We often take for granted the experience of having a body and the meanings of being healthy and of sickness. Nevertheless, our bodily experiences and understandings of health and illness are profoundly shaped by and, in return, influence our social, cultural, and political circumstances.
Medical anthropology examines affliction and healing across different cultural and historical
contexts. In this course, we will study the complex interactions between biology, culture,
ideology, and society in the construction of “medical facts.“
In this introductory course on medical anthropology we will first gain some knowledge about basic concepts, theoretical frameworks and methodologies of the anthropology of health. After discussing concepts of health, illness, healing and the medical profession, we will mainly cover three broader research areas of medical anthropology:
• Critical Food Studies
• Anthropology of Mental Health
• and Hospital Ethnography.
Using global examples and cases, by the end of the course, students will have a better grasp of the theories and methods of medical anthropology, and will also be able to critically reflect on their own and others’ experiences of dis-ease and healing, as well as on representations of human suffering and medical technologies.

We will collectively be reading several books that are all available as ebooks via SuUB. You are expected to read ONE book in full and act as an „expert“ on that book during the respective classes. I do not expect you to complete all three books, though of course it will help the discussion if you have read more.
While the main course language is English, you can always speak German in class and do your assessment (Prüfungsleistung) in German.

Required reading (all available as ebooks via SuUB):

Emily Yates-Doerr: The weight of obesity
Karen Nakamura: Disability of the Soul
Alice Street: Biomedicine in an unstable place

In order to act socially sustainably in organisations, people are obliged to be dealing with a growingly complex role set in competent ways. Key competences such as social, methodical, and process-related skills play a vital role in coping with the complexity in the wake of the acceleration, globalisation, and digital transformation of work life. In this training seminar, we will explore topics of the participant’s interests in 7 workshops of 3 full hours: Scientific approaches and methods on chosen topics are explored, allowing for personal reflection as well as practice transfer. Participants are invited to explore chosen subject matters interactively with theory, in exchange of thoughts, by exercises, and in light of entering work life in their near future. Participants are challenged to read into their topic, transfer scientific key aspects into an interactive workshop setting, and to perform as a team. Requirements for 3 CP/ECTS encompass the development and conduct of an interactive workshop incl. photo documentary in a team. For support, students will receive methodological training, counsel, and feedback.

Framework: Social sustainability is one of three global goals noted in the Rio Convention 1992 by the UN World Commission of Environment and Development. While economic sustainability is a booster of change in modern organisations, ecological sustainability remains an acknowledged task (political pressure), while social sustainability is often neglected. Therefore, it is interesting to understand how organisational structures, groups, and the individual’s processing and coping are interlinked. This General Studies series, based on sociological and psychological knowledge, is focussing on theories and praxis concepts that allow participants to gather an understanding on how organisations and their role actors can shape a workplace “socially sustainably”. All parts of the training seminar series can be studied separately, or as a row.

This seminar uses English as a lingua franca. Coping with the effects of this setting should be part of the reflection within the course. Students are encouraged to express themselves. Participants in the training seminar should be open to participate constructively and reliably in interaction and reflection.

Open for 1st semester students and above, recommended for Bachelor students before their internship and thesis, as well as for Master students. Open to Erasmus students and to students of other faculties. Please note: this course is limited to 20 participants – apply (and withdraw) reliably, please!

2 SWS: Fortnightly, starting in the 2nd week of the term, Tuesdays 4 –7.30 pm; 3,5 hours (s.t.!). Please only register reliably via Stud.IP for participation; all materials there.

References
Meyerhuber, Sylke. 2020. 'Active Listening' as a Key Competence in Intercultural Communication Education. An academic classroom example with conceptual and theoretical embedding. In: Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education JoLie 2019(2), pp. 91-114; open access ISSN: 2065-6599.
Meyerhuber, Sylke. 2020. Deconstructing impoliteness in professional discourse: The social psychology of workplace mobbing. A cross-disciplinary contribution with conclusions for the intercultural workplace. In Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, Special Issue on (in)tolerance and (in)civility in public discourse from interdisciplinary perspectives. 16/2, pp. 235-264. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/lpp-2020-0011 Download bei DeGruyter: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/LPP/16/2/html

Performance requirement for ECTS points
Preparation of an interactive workshop incl. photo-documentary, in small groups (3 CP).

We often take for granted the experience of having a body and the meanings of being healthy and of sickness. Nevertheless, our bodily experiences and understandings of health and illness are profoundly shaped by and, in return, influence our social, cultural, and political circumstances.
Medical anthropology examines affliction and healing across different cultural and historical
contexts. In this course, we will study the complex interactions between biology, culture,
ideology, and society in the construction of “medical facts.“
In this introductory course on medical anthropology we will first gain some knowledge about basic concepts, theoretical frameworks and methodologies of the anthropology of health. After discussing concepts of health, illness, healing and the medical profession, we will mainly cover three broader research areas of medical anthropology:
• Critical Food Studies
• Anthropology of Mental Health
• and Hospital Ethnography.
Using global examples and cases, by the end of the course, students will have a better grasp of the theories and methods of medical anthropology, and will also be able to critically reflect on their own and others’ experiences of dis-ease and healing, as well as on representations of human suffering and medical technologies.

We will collectively be reading several books that are all available as ebooks via SuUB. You are expected to read ONE book in full and act as an „expert“ on that book during the respective classes. I do not expect you to complete all three books, though of course it will help the discussion if you have read more.
While the main course language is English, you can always speak German in class and do your assessment (Prüfungsleistung) in German.

Required reading (all available as ebooks via SuUB):

Emily Yates-Doerr: The weight of obesity
Karen Nakamura: Disability of the Soul
Alice Street: Biomedicine in an unstable place