Introduction to anthropology in global health

Ph.D. -course

Course description

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

Course location

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

Introductory lectures

Seminars with student presentations

Collaborative learning exercises

Grading Scale
ECTS A-F
Language of instruction
English
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

Academic responsible
Astrid Blystad and Karen Marie Moland
Reading list
The reading list will be made available on Mitt UiB.