Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Postgraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2024-2025

Module ANTH40W15: Advanced Studies in Political Ecologies of Health

Department: Anthropology

ANTH40W15: Advanced Studies in Political Ecologies of Health

Type Open Level 4 Credits 15 Availability Available in 2024/2025 Module Cap

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • To explore the relationships between place and health, and between displacement and ill-health over both long-term and short-term time horizons.
  • To bring medical anthropology into conversation with planetary health and critical studies of development.
  • To provide a window on the challenges of engaged anthropology in the context of unfolding crises.

Content

  • The module explores questions about human health and well-being through case studies in which access to water, food, clean air, or other vital resources has become contested.
  • Topics that may be covered include: dams, modernity, and environmental conflict; contestation and resistance against development projects; colonization and displacement; debates concerning the Anthropocene; advocacy, networks, and applied anthropology.
  • Students will explore a range of historical and contemporary cases, including the instructor's ongoing research in Ethiopia's Lower Omo valley.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • At the end of the module, students will be able to:
  • Demonstrate advanced levels of current knowledge and intensive understanding of theories in medical anthropology and political ecology.
  • Deploy analytical skills specific to the topics of health and environmental change.
  • Be competent in accessing and assimilating specialised research literature of an advanced nature.
Subject-specific Skills:
  • Familiarity with the extended case method.
Key Skills:

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

  • Lectures may consist of live presentations, break-out discussions or other activities as appropriate to the material covered from week to week.
  • Seminar / tutorial elements will develop topics introduced in lecture and required reading to analyse aspects or case studies in greater depth and to prepare students for their summative assignment.
  • Student preparation and reading time will allow engagement with specific references in advance of tutorials and general and particular reading related to the assessment, which may be a written assignment (such as an essay or report) or another format (e.g. podcast, video).

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
Lectures 10 Weekly 1 hour 10
Seminars 5 Fortnightly 1 hour 5
Preparation and Reading 135
Total 150

Summative Assessment

Component: Coursework Component Weighting: 100%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Research journal (individual) 2000 words 20%
Research project (collaborative) 1000 words per student, or equivalent 80%

Formative Assessment:

500 word contribution to research project


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