ANTH 371
Medicine, Pathology, and Power: An Ethnographic View Fall 2017
Division II Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed WGSS 371
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

How do medical anthropologists examine and interpret health and illness in relation to the intersectional issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality today? We consider how medical anthropologists employ ethnographic techniques such as participant observation and reflexive interviewing once characterized as “deep hanging out”, in order to analyze the distribution of health and other forms of social power between and within groups & societies. Through experiential inquiries and local fieldwork projects, we will investigate how the structural violence of race, class, & gender produce systemic health inequalities. We explore the interplay of social power and difference , while attending to the ways that these social facts shape health outcomes among the most marginalized or vulnerable populations and individuals in society. We read a selection of medical ethnographies and then pursue individual fieldwork projects on or off-campus that explore the social determinants of health outcomes, health behaviors, and access to healthcare. Our goal is a better understanding of the limits and strengths of ethnographic inquiry as we experience the challenges of qualitative research in communities always already split by diverse actors and agendas .
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 1074
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
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ANTH 371 Division II WGSS 371 Division II
Attributes: PHLH Social Determinants of Health
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