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Students may choose a thesis option (24 hours of course work + thesis) or non-thesis option (30 hours). The thesis should draw on at least two disciplines.

Requirements include:

A contract of courses, drawn up in consultation with the MHS Director (or Director of Graduate Studies). The contract must present a coherent course of study and must be formally approved by the student’s adviser and the MHS Director.

The 3-hour core colloquium, MHS 300, an introduction to graduate-level interdisciplinary work in medicine, health, and society, drawing on the perspectives of anthropology, economics, history, political science and policy studies, philosophy, religious studies, and sociology.

An additional 21 or 27 hours (depending on the option) of courses approved for the MHS graduate program. At least 6 of these additional hours must be at the 300 level, including independent study, the graduate internship, and graduate service-learning. All students are strongly encouraged to take at least 12 of these additional hours at the 300 level, and to take at least one graduate seminar.

     To ensure breadth, the additional 21 or 27 hours must be distributed
     among at least three different disciplines.

     To ensure depth, of the additional 21 or 27 hours, at least 3 courses
     (9 hours) must be in a single discipline.

A written examination, tailored to the student’s specific course of study, requiring the student to integrate material from the different disciplines. The MHS Director, in consultation with the MHS Curricular Committee, will appoint an examination committee consisting of the student’s adviser and two other faculty members, at least one of whom must be from a field different from the adviser’s. The examination committee will write up the exam, which the student will take during his or her last semester of study (or last summer session) and no later than the week of final exams.

For students in the thesis track, the examination committee will also constitute the thesis committee and will administer an oral thesis defense.

Students in the non-thesis option will submit for evaluation by the MHS Curriculum Committee one course paper demonstrating their ability to integrate approaches from different disciplines.