medical anthropology phd programs

Medical Anthropology Joint PhD (With UCSF)

handbook for the medical anthropology program .

The Joint UCB/UCSF Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program provides disciplinary leadership and an outstanding and comprehensive training leading to the Ph.D. degree. No other program offers the Joint Program's combination of excellence in critical medical anthropology; psychiatric and psychological anthropology; gender and queer theory; disability studies; health, citizenship, immigration and the global; violence in wartime and peacetime as a medical topic; studies of science, technology and modernity; intersections of medicine and social theory; and innovative ethnographic scholarship.

The core faculty on the Berkeley side of the Joint Program form an organized research group called Critical Studies in Medicine, Science, and the Body. This group links medical anthropology, science and technology studies, postcolonial anthropology, disability studies, critical development and humanitarianism studies, psychological and psychoanalytic anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. There are six faculty in the group: Lawrence Cohen , Co-director of Medical Anthropology; Stefania Pandolfo , Graduate Advisor of Medical Anthropology; Charles L. Briggs , Co-chair of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, Equity Officer of Medical Anthropology,; Cori Hayden ; Seth Holmes , Co-chair of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine and Co-director of MD/PhD Track in Medical Anthropology (UCB and UCSF); and Karen Nakamura , Director of Disability Studies Lab.

Together with medical anthropology colleagues at UCSF, sociocultural colleagues at Berkeley and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the Joint UCB-UCSF Medical Anthropology Program and in the Department of Anthropology, these scholars have created both the most diverse and the most contemporary program in the field. Alumni from this program have moved on to leading positions across the country and the world and continue to move the field in new directions.

The expansion of traditional medical anthropology at Berkeley into Critical Studies in Medicine, Science, and the Body reflects several disciplinary breakthroughs associated with our faculty. Though variants of "medical anthropology" are almost as old as the parent discipline of anthropology, the field of Medical Anthropology emerged in post-war North America as an effort to link international public health, ethnomedicine, and allied social science in the service of the anthropology of development. The field shared both the promise and the limits of modernization theory more generally. Both the critical Marxist and symbolic/phenomenological/interpretive challenges of the 1970s and 1980s thickened debate, along with closer links to historical analyses of the scholarly medical traditions and the development of qualitative methodologies concurrent with the expansion of NIH, NIMH, and other governmental programs of research support.

Despite the rapid growth of the field at this time, most research remained auxiliary to the categorical if not the political and economic imperatives of biomedicine. With the arrival of Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Berkeley became a leader in defining "critically interpretive medical anthropology." Critical medical anthropology refused the theory/applied divide that characterized so many departments and programs, arguing the impossibility of separating "theoretical" debate in cultural anthropology and the human sciences on the one hand and more engaged commitment to the health and survival of communities and groups, on the other. Scheper-Hughes's articulation of a critical anthropology of hunger, as well as the violence continuum in times of war and of peace, offer powerful examples of the change in the field she was instrumental in creating.

The rise of this movement at Berkeley led to a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s with two dominant programs in graduate training, critical medical anthropology in the Joint Program at Berkeley and UCSF and interpretive medical anthropology at Harvard. Lawrence Cohen came from Harvard in 1992 to join Scheper-Hughes. Their teaching and joint research produced a critical and ongoing conversation bringing together the leading formations in the field. Cohen has worked to link debates between critical, interpretive, and biocultural medical anthropologies to broader theoretical questions of materialization that have emerged in feminist and queer scholarship. Cohen has worked at this intersection on diverse topics, including aging, organ transplant and donation, gender and bodies.

The rapid growth of science studies and the increasing centrality of both science and the body to contemporary debate in the academy posed new challenges to medical anthropology. Paul Rabinow has studied the new genomics intensively, leading to multiple books and to the development of what he has termed an anthropology of reason. Against too-easy criticism of scientific and medical practices that did not question what Michel Foucault called the "speaker's benefit" of the critic, Rabinow offered a method and a form of analysis that offered a way out of the endless battles of the "Culture Wars." Berkeley anthropology emerged as the most powerful alternative to the dominant approaches to the sociology of science and science studies. From the mid-1990s and on, these two streams of medical anthropology and the anthropology of reason have been in closer and sharper interaction. Far from pushing students towards either pole, the debate constituted a space for encouraging students to link critical, interpretive, and genealogic analysis.

In a world of linking new genomics, bioinformatics, and pharmacotherapy to corporate medicine and public-private hybrid structures internationally, "bioethics" has become ever more ubiquitous and empty a critical practice. The question of ethics and more generally of human and non-human futures links the current work of Cohen, Rabinow, Scheper-Hughes, and Hayden. Cori Hayden (former Director and current core faculty member of the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society), along with colleagues at Berkeley and UCSF, has continued to develop new approaches to the social studies of science, including bioethics. Her work on global and Latin American pharmaceutical politics, intellectual property, and the ethics of clinical trials has led to new understandings of privatization and “public-ization”, the “popular” and populism, and relationships between distinction and copying.

To the question of ethics and to the related investigation of trauma, loss, and healing, Stefania Pandolfo brings a rigorous anthropological conversation incorporating contemporary philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis and her field research in a Moroccan psychiatric hospital. Pandolfo's work provides a bridge allowing for analysis linking medical anthropology and recent social theories of language, melancholy, and the body. Pandolfo has offered extensive training to graduate students in the anthropology of psychology, psychiatry, and medicine, linking a reexamination of existential psychiatry and a close engagement with the work of scholars from Benjamin and Blanchot to Freud, Lacan, and Binswanger to both Mahgrebi and European clinical and theoretical work.

The strong center of gravity in psychological and psychiatric anthropology is expanded by the work of Scheper-Hughes on emotions and critical psychiatry as well as of Karen Nakamura on mental illness and related social movements. Nakamura’s work has served as a nexus for gender and queer theory, psychological anthropology, and disability studies at Berkeley. Along with others in the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society’s Disability Studies Cluster, she has helped build one of the world’s most active, engaged and diverse networks for disabilities studies.

By tracing genealogies of the unexamined imbrication of theories of language, knowledge, performativity, and representation with research on biomedicine, public health, and traditional medicine, the Joint UCB-UCSF Medical Anthropology Program enables students to critically synthesize linguistic and critical medical anthropology in such a way as to transform both realms of anthropological inquiry. Charles L. Briggs has explored these connections through research on narrative and statistical representations of epidemic disease in Latin America; urban violence and its problematic representations; and a five-country study of how understandings of health, disease, citizenship, and the state are profoundly shaped by media coverage of health, all in collaboration with Clara Mantini-Briggs.

In addition, Charles L. Briggs and Clara Mantini-Briggs study challenges to neoliberal health policies and new understandings of health, citizenship, and the state emerging from revolutionary healthcare in Venezuela. Also at the intersection of health and citizenship, Seth Holmes studies labor, health, and healthcare in the context of transnational im/migration and food systems. Against this background, he has explored the ways in which perceptions of race, class, and citizenship play into (and, at times, challenge and resist) the naturalization and normalization of social and health inequalities. In addition, Holmes studies the ways in which health professionals come to understand and respond to social difference and the ways race and racialization function differently in the lives of indigenous Mexican immigrant youth depending on spatial and social context.

Other Berkeley anthropology faculty bring important resources to graduate student training in the critical analysis of medicine, science, and psychiatry. Laura Nader was instrumental in helping to define the field and remains a leading scholar of medicine and the state. Stanley Brandes has studied many topics of relevance to the field, including alcohol and culture and questions of death and the body. Aihwa Ong helped define the field of global anthropology and continues to work on biotechnology in various sites in North America, Southeast Asia, and China. Marianne Ferme has analyzed and written on global health and development, including epidemics, outbreaks and their responses.

Our program is deepened by strong relationships with colleagues asking related questions across the Berkeley campus in units including History, English, Political Science, Sociology, City and Regional Planning, Comparative Literature, Gender and Women Studies, Critical Theory, Public Health and beyond. In addition, our colleagues on the UCSF side of the Joint Program contribute cutting-edge anthropological work on global health, humanitarianism, critical studies of racialization, metrics in the health sciences, urban health, social studies of science and genetics, gender and health, aging and death, dental health, ethics of research and care, and medical history. The breadth and depth of our core faculty at Berkeley, our links with colleagues across the Berkeley campus, and our close educational and research collaboration with faculty on the UCSF side of the Joint Program make this one of the broadest and most dynamic contexts for medical anthropology in the country and in the world.

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Medical anthropology.

About the Program

The Joint UCB/UCSF PhD in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program provides disciplinary leadership and an outstanding and comprehensive training leading to the PhD degree. No other program offers the Joint Program's combination of excellence in critical medical anthropology; psychiatric and psychological anthropology; gender and queer theory; disability studies; health, citizenship, immigration and the global; violence in wartime and peacetime as a medical topic; studies of science, technology and modernity; intersections of medicine and social theory; and innovative ethnographic scholarship.

Topics of active research include:

Violence and trauma
Psychiatric and psychological anthropology, ethnopsychiatry, and psychoanalysis
Genomics and ethics
Transplantation and organ and tissue commodification
Citizenship, immigration, refugeeism, and the body
Youth and child survival
Hunger, infectious disease, development, and governmentality
Traditional medicine and its modernity
Sexuality, gender, and the commodity form
Geriatrics and dementia
Death, dying, and the politics of "bare life"
Disability studies

Charles L. Briggs, Co-Director of Medical Anthropology, Co-chair of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, Head Graduate Advisor for Medical Anthropology
Lawrence Cohen, Co-Director of Medical Anthropology, Director of Institute for South Asia Studies, Equity Advisor for Medical Anthropology
Daena Funahashi
Cori Hayden
Seth Holmes, Co-chair of Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, and Co-director of MD/PhD Track in Medical Anthropology (UCB and UCSF)
Karen Nakamura, Director of Disability Studies Lab
Stefania Pandolfo
See also faculty on the UCSF side of the joint program in medical anthropology

Together with sociocultural colleagues at Berkeley and medical anthropology colleagues at UCSF and with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the Joint UCB-UCSF Medical Anthropology Program and in the Department of Anthropology, these scholars have created both the most diverse and the most contemporary program in the field. Alumni from this program have moved on to leading positions across the country and the world and continue to move the field in new directions.

