Syllabus: World Perspectives on Health Fall 2020

ANTH 2136: World Perspectives on Health

An Exploration of Medical Anthropology
Fall 2020
ZOOM
10:30-12:20 M/W

Professor Laurie Greene

Office Hours: m/w 12:30-1:30

                       or any day by appointment

Office: C107 or on Zoom

Cell Phone: text in emergency (609) 214-6596

Email: laurie.greene@stockton.edu (please put "Anth 2136" in subject line)

This semester we will be exploring the burgeoning field of medical anthropology. Medical anthropology is an applied discipline which starts with two insights; 

• first, that cultural premises which are often unconscious or difficult to recognize shape the way that we understand health and healing practices (illness and health are an “imposition of human meanings on naturally occurring processes”), 
• and second, that disease patterns, social norms, and socio-economic arrangements are intrinsically related (social factors determine disease patterns). 

It is part and parcel of medical anthropology that it is applied. Its concerns are not just for an understanding of the concepts and occurrences of health and illness cross culturally, but also in critical efforts that aim to make health and wellbeing available to everyone, not just those who hold power.

In order to understand these concepts we will be looking at the field i general with examples focusing on the SOCIAL and CULTURAL NEXUS of ILLNESS and DISEASE, especially as it pertains to the unequal distribution of health and well-beings across the world, during times of epidemics, pandemic and plagues. 

"Anthropology, Activism and Inequality"--Anthropology in general, and medical anthropology in particular has an activist agenda. Anthropologists have an ethical obligation to those who they study and in medical anthropology this has been translated to "health equity"-the rights of all individuals everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives free from violence, be it physical or "structural". The greatest proponent of this position has been medical anthropologist/doctor Paul Farmer. In his ground-breaking works (Infectious Inequalities, Pathologies of Power,AIDS and Accusation), Farmer describes illness as a disease of poverty, and implements models for alleviating disease and suffering in the poorest place in the world.

Our anthropological experiences this semester will focus on "infectious inequalities" within our communities by understanding the "cultural underpinnings" of these illnesses as well as finding "local solutions" for them based on ethnographic "fieldwok". This fieldwork will work to collect life histories of individuals from some of our most impoverished community members, and allow this stories to provide potential solutions to limited access to adequate healthcare.

Texts:

(1) Exploring Medical Anthropology (Joralemon)-prentice hall (3rd or 4th edition)

(2) Articles and other resources linked to this BLOG

Syllabus and Reading List 

 

Week 1: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology (September 7)

          -course description and requirements, definition of terms 

          Readings: https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2020/07/anthropologists-have-important-role-to-play-in-public-health-crises-veteran-scholar-says/ (medical anthropology & COVID-19)

                             https://www.ias.edu/ideas/levine-covid-19 (what we know about the Corona Virus)

Week 2: What's so Cultural About Disease (September 14-16)

          -Tenets of Medical Anthropology

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 1

Week 3: Illness Narratives and the Experience of Illness (September 21-23)

         -Phenomenology, Narrative experience, Examples, Ethnography, auto ethnography and       

          methodology

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapters 2

Week 4-5: Epidemics, Pandemics, & Plagues in an anthropological framework (September 28-30) 

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapters 3-5

                           BLOG Posts

Due: Auto-ethnographies September 30 (Wednesday) please email these and look for a return email that confirms I received your work.

Week 6: Illness as Metaphor (October 5-7)

          Readings: Here (Susan Sontag)

                           Here (metaphors of the ill body)

Week 7: Infectious Inequality (October 12-14)

          -economics of structural inequality

          Readings: Here  (Paul Farmer)

                           PODCAST (BLM and Corona Virus)

                           

Week 8: The Politics of Illness (October 19-21)

          -race, class and gender in the time of illness

          -politics and affiliation

          -Naomi Klein and Disaster Capitolism

          Readings: Here Racial Disparities and COVID-19

                           Here "Shock Doctrine" (Naomi Klein)

                           PODCAST here (Structural Racism and COVID-19)

Due: Cultural Narratives of COVID-19 Due October 21

NO CLASS WEDNESDAY November 4th...Preceptorial Advising

Week 9:“Healers and Healing Professions” (October 29)

          -Drs., nurses, frontline workers and caregivers

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 6

                           Here chaplain illness narrative

                       here doctor ER
Guest lecture: Hunter Dunkelwiscz (Chaplain) and Salvatore Profaci (nurse)

Week 10: Testing, Drugs, Vaccines and the Anthropology of Public Health (November 3-5)

          -AIDS and Act-UP

          -The race for a vaccine

          -Hydrochloriquine

          -testing efficacy and availability

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, Chapter 7

Week 11: Bioethics and Culture (November 10-12)

          Readings: Joraleson, Exploring Medical Anthropology, excerpts from Chapters 8-10

                           HERE (medical anthropology and attitudes toward vaccines)

          -testing and vaccines, building public trust

          -essential workers?

          -Herd Immunity/Sacrificing citizens

          -availability of supplies/beds/ventilators

         -Who lives and who dies?

Week 12: Alternative Narratives/Alternative Medicine (November 17-19)

         -The holistic community and its narratives (essential oils, food, vitamins, etc.)

         -home cures 

         Readings: 

Due: Stories From the Front Lines November 19

No Class November 24-26 Thanks giving Break

      Week 13: Stigma as Contagious Diseases (December 1-3)

-             -AIDS, Cancer, TB and other vilified conditions

              Readings: https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/08/four-strategies-covid-19-stigma-mitigation/

                               HERE (Herd Immunity and eugenics)

      Week 14: Presentations (December 8-10)

Due: On the Future of Life with Disease (December 18)

     

      ^{Final Project Write-Up, December 18th (graduating seniors, December 16th)}

      ^{Final Exam Wednesday, December 16th}

    ^Grading:

1. 4 Projects/Final Presentation-60%
2. Zoom Attendance and Participation -20%
3. Final Exam -20%