Academic Resources: graduate programs
University of Iowa
Degrees offered:
M.A., PH.D.
Medical Anthropology Faculty:
Nanette Barkey (international health; research methods; health disparities; biocultural
models; central and southern Africa)
Ellen Lewin (gender; sexuality; reproduction; feminist medical anthropology; United States)
Mac Marshall (alcohol & drug studies; diseases of modernization; Micronesia) [retiring Summer 2005]
Erica Prussing (maternal & child health; critical medical anthropology; psychological anthropology; social epidemiology; Native North America)
Medical Anthropology Adjunct Faculty:
Melanie C. Dreher, College of Nursing (drug studies; maternal & child health)
Kevin M. Kelly, College of Public Health (biological and biomedical anthro; anthro genetics; human population biology; clinical outcomes; craniofacial skeletal biology)
Maureen F. McCue, Global Health Studies Program (women's health; global health; critical medical anthropology)
Toni Tripp Reimer, College of Nursing (cross-cultural gerontology; psychological anthropology; transcultural nursing)
Marcy Rosenbaum, Department of Family Medicine (physician-patient communication; evaluation of medical education; psychosocial oncology; alternative medicine)
Program information:
Although Iowa has not yet formalized a specialized degree program in medical anthropology, numerous current & recent graduate student projects focus on health-related topics, such as: Women’s ritual responses to infertility in The Gambia; fertility regulation in urban China; meanings of menopause in urban Oaxaca; meanings of Parkinson’s disease for aging adults in Iowa; chiropractic education and medical heterodoxy in the U.S., the mystification of malnutrition by neoliberal economic reforms in Nicaragua, holistic healing in an American Orisha community, and the divergent meanings of testosterone therapy for transgender vs. aging male populations in the U.S.
Coursework in medical anthropology at the University of Iowa prepares students for a range of careers in academia and/or applied research. Faculty in the Department of Anthropology represent a spectrum of theoretical perspectives in medical anthropology, ranging from critical and interpretive to biocultural. A campus-wide network of affiliated faculty include medical anthropologists in the Colleges of Nursing, Public Health, and Medicine and the Global Health Studies Program. Intramural research funding for graduate students is available through several organized health research groups on campus.
Key faculty in medical anthropology at Iowa (Barkey, Prussing) hold joint degrees in anthropology and public health. The Department of Anthropology maintains close ties to the Department of Community & Behavioral Health within the College of Public Health. An increasing number of anthropology graduate students are completing joint PhD/MPH degrees.
Address:
Department of Anthropology
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: (319) 335-0522
FAX: (319) 335-0653