Medical Anthropology Advisor: Prof. Gina Jae (gjae@barnard.edu), 411C Milbank

Faculty at Barnard and Columbia who regularly teach courses that qualify for the Medical Anthropology Track:

• Nadia Abu El-Haj (Anthropology)
• Vanessa Agard-Jones (Anthropology)
• James Colgrove (Public Health)
• Maria José de Abreu (Anthropology)
• Gina Jae (Anthropology)
• Nicholas Bartlett (Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures)
• Zoe Crossland (Anthropology, Columbia)
• Mara Green (Anthropology)
• Jennifer Hirsch (Public Health; Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies)
• Rebecca Jordan-Young (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
• Samuel Roberts (History)
• David Rosner (Public Health; History)
• J.C. Salyer (Anthropology; Human Rights)
• Karen M. Seeley (Anthropology)
• Jill Shapiro (Anthropology; Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology)
• Kaya Williams (Anthropology)
• Amy Zhao (Sociology)

Since Fall, 2017, Barnard’s Anthropology Department has offered a specialized undergraduate major track in Medical Anthropology. This track follows a similar format to the existing one in Archaeology, designed to enable students who wish to pursue specialized studies in their coursework and senior theses projects in fields relevant to health, illness, suffering, and affliction. The major track is grounded in strong theoretical and methodological training in sociocultural anthropology, although other four approaches are possible, too.

Upon graduation, Anthropology (Medical Anthropology) will be designated on their transcript as their major field of study. Note that the Department does not offer a minor in Medical Anthropology.

(1) ANTH UN 1002 The Interpretation of Culture

Provides a general introduction to the intellectual history and theoretical commitments of anthropology as a discipline. 

(2) One of the following introductory courses...

• ANTH UN 1007 The Origins of Human Society
• ANTH UN 1008 The Rise of Civilization
• ANTH UN 1009 Introduction to Language and Culture
• EEEB UN 1010 The Human Species: Its Place in Nature

(3) ANTH UN 3040 Anthropological Theory

(4, 5) both ANTH BC 3871x and BC 3872y, Senior Thesis Seminar

(6-11) Six electives, at least three of which must be Anthropology courses at  3000 level or higher that demonstrate a clear focus (topically and/or theoretically) in fields central to medical anthropology (for instance: cross-cultural healing, the suffering body, critiques of clinical medicine and science, health inequalities, embodiment theory, the life course, death and mourning). One or two electives may be selected from outside departments in consultation with Prof. Sharp.

Below is a sample (not definitive) list of courses (primarily 3000 level and above) that qualify as electives for the specialized Track in Medical Anthropology. Students are advised to consult with the Medical Anthropology advisor regarding other classes offered each semester that might also satisfy this requirement.

ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH 2031                  Corpse Life: Anthro. History of the Dead

ANTH 2972                  Unsettling Science

ANTH 3052                  The City Jail

ANTH 3091                  Disability

ANTH 3160                  The Body & Society

ANTH 3665                  The Politics of Care

ANTH 3808                  Punishment Culture

ANTH 3812                  Accusing Corpse—Forensic Trace

ANTH 3811                  Toxic

ANTH 3828                  The Anthropology of War

ANTH 3829                  Absent Bodies          

ANTH 3835                  Air Matters

ANTH 3879                  The Medical Imaginary

ANTH 3893                  The Bomb

ANTH 3932                  Climate Change/Global Migration/Hum Rights

ANTH 3966                  Culture & Mental Health

ANTH 3976                  Anthropology of Science        

ANTH 3977                  Trauma

ANTH GU 4148            Human Skeletal Biology 

OTHER DEPARTMENTS
AFRS BC 3562           Caribbean Sexualities

East Asian 3844          Culture, Mental Health, & Healing in E Asia   

East Asian GU4840    China and the Politics of Desire

East Asian GU4558    Tibetan Science, Medicine, Knowledge

ENG BC 3147             Intro to Narrative Medicine

CompLit/Soc 4325      Abolition Medicine: Medical Racisms

CompLit/Soc 4802      Contradictions of Care

HIST 2523                   Health Inequality: Modern US

HIST 3437                   Corporate Behavior & Public Health

HIST 4769                   Health & Healing in Africa

HumRts 3360              Human Rights & Bodily Autonomy     

HumRts 3850              Human Rights & Public Health           

PUBH PS0201            Global Public Health: Pandemics & Beyond

PUBH 3100                 Fundamentals of Public Health

PUBH 4200                 Environment, Health, & Justice

 * NOTE: “Introduction to Public Health" DOES NOT qualify as an elective in the major track]

SOC 3652                     Gender & Public Health Disparities [cross-referenced as WGSS 3655]

SOC BC 3750               Race, Health, & Biomedicine

SOC BC 3933               Sociology of the Body

SOC 3937                     Sociology of Human Rights

WGSS BC 1050            Women and Health

WGSS BC 2950            Science, Technology, Power

WGSS 4317                  Bodily Disruptions