The rapid growth of science studies and the increasing centrality of both science and the body to contemporary debate in the academy posed new challenges to medical anthropology. Paul Rabinow has studied the new genomics intensively, leading to multiple books and to the development of what he has termed "an anthropology of reason." Against too-easy criticism of scientific and medical practice that did not question what Michel Foucault called the "speaker's benefit" of the critic, Rabinow offered a method and a form of analysis that offered a way out of the endless battles of the "Culture Wars." Berkeley anthropology emerged as the most powerful alternative to the dominant approaches to the sociology of science and science studies. From the mid-1990s and on, these two streams of medical anthropology and the anthropology of reason have been in closer and sharper interaction. Far from pushing students towards either pole, the debate constituted a space for encouraging students to link critical, interpretive, and genealogic analysis.

In a world of linking new genomics, bioinformatics, and pharmacotherapy to corporate medicine and public-private hybrid structures internationally, "bioethics" has become ever more ubiquitous and empty a critical practice. The question of ethics and more generally of human and non-human futures links the current work of Cohen, Rabinow, Scheper-Hughes, and Hayden. Cori Hayden (former Director and current core faculty member of the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society), along with colleagues at Berkeley and UCSF, has continued to develop new approaches to the social studies of science, including bioethics. Her work on global and Latin American pharmaceutical politics, intellectual property, and the ethics of clinical trials has led to new understandings of privatization and “public-ization,” the “popular” and populism, and relationships between distinction and copying.

In addition, Charles L. Briggs and Clara Mantini-Briggs study challenges to neoliberal health policies and new understandings of health, citizenship, and the state emerging from revolutionary healthcare in Venezuela. Also at the intersection of health and citizenship, Seth Holmes studies labor, health, and health care in the context of transnational im/migration and food systems. Against this background, he has explored the ways in which perceptions of race, class, and citizenship play into (and, at times, challenge and resist) the naturalization and normalization of social and health inequalities. Holmes also studies the ways in which health professionals come to understand and respond to social difference and the ways race and racialization function differently in the lives of indigenous Mexican immigrant youth depending on spatial and social context.

Other Berkeley anthropology faculty bring important resources to graduate student training in the critical analysis of medicine, science, and psychiatry. Laura Nader was instrumental in helping to define the field and remains a leading scholar of medicine and the state. Stanley Brandes has studied many topics of relevance to the field, including alcohol and culture and questions of death and the body. Aihwa Ong helped define the field of global anthropology and continues to work on biotechnology in various sites in North America, Southeast Asia, and China. Mariane Ferme has analyzed and written on global health and development, including epidemics, outbreaks and their responses.

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Admission to the University

Applying for graduate admission.

Thank you for considering UC Berkeley for graduate study! UC Berkeley offers more than 120 graduate programs representing the breadth and depth of interdisciplinary scholarship. A complete list of graduate academic departments, degrees offered, and application deadlines can be found on the Graduate Division website .

Prospective students must submit an online application to be considered for admission, in addition to any supplemental materials specific to the program for which they are applying. The online application can be found on the Graduate Division website .

Admission Requirements

The minimum graduate admission requirements are:

A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;

A satisfactory scholastic average, usually a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 (B) on a 4.0 scale; and

Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in your chosen field.

For a list of requirements to complete your graduate application, please see the Graduate Division’s Admissions Requirements page . It is also important to check with the program or department of interest, as they may have additional requirements specific to their program of study and degree. Department contact information can be found here .

Where to apply?

Visit the Berkeley Graduate Division application page .

Admission to the Program

The Department of Anthropology at Berkeley, and the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of California at San Francisco, currently offer a joint PhD in medical anthropology. Students may apply to enter the program through either the Berkeley or the San Francisco campus but not to both. The point of entry determines the student's home base during the program. Financial aid, primary advising, and other routine services are provided by the campus through which the student enters the program. All students, however, benefit by taking required coursework on both campuses and by the participation of the faculty on both sides of the program on all qualifying examinations and on the doctoral dissertation committees. The degree is the same and bears the name of both campuses.

Applications to all graduate programs are considered once each year for admission the following fall semester. The application period opens in early September, and the deadline for receipt of both department and Graduate Division applications is December 1. Applications are screened by the anthropology faculty, and selections are made on the basis of academic excellence, letters of recommendation, relevant experience, a strong statement of intellectual and professional purpose, and GRE scores (which are now optional).

The minimum requirement for admission to the Berkeley doctoral program in anthropology and in medical anthropology is a BA. The UCSF program in medical anthropology requires a master's degree in anthropology or a related discipline, or a postbaccalaureate professional degree.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Normative time requirements, normative time to advancement.

Normative time to advancement is three years of coursework.

Normative Time in Candidacy

Normative time in candidacy is one to two years of dissertation research, and one to two years of writing the dissertation.

Total Normative Time

Total normative time is 6 years.

Time to Advancement

Curriculum , foreign language(s).

In addition to English, the program requires at least one other language. This language may be a language of international scholarship, a literary language, or a field language. The required language must be directly relevant to the research.

Field Papers

Students will write two field statements on topics in medical anthropology (for example, comparative medical systems, the anthropology of the body, reproduction, psychiatry and anthropology, political economy of health, science and biotechnology, or shamanism). The third field statement is usually on the student's chosen ethnographic/geographical area (for example, Latin American peasants, urban India, or post-colonial southern Africa). Each field statement is prepared with a faculty sponsor. Medical anthropology students usually work with three professors from the Anthropology Department. Field statements should not exceed 20 pages, excluding the bibliography.

The dissertation prospectus is the intellectual justification and research plan for the dissertation. Medical Anthropology students must get their prospectus signed by all three dissertation committee members and file it at the end of their third year, either before or after the PhD oral qualifying examination. There is no designated length for a medical dissertation prospectus, but the average proposal should be about 10-12 pages plus bibliography.

Time in Candidacy

Advancement.

When the student has passed the oral qualifying examination, submitted his or her dissertation prospectus, proposed his or her dissertation committee (see Dissertation Committee below) he or she may be advanced to candidacy for the PhD by the dean of the Graduate Division.

Dissertation

This committee typically consists of four professors: the student's adviser as the committee chair, an inside member from the UCB Anthropology Department, an inside member from the Medical Anthropology program at UCSF, and an outside member from another department at UCB. The dissertation committee chair and the outside member must be members of the UCB Academic Senate.

Required Professional Development

Students are encouraged to serve at least two semesters as a graduate student instructor (GSI) in the course of earning the PhD. The department believes it is training its students to be college and university professors with a high regard for excellence in teaching as well as research. GSI-ships in Anthropology are awarded to students at least once in their careers as graduate students and students are also encouraged to apply to other departments on campus.

ANTHRO 210 Special Topics in Biological Anthropology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2014 Advanced topics in biological anthropology, including both contemporary and ancestral human populations, such as biology of the life course, health and disease, violence and trauma, cognition and symbolic communication, and other anthropological topics viewed from the perspective of human biology. Special Topics in Biological Anthropology: Read More [+]

Rules & Requirements

Prerequisites: Consent of instructor

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.

Hours & Format

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Two hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Additional Details

Subject/Course Level: Anthropology/Graduate

Grading: Letter grade.

Special Topics in Biological Anthropology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 217 Discourse and of the Body 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2016 This course juxtaposes discourse analysis and approaches to health and biomedicine, querying how ideologies of language and communication provide implicit foundations for work on health, disease, medicine, and the body and how biopolitical discourses and practices inform constructions of discourse. Discourse and of the Body: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Instructor: Briggs

Discourse and of the Body: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 219 Topics in Medical Anthropology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2018 Comparative study of mental illness and socially generated disease: psychiatric treatment, practitioners, and institutions. Topics in Medical Anthropology: Read More [+]

Topics in Medical Anthropology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 221 Pre-Columbian Central America 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016 Pre-Columbian Central America: Read More [+]

Pre-Columbian Central America: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 227 Historical Archaeology Research 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2020, Spring 2019 Historical archaeology seminar. Subject matter will vary from year to year. Historical Archaeology Research: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing with some background in archaeology, or undergraduates who have taken 2, or consent of instructor

Historical Archaeology Research: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 228 Archaeological Method 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Fall 2011, Fall 2009 Various topics and issues in the methods of archaeological analysis and interpretation: style, ceramics, architectural analysis, lithic analysis, archaeozoology, etc. Archaeological Method: Read More [+]

Archaeological Method: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 229A Archaeological Research Strategies: History of Theory in Anthropological Archaeology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2020 Required for all first and second year graduate students in archaeology. Three hours of seminar discussion of major issues in the history and theory of archaeological research and practice (229A), and of the research strategies and design for various kinds of archaeological problems (229B). To be offered alternate semesters. Archaeological Research Strategies: History of Theory in Anthropological Archaeology: Read More [+]

Archaeological Research Strategies: History of Theory in Anthropological Archaeology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 229B Archaeological Research Strategies: Research Design 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020 Required for all first and second year graduate students in archaeology. Three hours of seminar discussion of major issues in the history and theory of archaeological research and practice (229A), and of the research strategies and design for various kinds of archaeological problems (229B). To be offered alternate semesters. Archaeological Research Strategies: Research Design: Read More [+]

Archaeological Research Strategies: Research Design: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 229C Writing the Field Statement in Archaeology 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Fall 2010, Fall 2009 This seminar is intended to guide students in the definition of a field within archaeology, from initial conceptualization to writing of a field statement, dissertation chapter, or review article. Writing the Field Statement in Archaeology: Read More [+]

Writing the Field Statement in Archaeology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 230 Special Topics in Archaeology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023 Special Topics in Archaeology: Read More [+]

Special Topics in Archaeology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 231 Advanced Topics in Bioarchaeology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2011, Spring 2009 This advanced seminar course explores how we reconstruct past lifeways from archaeological skeletal remains. It deals with the skeletal biology of past populations, covering both the theoretical approaches and methods used in the analysis of skeletal and dental remains. Advanced Topics in Bioarchaeology: Read More [+]

Instructor: Agarwal

Advanced Topics in Bioarchaeology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 232 Advanced Topics in Bone Biology: Biocultural and Evolutionary Perspectives 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2013, Spring 2011 This advanced seminar course will discuss influences on bone health and maintence from a unique biocultural and evolutionary perspective. Advanced Topics in Bone Biology: Biocultural and Evolutionary Perspectives: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: 127A or C103/Integrative Biology C142 and consent of instructor

Additional Format: Two hours of seminar per week.

