Bioethics and Humanities,
Laurie.Munro@CUAnschutz.edu