Course syllabus

WELCOME!

Contemporary Issues in Medical Anthropology examines the scope of medical anthropology and its relation to biomedicine, public health and international health policy, as fields of investigation and/or collaboration. Privileging a critical medical anthropological approach the course will consider the implications of carrying out research within a biomedical context, whether in the global north or the global south. We will examine the challenges medical anthropologists face in research collaborations with public health, international health organisations, and medical professionals. Issues to be examined may include one or more of the following: ‘the body’, digital health, mental health, hospital ethnography, pharmaceuticals, anatomy, assisted reproductive technologies, medical anthropological schools, etc. Each contemporary issue will focus on the analysis of a monograph, with supporting journal articles.

The course consists of one or more of the following sessions: lectures, seminar, presentations, and debates. Language of instruction is English. In these sessions, you will also need to draw regularly on concepts and empirical data studies acquired during previous courses - both to aid in your understanding of the ‘current issues' you are presented with here and also to demonstrate that you are capable of synthesizing and assessing a wide range of related material.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course aims to develop advanced discussions and students’ knowledge of contemporary issues in the field of medical anthropology.
After accomplishing the course the student is expected to:

• Demonstrate a capacity to evaluate and critique the current debate concerning medical anthropology and its relationship to biomedicine, public health and policy.
• Understand the specific paradigms used by medical anthropologists when conducting anthropological research and in interdisciplinary collaborations.
• Acquire knowledge and understanding of current research being undertaken by medical anthropologists in different countries and scholarly traditions.
• Be able to identify appropriate material in anthropological journals, making use of electronic databases etc. to trace the history of a current topic or debate through the existing literature.

REQUIRED READINGS

Each student reads 5 monographs during the course. Two of these are obligatory readings for all students, namely those for Topic 2 and Topic 3 (highlighted in yellow below).  For Topic 1, Topic 4, and Topic 5 the student chooses one monograph for each topic among those suggested. Where books are available electronically via the library a link is provided, but some books are only available in paper (the 2 obligatory are not available electronically and the library only holds a few copies). Please, make sure that you have accessed them in time for start of course and familiarised yourself with their content.

Topic 1: Health, political ecology, and pandemics (choose one monograph between these two)

- Baer, Hans, and Merrill Singer. 2016. Global warming and the political ecology of health: Emerging crises and systemic solutions. London: Routledge. [202pp.] http://ezproxy.its.uu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&sco pe=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1361048   (Links to an external site.) 

- Caduff, Carlo. 2015. The pandemic perhaps: Dramatic events in a public culture of danger. Berkeley: University of California Press. [254pp.] (purchase has been required to the library before start of term, but it can be purchased privately in paperback or e-book via the publisher https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520284098/the-pandemic-perhaps (Links to an external site.) or via academic libraries)

Topic 2: Ethnography in hospitals/hospital ethnography (Compulsory reading)

- Livingston, Julie. 2012. Improvising medicine: An African oncology ward in an emerging cancer epidemic. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [204pp.] [U KURS Kulturantropologi [Livingston] or https://tinyurl.com/yfq86qju (Links to an external site.) ]

Topic 3: The body and its relation to ontologies (Compulsory reading)

- Mol, Annemarie. 2002. The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. [184pp.] [Uh 610.9 Mol uub201212uhk and KURS Kulturantropologi Mol or  https://tinyurl.com/yjb9yv8j (Links to an external site.) ]

Topic 4: Health and technologies (choose one monograph among these three)
-** Kasstan, Ben. 2019. Making bodies kosher: The politics of reproduction among Haredi Jews in England. New York: Berghahn Books. [261pp] Open access https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/KasstanMaking/9781789202304_OA.pdf (Links to an external site.)

-**Lupton, Deborah. 2017. Digital Health: Critical and Cross-disciplinary Perspectives. London: Routledge. [133pp.] http://ezproxy.its.uu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&sco pe=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1554005  (Links to an external site.)

- **Whittaker, Andrea. 2015. Thai in Vitro: Gender, Culture and Assisted Reproduction. Oxford: Berghahn. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uu/detail.action?docID=1816389 (Links to an external site.)  

Topic 5: Governing the brain (choose one monograph among these two)

- **Kitanaka, Junko. 2012. Depression in Japan: Psychiatric cures for a society in distress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [200pp.] http://ezproxy.its.uu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&sco pe=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=386963 (Links to an external site.)

- ** Martin, Emily. 2009. Bipolar expeditions: Mania and depression in American culture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [337pp.] http://ezproxy.its.uu.se/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&sco pe=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=286673 (Links to an external site.)  

It is strongly advised that students with no previous background in anthropology or those that want to have a quick review of medical anthropology specifically, get access to this brief introduction by two of the leading critical medical anthropologists (we will also look at a monograph they authored). The subtitle of the book conveys their engaged perspective, which is strongly framed in political ecology and denounces structural health inequalities. It includes a final appendix ‘Source Material for Students’ with important information on some major journals in medical anthropology, medical anthropology organizations, blogs, and visual resources. An interesting aspect of this volume is the use of short case studies to further explain theoretical and methodological points.

Singer, Merrill, and Hans Baer. 2011. Introducing medical anthropology: A discipline in action. Lanham: Altamira. [248pp.] [To be used as a general support reference] https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uu/detail.action?docID=867838 (Links to an external site.)