Advanced Topics in Bone Biology: Biocultural and Evolutionary Perspectives: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 235 Special Topics in Museum Anthropology 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Spring 2013, Spring 2012 Contemporary issues in museum studies from an anthropological perspective. Special Topics in Museum Anthropology: Read More [+]

Special Topics in Museum Anthropology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 240A Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory 5 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Anthropological theory and practice--following the rest of the world--have been undergoing important restructuring in the past decade. The course is organized to reflect this fact. We will begin by looking at recent debates about the nature and purpose of anthropology. This will provide a starting point for reading a series of classic ethnographies in new ways as well as examining some dimensions of the current research agenda in cultural anth ropology. Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Enrollment is strictly limited to and required of all anthropology and medical anthropology graduate students who have not been advanced to candidacy

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4-6 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Four to Six hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Instructor: Required of all graduate students in social/cultural anthropology.

Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 240B Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory 5 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021 Anthropological theory and practice--following the rest of the world--have been undergoing important restructuring in the past decade. The course is organized to reflect this fact. We will begin by looking at recent debates about the nature and purpose of anthropology. This will provide a starting point for reading a series of classic ethnographies in new ways as well as examining some dimensions of the current research agenda in cultural anthropology. Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Enrollment is strictly limited to and required of all anthropology and medical anthropology graduate s tudents who have not been advanced to candidacy

ANTHRO 250A Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Psychological Anthropology 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2019 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Psychological Anthropology: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-3 hours of seminar per week

Additional Format: Two to Three hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Psychological Anthropology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250E Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Politics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2018, Fall 2017 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Politics: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Politics: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250F Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Religion 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2011, Fall 2003 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Religion: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Religion: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250G Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Ethics 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Fall 1999, Fall 1996 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Ethics: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Anthropology of Ethics: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250J Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Ethnographic Field Methods 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Ethnographic Field Methods: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Ethnographic Field Methods: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250N Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Classic Ethnography 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2013 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Classic Ethnography: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Classic Ethnography: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250R Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Dissertation Writing 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2020, Spring 2016 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Dissertation Writing: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Dissertation Writing: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250V Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Tourism 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Tourism: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Tourism: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 250X Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Special Topics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023 Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Special Topics: Read More [+]

Seminars in Social and Cultural Anthropology: Special Topics: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C254 Topics in Science and Technology Studies 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2014, Fall 2013 This course provides a strong foundation for graduate work in STS, a multidisciplinary field with a signature capacity to rethink the relationship among science, technology, and political and social life. From climate change to population genomics, access to medicines and the impact of new media, the problems of our time are simultaneously scientific and social, technological and political, ethical and economic . Topics in Science and Technology Studies: Read More [+]

Also listed as: ESPM C252/HISTORY C250/STS C200

Topics in Science and Technology Studies: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C261 Theories of Narrative 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2011, Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Spring 2006 This course examines a broad range of theories that elucidate the formal, structural, and contextual properties of narratives in relation to gestures, the body, and emotion; imagination and fantasy; memory and the senses; space and time. It focuses on narratives at work, on the move, in action as they emerge from the matrix of the everyday preeminently, storytelling in conversation--as key to folk genres--the folktale, the legend, the epic, the myth. Theories of Narrative: Read More [+]

Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week

Additional Format: Three hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks. Seven and one-half hours of Lecture per week for 8 weeks. Ten hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.

Also listed as: FOLKLOR C261

Theories of Narrative: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C262A Theories of Traditionality and Modernity 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 This seminar explores the emergence of notions of tradition and modernity and their reproduction in Eurocentric epistemologies and political formations. It uses work by such authors as Anderson, Butler, Chakrabarty, Clifford, Derrida, Foucault, Latour, Mignolo, Pateman, and Poovey to critically reread foundational works published between the 17th century and the present--along with philosophical texts with which they are in dialogue--in terms of how they are imbricated within and help produce traditionalities and modernities. Theories of Traditionality and Modernity: Read More [+]

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.

Also listed as: FOLKLOR C262A

Theories of Traditionality and Modernity: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C262B Theories of Traditionality and Modernity 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021 This seminar explores the emergence of notions of tradition and modernity and their reproduction in Eurocentric epistemologies and political formations. It uses work by such authors as Anderson, Butler, Chakrabarty, Clifford, Derrida, Foucault, Latour, Mignolo, Pateman, and Poovey to critically reread foundational works published between the 17th century and the present--along with philosophical texts with which they are in dialogue--in terms of how they are imbricated within and help produce traditionalities and modernities. Theories of Traditionality and Modernity: Read More [+]

Also listed as: FOLKLOR C262B

ANTHRO 270A Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Semantics 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2010 Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Semantics: Read More [+]

Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Semantics: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 270B Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Fundamentals of Language in Context 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2017, Fall 2014 Intensive introduction to the study of language as a cultural system and speech as socially embedded communicative practice. This is the core course for students wishing to take further coursework in linguistic anthropology. Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Fundamentals of Language in Context: Read More [+]

Seminars in Linguistic Anthropology: Fundamentals of Language in Context: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C273 Science and Technology Studies Research Seminar 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015 This course will cover methods and approaches for students considering professionalizing in the field of STS, including a chance for students to workshop written work. Science and Technology Studies Research Seminar: Read More [+]

Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.

Also listed as: ESPM C273/HISTORY C251/STS C250

Science and Technology Studies Research Seminar: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 280B Seminars in Area Studies: Africa 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Fall 2012 Courses will vary from year to year. See Departmental Internal Catalogue for detailed descriptions of course offerings for each semester. Seminars in Area Studies: Africa: Read More [+]

Seminars in Area Studies: Africa: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 280C Seminars in Area Studies: South Asia 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2013, Fall 2010 Courses will vary from year to year. See Departmental Internal Catalogue for detailed descriptions of course offerings for each semester. Seminars in Area Studies: South Asia: Read More [+]

Seminars in Area Studies: South Asia: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 280D Seminars in Area Studies: China 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2012 Courses will vary from year to year. See Departmental Internal Catalogue for detailed descriptions of course offerings for each semester. Seminars in Area Studies: China: Read More [+]

Seminars in Area Studies: China: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 280X Seminars in Area Studies: Special Topics in Area Studies 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2008, Fall 1999, Spring 1998 Courses will vary from year to year. See Departmental Internal Catalogue for detailed descriptions of course offerings for each semester. Seminars in Area Studies: Special Topics in Area Studies: Read More [+]

Seminars in Area Studies: Special Topics in Area Studies: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 290 Survey of Anthropological Research 1 Unit

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023 Required each term of all registered graduate students prior to their advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. Survey of Anthropological Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 8 weeks - 2 hours of colloquium per week

Additional Format: Two hours of colloquium per week for 8 weeks.

Survey of Anthropological Research: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 291 Professional Development in Anthropological Archaeology 1 Unit

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023 Required each term of all registered graduate students in Anthropology specializing in archaeology prior to their advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. Professional Development in Anthropological Archaeology: Read More [+]

Professional Development in Anthropological Archaeology: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 292 Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021 Collaboration in ethnographic praxis on a local and global scale in folkloristics, sociocultural, linguistic, media, and medical anthropology, producing projects grounded in meaningful engagement with communities. Graduate students, working with lay mentors and faculty, will design and begin implementation of projects that break through infrastructures of theory, research, pedagogy, and practice that reproduce racial hierarchies and that erase anti-racist alternatives. Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation: Read More [+]

Additional Format: Three hours of seminar per week.

Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO C292 Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation 4 Units

Terms offered: Prior to 2007 Collaboration in ethnographic praxis on a local and global scale in folkloristics, sociocultural, linguistic, media, and medical anthropology, producing projects grounded in meaningful engagement with communities. Graduate students, working with lay mentors and faculty, will design and begin implementation of projects that break through infrastructures of theory, research, pedagogy, and practice that reproduce racial hierarchies and that erase anti-racist alter natives. Experiments in Collaboration and Reciprocal Transformation: Read More [+]

Also listed as: FOLKLOR C292

ANTHRO 296A Supervised Research 2 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Spring 2015 Practice in original field research under staff supervision. One unit of credit for every four hours of work in the field. Supervised Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-12 hours of fieldwork per week

Additional Format: Variable units for field research per week.

Supervised Research: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 296B Supervised Research 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017 Analysis and write-up of field materials. Supervised Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: Two hours of consultation per week.

ANTHRO 298 Directed Reading 1 - 8 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2020, Spring 2019 Individual conferences intended to provide directed reading in subject matter not covered by available seminar offerings. Directed Reading: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-8 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: One to eight hours of conference per week.

Directed Reading: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 299 Directed Research 1 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session Individual conferences to provide supervision in the preparation of an original research paper or dissertation. Directed Research: Read More [+]

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-8 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: Two to eight hours of conference per week.

Directed Research: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 301 Professional Training: Teaching 1 - 6 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2018 Group consultation with instructor. Supervised training with instructor on teaching undergraduates. Professional Training: Teaching: Read More [+]

Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit up to a total of 12 units.

Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-18 hours of independent study per week

Additional Format: Three to eightteen hours of independent study per week.

Subject/Course Level: Anthropology/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers

Professional Training: Teaching: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 375 Graduate Pedagogy Seminar 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022 Training in both the logistics and the pedagogical issues of undergraduate teaching. Graduate Pedagogy Seminar: Read More [+]

Instructor: Agrawal

Formerly known as: Anthropology 300

Graduate Pedagogy Seminar: Read Less [-]

ANTHRO 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 12 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017 In preparation for Ph.D. examinations. Individual study in consultation with adviser. Intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. May not be used for unit or residence requirements for the degree. Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read More [+]

Additional Format: One to eight hours of consultation per week.

