Anthropology 476 Culture, Medicine, and the Body

Sumer 2012 Instructor: Jennifer Carroll

Contact Information
Email: jencarr2@uw.edu Office Hours: Denny 407, TBA

Course Overview Catalog Description

Explores the relationship between the body and society, with emphasis on the role of medicine as a mediator between them. Case study material, primarily from contemporary bio-medicine, as well as critical, postmodern, and feminist approaches to the body introduced within a general comparative and anthropological framework.

Texts
Required: Michel Foucault: The Birth of the Clinic Michel Foucault: Discipline and Punish Annemarie Mol: The Body Multiple Susan Sontag: Illness and its Metaphors Course Reader* (local print shop- TBA) *All readings for this course are available either in print or online through the UW library system. You are not required to purchase the course reader, but if you choose not to purchase it, you are responsible for accessing and reading all assigned materials on your own.

Course Assignments and Grading Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows: Reading Responses: 10% Class Participation: 25% Final Paper: 65%

Reading Assignments and Responses (10% of final grade)

All assignments (including readings) are listed on the course schedule on the day they are due to be completed. Students are required to post a written response to a minimum of ten readings (which means readings from ten different class periods) over the course of the quarter on the class bulletin board. These responses should be 100-200 words in length, excluding any

quotations, and should directly address the readings for that day. Appropriate content for these responses include questions that have arisen from the readings, critiques of the authors methods or arguments, and further thoughts relating the readings to other course materials, to content or lessons from other classes, or relevant current events. Responses must be posted by 12pm PST on the day of class when those readings are due in order to be counted for credit. Students are encouraged to engage in online discussion and respond to each others postings. Expectations for scholarly conduct in the classroom extend to this on-line forum.

Participation (25% of final grade)

Dialog and debate are central to the discipline of anthropology. Satisfactory participation requires students to come to class prepared to discuss all of the readings assigned and to actively engage in discussion about those readings and the topics at hand. Active engagement in discussion does not simply mean talking. Asking questions, active listening, making room for and inviting others to participate, and making other meaningful, if small, contributions to class are all appropriate forms of classroom engagement. Being a part of a class of this size (especially a cultural anthropology class!) requires each of us to recognize that different individuals have different reaction times, different speeds of speech and lengths of conversational pauses. Some students may not be native speakers of English or may process information differently and at different speeds. Some people take a longer time to consider their words, and others sometimes speak without thinking! There is no concrete outline for how a student should participate in class, but everyone is required to make a consistent, concerted effort to actively engage.

Final Paper (65% of final grade)

This course requires students to write an original paper that explores a particular instance, case, or example of the mediation of the human body through medical practices, paradigms, or cultures. This paper should analyze the chosen topic, making use of the theoretical approaches and critical methods from class discussions and course readings. Suitable topics for this paper will be discussed throughout the course of the term. Students will need to conduct research outside of class on their chosen subjects, but they are also encouraged to make liberal use of sources used in this class in their papers. At the end of week 6, students will be required to submit a 2-page paper proposal describing their chosen subject and the theoretical tools that they intend to use. Papers must be between 4000 and 5000 words in length, not including citations or footnotes. Papers above or below the word limit will not be accepted. All papers must be titled. Final drafts ready for submission should be in Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced, with one (1) inch margins on all sides. Pages should be numbered. Please include a heading with your name, course, and the date. There is no need for a title page. All references must be properly and adequately cited, including course materials. The format that will be used for grading papers will be made available on the course website.

Extra Credit
Extra credit assignments may be given at the discretion of the instructor. If the instructor specifies a due date for an extra credit assignment, no extensions will be allowed, and the assignment will not be accepted after that date.

Grade Disputes
The University of Washington has procedures in place to handle grading disputes and appeals. This and other information about grading policies can be found online at http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html

Student Expectations Anticipated Absences

If you are unable to come to class due to illness, personal or family emergency, or any other reason, you are responsible for informing the instructor prior to that class period. If you miss class for a reason that was unforeseen (traffic accident, etc.), you are responsible for informing the instructor as to the reason for your absence as soon as possible. It is expected that the instructor will be informed as to the nature of every absence, regardless of the cause. The excusing of absences is at the discretion of the instructor. If you are ill, you must bring a doctors note in order for that absence to be excused.

Classroom Behavior and Preparation

Please be on time for class. If you cannot be on time for class, for whatever reason, please enter class without causing too much of a disturbance. This means enter the classroom quietly and sit in the first available seat. The same goes for those who need to leave class early. Please select a location close to the door of the classroom and leave quietly so as to keep the inevitable disruption to a minimum. By acting in such a manner, you are showing respect to your fellow students and the instructor. It is expected each student will be prepared for class. Preparation is defined in this course as having read all of the material prior to the class period, cell phones either turned off or put on silent, possession of a functioning writing utensil and something which to write on, and have on their person the relevant textbooks/reading material for the class period. The student can determine the relevant information for the class period by referring to the course schedule, which is available on the class website. Students are welcome to bring laptops to class for note taking and accessing relevant online references and course materials. Email checking, chatting, game playing, and web surfing are highly inappropriate uses of class time and are disrespectful to the instructor and the other students in class. Students blatantly misusing technology in the classroom (including cell phones) will be asked to leave and will receive no credit for classroom participation on that day.

