This course introduces students to the critical anthropological analysis of illness, health, healing, and medicine. We explore current and past medical anthropological approaches — political economic, phenomenological, symbolic, feminist, post-structural — in order to evaluate how well these frameworks convey the lived experience of bodies in their local worlds.
Throughout the course, which counts towards the upper division writing requirement, students carry out anthropological analyses of illness, health, healing and medicine. Our investigation will be comparative, examining how different systems of meaning and power make sense of bodily states, historically and cross-culturally. We will explore current and past medical anthropological approaches — political economic, phenomenological, symbolic, feminist, post-structuralist — in order to critically evaluate how well these frameworks convey the lived experience of bodies in their local worlds. The intellectual excitement of medical anthropology comes from its ability to challenge categories and boundaries that seem natural and fixed. Ultimately, my goal is for students to think differently about the embodied relations of health and affliction as produced through the natural “order of things."

Course Requirements:

A midterm, a final, and four short paper, weekly discussion questions. Attendance required. Participation in class and discussion section required.

Intended Audience:

Pre-meds, Anthropology majors, Medical Anthropology minors, Gender and Health Majors Women's Studies majors and minors, STP minors, and RC Social Science majors

Class Format:

3 hours/week lecture format, 1 hour/week discussion format. Discussions led by GSIs.