Health and healing require a practical and theoretical knowledge that is steeped in the humanistic tradition as well as in biomedicine. The medical humanities offer a framework to engage with illness and disease through the lenses of literature, rhetoric, culture and history. The habits of mind supported by the liberal arts can improve the quality of patient care, the lives of physicians and the study of medicine. In this session of Big Topics | Short Takes, Dr. Rishi Goyal, Ph.D., VPS’01, GSAS’06, GSAS’10 will discuss the medical humanities broadly and its more specific incarnation at Columbia. An introduction will be given by Professor Bruno Bosteels, dean of humanities and the Jesse and George Siegel Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures with a joint appointment in Columbia’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.