Courses / Module

This is an anthropology/social science seminar on problems of global health. We take a two-pronged approach to a vast, and vastly complex, field. First, we examine and critique an influential argument about the relationship between perduring systems of domination (such as poverty, racism, and sexism) and disease. Second, we examine the ways in which this knowledge and its attendant morality mobilizes global concern and types of intervention. In seeking solutions to problems of global health and human suffering, we are attentive to the hierarchies, and the unforeseen consequences, that can emerge when powerful global institutions seek to improve the lives of the putatively powerless. Thus, we consider the role social science in global health plays, alongside the social science of global health. This is a hybrid seminar-lecture. I may do some contextualising lectures designed to expand upon readings and to provoke discussion amongst students. However, the seminar works best when students actively engage in the required readings, coming to class prepared to discuss and debate them. Attendance is required.