Module ANTH2141: Global Health and Disease

Department: Anthropology

ANTH2141: Global Health and Disease

Prerequisites

• Health, Illness and Society (ANTH1041)

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

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

Content

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

Learning Outcomes

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

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

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

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Lectures and seminars introduce students to the material and enable discussion of it, informed by wider reading.
• A film series will provide students with an opportunity to reflect on and discuss wider issues concerning global health, and draw connections between material covered on the course and current affairs, the media and other forms of representation.
• Formative assessment is a 1000 word essay in each term. The formative essay should be a draft attempt at the summative assignment.
• Summative assessment is by two 2500 word summative essays (each worth 45% of the module mark) and a guided reading journal (worth 10% of the module mark) in which students reflect and comment on the key readings set each week as part of their independent study and to prepare for seminars and essays.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Written feedback on two formative assignments. Verbal feedback in seminars.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University