The Humanities

We invite allied friends and colleagues in the humanities to join us! We welcome those who work in the intersections of nursing, health, and the humanities including, but not limited to, those in history, English, literature, poetry, linguistics, languages, cultural studies, religion, liberation theology, music, the arts, artisan crafts, and more. Come join us via the membership tab.

General Resources on the Humanities and Nursing, Nursing Ethics

Literature, Comparative Literature, Literary Criticism

  • Davis Robert Leigh. The Practice of the Everyday in the Literature of Nursing. In: Illness, Literature, and Care. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; 2026. p. 173–96. doi: 10.5040/9798881894535.0013
  • Nussbaum, Martha (1991). Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807041093.

Poetry and Poems

  • Haddad, Amy. The Most Potent Weapon. The Backwaters Press, 2022. Two AJN Book of the Year Awards.
  • Haddad, Amy. An Otherwise Healthy Woman. Bottle Cap Press, 2025.
  • McEntyre, Marilyn. Patient Poets: Illness from Inside Out. University of California Medical Humanities Press. 2012.

Fine Arts

Fiction

Narrative Ethics

  • Charon, Rita and Montello, Martha. Stories Matter: The Role of Narrative in Medical Ethics. Routledge (2002)
  • Frank, Arthur W. The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  • Levine, Peter. Living Without Philosophy: On Narrative, Rhetoric, and Morality. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology

History & Historiography

  • American Association for the History of Nursing
  • UPenn Nursing, History, and Health Care
  • Birnbach, N.  (1993).  “The development of organized nursing and the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901:  Doing historical research.”   In: C.O. Boyd, & P.L. Munhall, P.L. (Eds.).  Nursing research: Qualitative perspective. (pp. 372–90).  NY: NLN.
  • Burns, R. (Ed.) (2005). Historiography Philadelphia: Taylor Francis.
  • Church, O.M. (1987). Historiography in nursing research. Western Journal of Nursing Research. 9(2), 275-79.
  • Clark, E.A. (2004). History, Theory, Text: Historians and the Linguistic Turn. Harvard University Press. 
  • Fairman, J. (1987). “Sources and references for research in nursing history,” Nursing Research, 36, 56-9.

Medicine/Social Anthropology and Justice

  • Farmer, Paul. Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
  • Farmer, Paul. AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. University of California Press, 1992, 1993, 2006 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-08343-1
  • Farmer, Paul. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. University of California Press, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-24326-2
  • Farmer, Paul, Rylco-Bauer, Barbara and Whiteford, Linda. eds. Global Health in Times of Violence. School for Advanced Research Press, 2009 edition: ISBN 978-1-934691-14-4
  • Farmer, Paul, Kim Jim Y., Kleinman, Arthur, Basilio, Matthew. Reimagining Global Health. University of California Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-520-27199-9
  • Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World
  • Starr, Paul. The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession. Basic Books, 1982. Revised 2017. Winner Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes.

Cinema, Film, Stage, Television

  • FILM:  Peace Through Justice – The Legacy of Judge Thomas Buergenthal. Documentary by the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. documents the life and work of Judge Buergenthal—Holocaust survivor, international jurist, educator, and Honorary President of the Academy. The film explores how accountability, human dignity, and ethical responsibility emerged in response to large-scale harm, and why these principles remain essential for professionals whose work impacts individuals, organizations, and populations. (2018). 45 Minutes. See also: Buergenthal, Thomas. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitzas a Young Boy. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.