Funding Opportunities and Awards

The UCI Medical Education Award in Humanities and Arts will recognize those students who in the judgment of an appointed faculty committee have demonstrated exceptional contributions to the UCI School of Medicine community in the areas of the arts or humanities. MHAP works with the Office of Medical Education to recognize outstanding student contributions in medical humanities through the designation of graduation with distinction in the humanities/arts awarded annually to three or four meritorious graduating fourth-year students.

To apply for the Medical Education Award in Humanities and Arts, please send the following information to Dr. McMullin at mcmullij@hs.uci.edu by 11:59 pm, February 23, 2026. 
Requested information:

1. A portfolio of original work completed during the candidate’s time as a medical student at UCI. We are interested in independent, creative, and/or research projects. This work should be substantive and demonstrate either direct or indirect relevance to clinical medicine. It may include poetry, prose, visual and/or performing arts, such as skits, dance, music, comics, essays, or research reports. Although not required, publication in professional journals or recognition from external groups and organizations will strengthen the candidate’s nomination.
2. A complete list of your contributions to or participation in MHAP events at UCI School of Medicine. These may include elective courses, participation in medical humanities journals, attending conferences or workshops, or other involvements that broadly fall under the Medical Humanities and Arts umbrella.
3. A personal statement (400-600 words) responding to the prompt: "How do you view the relationship between the arts, humanities, and medicine? How does your chosen form of humanities and/or artistic self-expression or research project inform your approach to doctoring?"
4. A Letter of support from a UCI faculty member.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. McMullin at mcmullij@hs.uci.edu.

With generous support from the Medical Humanities and Arts Endowment Fund, MHAP provides opportunities for medical students to engage in a summer research project of their choice. This effort is aimed at encouraging scholarly pursuits in the growing field of medical humanities and its sub-disciplines, and to equip this generation of physicians with skills to better serve a diverse patient population with compassion, cultural humility and sensitivity to their stories.  

Eligible projects can explore a wide variety of topics, such as the history of medicine, literature or poetry in medicine, bioethics, the intersection of medicine and the visual or performing arts and more! For example, a humanities research project could involve textual analysis of writings by physicians and/or patients in the public domain. It could focus on an analysis of a particular turning point in the history of medicine, a treatise on a current bioethics dilemma, a study of graphic medicine comics, exploring improvisational theater’s potential for clinical medicine or interpreting examples of patient art.

MHAP annually awards up to 2 competitive research stipends of $2,000 each to support scholarly work for an 8-week period during the summer months. Awardees must participate in the SOM student research symposium at the end of the academic year in which the funds were awarded. If awardees submit an abstract and are chosen to present their research at a professional meeting such as the Health Humanities Consortium, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, or other appropriate humanities and arts professional organization, they will be eligible for an additional $1,000 in travel funds.

To apply for the Medical Humanities and Arts Program Summer Research Stipend, please send the following information to Dr. McMullin at mcmullij@hs.uci.edu by 11:59 pm, March 16, 2026. 

1. Name and year
2. Describe the background and rationale for your project. (200-300 words approx.)
3. Define your specific project objectives. Please include your methods or approach for achieving these objectives. (300-400 words approx.)
4. Provide an estimated timeline for your proposed project. Please include a description of the project activities. (150-200 words approx.)
5. Letter of support from your faculty mentor. 

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. McMullin at mcmullij@hs.uci.edu.