Anthropology and Global Health
Joint Degree Program
Masters in Anthropology/Masters in Public Health (MPH)
Introduction
In today’s rapidly globalizing world where people and pathogens routinely cross borders, the traditional distinction between domestic versus international health issues is a thing of the past; we are all indelibly living in a global world. Following recent catastrophes like 9/11, Chernobyl, SARS, genocides in Rwanda, Serbia, and Darfur, not to mention the on-going pandemic of HIV/AIDS, there is an unprecedented degree of interest in global concerns, including health issues, and a clear recognition for the need to reformulate and broaden our conceptualizations of health. Not only is there a growing recognition that national boundaries are no longer impediments to the spread of disease, but importantly, a growing awareness that the most pressing challenges to global health are not merely biological or technical, but also social, economic, and political. It is by recognizing the intersections between biomedical and cultural factors underlying global patterns of health and illness - the “pathologies of power,” as anthropologist Paul Farmer phrases it - that we can better understand and tackle the most serious epidemics and health disparities in our contemporary world. To respond to this urgent need, there is a growing recognition for the necessity of inter-disciplinary analyses that blend the approaches of different fields of knowledge centrally invested in understanding global health - namely public health and medical anthropology – in order to adequately understand and redress current global health disparities. This understanding is reflected in recent hiring patterns in schools of public health, many of which are increasingly hiring medical anthropologists as core members of their faculty. Further, it is also reflected in the fact that many medical anthropologists are acquiring Masters degrees in public health in order to better understand the issues at stake and respond to the growing demands on the part of students and the field.
To meet this growing need, the Department of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Divisions of Community Health Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health have established a joint degree program, entitled “Anthropology and Global Health” (AGH). This degree will provide students with concurrent formal study toward two degrees: a Master of Arts in Anthropology and a Masters in Public Health. The Masters of Arts in Anthropology is an academic degree that provides the graduate with a broad training in the field of Anthropology, which includes cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. The Masters of Public Health is a professional degree that ensures that the graduate has a general understanding of the field of Public Health, specific competence in a particular area (for this degree, the area will be either Community Health Sciences or Epidemiology), and concrete skills and experience in Public Health settings. The joint program integrates the fields of anthropology and public health; it combines the theoretical approaches of anthropology in understanding cultural and biological influences on patterns of health and illness, with the tools and applicability of public health approaches to global health problems. The joint Masters degree is designed to be followed by a Doctoral degree in Anthropology or Public Health. The doctoral degree will prepare the graduate for applications of independent research and advanced instruction in academic, research, and/or service careers.
The interdisciplinary focus of this joint program, its population-level perspectives, and its complementary toolkits will produce better-informed global citizens and researchers. As future leaders, students graduating from this joint program will know the range of serious health problems facing people at home and around the globe and the intersecting economic, political and cultural factors that underlie and often determine them. This joint program – one of a few of its kind in the country - allows for a rare opportunity to acquire integrated, structured, inter-disciplinary training in theory, methods, and studies illustrating the complex interplay of political, economic, social, ethical, behavioral, and biomedical dimensions of health.
Faculty
Program Design
Requirements
Course Descriptions
Sample Course Planning Guide
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