Overview
The Bachelor of Science in Anthropology: Medical Anthropology & Global Health (MAGH) delves into the interdisciplinary domain of Anthropology, offering a specialized track for students seeking in-depth scientific exploration within the field. While an alternative route exists through a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology: Medical Anthropology & Global Health, this program provides a nuanced understanding of health from a global perspective.
This program aligns with the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Anthropology, emphasizing a structured curriculum specifically tailored to the complex interplay between medical anthropology and global health. Graduates completing this option aspire to further their education and careers in health-related sectors, spanning public health, epidemiology, nursing, medicine, and global health. Anthropology's liberal arts education stands as an ideal foundation for navigating these diverse career trajectories.
Medical schools increasingly value diverse backgrounds and interests among their students, recognizing the importance of compassion and diverse perspectives in medical education. Anthropological training, emphasizing compassion and a broader worldview, makes social science and humanities students well-suited for medical careers. The multifaceted skills encompassed within anthropology extend beyond conventional medical support, emphasizing crucial attributes such as management, cultural understanding, and an anthropological viewpoint, which are integral in the domain of global health initiatives.
Medical Anthropology & Global Health (BS) Major Requirements
75 credits required, 50 credits of which must be Natural Science (NSc) courses in ANTH, ARCHY or BIO A
Core Courses (25 credits)
- BIO A 201: Principles of Biological Anthropology (5 cr, NSc)
- Any 200-level ARCHY course (5 cr)
- One statistics course chosen from:
- CS&SS/SOC/STAT 221: Statistical Concepts And Methods For The Social Sciences (5 cr)
- STAT 220: Statistical Reasoning (5 cr)
- STAT 311: Elements of Statistical Methods (5 cr)
- Q SCI 381: Introduction to Probability & Statistics (5 cr)
- BIOST 310: Biostatistics for the Health Sciences (4 cr)
- EDPSY 490: Basic Educational Statistics (3 cr)
- PSYCH 315: Understanding Statistics in Psychology (5 cr)
- QMETH 201: Introduction to Statistical Methods (4 cr)
- Occasionally other basic statistics courses may be accepted - contact Advising for approved courses
- 10 additional credits in ANTH, ARCHY or BIO A
Medical Anthropology & Global Health Option (50 cr)
- ANTH 215: Introduction to Medical Anthropology and Global Health (5 cr)
- 45 credits from the approved list (Not all courses are offered regularly. Check the current and/or upcoming Time Schedule for updated course offerings):
- ANTH 302 Body & Soul: Introduction to Medical Anthropology and Global Health as Social Justice Praxis (5 cr)
- ANTH 303 Technologies of Health (5 cr)
- ANTH 304 Anthropology of Beauty (5 cr)
- ANTH 305 Anthropology of the Body (5 cr)
- ANTH 308 Anthropology of Women's Health and Reproduction (5 cr)
- ANTH 311 The Cultural Politics of Diet and Nutrition (5 cr)
- ANTH 322 Comparative Study of Death (5 cr)
- ANTH 325 Indigenous Knowledge and Public Health in Mexican and Latinx Origin Communities (5 cr)
- ANTH 361 Anthropology of Food (5 cr)
- ANTH 369 Special Problems in Anthropology (3-5 cr)
- ANTH 373 Labor, Identity and Knowledge in Healthcare (5 cr)
- ANTH 375 Comparative Systems of Healing (5 cr)
- ANTH 376 Anthropology of Disability (5 cr)
- ANTH 377 Anthropology and International Health (5 cr)
- ANTH 394 Embodied Liberation Theory and Praxis (3 or 5 cr)
- ANTH 403 Qualitative Research Methods (5 cr)
- ANTH 408 Experiments in Southeast Asia (5 cr)
- ANTH 410 Discourse and Health (5 cr)
- ANTH 411 The Culture and Politics of Food: Study Abroad in Italy (8-11 cr)
- ANTH 417 Surfacing the Stories of Hanford: Local and Global Health Disparities (5 cr)
- ANTH 422 Visuality and Medicine (3 or 5 cr)
- ANTH 425 Anthropology of the Post-Soviet States (5 cr)
- ANTH 452 Explorations in Biopower (5 cr)
- ANTH 453 Culture, Controversy and Change: The Case of Female Circumcision (5 cr)
- ANTH 458 Ethnobiology: Plants, Animals, and People (5 cr)
- ANTH 468 Anthropology of Care (5 cr)
- ANTH 472 Case Studies in Medical Anthropology and Global Health (5 cr)
- ANTH 474 Social Difference and Medical Knowledge (5 cr)
- ANTH 476 Culture, Medicine, and the Body (5 cr)
- ANTH 477 Medicine in America: Conflicts and Contradictions (3 cr)
- ANTH 478 Introduction to the Anthropology of Institutions (5 cr)
- ANTH 479 Advanced Topics in Medical Anthropology (3-5 cr)
- ANTH 483 Africa Living with HIV/AIDS (5 cr)
- ANTH 490 Healthcare and Aging (5 cr)
- ANTH 494 Feminist Performance Ethnography (5 cr)
- ANTH 496 Alter/Native Power (5 cr)
- ANTH 574 Culture, Society, and Genomics (3 cr)
- ARCHY 369 Special Problems in Archaeology (3-6 cr)
- BIO A 206 Plagues and Peoples (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 270 Human and Comparative Anatomy (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 300 Evolutionary Biology of Women (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 348 Evolutionary Biology and Human Diversity (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 350 Men's Health Across the Lifespan (5 cr)
- BIO A 351 Principles of Evolutionary Medicine (5 cr, NSc) OR BIO A 355 Evolutionary Medicine (3 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 387 Ecological Perspectives on Environmental Stress, Adaptation, and Health (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 409 Human Sexual Selection (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 413 Human Primate Interface: Implications for Disease, Risk, and Conservation (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 420 Anthropological Research on Health Disparities (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 423 Social Networks and Health (5 cr)
- BIO A 450 Biodemography Seminar (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 454 Hormones and Behavior (5 cr, NSc) & BIO A 455 Laboratory Methods in Hormones and Behavior (3 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 459 Laboratory Methods in Anthropological Genetics (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 469 Special Topics in Biological Anthropology (3-5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 471 Biological Perspectives of Childcare and Development (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 473 Biological Adaptability of Human Populations (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 476 Sociocultural Ecology and Health (3 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 482 Human Population Genetics (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 483 Human Genetics, Disease, and Culture (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 484 Applied Human Growth & Development (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 487 Human and Comparative Osteology (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 495 Growth and Development: Infancy (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 496 Growth and Development: Adolescence and Reproductive Maturity (5 cr, NSc)
- BIO A 568 Human Reproductive Ecology (5 cr)
Additional Requirements
- 50 credits minimum Natural Science (NSc) ANTH, ARCHY or BIO A courses
- 35 credits minimum upper-division (300-400 level) ANTH, ARCHY or BIO A courses at UW
- Minimum 2.0 GPA in courses applied to major requirements.
- 12 credits maximum (18 credits for departmental Honors) from ANTH 499, ARCHY 499, and/or BIO A 499 may be allowed towards major requirements