Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 1
Syllabus
Anthropology and Public Health
Proposed for Spring 2009
Frances K. Barg, PhD
Course overview
In this course, we examine three types of relationships between anthropology and public
health. Anthropology and public health will examine complementary and competing
concepts fundamental to each discipline and ways that these concepts make it essential
and difficult for the disciplines to work together. Anthropology on public health takes a
critical look at assumptions in public health praxis. Anthropology in public health will
focus on ways that anthropology theory and methods inform the practice of public health.
Using these three approaches, we will examine topics in public health such as mental
health, health promotion/disease prevention communication, cancer disparities,
reproductive health, violence and infectious disease. Students will learn and apply
anthropologic research methods to these problems.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Describe conceptual differences and similarities between anthropology and public
health
2. Describe differences and similarities in research methods in anthropology and public
health
3. Apply an anthropologic conceptual framework to a common public health problem
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of ethical and rigorous fieldwork.
5. Demonstrate the ability to design a study addressing a public health issue using
anthropologic theory and methods
Required books
James A. Trostle (2005) Epidemiology and Culture, Cambridge University Press, New
York.
H. Russell Bernard, ed (2000) Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology,
AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek.
Course readings: Required readings will be posted on the course Blackboard site.
Teaching methods:
The course will be held in seminar style. Each class will have both a topical and research
focus. There will be a didactic component to most sessions. Students will also participate
in guided fieldwork outside of class. Students will separate into smaller interest groups
based upon similar interests (e.g. cancer disparities, reproductive health issues, mental
health, violence) to discuss readings and to process field work experiences. We will
Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 2
identify interest groups together during the first week of class. Students will meet weekly
in smaller interest groups to discuss readings and to process field work experiences.
Evaluation:
(1) Research proposal Students will write a research proposal on a topic of interest in
public health that utilizes a conceptual approach described during the course and
that incorporates qualitative or mixed methods. The research proposal will be due
on MAY 4, 2009. It should be a maximum of 20 single spaced pages. During the
last two weeks of class, students will present their proposal ideas and “workshop”
their ideas with the class. 40% of grade
(2) Research process notes Students will be given field work assignments in class that
will need to be completed by the following class. Depending upon the assignment,
students will be required to submit field notes or written summaries of their
experience. These notes or summaries will be collected at each class. As these are
learning tools, they will not be graded for content, but they will be evaluated as to
whether they are complete and comprehensive. 30% of grade
(3) Participation The value of this class will depend upon the active engagement of
all students. This means that you will be required to complete all readings prior to
class, attend all classes, and participate vigorously in class and small group
discussion.
Week one
Introduction to Anthropology and Public Health
Develop smaller interest groups
Part one
Anthropology and Public Health
The first part of the course focuses on similarities and differences in the way that
anthropologists and public health specialists approach health problems.
Week two
Topics
Conceptual approaches in anthropology
and public health.
Methods
Fundamentals of research in medical
anthropology
Fitting research into the different
paradigms
Qualitative and mixed methods study
designs
Participant observation
READ: Bernard, Ch 1,2,4, Trostle, Ch 1,2
Read on Blackboard
(Lambert and McKevitt 2002)
(Reisinger 2004)
Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 3
Receive participant observation assignment
Week three
Topics
Three approaches to medical anthropology
Methods
Conceptual and methodological toolkits
Ethics in social science research
Writing fieldnotes
Bernard ch 5,8, 9
Blackboard readings:
(Trostle and Sommerfeld 1996)
Second participant observation assignment
Part two
Anthropology on Public Health
The final section of the course will cover ways that anthropology and other social science
have provided a critique of concepts in the practice of public health
Week four
Topics
Unpacking the risk concept
Methods
Sampling in qualitative research
Focus groups
Trostle, Chapter 7
Blackboard readings:
(Gifford 1986; Hayes 1992; Chavez, Hubbell et al. 1995; Skolbekkan 1995)
Week five
Topics
Methods
Critical Public Health
Qualitative Data management
Introduction to Qualitative software
Blackboard readings:
(Lakoff 2008)
(Aronowitz 2008)
(Briggs 2003)
Part three
Anthropology in Public Health
The second part of the course addresses ways that anthropology can be applied to public
health topics such as reproductive health, mental health, prevention, violence and cancer.
