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Medical Anthropology

The purpose of the Program in Medical Anthropology is to provide structure and concentration of study for graduate students in this subfield within the Department’s graduate curriculum. Students are fully integrated into the larger Anthropology program and curriculum, while focusing on course work within and beyond the department focused on health and healing and the critical study of science. The Program also supports students’ developing research in medical anthropology through regular working group activities, guest lectures and vibrant intellectual exchange.

  • The overall purpose of the Program in Medical Anthropology is to create a curriculum structure that will offer our students solid anthropological training, coupled with extensive preparation in behavioral and health science. This graduate program is designed to offer special training for the variety of students preparing for careers as medical anthropologists.
  • The Program in Medical Anthropology will require graduate students to obtain broad training in anthropology by choosing electives from one or more of the concentrations offered in the Department pertinent to the students’ interests in medical anthropology.
  • Cross-disciplinary studies and training are an important part of medical anthropology. Health professionals from a variety of disciplines are interested in and currently active in the field, and anthropology students have much to gain from extended discourse with persons trained in the health sciences. We encourage our students to engage with faculty and students in the School of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine and Center for Bioethics in the School of Medicine, Carolina Population Center, among others.
  • Students in the Program in Medical Anthropology will have to meet all requirements specified in the Doctoral Program requirements. The qualifying examinations will include one component of special questions designed to assess the student’s competency in medical anthropology and the special interests of the individual student.
  • The graduate advisor and faculty of the Program in Medical Anthropology will meet with each medical anthropology student during the first semester to assess the student’s strength and weaknesses and prescribe a course of study accordingly