From dispute to dialogue: building bridges with language

CIS: Dialogue, Health and Society

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Discover the power of language to change the world

Theoretical knowledge combined with practical experience

The programme's curriculum is crafted to ensure that you will not only gain theoretical knowledge about how language works in real-life interactions, but also practical experience through close collaborations with health and societal organisations These partnerships form the basis for internships and thesis projects, allowing you to apply your learning in real-world contexts.

Understanding language use in everyday life

The programme begins by laying a solid theoretical foundation for understanding language use in everyday and institutional contexts. For example, you learn to analyse how treatment options are negotiated between doctors and patients, how neonatal care is discussed with parents and how anti-vaccine movements operate on social media.

Connection to professional practice during the study programme

Uniquely, the connection to professional practice is already established during the study programme itself. Your academic internship is set up in close collaboration with health and other societally oriented organisations in the field (e.g., Controle Alt Delete, Athena Institute VU, Trimbos Institute, 3D VU, Veer-Krachtige Ouders, GGD Amsterdam, De Posten Enschede).

The courses will include discussions of pertinent real-life case studies involving contemporary societal problems such as the lack of trust in science or mental health problems among young people, thus stimulating you to critically evaluate alternative solutions in order to provide sound and practicable advice.

Great demand in the health area

There is a great demand for academically trained dialogue or communication specialists in the health area, in their role of independent consultants, researchers, facilitators, mediation experts or patient educators.

Especially where scientific expertise is at stake or citizen participation of great importance, insight is required into how to create and sustain a fruitful dialogue between government and citizen, or between professionals and patients or clients. Think of institutes such as the Dutch RIVM, Ministries for Health, but also pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, hospices, addiction care, international NGOs and the WHO.

Meet your lecturers

Want to know more about your lecturers? Get to know them here: dr. Lotte van Burgsteden, dr. Bogdana Huma, dr. Elliott Hoey, Lieve van Hengel, Robert Prettner, prof. dr. Hedwig te Molder.

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1st year

The study programme

Period 1

The program begins in September by laying a general theoretical foundation. With the course Communication Design in Society, you will acquire specialised knowledge of theories of communicative genres and learn how to apply them to diverse forms of written/graphic communication such as obituaries, book reviews, and online advertisements.

A key course is Dialogue for Health, in which you learn to analyse real-life interactions on health issues, both face-to-face and online, and apply these insights to situations where dialogue is used or needed. We look at when and how scientific knowledge is used to support or challenge an argument, and for what purposes experiential knowledge (e.g., 'Listen to your own body') is put forward. We will analyse vaccine critical discourses to see how they are constructed to appear credible and how they challenge governmental and scientific advice in favour of vaccination.

Period 2

In period 2 (November-December) you will enhance your analytic skills and apply the method of conversation analysis to Medical and Healthcare Interactions. You will learn about and reflect on issues such as: How do doctors deliver bad news? Can patients negotiate treatment decisions? And to what extent do models of shared decision making correspond with practice?

You will be able to choose an elective from a range of courses in the study guide. Electives give you an opportunity to put dialogue practices in a broader societal, organizational or historical perspective. Examples are listed below.

Periods 3-6

The course Internship: Researching and Facilitating Dialogue runs in Periods 3 to 5. In Period 3 (January), you will be paired with a health/societal organisation, which will serve as your place of internship, and you will also be given access to an associated dataset of real-life interactions, which will form the basis of your master’s thesis. In Period 4 (February-March), you will focus intensively on the ‘research’ aspect as you methodologically grapple with your data so as to produce a usable research proposal for your thesis. In Period 5 (April-May), the ‘facilitating dialogue’ aspect comes into the picture. You will learn how to design and conduct dialogue training that incorporates the result of your own research.

In Period 4 (February-March), you will also follow the course Health Communication and Social Media, which explores how patients use social media to share their experiences and seek support. You will examine how social media platforms and dedicated forums become crucial spaces for individuals to connect, share their health journeys, and find comfort and advice from others who understand their experiences.

At the same time, in periods 4-6 you will work on your master’s thesis. Under the supervision of a lecturer, you will conduct original research, using data associated with your internship.

Read more about the internships and your thesis below.

The start date of this programme is September 1^st.

Courses

Communication Design in Society
Dialogue for Health
Medical and Health Care Interactions
Elective(s):
- Introduction to Medical and Health Humanities
- The Power of Metaphor
- Text and Image in News and Advertising
- Culture and Identity in Organizations
Internship: Researching and Facilitating Dialogue
Health Communication and Social Media
Master Thesis

You will find additional information about the courses in this track in our studyguide.

Period 3 marks an integration of theory and practice in Internship: Researching and Facilitating Dialogue. You will be paired with a health/societal organization which will serve as your place of internship. Moreover, you will be given access to an associated dataset of real-life interactions, which will form the basis of your Master’s thesis. In this period, you will have 3 meetings in which you will get more insights into the literature on facilitating dialogue. You will also work on your internship proposal, in which you will answer the following questions, amongst others: What problem in your organisation do you want to focus on? How does your data corpus relate to this problem? What other activities will you perform for your internship organisation?

In Period 4, you will focus intensively on the ‘research’ aspect as you methodologically grapple with your data so as to produce a usable research proposal for your thesis. In Period 5, you will continue your thesis research and writing (more below). Finally, at the end of period 5 the ‘facilitating dialogue’ aspect comes into the picture. You will receive a CA-based training, which is tailored to your own internship and master’s thesis, and you will learn how to train other participants yourself. This will prepare you for the final presentation for your internship organization.

Already in period 4, you start preparing your thesis, which you will write under the supervision of a staff member and using data related to the internship organisation.

Your thesis will focus on either health or societally relevant issues and examine real-life interactions where these issues can be observed to have spontaneously occurred. In the past, students have researched, for example:

How parents and doctors negotiate their knowledge of babies admitted in the neonatal intensive care unit
How health professionals working for an addiction helpline use compliments when talking to clients
How police officers use language to attempt to stop citizens from filming them

On completing this Master’s programme you will be able to work in a wide range of health and societally oriented public and private organisations. As a graduate with a theoretically grounded understanding of healthcare communication and practical experience gained during the internships, you will be uniquely equipped to appreciate how suble language choices can impact mutual understanding, cooperation, and relationships. You will be uniquely equipped to appreciate how suble language choices can impact mutual understanding, cooperation, and relationships. You will be able to put that knowledge to good use when training, advising, mediating or researching communication issues in a wide range of organisations and fields.

Explore your future prospects

Send an email to prof. Hedwig te Molder or contact dr. Bogdana Huma:

h.f.m.te.molder@vu.nl

b.r.huma@vu.nl

CIS: Dialogue, Health and Society

Internship: Researching and Facilitating Dialogue

Master's thesis

Change your future with the Dialogue, Health and Society programme

Change your future with the Dialogue, Health and Society programme

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