Subject/Course Level: Anthropology/Graduate examination preparation

Individual Study for Doctoral Students: Read Less [-]

Contact Information

Department of anthropology.

232 Anthropology and Art Practice Building

Phone: 510-642-3391

Co-Director, Equity Advisor

Charles L. Briggs, PhD

307 Anthropology & Art Practice Bldg

[email protected]

Co-Director, Head Graduate Advisor

Lawrence Cohen, PhD

319 Anthropology & Art Practice Bldg

[email protected]

Graduate Student Affairs Officer

Tabea Mastel

213 Anthropology & Art Practice Bldg

Phone: 510-642-3406

[email protected]

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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL

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Medical Anthropology

Degree requirements.

Learn more about the program by visiting the Department of Anthropology

See related Interdisciplinary Clusters and Certificates

Degree Types: PhD/MPH

The combined PhD/MPH Program in Medical Anthropology prepares graduates for leadership in academic and government institutions requiring expertise in biocultural approaches to the study of human health and disease. Drawing on the broader strengths of our department in political-economic analysis, global health, and human biology, Medical Anthropology at Northwestern focuses on the intersection of health with various forms of social and political inequality. The program provides rigorous interdisciplinary training linking the fields of medical anthropology and public health in both domestic and international settings.

Students pursing the combined PhD/MPH degree fulfill all requirements for both the Doctorate in Anthropology and the Master of Public Health through a selected interdisciplinary curriculum. A full three years of credit-bearing courses (18 units) is required in addition to the PhD dissertation. In the MPH curriculum, students complete the coursework requirements for the "Generalist Concentration". In addition to the MPH coursework, students also complete an Applied Practice Experience (APEx) and a Culminating Experience paper.

Applicants apply to the combined PhD/MPH degree program at the time they apply for admission to the graduate program in Anthropology.

Additional resources:

Department website
Program handbook(s)

Program Statistics

Visit Master's Program Statistics and PhD Program Statistics for statistics such as program admissions, enrollment, student demographics and more.

Program Contact

Contact Tracy Tohtz Graduate Program Administrator 847-491-4817

The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide .

Total Units Required: MPH requires a total of 16 units and Anthropology PhD requires a minimum of 9 units. Three Anthropology courses can be double-counted towards the MPH. These include: (1) a methods course (either ANTHRO 386-0 Methods in Human Biology Research or ANTHRO 389-0 Ethnographic Methods and Analysis ), and (2) two other elective courses from the list below. All MPH/PhD candidates in Medical Anthropology complete the requirements for the "Generalist Concentration" in the MPH Program.

MPH Course Requirements

Phd course requirements.

Students are required to complete PhD course requirements based on the chosen subfield.

Required Papers and Proposals

Students are required to complete a Second Year Qualifying Paper, an Applied Public Health Experience (APEx), Culminating Experience Paper, a Dissertation Proposal, and a PhD Dissertation.

Last Updated: September 12, 2023

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College of Arts and Sciences

Department of anthropology, ma/phd in medical anthropology and global health.

ABOUT US | COURSE REQUIREMENTS | APPLICATION PROCESS | VISIT CWRU

The Anthropology Department at Case Western Reserve University, a pioneer in the field of Medical Anthropology, offers a MA/PhD program in Medical Anthropology and Global Health. The CWRU program in Medical Anthropology and Global Health prepares students to meet the challenges of a globalized world by providing training in anthropological theory and methods encompassing multiple approaches to the study of health and illness. Through a combination of classroom learning and experiential field research, qualified students are prepared for a career in anthropology and global health in a diverse array of settings, including academia, government, international agencies, health facilities, community organizations or in the policy realm.

This unique program provides students with advanced training on issues such as:

the complex relationships between culture, society and health/illness
cultural sensitivity and cultural competence in health research and patient care
global health, lifespan perspectives, health disparities
ethnomedicine, ethnopsychiatry, and evolutionary medicine
research designs, qualitative/quantitative methods, practical training in qualitative interviews, basic and applied health research

Study with an internationally recognized faculty in the field of Medical Anthropology and Global Health. The faculty in the Department of Anthropology are leading researchers ins areas such as illegal drug use, high altitude living, child well being, HIV, the culture of science, reproductive health, and other areas in the forefront of contemporary health challenges. The faculty work across the globe, conducting competitively funded research in pursuit of important research questions. Anthropology graduate students have the unique opportunity to work with these world-class researchers. [Read more about faculty research here ].

Course Requirements for the MA/PhD Program

Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree

Requirements for the PhD Degree

Application Process for the MA/PhD Program

Submit your application online !

More detailed instructions can be found here .

This application is for the following circumstances :

Your highest degree is a BA/BS and your intention is to earn both an MA and a PhD
Your highest degree is an MA and your intention is to earn a PhD

For more information

Contact Dr. Janet McGrath , Chair, Department of Anthropology

Interested in Visiting CWRU?

If you plan on visiting CWRU, please contact the Anthropology office (216-368-3703) in as far advance as possible when you will be visiting and when you will be available to meet with Anthropology faculty and students. We’ll arrange for you to meet with several faculty (and if you would like to meet with one or more specific faculty) and current graduate students. Please do not contact individual faculty and try to arrange your own meetings. You will have a more satisfying visit if your interviews are coordinated by our main office.

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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Cultural Anthropology
Joint PHD/MPH Degree Program

Graduate Program in Medical Anthropology at Northwestern

Rebecca Seligman
Noelle Sullivan
Thomas McDade
Caroline Bledsoe
Christopher Kuzawa
William Leonard
Megan Crowley-Matoka

Academic research in medical anthropology draws on diverse theoretical approaches, with a shared emphasis on increasing our understanding of the diverse ways in which cultural, social, and biological factors influence human experiences of pain, illness, suffering, and healing in different settings. The medical anthropology program at Northwestern is a highly integrated program that draws on the broader strengths of our department in political-economic analysis, global health, and human biology to focus on the intersection of health with forms of social and political inequality across race, class, gender, and generation. The program combines a focus on the social and political-economic forces that affect the epidemiology and phenomenology of health and illness, with an emphasis on the physical processes and mechanisms through which such forces become embodied.

Areas of specialization

These include mental health, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, reproductive health, study of health care institutions, global health, and the critical study of global health policy.
Our unique strengths and resources in the areas of psychological and biological anthropology also allow us to offer an expertise in psychosomatic and behavioral processes, including the medical anthropology of stress, embodiment, and somatization.
Geographical areas of specialization include the United States, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Concentration options

Graduate students may concentrate in medical anthropology through the PhD programs in either cultural anthropology or human biology.
In addition, Northwestern offers a unique joint PhD/MPH degree program , which allows students to earn their masters in public health while working toward their PhD in anthropology.

Other departments and programs at the University provide additional academic resources for students interested in medical anthropology, including:

The Feinberg School of Medicine, the Center for Global Health
Graduate Cluster Program in Society, Biology, and Health
Graduate Cluster Program in Science in Human Culture

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Anthropology: Medical, PhD

Related programs.

Anthropology: Archaeology, BA
Anthropology: Biological Anthropology, BA
Anthropology: Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, BA
Anthropology: Environmental Anthropology, BA
Anthropology: General Anthropology, BA
Anthropology: Medical Anthropology & Global Health, BA
Anthropology: Archaeology, PhD
Anthropology: Cultural, PhD
Anthropology: Linguistic, PhD
Anthropology: Physical, PhD

The emphasis in the Graduate Program is on training candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This degree certifies that, in addition to having a sound knowledge of anthropology as a whole, the holder has been trained to do independent research at a professional level of competence in at least one of the major sub-disciplines of anthropology: archaeology, cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, or linguistic anthropology.

For more information: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthropology/graduate-programs/phd-program

View the University’s Academic Rules for PhD Programs .

Required Courses

The total course units for graduation is 20. A minimum of 12 course units must be taken at the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to course requirements, there are language requirements, a written PhD Preliminary Examination ("Comprehensive Exam") and the Final PhD Examination ("Oral Exam") for the PhD.

The degree and major requirements displayed are intended as a guide for students entering in the Fall of 2023 and later. Students should consult with their academic program regarding final certifications and requirements for graduation.

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Medical Anthropology

The Medical Anthropology Program in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University builds upon a long tradition of research and teaching that engages the epistemological and categorical bases of disease and disorder. The Program continues this tradition and supports novel research that tests and expands methodological approaches to scholarship, uses varied forms of writing and other media, and enters new and challenging theoretical domains. The Medical Anthropology Program is jointly administered between the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Social Studies of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Research and teaching in the program engages a number of topics, including but not limited to childhood and adolescence, gender and sexuality, psychiatric disorder and distress, neuro-diversity, institutional and individual responses to trauma in various forms, intersecting colonial infrastructures of care, diagnosis, and incarceration, infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, and substance use and abuse including behavioural addictions and therapeutic efficacy. While much of the work by faculty and students in the program moves in and out of domains of biomedicine and public health, the kinds of research concerns and questions that undergird inquiry are not restricted by diagnostic or technical categories, and do not always share or reproduce medical or public health priorities or approaches. The emphasis of research in the program often finds a different center to respond to human need, to shed light on the experience of illness and disorder, or to consider the terms of living, as such. Faculty in the program nevertheless work in diverse ways that draw from training and practice not only in anthropology but also from biomedicine, critical public health, political science, philosophy, the history and philosophy of medicine, and visual arts and media.

One element that links the activities of faculty in the medical anthropology program is a commitment to long-standing engagements with individuals and communities, which often move in and out of clinical environments, as well as different professional milieux and expert communities. The production of knowledge within and about medicine, about healing, about psychic and social life, about the body and its forms, covers distances from the lab to the living room in much of the work of the faculty.

Alongside the commitment to rich, empirical and experimental forms of knowing are serious theoretical commitments . There is no single theoretical orientation that binds the work of the faculty and students. There are, instead, exciting and generative links between engagements with phenomenology, materialisms, psychoanalysis, affect theory, narrative and performance theory, meditations on imperialism and the conditions of colonial encounter, writing on the senses, on visuality, on culture and the imagination, all in service of gaining some purchase on human experience. These commitments translate into teaching and research supervision in multiple ways, and the program invites and supports fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking and doing.

