ANTH30S7: Political Ecologies of Health

• Sex, Reproduction and Love (ANTH2111) OR Global Health and Disease (ANTH2141)

• None.

• None.

• To explore the relationships between place and health, and between displacement and ill-health over both long- 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.

• 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 instructors ongoing research in Ethiopias Lower Omo valley.

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:

• In-depth knowledge of the anthropology of health and environment, with emphasis on interpretation and comprehensive understanding of primary or secondary data.

• Lectures may consist of pre-recorded videos, 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 lectures 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).

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