ANTH 371
Medicine, Pathology, and Power: An Ethnographic View Fall 2016
Division II Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

How do medical anthropologists examine and interpret disease and illness between and within societies across the globe today, in order to elucidate the biosocial determinants of health and health-seeking behaviors? We are particularly interested in how medical anthropologists employ ethnographic techniques such as participant observation and reflexive interviewing that has been described as “deep hanging out”. Through experiential and phenomenological inquiries, we will investigate how structural violence produces systemic health inequalities in response to the workings of power and other social factors, while paying particular attention to the most marginalized and vulnerable populations or individuals in society. After reading a selection of medical ethnographies, students will pursue their own individual, fieldwork-based projects in the Berkshires. Our goal is a better understanding of the limits and strengths of ethnographic inquiry as we explore and experience the challenges of medical anthropology research including informed consent, access, and sensitivity to our informants’ explanatory models.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 1031
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: 4 fieldnote papers, in-class writing, 10-minute final presentation
Prerequisites: none; but course in anthropology or sociology recommended
Enrollment Preferences: none but course in ANTH or SOC strongly recommended
Distributions: Division II Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
Attributes: PHLH Social Determinants of Health
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