Our Department of Anthropology has a robust medical anthropology expertise specializing in this large and expanding field. Current trends in education and employment show a growing need for medical anthropology, public health, and global health expertise in a variety of national and international fields. Medical anthropologists embrace the growing diversity of our society and aim to contribute knowledge that can help adapt and expand healthcare and access to services across cultures and geopolitical settings. Medical anthropology goes hand in hand with public health, medical sociology, clinical sciences, psychology, demography and other fields.

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 (public health, 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, and Callao, Peru (past),  and in Puerto Rico and Brazil (current): 3 research credits (1 semester & 2 wks)
  • This internship is in collaboration with the International Medical Outreach organization.
  • In 2023, the internship in taking place in Puerto Rico and Brazil.

NEW:

Each spring I will be teaching a new course in qualitative and ethnographic research methods. In this course students design and carry out a project to learn the elements of research methods. This is a project-based course. 

• 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. This is 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.