The Core Faculty in medical anthropology are Professors Samuele Collu , Sandra Hyde , Todd Meyers , Les Sabiston , Sahar Sadjadi , and Lisa Stevenson . The program’s strengths come from longstanding and productive connections with other departments and divisions, including the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminism , East Asian Studies , and the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry . As the university grows, the program also benefits from newer connections in the Department of Family Medicine , the Biomedical Ethics Unit , and the School of the Population and Global Health .

Graduate Study

Students in the graduate program in medical anthropology develop methodological skills fundamental to the practice of anthropology, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches from gender studies, indigenous studies, critical public health, neurosciences, film and visual studies, and history. At its core the program supports independent approaches to working and encourages solid theoretical grounding. The Department of Anthropology at McGill University offers both a thesis and non-thesis M.A. in Anthropology with specialization in Medical Anthropology, which can be appropriate for students with clinical backgrounds. Those with no prior graduate experience will come with strong academic records as undergraduates in anthropology or in a variety of fields adjacent to anthropology. Students entering the Ph.D. program are expected to enter with an existing appreciation for work in medical anthropology. Faculty and students in the program work across the globe, including Iran, Southwest China, Ecuador, Argentina, Europe, and the Americas.

Undergraduate Study

The program has a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching and a unique undergraduate experience through its core courses as well as specialized courses such as Psychological Anthropology and Anthropology of the Body. Medical anthropology courses often attract new majors who learn of medical anthropology for the first time, but the courses are also geared toward undergraduate students studying in fields as diverse as psychology, art history, political science, neuroscience, social work, biology, and nursing, all of whom have found medical anthropology an exciting area to try out new ideas or to rethink old problems.

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MD/ PhD Program

Photo from left to right : Sara Rendell, Adriana Petryna, Michelle Munyikwa, Josh Franklin, Lee Young, Utpal Sandesara, Caroline Hodge, Ben Sieff, Alex Chen, Randall Burson.

The Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program/MSTP is dedicated to training physician-anthropologists who will become next-generation leaders in an integrated practice of clinical medicine and social science. Our program recognizes that the modern life sciences involve much more than the generation of knowledge about biological processes. By fostering insight into the entwinement of biomedical knowledge and human society, the MD-PhD Program enables trainees to explore the practices and paradigms that contribute to health inequality, and to innovate clinical and investigative frameworks of moral responsiveness and care.

Exploring the full breadth of anthropological inquiry, MD-PhD trainees are advised and supported during the entirety of their clinical and research training by faculty in Anthropology as well as across the social sciences and humanities. As they carry out ethnographic projects within the United States and across the globe, they are making critical interventions in diverse fields including medical anthropology, science and technology studies, political anthropology, urban studies, and feminist and critical race studies.

Immersed in integrated training at all stages, students develop a practice of inquiry and care that is fully medical and fully anthropological. Because we believe this inquiry is best done in collaboration, the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program draws upon our unique multidisciplinary training and breadth of interests to build a praxis of peer mentorship and support. Together, members of the Penn MSTP Anthropology community are reimagining a critical and politically engaged medicine for the 21st century.

For inquiries about the program, please feel free to contact Dr. Adriana Petryna , Director of the Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

News Section

Caroline Hodge received the Association for Feminist Anthropology Dissertation Award for 2023.

Utpal Sandesara is the Assistant Professor-in-Residence at the UCLA School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine-Health Services Research & the Global Health program at the UCLA International Institute

Sara Rendell is the lead author on “ Integrating ART adherence support technologies in the care of pregnant and postpartum people with HIV : a qualitative study,” published in Implement Sci Commun (2022). She also co-authored “ Resculpting Professionalism for Equity and Accountability ” (The Annals of Family Medicine, 2022).

Ankita Reddy is the lead author on “ Monoclonal antibody pairs against SARS-CoV-2 for rapid antigen test development ,” published in PLoS Negl Trop Dis. (2022) and was just named a Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellow at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn (2023). See her work, The Visual Liminal, here .

Randall Burson has been selected to receive a graduate fellowship with the Penn-Mellon Dispossessions in the Americas research team for the academic year 2023-2024.

Michelle Munyikwa co-authored “ Misrepresenting Race: The Role of Medical Schools in Propagating Physician Bias ,” published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2021).

Together with Anthropology affiliated faculty member, Dr. Justin Clapp, and MD-MSHP student, Olivia Familusi, Randall Burson published a paper in Social Science & Medicine entitled, “ Imagining the 'structural' in medical education and practice in the United States: A curricular investigation ” (2022).

Alex Chen was named 2022 Mellon/ American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellow for “Building Biocontainment, Regulating Race: Scientific Infrastructures for American Safety against Emerging Diseases.”

"The COVID Horizon" essays, guest-edited by Adriana Petryna and Sara Rendell, are out in Medicine, Anthropology, and Theory. UPenn physician-anthropologists trace a different ground from which to anticipate the role of medicine in the 21st century. Intro and link to essays here: http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/5249

"Training physician-scholars to see patients as people, not categories". https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/Penn-anthropology-MD-PhD-graduates-first-students

Utpal Sandesara, who graduated from the MD-PhD program in 2019, wrote this opinion piece from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in LA, where he is doing his residency. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/04/22/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers/

Lessons on Ebola: Alex Chen studies emergency disease preparedness. https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/lessons-ebola

Caroline Hodge was awarded the Penn Prize for Excellence in Teaching by Graduate Students. https://provost.upenn.edu/teaching-at-penn/penn-ta-prize

The admissions process for the MD-PhD program in Anthropology is coordinated through the MD-PhD office. Admissions decisions are made jointly in an integrated process by the Anthropology Graduate Group, the MD-PhD Program, and the Medical School. Initially, applicants must submit their application via AMCAS. In addition to all materials in the AMCAS and Penn MD-PhD supplemental application, there is one additional essay which should be submitted directly to the MD-PhD office. This is a personal statement which should address the factors that have encouraged you to seek an education from Penn Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, including any significant personal or professional experiences related to your program of study. The essay should be no more than 1000 words or 6000 characters. These materials will be used for the review process by the MD-PhD program and the Anthropology Graduate group. For general information about the program, please go to the website: https://www.med.upenn.edu/mstp/ . For specific information about the Anthropology track, feel free to reach out to Dr. Adriana Petryna , Dr. Deborah Thomas , or Maggie Krall (Director of Administration, Medical Scientist Training Program, Penn Med School); or the Anthropology Graduate Group Coordinator .

Current Students

Ankita Reddy

2nd Year MD/PhD

What did I do before the MD-PhD?  

I studied Biology and Anthropology at MIT where I became interested in globally deployed medical technologies. I worked in a lab that developed rapid diagnostics for dengue, Zika, and chikungunya and had the opportunities to field test the devices in Latin America and Asia. In my junior year I worked with my team to create a spin-off startup, E25Bio, to further develop and deploy the diagnostics. I continued working as a research scientist and clinical liaison for E25Bio following graduation, and upon the emergence of COVID-19, we performed rapid bench-to-bedside work to develop rapid COVID tests and to obtain regulatory approval. I used my lab work and startup experience as an ethnographic entry point to understanding bench-to-bedside development in transnational settings. I also spent time during undergrad and my gap year exploring experiences of the South Asian diaspora in Boston through multimodal research methods, including movement, documentary, and installation, which have influenced current interests and methodologies.

What's my anthropological project?  

While I am still very much in an exploratory phase of my graduate training, I am currently fascinated by the visual body of medicine. For instance, what does a medical professional look like? How is competence visually measured, and by whom? How do the ways that medical professionals see themselves (through various optics) affect medical practices and patient care? I recently interviewed and photographed second year medical students during the transition between didactic learning and clinical clerkships to understand how medical professionals who are in training visually perceive and present their body in the context of learning and practicing medicine. As I train in this era of mask-wearing, telehealth, image-based social media, and digital directories, I am interested in exploring how visual interfaces are continually transforming in medicine.

What are my medical interests?

  I entered medical school particularly interested in infectious disease, and since beginning I have also become interested in psychiatry, dermatology, and family medicine. I look forward to exploring these fields in my clerkships and beyond!

Want to get in touch?  Email me at   [email protected]

Nipun Kottage

2nd year MD/PhD

What did I do before the MD-PhD?

I graduated in 2019 from the University of Maryland with bachelor's degrees in Anthropology and Biochemistry. There, I studied the micro-politics of water infrastructure projects in Ghana and Nicaragua to understand how the relationships, procedures, and expectations within development projects influence the impact and sustainability of wells, pipes, and water towers. During that time, I volunteered as a project manager and was president of the University of Maryland Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. After completing my degree, I worked with the Capital Area Violence Intervention Program, a hospital-based wraparound social service program to support Black men who survive violence. Through dialogue with survivors, my research sought to explore the social and emotional terrain that shape experiences of injury and survivorship.

What’s my anthropological project?

I am interested in the operations of large institutions, such as hospital systems, and how they shape the lives of their employees and the environments in which they reside. I draw upon political ecology as well as anthropology of labor to understand how workers navigate the institutions in which they are embedded. How are the desires of institutions formed and acted upon? How are these desires negotiated and contested by the people who seek to make life among them? How are these politics nested within ecosystems of economy, policy, and politics that make societal projects - like the delivery of healthcare - possible?

What are my medical interests?

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine and internal medicine. I loved my time as a clerkship student at rural primary care sites, taking care of patients in the ICU step down unit, and in the emergency department. Through my practice, I seek to help create health system change to serve socially and medically vulnerable populations.

Want to get in touch?

Email me anytime at [email protected] !

Ross Perfetti

4th year MD/PhD (MD-Harvard, PhD-Penn)

What did I do before the MD-PhD?

I am from Pittsburgh and first moved to Philadelphia for college in 2012. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Modern Middle Eastern Studies and a minor in Chemistry. I received an MSc in Medical Anthropology at Durham University on a Thouron Fellowship. Upon return to the United States, I worked in qualitative health research in the department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Penn Medicine. I am pursuing my medical training at Harvard Medical School and completed the first two years of my MD before coming to Penn Anthropology for my PhD.

