Academic Resources: graduate programs
Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Degrees offered:
Anthropology of Health and the Body in the 21st Century
Program information:
What is the relationship between culture, health and people’s sense of wellbeing? Why are increasing aspects of our lives appearing to be understood through the language of medicine? How is it that while there are extraordinary technical advances, so many people turn to alternative therapies? Why do there appear to be new illnesses resisting medical explanation? Do we really have to cope with more health risks nowadays?
Anthropology at Goldsmiths provides a unique intellectual environment in which to engage with these and many other relevant and pressing questions of our time. More broadly, issues around health and the body provide exciting and diverse ways of thinking about how we live, make meaning and act in the world. Drawing on debates in medical anthropology, this innovative degree addresses contemporary theories relating to ideas of wellbeing, to the politics and economics of health, to science, technology and modern medicine, to ideas and practices of healing, and to cultural perspectives on health and the body across the globe.
You will take a core course that introduces the field of medical anthropology and subsequently consolidates themes through seminars and workshops which relate to your own areas of interest. In addition, you can choose from a wide range of specialist option courses that include gender and the body, development, anthropology of the environment, anthropology of media, psychological perspectives in anthropology, symbolic and religious systems, and politics and economics. You will build up a portfolio of work that will feed into a final dissertation based on your own research (usually fieldwork) which will allow you to develop and conceptualise your chosen topic within debates and material raised throughout the degree.
The Masters will provide you with an excellent grounding for possible employment, for example, within the health services as a researcher. It will extend your critical understanding of contemporary debates about the politics of health and social inequalities, and provide a basis for a PhD application if you choose to pursue one.
Length: 1 year full-time or 2 years part-time
Entrance requirements: normally, a qualification in anthropology or related discipline, including health studies (upper 2nd or above in undergraduate degree)
Contact:
Admissions Office
Goldsmiths College
University of London
New Cross
London SE14 6NW