Introduction to anthropology in global health

ECTS Credits

3 ECTS credits

Level of Study

Master

Teaching semester

Spring

Place of Instruction

Centre for International Health

Objectives and Content

The course provides an introduction to medical anthropology exploring the socio-cultural and structural conditions that shape experiences of health, illness and disability. The focus will be placed on reproductive health, with a particular emphasis on pregnancy-, abortion- and birth related experience. Through empirical cases from the politicized field of the gendered reproductive body, the course will investigate how global reproductive health policy is played out, perceived and acted upon in local health systems- and community contexts. The course will analyze the childbearing body as a central site for reproductive governance, where dynamics of power and agency intersect with culturally embedded meaning making processes. Through anthropological perspectives and ethnographic methods, the students will engage with contextual and comparative approaches to enable critical thinking and reflection in global reproductive health.

The course is planned and offered in collaboration with OsloMet

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

Knowledge

• describe central anthropological concepts, theory and methodology in research on health, illness and disability
• identify social- and cultural aspects of adverse reproductive health outcomes
• explain structural conditions and power dynamics that shape reproductive health outcomes and experience
• describe the interaction between global reproductive governance and local experience and practice

 Skills

• describe central anthropological concepts, theory and methodology in research on health, illness and disability
• identify social- and cultural aspects of adverse reproductive health outcomes
• explain structural conditions and power dynamics that shape reproductive health outcomes and experience
• describe the interaction between global reproductive governance and local experience and practice

General Competence

• employ central concepts and theory in the analysis of reproductive health calamity 
• engage anthropological conceptual and methodological approaches in the design of own research project

Required Previous Knowledge

Proficiency in English

Credit Reduction due to Course Overlap

INTH345 and INTH945

Access to the Course

Norwegian Research School for Global Health (NRSGH)

PhD-candidates in collaborating institutions

Master students at UiB (IGS-CIH-HEMIL)

Medical students at UiB

Master and PhD students from OsloMet

Teaching and learning methods

Introductory lectures

Seminars with student presentations

Collaborative learning exercises

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance

Compulsory attendance in lectures and seminars (80%)

Active participation in collaborative learning exercise

Forms of Assessment

Presentation of own research project

Presentation of collaborative learning exercise

Grading Scale

Pass/fail

Subject Overlap

INTH345 and INTH945

Assessment Semester

Spring

Reading List

To be published by 1 January for the spring semester

Course Evaluation

Students evaluate the teaching according to the quality assessment requirements of the University of Bergen.

Programme Committee

Programme Committee for Global Health

Course Coordinator

Astrid Blystad and Karen Marie Moland

Course Administrator

Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care