ANTH2141: Global Health and Disease

• Health, Illness and Society (ANTH1041)

• None.

• None.

• To give students a firm grounding in theories of medical anthropology (evolutionary, ecological, sociocultural) as applied to international health and disease

• Nutrition and disease ecology focusing on the impact on global human health and disease of the intersections between human and pathogen biology and human economic and social systems.
• Key areas of theory in social medical anthropology (including for example critical medical anthropology, cultural and symbolic theories, political economy, governance and governmentality, biopolitics and biosociality) in relation to global health.
• Applying theory to key current issues in international health. Specific topics will vary from year to year, but may include: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, viral haemorrhagic fevers, emerging diseases and drug resistance, reproductive cancers, allergies and autoimmune diseases, community engagement and public health.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Epidemiologic transitions in evolutionary perspective
• Infectious and non-infectious disease ecology
• Major theories of social medical anthropology
• Major current global health concerns

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to apply theory within medical anthropology to a range of key contemporary global health issues.
• Ability to evaluate critically international health policy and practice, using anthropological theory.
• Critical awareness of the role of applied anthropology within international health and development policy and practice.

Key Skills:

• Application of theory to practical situations.
• Ability to read and critically evaluate both academic and policy literature.
• Academic essay-writing skills.

• Lectures and seminars introduce students to the material and enable discussion of it, informed by wider reading.
• Lectures may consist of pre-recorded videos, live presentations, break-out discussions or other activities as appropriate to the material covered from week to week.
• Seminars will provide students with an opportunity to explore and discuss material from the lectures and readings in depth with their tutors and peers.
• A film series will provide students with an opportunity to reflect on and discuss wider issues concerning global health, and draw connections between material covered on the course and current affairs, the media and other forms of representation.
• Formative assessment is a 1000 word essay in each term.
• Summative assessment is by two 2500 word summative essays (each worth 50% of the module mark).

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