Week six
Topics
Anthropology in reproductive health
Blackboard readings:
(Obermeyer 2003)
Methods
“Learning how to ask”
Semi-structured interviewing
Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 4
(Mollen, Barg et al. 2008)
Week seven
Topics
Anthropology and Mental health
Methods
Semi-structured interviewing
Blackboard readings:
(Bonander, Kohn et al. 2000)
(Whitley and McKenzie 2005)
Week eight
Topics
Health promotion/disease prevention
Methods
Qualitative data analysis
Trostle, chapter 6
Week nine
Topics
Cultural models and health
Methods
Cultural consensus analysis
Blackboard readings:
(Barg and Grier 2008)
(Switzer, Wittink et al. 2006)
Week ten
Topics
Culture and health behavior
Cultural issues in measurement and bias
Trostle, Chapter 4
Blackboard readings:
(Bourgois, Martinez et al. 2006)
(Barg, Huss-Ashmore et al. 2006)
Week eleven
Topics
Thinking about Pandemics: the plague,
SARS, AIDS
Blackboard readings:
(Singer and Clair 2003)
Week twelve
Research proposal presentations
Methods
Mixed methods research
Methods
Publishing qualitative and mixed methods
research
Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 5
Week thirteen
Research proposal presentations
Aronowitz, R. (2008). "Framing disease: an underappreciated mechanism for the social
patterning of health." Soc Sci Med 67(1): 1-9.
Barg, F. K. and S. A. Grier (2008). "Enhancing communication about breast cancer: A
cultural models approach." International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Barg, F. K., R. Huss-Ashmore, et al. (2006). "A mixed methods approach to understand
loneliness and depression in older adults." Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences
61B(6): S329-S339.
Bonander, J., R. Kohn, et al. (2000). "An anthropological and epidemiological overview
of mental health in Belize." Transcultural Psychiatry 37(1): 57-72.
Bourgois, P., A. Martinez, et al. (2006). "Reinterpreting ethnic patterns among white and
African American men who inject heroin: a social science of medicine approach." PLoS
Med 3(10): e452.
Briggs, C. L. (2003). "Why nation-stats and journalists can't teach people to be healthy:
Power and pragmatic miscalculation in public discourses on health." Medical
Anthropology Quarterly 17(3): 287-321.
Chavez, L. R., F. A. Hubbell, et al. (1995). "Structure and meaning in models of breast
and cervical cancer risk factors: A comparison of perceptions among latinas, anglo
women, and physicians." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 9(1): 40-74.
Gifford, S. M. (1986). The meaning of lumps: A case study of the ambiguities of risk.
Anthropology and Epidemiology. C. R. Janes, R. Stall and S. M. Gifford. Norwell, MA,
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hayes, M. V. (1992). "On the epistemology of risk: Language, logic and social science."
Social Science in Medicine 35(4): 401-407.
Lakoff, A. (2008). "The generic biothreat, or, how we became unprepared." Cultural
Anthroology 23(3): 399-428.
Lambert, H. and C. McKevitt (2002). "Anthropology in health research: from qualitative
methods to multidisciplinarity." BMJ 325(7357): 210-213.
Mollen, C. J., F. K. Barg, et al. (2008). "Assessing attitudes about emergency
contraception among urban, minority adolescent girls: an in-depth interview study."
Pediatrics 122(2): e395-401.
Draft syllabus, Anthropology and Public Health – proposed for Spring 2009 page 6
Obermeyer, C. M. (2003). "The health consequences of female circumcision: science,
advocacy, and standards of evidence." Med Anthropol Q 17(3): 394-412.
Reisinger, H. S. (2004). "Counting apples as oranges: epidemiology and ethnography in
adolescent substance abuse treatment." Qual Health Res 14(2): 241-58.
Singer, M. and S. Clair (2003). "Syndemics and public health: Reconceptualizing disease
in bio-social context." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17(4): 423-441.
Skolbekkan, J. A. (1995). "The risk epidemic in medical journals." Social Science and
Medicine 40(3): 291-305.
Switzer, J. F., M. N. Wittink, et al. (2006). ""Pull yourself up by your bootstraps": a
response to depression in older adults." Qual Health Res 16(9): 1207-16.
Trostle, J. A. and J. Sommerfeld (1996). "Medical Anthropology and epidemiology."
Annual Review of Anthropology 25: 253-74.
Whitley, R. and K. McKenzie (2005). "Social capital and psychiatry: review of the
literature." Harv Rev Psychiatry 13(2): 71-84.