Medical Anthropology

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved

Course Description Version:7.00

Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:25:36

Study Course Information
Course Code:		KSK_155		LQF level:		Level 7
Credit Points:		2.00		ECTS:		3.00
Branch of Science:		Sociology; Social Anthropology		Target Audience:		Social Anthropology; Sociology
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:		Anna Žabicka
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:		Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:		Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		6	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		12
Classes (count)		6	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		12
Total Contact Hours								24
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
Prior knowledge in classical and contemporary anthropological theories is desirable. Ability to read academic texts in English.
Objective:
The objective of the course is to provide the knowledge and skills to discuss changing understandings, practices and experiences of health, illness and medicine and their interaction with the socio-cultural, economic and political environment.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introduction to Medical Anthropology.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
2	Disease, Ailment and the Body.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
3	Biological Citizenship and Biopolitics.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
4	Inequalities in Health Care 1: The ‘Big’ Infectious Diseases.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
5	Inequalities in Health Care 2: Non-Communicable Diseases and Neglected Diseases.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
6	The Future and Challenges in Medical Anthropology.			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
				Classes		1.00	auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
Reading and analysis of the literature assigned in the course. Concise (250-500 words) written reviews of the seminar texts – articles and books – (for the specified classes), which must be submitted by the day of the seminar. Final essay.
Assessment Criteria:
Active participation in class discussions. Five short reviews on seminar texts. Final essay.
Final Examination (Full-Time):		Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:		Students are familiar with the multifaceted nature of medical anthropology and understand how anthropology provides methodological and conceptual frameworks beyond biomedicine that help to appreciate the experience of diseases and disorders as well as the epistemological dimensions of disease categories. Students understand the impact of inequalities on health and availability of health care, the colonial development of anthropology and biomedicine, and the close relationship between modern medicine and politics. Students are familiar with issues such as inequalities in health care, the social nature of disease, compliance, biological citizenship, biopolitics, etc.
Skills:		The student is able to explain how health and disease are influenced by individual, social, political and cultural dimensions by comparing and contrasting specific cases, drawing on the literature covered in the course. The student is able to describe specific contexts and situations in which concepts such as embodiment, social suffering, compliance, resistance can help to understand the experience of disease and the progression of healing/treatment. The student is able to articulate the ways in which medical knowledge and practice operate at different scales (individual, family, local, global) using scientific examples. Students are able to read analytically high-quality academic social science literature covering topics such as health, medicine, disease, inequality and political economy in a complex manner. Students are able to express verbally and in writing a reasoned, example-based perspective on issues related to health, medicine and political economy.
Competencies:		Students are able to make competent judgements and discuss the social, cultural, global and local political-economic processes influencing and shaping health and disease. Students are competent to discuss the relationship between health, medicine and political economy, understanding the impact of inequalities and discrimination on health and the controversial historical development of biomedicine.
Bibliography
No.	Reference
Required Reading
1	Visa literatūra ir angļu valodā un piemērota gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem
2	Singer, M. and Baer, H. (2018). “Medical Anthropology and its Transformation” in Critical Medical Anthropology. Routledge, pp. 11-57.
3	Petryna, A. (2013). Life exposed: biological citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton University Press.
4	Biehl, J. and Petryna, A., eds. (2013). When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Additional Reading
1	Kleinman, A., Eisenberg, L., & Good, B. (1978). Culture, illness, and care: clinical lessons from anthropologic and cross-cultural research. Annals of internal medicine, 88(2), 251-258.
2	Scheper‐Hughes, N., & Lock, M. M. (1987). The mindful body: A prolegomenon to future work in medical anthropology. Medical anthropology quarterly, 1(1), 6-41.
3	Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Duke University Press.
4	Farmer, P., Bourgois, P., Fassin, D., Green, L., Heggenhougen, H. K., Kirmayer, L., ... & Farmer, P. (2004). An anthropology of structural violence. Current anthropology, 45(3), 305-325.
5	Biehl, J. G. (2004). The activist state: Global pharmaceuticals, AIDS, and citizenship in Brazil. Social Text, 22(3), 105-132.