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The Facilities

Mahan House, a handsome Greek Revival building named in honor of Dr. Alfred Catlin Mahan and his wife, Marian Reimann Mahan, who gave generously towards it’s renovation, provides a hub for Center activities. Many classes take place in the building, which also houses some of the offices of the Center faculty. Rooms are also available to house out of town guests and students.

The furniture was given by several generous donors which include, but are not limited to:  the estate of Martha Kenyon, Doc and Marian Mahan, Ed Bartunek and Frank Bates, Roger Baldwin and his mother, Terry Kovel, Howard and Glenna Bissell, and Shad and Mary Jane Hartwell.

Mission

The Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities is the home of a distinctive interdisciplinary program that serves undergraduates, health care professionals and the wider community. The College’s unique biomedical humanities major gives the students important advantages in preparation for medical school and other graduate programs.

The mission of the Center is, through literary works, to examine thoroughly questions of human values in health care contexts - and to do so within clinical settings, medical and other health professional schools, and the liberal arts environment.

Founded in 1990, the Center for Literature, Medicine and Biomedical Humanities provides interdisciplinary programs, courses, and summer seminars integrating humanities and health care. Through the study of the humanities, and in particular, through literary works, the Center examines critical health care issues. This work has application in clinical settings, academic medicine, health policy, and the liberal arts environment, and serves to deepen participants' ability to recognize, understand, and address ethical and humanistic issues in health care contexts.

What distinguishes the Center from conventional medical ethics programs are its special emphases:

• Using literary works to raise humanities issues in medical settings;
• Developing techniques for teaching literary works in a variety of health care environments, from medical schools to nursing homes;
• Using readers' theater as a method for understanding different perspectives of patients, families and health care professionals; and
• Applying narrative theory and practice to health care interactions; for example, the patient as story, the doctor as reader.

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