The Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine (CBSSM) was recently expanded into the newly established Center for History, Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Ethics in Medicine (CHHASSEM).  Nothing about our service, education, or research work in bioethics or social sciences/decision sciences is changing. You can count on us for the ethics consultation, research expertise, mentorship and community that you always have. We are now a larger organization, inclusive of more disciplines and programs, including the former Center for the History of Medicine, the Medical Arts Program, and the Program in Health, Spirituality and Religion. The new Center will also be a home for students in the Medical School Paths of Excellence in Medical Humanities and Ethics.

Our new name reflects this new, roomier “crowded table.” For now, we are called the Center for History, Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Ethics in Medicine (CHHASSEM), though we are considering additional names as well. 

CHHASSEM has five area programs, each with their own faculty directors: 

Michigan Bioethics. Directors: Prof. Kayte Spector-Bagdady & Christian Vercler

Medical Social Sciences. Directors: Julie Maslowsky & Scott Stonington

History of Medicine and Public Health. Director: Dr. Laura Hirshbein

Arts and Medicine. Directors: Greer Hamilton & Daniel Whibley

Medical Humanities. Directors: Terri Laws & Kara Zivin

We are building a welcoming home where we center the insights and lessons of history, ethics, humanities, social sciences, and the arts to deepen our understanding of health, illness, and care delivery, and to amplify the promise of biomedicine. Put another way, CHHASSEM asks an aspirational question: “What could healthcare become?”

We invite members of the U-M community to co-create this new space with us as a place where we revive the heart of medicine and reimagine the experience of healing and healthcare work.