Our Department of Anthropology has a robust medical anthropology expertise with 4 research faculty specializing in this large and expanding field. Current trends in education and employment show a growing need for medical anthropology and global health knowledge and expertise in a variety of national and international career directions. As societies and communities are increasingly multicultural and healthcare must adapt to this trend, medical school, nursing, and other health programs consider emphasis in medical anthropology an asset in applications to their programs.

How to study medical anthropology at UCF?

There are 3 excellent ways – our department these offers 3 programs:

• Medical Anthropology Minor: 18 credits required
  • For any major, except anthropology, (sorry anthro students!)
  • About half of enrolled students are in pre-health majors (biomedical sciences, biology, etc.), and the other half from a variety of majors in social sciences and humanities
• Global Health Certificate: 15 credits required
  • For any major
  • Many students in the Certificate are anthropology majors and in pre-health majors, but we also have a variety of students from social sciences and humanities
• Global Health Internship – Mare Brignol, Haiti (past), and Callao, Peru (current): 3 research credits (1 semester & 2 wks)
  • this global health internship is in collaboration with the International Medical Outreach organization.
  • In 2022, the internship is taking place in Peru, and for spring 2023 we are developing a site in Brazil.

NEW:

Each spring I will be teaching a new course ANT 4802: Ethnographic Research & Field Methods. In this course students do a project to learn the elements of research methods. There are no exams. Students are evaluated on their projects. 

• ANT 4802: Ethnographic Research & Field Methods – taught by Joanna Mishtal, PhD. Offered every spring.

Please also note we’ll be teaching several new or updated medical anthropology courses since F20 that may not be listed on the course lists for the above programs. That’s because it takes a long time to update these lists, unfortunately. The new (or updated) courses that count toward the above programs include:

• ANT 4081: Science, Technology, and Culture – taught by Shana Harris, PhD. Offered every odd spring.
• ANT 4481: Anthropology of Drugs and Addiction – taught by Shana Harris, PhD. 
• ANT 4482: Anthropology of Mental Health – taught by Beatriz Reyes-Foster, PhD. 
• ANT 4462: Medical Anthropology – Update: Russell Manzano, PhD, teaches this course since F19. Offered every fall.

I encourage you to also browse the Society for Medical Anthropology website – the top national organization in this field – and the Society for Applied Anthropology site.