What’s my anthropological project?

I am interested in the experiences of ICU survivorship among hospitalized and critically-ill patients, their families, and their clinicians. In particular, I am interested in “Post-Intensive Care Syndrome” as a form of recognition of long-term consequences of critical care and the implications of this form of recognition for a growing number of ICU survivors. I do most of my research in an ICU in Philadelphia, but I also work with former ICU patients, clinicians, researchers, and other experts outside of this setting. I do historical research on medical innovation and policy changes that affect critical care practices today.

After 6 months of rotations, I’m still undecided, but have early leanings toward psychiatry or neurology.

Want to get in touch?

Email me at [email protected]

Randy Burson

5th Year MD-PhD Candidate

Originally from New Mexico, I moved to the Philly area to attend Swarthmore College where I studied Biology and Anthropology. After undergrad, I completed a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Chile focused on intercultural mental health services. I also carried out research on clinical informed consent, patient-reported outcomes in the post-ICU setting, and Centers of Excellence models as a research assistant in the Social Science Lab in Perioperative Medicine (SSLiPM) in Penn’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care.

Situated at the intersections between anthropology and health services research, my research focuses on how multiple forms of politics, science, and knowledge are operationalized in health systems, and how patients and providers navigate these systems in the US and Latin America. Currently, my project focuses on interactions between territorial struggles and cross-cultural healthcare for indigenous Mapuche patients in Southern Chile to investigate how human health, indigenous sovereignty, and environmental justice are inter-connected. Through ethnographic methods both in and beyond the clinic, my fieldwork seeks to understand how approaches to biomedical and indigenous Mapuche healing are addressing broader community, territorial, and environmental concerns.

What are my medical interests?

I am clinically interested in emergency medicine, social medicine, and how social problems are addressed in and through healthcare. Ultimately, I’m interested in a clinical career that lets me continue to pursue fieldwork and teaching in both anthropology and medical education.

Want to get in touch?

Let’s chat! Email me at [email protected] and follow me on twitter, @RandyBurson2.

Caroline Hodge

7th year MD/PhD (MD-UCSF, PhD-Penn)

I earned my undergrad degree in religion from Princeton, where my thesis research focused on Christian responses to epidemic diseases, namely leprosy and HIV/AIDS across time. This research led me to a masters program in Medical Anthropology at Oxford, where I got a crash course in the discipline of anthropology and honed both my research interests and my desire to practice clinical medicine, not just study it anthropologically. Just before medical school, I worked in a lab studying the malignant progression of breast cancer and spent my spare time teaching sex education, a formative experience in terms of my current research interests. I'm unlike the rest of my cohort in that I'm split between two institutions: I started medical school at UCSF, and during the first year realized that I really wanted to pursue a PhD as well, which I'm lucky enough to be doing here at Penn.

What's my anthropological project?

My dissertation research centers around contraception, exploring how this commonplace technology exceeds its mandate as "birth control" in the American Midwest. Contraception, indeed, refers to a wide range of technologies (e.g., the Pill, the condom, natural family planning) that work on or in a diverse set of users to achieve a disparate set of goals (which may be pregnancy prevention, but also includes regulating heavy or painful periods, treating endometriosis or other gynecologic conditions, use as migraine prophylaxis, and more). Within this great diversity, I'm interested in understanding how people form, articulate, and enact contraceptive desires, how contraceptive technologies move in and through intimate relationships, and what the embodied experience of contraception is like in the Heartland, where matters of reproductive health form the center of a contentious and on-going policy debate.

My clinical aspirations align with my research interests, and I think that I will either end up in obstetrics and gynecology, or in some branch of pediatrics (adolescent medicine, pediatric gynecology, neonatology) that allows me to continue thinking about reproductive health and working with women and girls as they plan and realize their families. I'd like a career that allows me to combine clinical work and research with teaching, and I'm especially committed to increasing the remit of the social sciences in medical education.

Email me at [email protected] .

Chuan Hao (Alex) Chen

7th year MD/PhD

I studied architecture for five years at Cornell, drawing building plans and constructing models by day while taking basic science courses at night. I fell in love with medical anthropology in my last year of college and designed a "Hipster Hospital" - inspired by Foucault - for my thesis project. I then pursued a Master of Design Studies in Risk and Resilience at Harvard, conducting fieldwork with Emergency medical Technicians before coming to Penn.

Building upon my Master's project, my dissertation examines how the building of preparedness infrastructures modulates and shapes the idea of safety in the wake of the Ebola crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the trajectory of fieldwork, which focuses specifically on the design of laboratory architecture and biocontainment technologies for emerging diseases. Combined with observations of pandemic response in the United States, my work examines how race and risk underscore the political and everyday life under emerging disease biocontainment. Whom does biocontainment and who is disavowed under contemporary racial capitalism are key questions that I probe through my dissertation project.

Because I love the visual, I am deciding between the fields of radiology and pathology, though I am also thinking about psychiatry because of its historical relationship with cultural anthropology. My dissertation fieldwork with laboratory architects has given me insight into the people, systems and built environment that enable scientific progress, and I hope to incorporate systems thinking, quality improvement, and equity and justice work into my future career.

Email me at [email protected]

8th year MD/PhD

As an undergrad, I studied biology at Brown University, where I wrote my senior thesis in anthropology on HIV/AIDS stigma in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. I spent the following year in South Africa, where I worked as a medical assistant in Mthatha, a small city in the eastern cape, and conducted ethnographic research with evangelical HIV/AIDS activists in Khayalitsha, a peri-urban township on the outskirts of Cape Town. When I returned to the US, I worked as a math and science tutor in New York City for two years.

What's my anthropological project?

My project concerns the medical response to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. Specifically, it focuses on private sector buprenorphine-based treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in rural Pennsylvania. I'm studying this addiction care in a county where buprenorphine remains a controversial medication for many stakeholders. Many residents perceive buprenorphine as a habit-forming substance akin to OxyContin or Percocet, rather than a legitimate longterm medication that reduces the risk of overdose and opioid-related morbidity. Local police have investigated and sanctioned a number of prescribers in the area for "selling prescriptions" for buprenorphine--likening these "rogue prescribers" to "drug dealers in white coats" who exploit vulnerable patients for profit. I am interested in how rural prescribers care for patients on a daily basis, while negotiating this fraught moral and legal terrain. At the same time, how are practices of "care" formally recognized--or found wanting--by law enforcement and medical authorities? And how is legitimate addiction care understood by rural OUD patients?

I am still undecided on this, but I'm interested in primary care, internal medicine, or possibly psychiatry.

Email me at [email protected]

Dr. Sara Rendell

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2022

Prior to my time at Penn, I studied at Saint Louis University where I worked with four other students to create and formalize a neuroscience major and conducted three years of neuro-engineering research on peripheral nerve regeneration that led to my honors thesis on the topic. After graduating, I deferred coming to Penn to study state-subsidized maternal health care in Burkina Faso as the recipient of a Fulbright US Student Program Grant.

Dissertation: My dissertation, titled Closeness through Distance: The Reformulation of Kinship and Racialized Punishment in U.S. Immigration, combined intimate and institutional ethnography with historical documentary research. It focused on how transnational kinship is intimately remade through racialized immigration policies that dictate which kinship relations matter, and how. During the fieldwork on which this dissertation is based, I worked with pro-bono legal aid organizations serving people detained and in deportation proceedings in prisons, jails and courtrooms in the Midwest and South of the US. I observed and documented the direct and collateral harms of hazardous administrative legal outcomes (including eviction, deportation, loss of benefits, and separation of kin) among racialized, low-income families. I am currently transforming the dissertation into a book project, as I continue to explore how kinship is incorporated to justify, execute, or extend harms and how kin create and sustain closeness under migration duress.

Current projects:

I am in residency training in Internal Medicine in the Physician Scientist Pathway at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. I currently collaborate on projects aiming to address structural determinants of health through medical-legal infrastructures. This work spans from health infrastructures that directly influence care for people living with HIV to administrative legal transformations at the state level that affect the everyday lives of people and their kin.

My next project builds from these insights to explore medical-legal partnership as method and as analytic into the ways in which legal infrastructures shape the lives and health of subjects.

Future plans:

After completion of residency and fellowship, I hope to combine research, advocacy and patient care within a faculty position in social medicine.I aim to collaborate across disciplines to address structural determinants of inequities in infectious diseases, including administrative legal harms that threaten social ties and aggravate social isolation.

Email me at [email protected] .

Dr. Joshua Franklin

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021

I attended Princeton, and although I started as a math major, I switched in my sophomore year to anthropology with a certificate in Portuguese. I traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil over two summers to conduct ethnographic fieldwork at a gender identity clinic where transgender patients had used right-to-health litigation to secure access to publicly-funded gender affirming care. This work formed the basis of my senior thesis, and after graduation, I returned to conduct an additional 9 months of fieldwork with a Fulbright US Student Program Grant. While an undergraduate, I was also trained as an EMT and worked as a volunteer for the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad.

Dissertation: My dissertation, Following the Child's Lead: Care and Transformation in a Pediatric Gender Clinic , focused on the impact of gender affirming care for transgender children and their families. Based on fieldwork I conducted at a pediatric gender clinic with patients, clinicians, and their families, my work argues that following the child's lead is at the heart of pediatric transgender medicine, and I examine the social and historical context of this child-centered approach as well as its limits. I also have worked as an ethnographer in clinical and public health research on transgender health and HIV prevention and treatment in Philadelphia, and my dissertation draws on these experiences to examine the race- and class-based inequalities in access to trans health resources.

What's my current anthropological project?

I am in my first year of psychiatry residency at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. I am working on a book-length manuscript based on my dissertation. I am exploring new projects focused on the medicalization of childhood in psychiatry. I am also working on several writing projects on narratives of wellness and burnout, as well as the emergence of the social sciences and humanities as objects of optimism for medicine and medical science.

I hope to pursue training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and continue my ethnographic work at the intersection of childhood, medicine, and identity.

Email me at [email protected]

Dr. Lee Young

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2021

What did I do before this?

