The syllabi and related teaching resources gathered in this section can help you fold urgent issues of social justice into your medical anthropology courses. This space includes resources created in partnership with MAQ, as well as independent initiatives. For more teaching ideas, check out the pedagogical resources that accompany each issue of our Reading the Archive online series.
Please contact medicalanthropologyquarterly@gmail.com if you’d like to share a project for inclusion in this syllabus collection.
Medical Anthropology for Palestine | Class Modules
This collaborative project created in the midst of the 2023-4 Israeli assault on Gaza offers thematic two-class modules which can be incorporated into a wide range of medical anthropology courses. The creators note: “We hope that this will enable you to integrate teaching about Palestine into your syllabi–even if you may not feel equipped to do so as a ‘non-expert.’” Topics include: Hospitals, Disability, Health and Environment, Trauma and Mental Health, Local Biologies/War Biologies, Death, Mourning, and Burial.
Creators: Emma Shaw Crane, Emily Lim Rogers with collaboration from Anisha Chadha, Arseli Dokumaci, Jiya Pandya, Kimberly Fernandes, Linda Luu, Maira Hayat, Maya Wind, Timothy Y Loh, Yasir SP, & other generous interlocutors.
A History of Anti-Black Racism in Medicine | Syllabus
Responding to the narrative of COVID-19 as ‘the great equalizer’ and the corresponding erasure of the specific ways that anti-Black racism was creating very stratified experiences of the pandemic, this syllabus probes the history of anti-Black racism in medicine “while simultaneously paving way for equitable health for all underrepresented populations.” Hosted by the African American Intellectual History Society, the syllabus includes 16 weeks of readings on topics ranging from Medical and Scientific Theories of Racial Difference and The African Diasporic Roots of Western Medicine and Science to Black People as Experimental Subjects and Genetics & the Re-biologization of Race.
Creators: Antoine S. Johnson, Elise A. Mitchell, Ayah Nuriddin