Career Tracks
Medicine and Health
How does an English degree lead to a career in Health? Ask one of our MD alumni, or join us in one of our courses, events, or alumni mentoring sessions. Physicians depend on narrative, “soft skills,” and listening for the story, all of which are fundamental to the English major. Choose from classes like Madness in Literature (English 254), Medicine and Literature (English 342), Horses in Literature and Culture (English 398), a graduate-level Disability Studies in Literature course (590), or classes in gender and sexuality, like English 332, 402, or 425. Scroll down to explore the medical career path and see who else has pursued a career in medicine with a background in English in our Alumni and News sections.
THE POWER OF
An English Background
English teaches essential skills like connection, empathy, and innovative thinking. Join us at our roundtable discussions where we learn exactly how English prepared these graduates for their careers.
Interviews with Alumni in Medical Careers
- English Majors Don’t Have Limits: Ashley Barker and ORNL
Former English Major Flourishes as Section Head for Operations at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility Ashley Barker (’96) is the Section Head for Operations… Read more: English Majors Don’t Have Limits: Ashley Barker and ORNL - English Major to Sleep Medicine: Dr. Leigh Ball’s Career Path
Dr. Leigh Ball uses her English degree to improve patient care. Dr. Leigh (Schlactus) Ball (’12) is an internal medicine physician with a specialty in… Read more: English Major to Sleep Medicine: Dr. Leigh Ball’s Career Path - From English to MD: Carolyn Thompson
What can you do with an English major? Whatever you want, says Vol Alumna Dr. Carolyn Thompson (’88), who graduated with a BA in English,… Read more: From English to MD: Carolyn Thompson
What Alumni Say
What physician Carolyn Thompson says about being an English major
“There’s an art and a science to medicine: premed courses deal with the scientific dimension of illness, while English the interactive, creative side. Medicine, after all, is highly creative. In surgery, for instance, “everything you do changes something, and you have to be prepared to deal with that change in circumstance.” No wonder medical schools want students with the nuanced, supple intelligence that English studies cultivates.”
—Dr. Carolyn Thompson, ’88, English Major
What health sciences librarian Will White says about being an English major
“Being an English major at UT gave me invaluable experience synthesizing information from multiple sources that helped me become a published scholar and health sciences librarian.”
—Will White
News from the Health Sector
- UTK English Roundtable on Careers in Medicine
Dr. Daniel Wallace spoke with two alumni about how studying English impacted their medical careers. University of Tennessee English alumni Carolyn Thompson and Nicole Matis… Read more: UTK English Roundtable on Careers in Medicine - UT English to Hold Roundtable on Careers in MedicineJoin University of Tennessee English alumni Carolyn Thompson and Nicole Matis for a roundtable discussion on how their English degrees helped them in their future… Read more: UT English to Hold Roundtable on Careers in Medicine
- How might an English degree lead to a career in Health?
Join us for a “Health Humanities” conversation in Fall of 2023 through courses, events, and alumni mentoring sessions with former UT English majors who became… Read more: How might an English degree lead to a career in Health?