Introduction to anthropology in global health

Language of instruction

English

Course 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

Study period

Spring

Credits (ECTS)

5 ECTS credits

Pre-requirements

Proficiency in English

Form of assessment

Essay (4-6000 words)

Course overlap

5 ECTS credits reduction to the course INTH345 and 3 ECTS credits reduction to the course INTH345O

Who may participate

PhD at Medical Faculty

PhD students from OsloMet

Contact

Centre for International Health

E-mail: studie@igs.uib.no

Tel: 55 58 85 69

Academic responsibility

Astrid Blystad and Karen Marie Moland

Reading list

The reading list will be made available by 1 December on Mitt UiB.

Course location

Centre for Intertnational Health, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care