I completed undergraduate studies at the University of Louisville where I majored in Anthropology and minored in Russian Language and Cultural Studies. I worked in a molecular anthropology laboratory for several semesters and spent most of my summers studying in Russia. After graduation, I conducted a one-year ethnographic study of drug addiction treatment modalities in Kazan, Russia as a Fulbright Scholar.

Dissertation: My dissertation, entitled Impossible Terrain: An Ethnography of Policing in Atlantic City, NJ , explores racial geographies of Atlantic City and their constitutions through situated analyses of police practice. It mobilizes the analytic of racial capitalism, linking changing forms of urban governance to critical genealogies of policing and liberal governance.

What's my current anthropological project?

I am in my first year of internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Email me at [email protected]

Dr. Michelle Munyikwa

I studied at the College of William and Mary, where I self-designed an interdisciplinary major in biochemistry & molecular biology and double-majored in anthropology. There, I developed a curiosity about the potential of translational research and wanted to work at the interface of cancer biology and clinical medicine, leading to my application to medical school. After working at Merck Research Laboratories, however, I learned I was most interested in the social, political, and economic worlds of medicine and scientific research, and I’ve been an anthropologist ever since.

Dissertation: My dissertation, titled Up from the Dirt: Racializing Refuge, Rupture, and Repair in Philadelphia , was an ethnographic and archival exploration of forced migration to Philadelphia. That work examined how humanitarian practices of care for refugees and asylum seekers in the city are shaped by the local contexts of Philadelphia, both past and present. I am currently working on transforming that dissertation into a book project.

What's my current anthropological project?

I am in m first year of internal medicine-pediatrics residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania. I am beginning work on two projects inspired by questions that arose in my dissertation. My first project, drawing upon my interests in the politics and practices of knowledge creation, examines how new epigenetic research on the embodiment of trauma is transforming contemporary understandings of disease inheritance and transmission for researchers, practitioners, and patients alike. The second is a personal project, an oral history centered around my maternal grandfather, who was a political prisoner during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle; this work engages themes around asylum, justice, and freedom that arose in my dissertation research.

Future plans?

After completion of residency, I hope to pursue a faculty position with a dual appointment in anthropology and clinical practice. My goal is to merge my interests in education, research, and clinical practice towards work that meaningfully advocates for and with marginalized communities.

Want to get in touch? Email me at [email protected] .

Utpal Sandesara

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2019

Dissertation: My dissertation examined sex-selective abortion in one district of western India's Gujarat state. Although the practice has been illegal in India since 1994 (and the focus of extensive government public health campaigns since the mid-2000s), it continues to drastically skew the child population in many parts of the country - to the extent that Mahesana City, where my research centered, had approximately 760 girls for every 1,000 boys in the last census. Over 18 months of fieldwork from 2012 to 2015, I explored sex selection as a lived experience. In addition to observing hundreds of clinical visits, I conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 50 doctors and black market brokers, over 100 pregnant women and their families, and dozens of government officials charged with curbing sex selection. The resulting dissertation argues for understanding sex selection as a morally complex act of care embedded in broader contexts of familial and medical care. It uses this argument as a starting point for thinking about how we might come up with better representations of and interventions on an obviously problematic phenomenon.

Current Projects:

I am completing an Internal Medicine residency training program at UCLA (more specifically, the Olive View-based Primary Care track). During residency, I am revising my dissertation into a book-length manuscript titled She Is Not Ours: Understanding Sex Selection in Western India . I am also undertaking autoethnographic fieldwork on the experience of residency training with the aim of producing a text that combines personal reflection, social scientific theory, and literary forms of writing to offer future health professionals a unique perspective on the practice of medicine (and initiation into it).

Future Plans:

After residency, I intend to practice general internal medicine (primary care or hospitalist) with structurally vulnerable populations while continuing to conduct research and teach. More specifically, I hope to use my combined training in medicine and anthropology in order to write for social scientific, clinical, and lay audiences, and to foster in health professions students curiosity and passion for the social side of medical care.

Email me at [email protected]

Nick Iacobelli

Graduated MD/PhD Program 2018

Dissertation: My dissertation was about the right to healthcare ostensibly granted to prison inmates in the United States under the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Through historical analysis, legal scholarship, critical theory, and participant-observation data from 18 months of fieldwork in the medical unit of a men's maximum-security prison in Pennsylvania, I examined what this right looks like in practice and the kinds of care it fosters behind prison walls. I worked to understand how the institutional logics of the prison, the law, and medicine abut interpersonal desires for care, compassion, and recognition. Even though the Eighth Amendment primarily exists as a mandate not to inflict too much harm, it also creates the conditions for which inmates come to rely on the state for life-saving and life-sustaining services, perpetuating historical forms of racial subjugation through care and containment in the process.

Current Projects : I am completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington and am currently a clinical instructor of medicine at the University's Division of General Internal Medicine. I am working to publish the findings of my dissertation as a book-length manuscript titled Wards of the State: Care and Custody in a Pennsylvania Prison with the University of California Press Public Anthropology Series. I'm also working locally in Seattle to develop a research project that investigates the role of medical-legal partnerships and their impact on the lives of those experiencing comorbid homelessness and drug addiction. I'm looking to continue my focus on the intersections of law, medicine, and other forms of institutional power on personal trajectories to see how they shape the struggle to avoid incarceration while seeking access to housing and treatment.

Future Plans: I want to continue research and teaching in anthropology while providing medical care to structurally vulnerable populations as a general internist.

Want to get in touch? Email me at [email protected]

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Medical Anthropology

Our MA program in cultural anthropology offers a unique focus on Medical Anthropology. Medical anthropology is a subdiscipline of anthropology that includes the study of all aspects of health, illness and disease in human communities and populations. It draws on all of the perspectives that distinguish anthropology as a unique discipline: the analysis of human evolution and adaptation; cultural development, expressions, and variability; and historical change and continuity. Medical anthropology takes as its subject a broad range of specific topics, including the study of health care systems, factors that affect the distribution and determinants of disease in populations, maternal and child health, nutrition and food habits, human development, political ecology, health policy, health disparities, community-driven wellness practices, visual storytelling, social media designed to promote health equities, and language and communication in health care contexts.

Faculty members take a variety of theoretical approaches to the topic, but our program is distinguished by its applied and engaged perspectives . A particular strength of our program is its integration of theoretical knowledge with a community- and field-based training opportunities and challenges. We prepare students for careers in nonprofit and community groups, non-governmental organizations, advocacy, public health, health care institutions, and health sciences research; our graduates also attend doctoral programs at selective institutions. Courses in the department are complemented by electives in other departments (sociology, biology, psychology, history, geography, political science) and programs on the UC Denver campus (public affairs, education, health administration) and at the Anschutz Medical Campus (Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy, and Nursing).

Our MA also offers a mentorship program in which students are paired with Alumni who have found careers in the field.

As part of the MA degree, students may take between 6 and 18 credits of electives in this track, choosing from:

ANTH 5000 Special Topics in Anthropology
ANTH 5014 Medical Anthropology: Global Health
ANTH 5080 Global Health Practice
ANTH 5200 Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective
ANTH 5230 Anthropology and Community-Based Participatory Research
ANTH 5270 Anthropology of the Body
ANTH 5290 Anthropology and Public Health
ANTH 5300 Migrant Health
ANTH 5350 Anthropology of Globalization
ANTH 5600 Medical Anthropology
ANTH 5800 Special Topics in Medical Anthropology

Note: Students are encouraged to take elective courses in GIS mapping (geography), ecology (biology/anthropology), public policy, public health, epidemiology and biostatistics as it is relevant to their course of study.

Those Interested in Advanced Study

A doctoral program on the UC Denver campus that may be of particular interest to graduates is the PhD in Health and Behavioral Sciences offered through the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences ( http://clas.ucdenver.edu/hbsc ) and is highly interdisciplinary. It is a natural extension of a master's degree in anthropology.

Full-Time Faculty

Sarah Horton (PhD, University of New Mexico, 2003)

Medical anthropology, public policy, health citizenship, globalization, migration and transnationalism, “illegality,” US Latinos; US Southwest, Mexico

Website | Profile | [email protected]

Marty Otanez (PhD, University of California-Irvine, 2004)

Political ecology, visual ethnography, media production, labor studies, health policy, tobacco control; Africa

Website | Profile | [email protected]

David Tracer (PhD, University of Michigan, 1991)

Biological anthropology, maternal and child health, growth and development, decision-making theory

Profile | [email protected]

Christine Sargent ( PhD , University of Michigan, 2018)

Kinship, disability, bioethics, Middle East, North America

Profile | [email protected]

Affiliated Faculty

Jean Scandlyn (PhD, Columbia University, 1993)

Healing and ritual; community-based health care delivery; adolescence; migration; gender and anthropology; North America, Latin America, Southeast Asia

Profile | [email protected]

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Anthropology

Medical anthropology track.

Undergraduate Studies

Medical anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that seeks to understand human experiences of health, illness, and suffering.

Medical anthropologists study topics such as global health, local health systems, indigenous medicine, violence and trauma, disability and the body, gender and sexuality, biotechnology, bioethics, and social suffering.

The Medical Anthropology track is ideal for students who wish to focus on anthropological analyses of health and the body. It may be of particular interest to pre-medical students. This track allows students to focus on medical anthropology theory and ethnography while also gaining a foundation in broader anthropological theory and methods.

Culture and Health (ANTH 0300)

Choose One:

Human Evolution (ANTH 0310)
Past Forward: Discovering Anthropological Archeology (ANTH 0500)
Any 0000 or 1000-level course in socio-cultural anthropology or linguistic anthropology

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (ANTH 0100)
Anthropology and Global Social Problems (ANTH 0110)
Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (ANTH 0800)
Language and Migration (ANTH 0805)
Anthropology of China (ANTH 1111)
Middle East in Anthropological Perspective (ANTH 1150)
Religion and Culture (ANTH 1240)
Anthropology of Disasters (ANTH 1255)
Anthropology and International Development (ANTH 1320)
Ethnography and Social Critique (ANTH 1848)

Ethnographic Research Methods (ANTH1940)
Bioethics and Culture (ANTH 1242)
Anthropology of Addiction and Recovery (ANTH 1300)
Anthropology of Homelessness (ANTH 1301)
International Health (ANTH 1310)
Stratified Reproduction (ANTH 1312)
Anthropology of Mental Health (ANTH 1515)

Other appropriate anthropology courses may be used to fulfill this requirement with DUS approval.

