Academic Resources: Graduate Programs
Brunel University
Acting Convenor of MSc (till July 1999): David N. Gellner
Convenor of MSc (from August 1999): Melissa Parker
Kinds of degrees:
- MSc in Medical Anthropology EITHER 1 year, full time (2 full days per week) OR 2 years, part time (1 full day per week);
- MPhil/PhD in Anthropology (3-4 years: first year includes taught courses)
Medical Anthropology Faculty:
- Ronnie Frankenberg
research: AIDS/HIV; European and Third World health
systems; Zambian and Italian healing practices
degrees: BA (Hons) (Cambridge), Natural Sciences and Anthropology (1950),
MA (Econ) Manchester (1952), PhD Manchester (1954)
RFrank1251@aol.com - David N. Gellner
research: religion, ritual and healers; politics and ethnicity; South Asia,
especially Nepal and the Himalayas; East Asia
degrees: BA (1979), MPhil (1981), DPhil (1988), all Oxford
david.gellner@brunel.ac.uk - Cecil Helman
research: lay health beliefs and behaviors; psychosomatic disorders and
doctor/patient interactions; literature and anthropology
degrees: MB, ChB, MRCGP (1967), all Capetown, Dip. Soc. Anth. (1972), UCL
c.helman@ucl.ac.uk - Melissa Parker
Director, International Medical Anthropology Program
research: HIV/AIDS in the UK; tropical health in Sub-Saharan Africa;
reproductive health; evaluation of biomedical interventions; anthropology
of war
degrees: BA, Human Sciences (1982), DPhil, Anthropology (1989), both Oxford
melissa.parker@brunel.ac.uk - Ian Robinson
Director of the Centre for the Study of Health, Sickness, and
Disablement, Brunel University
research: experience and management of long-term illness in Europe;
children and childhood; ethnicity, identity, and health
degrees: BA (1966), MA (1967), Nottingham
ian.robinson@brunel.ac.uk - Alison Shaw
research: Europe's ethnic minorities, esp. Pakistani Muslims; social
implications of new genetics; perceptions of disability
degrees: BA, Human Sciences (1979), DPhil, Anthropology (1984), both Oxford
alison.shaw@brunel.ac.uk - Affiliated and participating Faculty
Eric Hirsch
research: Papua New Guinea and Britain; communication, technology and
consumption, including new reproductive technologies; landscape and
nationalism
degrees: BSc (1978), Missourie, MSc (1981) and PhD (1988) both LSE
eric.hirsch@brunel.ac.uk - Suzette Heald (from Jan 2000)
research: ritual, gender, violence, economy; psychoanalysis; Isaac
Schapera; east Africa, southern Africa
degrees: BSc (1964), PhD (1974), both UCL - Adam Kuper
reseach: kinship; history of anthropology; dreams; southern Africa
degrees: BA (1961), Witwatersrand, PhD (1966), Cambridge
adam.kuper@brunel.ac.uk - Christina Toren
research: Melanesia and Pacific; cognition and developmental psychology;
theories of value, exhange, property relations
degrees: BSc (1979), UCL, PhD (1986), LSE
christina.toren@brunel.ac.uk
Program Information : MSc and MPhil/PhD in Medical Anthropology
(a) focus:
- The Brunel MSc in Medical Anthropology was the first taught Master's degree in Britain and Europe in medical anthropology when it was established in 1989. It remains the largest postgraduate program of its kind in Europe with over 180 graduates to date. Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, many with some kind of professional qualification in the healthcare field. Generally students come, roughly, one third from an academic, and two thirds from a clinical background. Up to a quarter come from overseas and many of the home students have experience of working abroad. The degree is designed to give a broad introduction to anthropology with a specific emphasis on medical anthropology, and to teach students how to carry out anthropologically focused research themselves. Thus every student must carry out a piece of ethnographic research of their own as the basis of a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words. There is no geographical focus; most students carry out their dissertation work in Britain, but a significant minority do it overseas.
- Graduates of the MSc often return to their jobs and make use of medical anthropology there. Others continue to do an MPhil/PhD: graduates of the course have carried out doctoral fieldwork in Malawi, East Africa, Vietnam, Nepal, and South India, as well as in Britain. Initially students register for the MPhil while on their training period. During their first year they take 6 advanced modules and prepare a detailed and substantial plan for their thesis, as preparation for fieldwork. This is then submitted to an internal examiner, usually at the end of the first year, and, subject to approval, the student proceeds to doctoral status and commences fieldwork. Part-time students undertake the training year over a two-year period.
(b) Strengths of the Program
- The Brunel MSc has a high faculty-student ratio. Brunel anthropology was ranked second only to Cambridge in the UK in the Times Good University Guide of 1998. The teaching of anthropology at Brunel was deemed "excellent" by an official TQA (Teaching Quality Assessment) in 1995.
- Students are exposed to a wide variety of teachers and approaches, and receive a thorough grounding in ethnographic methods before embarking on their own fieldwork. All the faculty are active in research, and there is a large community of researchers (both doctoral and post-doctoral) based in the Centre for the Study of Health, Sickness and Disablement (CSHSD), who offer occasional teaching and guidance to interested students. From 1999 there is a new RAI/Brunel Centre for Child-Focused Anthropological Research (C-FAR), which will have close links with CSHSD.
(c) Curriculum
- This is the MSc curriculum for 1998-9; both options (Thursday a.m.) and
core modules (all other times) are subject to change
Some modules, such as Issues in Social Anthropology and Introduction to
Ethnographic Research, are taken with students on the MSc in the
Anthropology of Children and Child Development.
AUTUMN SEMESTER
- Wednesdays (full-time and first year part-time)
9-11: Issues in Social Anthropology
11-1 or 11-12 and 1-2: Ethnographic Themes in Medical Anthropology
2-4 or 2-3 and 4-5: Social Anthropology of Health and Healing 1 - Thursdays (full-time and second year part-time)
Either
10-1: Clinically Applied Medical Anthropology 1
Or
11-1: Britain's Ethnic Minorities
2-5: Introduction to Ethnographic Research
SPRING SEMESTER
- Wednesdays (full-time and first year part-time)
9-11: History and Theory of Social Anthropology
11-1 or 11-12 and 1-2: Children in Health and Sickness
2-5: Social Anthropology of Health and Healing 2 - Thursdays (full-time and second year part-time)
Either
11-1: Religion and Power
Or
10-1: Clinically Applied Medical Anthropology 2
2-5: Issues in Ethnograpic Research - Students on the MPhil program choose modules from those above in
consultation with their supervisor.
(d) Requirements of Prospective Students
- For the MSc:
A good first (undergraduate) degree or equivalent professional
qualification; or long professional experience - For the MPhil:
MSc or equivalent
Contact information:
- MSc in Medical Anthropology:
Mrs V. Johnson (Administrative Secretary to the Course),
Dept of Human Sciences,
Brunel University,
Uxbridge,
Middlesex UB8 3PH,
UK
veronica.johnson@brunel.ac.uk - MPhil/PhD program:
Mrs E. Ackroyd (Research Administrator)
Dept of Human Sciences,
Brunel University,
Uxbridge,
Middlesex UB8 3PH,
UK
elizabeth.ackroyd@brunel.ac.uk - Please consult our websites:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/ (general course information) - Department of Human Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8
3PH, UK, + 44 1895 274000; fax +44 1895 203018
