The role of disease in the human experience. Students will draw on information from medical anthropology, epidemiology, human adaptation, disease ecology, and evolutionary biology to examine how diseases have been shaped by human-environmental interactions, culture, individual behavior, and social and economic processes.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students: Students who register for graduate credit will complete an annotated bibliography and research paper on a topic to be determined by agreement between the student and professor. This will consist of both a written and oral class presentation on the selected topic.
Athena Title
Anth of Infectious Disease
Prerequisite
ANTH 1102 or ANTH 1102E or BIOL 1104 or BIOL 1108
Semester Course Offered
Offered every even-numbered year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to explain how anthropological approaches including evolutionary, ecological, sociocultural, and biocultural models apply to disease patterns today.
Students will be able to understand how examples of disease patterns today and in the past are shaped by factors such as environmental or technological change, interactions with animals or insects, human behaviors, and socioeconomic factors.
Students will be able to develop a research project that synthesizes academic and popular scholarship from different disciplines on biocultural, ecological, and evolutionary explanations of human disease.
Students will be able to practice reading, writing, and speaking skills consistent with their professional goals.
Topical Outline
What is the anthropology of infectious disease
Theoretical approaches
History and global pandemics
Multispecies interactions across time
Emerging from where? Diseases and behaviors in globally connected worlds
Who is at risk? Understanding the concept of risk
Stigma and blame in infectious diseases
Syndemics and pandemics
Political-economy of disease
Case studies of selected infectious diseases
Institutional Competencies
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