An additional three anthropology courses of the student’s choosing . At least two of the electives will need to be at the 1000-level to meet the general requirements of the concentration.

Most qualifying courses will bear a BIOL, PHP, or CLPS designation, but students can choose any appropriate course to fulfill this requirement with DUS approval.

Senior Seminar, (Re)Making Anthropology (ANTH 1990) , normally taken in senior year, is designed to provide students a firm understanding of what defines the discipline of anthropology, as grounded through a look at anthropology’s past, present, and future.

Graduate Study

Brown’s PhD program in Medical Anthropology offers an array of opportunities for students seeking specialized training in the field.

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MA Medical Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology offers an M.A. in Anthropology with a specialty in Medical Anthropology. The program is intended to provide a basic education in medical anthropology for physicians or other health professionals who have clinical work experience and prior graduate work. In exceptional cases, undergraduates who have superior backgrounds and are committed to careers in medicine or other health professions may be considered. The program can be completed in an intensive academic year, or over a longer period. Applicants follow the same procedure and schedule as those to the Ph.D. program. Requirements for the program include one year of full-time residence and course work (8 courses), the proseminar in anthropological theory taken by all first year graduate students in social anthropology, participation in relevant events in the medical anthropology program, and completion of an M.A. thesis.

Medical anthropologists and other faculty at Harvard work on a variety of theoretical and ethnographic issues, including: infectious disease and epidemics, violence, mental illness and cross-cultural psychiatry, subjectivity and culture, social suffering, stigma, ethics and bioethics, human rights, pharmaceuticals, substance abuse, aging, governmentality, transnationalism and borders, and history of medicine and science. Participants in the Medical Anthropology program are united by a shared commitment to long-term ethnographic engagement with local cultural and social worlds, by a common concern with the practical relations between ethnographic research, medical knowledge, and public health policies, and finally , by a common emphasis on the importance of social theory in medical anthropology.

The faculty includes those with appointments at Harvard Medical School and its Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. An important part of the program is the Friday Morning Seminar which brings together anthropologists, physicians and others who are centrally concerned with the relationship between social science and medicine. At Harvard, the program includes Professors Arthur Kleinman, Byron Good, Salmaan Keshavjee, Anne Becker, Joseph Gone, and Jean Comaroff.

Application to the M.A. program in Medical Anthropology follows usual procedures for application for the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Application information is available on the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website.

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Summer 2024 Courses

Check out our courses for the Summer 2023 term:

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Calaméo
UConn Medical Anthropology
2023 Best Online PhD in Anthropology Programs
Anthropology PhD Programs
An Introduction to Medical Anthropology
Top 10 Anthropology Graduate Programs in the World 2024

VIDEO

What is Medical Anthropology?
A Conversation on Physician-Scientist Training in the Social Sciences and Humanities
Anthropology UGC-NET 2020 paper solution
Anthropologist and Tribal Studies
[SPL] Interview of anthropology PhD candidate "Stephen Campbell Rea"
Medical Anthropology Young Scholars 7th Meeting

COMMENTS

Medical Anthropology Joint PhD (With UCSF)
The rise of this movement at Berkeley led to a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s with two dominant programs in graduate training, critical medical anthropology in the Joint Program at Berkeley and UCSF and interpretive medical anthropology at Harvard. Lawrence Cohen came from Harvard in 1992 to join Scheper-Hughes.
Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology is a subdiscipline of social and cultural anthropology focused on studies of illness, healing, medical practices, health care delivery and biotechnologies across societies. In the 1980s, Harvard faculty, students and fellows collaborated around what was known as an "interpretive" or "meaning-centered" approach to ...
Medical Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology's Social Anthropology program offers a Ph.D. in Anthropology, with a special emphasis on Medical Anthropology. Students are regular members of the graduate program in social anthropology, and all requirements for the Ph.D. in anthropology pertain to those specializing in medical anthropology.
Medical Anthropology < University of California, Berkeley
The Department of Anthropology at Berkeley, and the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of California at San Francisco, currently offer a joint PhD in medical anthropology. Students may apply to enter the program through either the Berkeley or the San Francisco campus but not to both. The point of entry determines the student's ...
Medical Anthropology (PhD)
Program Description. The joint UCSF/UC Berkeley PhD in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program brings together one of the finest medical universities and one of the finest arts and sciences universities in the country to offer students a theoretically engaged approach to ...
Medical Anthropology
The Joint UCSF/UCB PhD in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program provides disciplinary leadership and outstanding, comprehensive training leading to the PhD degree. No other program offers the Joint Program's combination of excellence in critical medical anthropology ...
Medical Anthropology : The Graduate School
Degree Types: PhD/MPH. The combined PhD/MPH Program in Medical Anthropology prepares graduates for leadership in academic and government institutions requiring expertise in biocultural approaches to the study of human health and disease. Drawing on the broader strengths of our department in political-economic analysis, global health, and human biology, Medical Anthropology at Northwestern ...
MA/PhD in Medical Anthropology and Global Health
The Anthropology Department at Case Western Reserve University, a pioneer in the field of Medical Anthropology, offers a MA/PhD program in Medical Anthropology and Global Health. The CWRU program in Medical Anthropology and Global Health prepares students to meet the challenges of a globalized world by providing training in anthropological ...
Medical Anthropology
The program also offers a unique opportunity for dual degree students through the Medical Anthropology MD/PhD track, which includes the Medical Sciences Training Program. This track graduates physician scholars able to contribute to anthropological scholarship, medical science, and clinical care.
Medical Anthropology and Global Health
If you have a master's, you can enter our PhD program in your first year. Our master's requires 30 credit hours of courses, including core courses in anthropological theory, methods, medical anthropology and global health, while the PhD requires an additional 18 hours of coursework focused on preparing you for dissertation fieldwork.
Ph.D. Program
The graduate program in Brown's anthropology department encourages a diversity of doctoral research agendas in socio-cultural anthropology, ... Medical anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that seeks to understand human experiences of health, illness, and suffering. Medical anthropologists study topics such as global health, local ...
2024
Ranked as: #20 in Best National University. Tuition: $29,347 per year. Total Cost: $58,694 *. State: California. Acceptance: 17.48%. The Joint UCB UCSF Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology is one of the pioneering programs in the discipline both nationally and globally. The program provides disciplinary leadership and an outstanding and comprehensive ...
Graduate Program in Medical Anthropology at Northwestern
Graduate students may concentrate in medical anthropology through the PhD programs in either cultural anthropology or human biology. In addition, Northwestern offers a unique joint PhD/MPH degree program, which allows students to earn their masters in public health while working toward their PhD in anthropology.
Anthropology: Medical, PhD < University of Pennsylvania
The emphasis in the Graduate Program is on training candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This degree certifies that, in addition to having a sound knowledge of anthropology as a whole, the holder has been trained to do independent research at a professional level of competence in at least one of the major sub-disciplines of anthropology: archaeology, cultural anthropology ...
Medical Anthropology
Students in the graduate program in medical anthropology develop methodological skills fundamental to the practice of anthropology, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches from gender studies, indigenous studies, critical public health, neurosciences, film and visual studies, and history. At its core the program supports independent approaches ...
MD/ PhD Program
The Anthropology Track in the Penn MD-PhD Program/MSTP is dedicated to training physician-anthropologists who will become next-generation leaders in an integrated practice of clinical medicine and social science. Our program recognizes that the modern life sciences involve much more than the generation of knowledge about biological processes.
Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology. Our MA program in cultural anthropology offers a unique focus on Medical Anthropology. Medical anthropology is a subdiscipline of anthropology that includes the study of all aspects of health, illness and disease in human communities and populations. It draws on all of the perspectives that distinguish anthropology as a ...
Medical Anthropology Track
Learn about the Medical Anthropology track, a subfield of anthropology that studies human experiences of health, illness, and suffering. Find out the requirements, courses, and opportunities for students who want to pursue medical anthropology at Brown University.
MA Medical Anthropology
MA Medical Anthropology. The Department of Anthropology offers an M.A. in Anthropology with a specialty in Medical Anthropology. The program is intended to provide a basic education in medical anthropology for physicians or other health professionals who have clinical work experience and prior graduate work. In exceptional cases, undergraduates ...
Postgraduate Programs
Sechenov University provides Master's, Ph.D., and Residency level degree programs. Below is the list of the Master and PhD programs delievered in English: Master programmes. Public Health. Linguistics. PhD programmes. Chemical Science. Biological Science. Fundamental medicine. Clinical Medicine (GM profile) Clinical Medicine (Pediatrics profile)
Faculty of Postgraduate Professional Training of Physicians
The Faculty provides postgraduate training (internship and residency) in almost every medical specialty. PhD and other doctoral programs are also available. A large variety of postgraduate education programs are available, ranging from 72 to over 500 academic hours. Every year, over 7,500 of physicians study at the Faculty.
Faculty of Pharmacy
The Faculty of Pharmacy also provides postgraduate training (1-year internship) in pharmacoeconomics and management, pharmaceutical technology, pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacognosy. The Faculty of Pharmacy also offers PhD fellowships, with the PhD program lasting 3-4 years, other doctoral programs and continuing education courses.
Summer 2024 Courses
Department of Anthropology. University of Maryland, 1111 Woods Hall, 4302 Chapel Ln, College Park, MD 20742 ♦Phone: 301-405-1423 ♦ Fax: 301-314-8305 ♦Email: nadine [at] umd [dot] edu ♦ Contact Us
PDF Professor Mikhail A. Paltsev, MD, PhD, member of the Russian Academy of
Prof. M. Paltsev is known as a Consultant to many professional societies and asso-ciations, research institutions, healthcare providers, government agencies, and medical biotechnology companies as well. He is responsible for the national poli-cies and programs of health promotion and disease prevention and prophylaxis. Prof. M.