ANTHRO 1609 Social Medicine and Medical Anthropology: Methods and Practice

Dr. Lindsey Zeve

Th 3:00-5:45pm

Social medicine is a multidisciplinary field of practice that draws insights from the social sciences to improve care delivery and address health inequities. Medical anthropology is a core contributing discipline to the field of social medicine, whose practitioners draw insights into the social determinants of health from ethnographic research modalities and anthropological theory. This course seeks to put anthropological scholarship and research practices into conversation with social medicine's other constitutive disciplines, including public health and social epidemiology, sociology, and history. Through a series of case studies, students will learn to interpret and evaluate a range of qualitative and quantitative modes of research that are used in social medicine, from ethnography to randomized controlled trials. They will explore how each defines, measures, and evaluates health challenges. They will also learn to think critically about the ethical and epistemological dimensions of different research modalities. In doing so, students will gain the ability to critically appraise qualitative and quantitive research claims.They will also develop a deep understanding of how medical anthropology and related social sciences disciplines can contribute to the work of social medicine.