Electronic Document Submission via Catalyst Dropbox

Whenever an assignment is submitted as an electronic document, it is the students responsibility to make sure that the file is correct and complete. If an electronic document

is submitted and is unreadable or in anyway corrupted, the assignment will be considered incomplete and late penalties will apply until a proper, functional document is submitted.

Individual Student Needs and Disability Support

Every student deserves the opportunity learn in the best and most appropriate environment possible. If you have a question, concern, comment, request or other need please come and talk to me in person or send me a detailed e-mail as soon as possible. I can make adjustments or accommodations for individuals or the entire class, but only if I am made aware of them. Students with medically recognized and documented disabilities and who are in need of special accommodation have an obligation to notify the University of their needs. Students in need of accommodation should contact the Office of Disability Resources for Students at 206-543-8924 (Voice) or 206-543-8925 (TTY) You can also find more information online at http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/. If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible

Academic Honesty
I take academic honesty very seriously. When flagrant cheating or plagiarism occurs, it is an insult to me, to the students in this course, and to the guilty student. It is an insult to the time we spend here teaching and learning from each other. Academic instruction, particularly in the liberal arts, is unique in its focus on intellectual fluency and collaborative effort rather than task-based competition and self-promotion. Your college education does not consist of a collection of hoops that you need to get through. This course requires you to engage with course materials, with other students, with the instructor, and with the greater academic community in a productive and innovative fashion. Academic dishonesty defeats the purposes of this class and of this institution, and it will not be tolerated. Especially in a discipline that requires you to be able to engage with the ideas of others and to cite multiple unique sources, plagiarism is an incredibly self-defeating activity. Plagiarism is, at the very least, grounds for a zero grade for that assignment. If a student is suspected of deliberate plagiarism on an assignment, that student will be reported to the Dean Representative on Academic Conduct in accordance with UWs Academic Honesty Policy. More information on UWs academic honestly policies can be found online: http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/help/academichonesty.php

Course Schedule
WEEK 1 - Introduction to a Medical Anthropology of the Body Tuesday: Thursday: Introduction to the course Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret Locke. The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 1(1): 6-41].

WEEK 2 - The Body as Object Tuesday: Thursday: Michel Foucault. The Birth of the Clinic. Chapters 1 and 2 Michel Foucault. The Birth of the Clinic. Chapter 7 and Conclusion Beverly Ann Davenport. Witnessing and the Medical Gaze: How Medical Students Learn to See at a Free Clinic for the Homeless [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 14(3): 310-327] WEEK 3 - The Body as Subject Tuesday: Thursday: Michel Foucault. Selections from Discipline and Punish Philippe Bourgois. Disciplining Addictions. [Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 24(2): 165-195.] Franz Kafka. The Penal Colony WEEK 4 - The Body as a Signifier Tuesday: Michel Foucault. The Birth of the Clinic. Chapter 6 Nancy E. Schoenberg and Elaine M. Drew. Articulating Silences: Experiential and Biomedical Constructions of Hypertension Symptomatology [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16(4): 458-475] Thursday: Tina Moffat. The Childhood Obesity Epidemic. [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 24(1): 1-21] Eugenia Kaw. The Medicalization of Racial Features: Asian American Women and Cosmetic Surgery [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 7(1): 74-89]

WEEK 5 - The Body as Metaphor Tuesday: Thursday: Susan Sontag. Illness and Its Metaphors S. Lochlan Jain. Cancer Butch. [Cultural Anthropology 22(4): 501-535.]

WEEK 6 The Body as Commodity and the Body as Gift Tuesday: Nancy Scheper-Hughes. The Tyranny of the Gift: Sacrificial Violence in Living Donor Transplants. [American Journal of Transplantation 7: 807-811] Sharon R. Kaufman, Ann J. Russ, and Janet K. Shim. Aged Bodies and Kinship Matters [American Ethnologist 33(1): 81-99] Thursday: Leslie A. Sharp. Commodified Kin: Death, Mourning, and Competing Claims on the Bodies of Organ Donors in the United States. [American Anthropologist 103(1): 112-133]. Donald Joralemon. Organ Wars: The Battle for Body Parts [Medical Anthropology Quarterly 9(3): 335-356] Two-page final paper proposal due in class on Thursday. WEEK 7 - The Body as Landscape Tuesday: Thursday: Pamela L. Geller. Bodyscapes, Biology, and Heteronormativity. [American Anthropologist 111(4): 504-516]. Charles D. Laughlin. Body, Brain, and Behavior: The Neuroanthropology of the Body Image. [Anthropology of Consciousness 8(2-3): 49-68]. Janelle S. Taylor. Sonographers and the Making of the Public Fetus. [in The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram: Technology, Consumption, and the Politics of Reproduction. Rutgers University Press. ] WEEK 8 and 9 The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice Tuesday: Thursday: Tuesday: Thursday: Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple. Chapters 1 and 2. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple. Chapter 3. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple. Chapters 4 and 5. Annemarie Mol. The Body Multiple. Chapter 6.

Final Paper Due Saturday at midnight.