Contemporary Issues in Medical Anthropology

7.5 credits

Course, Master's level, 5KA425

Expand the information below to show details on how to apply and entry requirements.

Location
Uppsala
Pace of study
50%
Teaching form
On-campus
Instructional time
Daytime
Study period
18 January 2027–24 March 2027
Language of instruction
English
Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university

Selection

Higher education credits (maximum 285 credits)

Fees
If you are not a citizen of a European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA) country, or Switzerland, you are required to pay application and tuition fees.
  • First tuition fee instalment: SEK 14,250
  • Total tuition fee: SEK 14,250

Read more about fees.

Application deadline
15 October 2026
Application code
UU-02014

Admitted or on the waiting list?

Registration period
21 December 2026–11 January 2027
Information on registration from the department

Location
Uppsala
Pace of study
50%
Teaching form
On-campus
Instructional time
Daytime
Study period
18 January 2027–24 March 2027
Language of instruction
English
Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university

Admitted or on the waiting list?

Registration period
21 December 2026–11 January 2027
Information on registration from the department

About the course

Health, illness and medicine are ubiquitous in contemporary public debates but are rarely investigated critically. Today, medical anthropology faces novel and fruitful challenges in its relation to biomedicine, public health and international health policy, whether as fields of investigation or as areas of collaboration. How, specifically, can medical anthropology contribute to research on health and wellbeing in the global north and the global south? We will examine the challenges medical anthropologists face in research collaborations with public health, international health organisations, and medical professionals, by for example investigating how biomedicine's authoritative knowledge silences patients' experience, especially when these belong to marginalised or underrepresented groups. Or by investigating how economic power of pharmaceutical companies impact the access to care of deprived citizens and eschew geopolitical dimensions of health for people in the global south. An important field is also to engage and give prominence to local epistemologies and practices, whether they are presented as alternative or complementary to hegemonic biomedical structures. This course lets you examine issues such as 'the body', digital health, mental health, hospital ethnography, pharmaceuticals, anatomy, and technologies for assisted reproduction.

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