College Thoughts and Life
Here's a recent thought:
What if I went into Graduate School for Medical Anthropology?
My reasoning: As much as I would love to revamp the education system, I am also very interested in health related issues within the divisions of culture. There are a lot of questions that I find are hard for me to get answers to as a Latina, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's simply because it's not a very flushed out or well-studied field. Maybe by focusing on hispanic issues relating to health (and possibly gender, though women studies has never had a huge pull for me) I could utilize my cultural anthropology while still becoming involved in a science related field.
The reason I say this is because as interesting as being an Intercultural Communications expert sounds, part of me is going to miss the science. As tough as FB (Foundations of Biology, for those who don't remember me pouring out my woes over that class my senior year) was for me, I learned a ton in it. It was a college-level course that I got very good grades in. I have always liked science, and after taking the physical anthro course this past winter semester, I realized how much I missed that.
Combined with that is my feeling that I've always really enjoyed health studies. Also, I'm just not sure I want to end up being a social worker or a teacher. At UM, there are six distinct branches of medical anthrpology:
1) Critical Studies of Culture, Illness, and Medicine: In various fieldsites-from the U.S. to the Middle East and Japan, from Africa to Europe-the medical anthropologists at the University of Michigan analyze the relations among health, illness, social institutions and cultural representations. In particular, they examine the intersection of health, culture and political-economic power, combining biomedical perspectives with those that join personal with social problems. Their work points to the differences in the ways bodies count: who falls ill and why; who has access to resources, not just in terms of biological vulnerability, but of culture and power. Faculty members have contributed to the study of the production of medical knowledge in the field of breast cancer, reproduction, and infectious disease; have examined questions of stigma and the relationship between health, illness, race and citizenship; and have probed critical issues of biopolitics, immigration, marginality, and the body. They also look at new infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, and the intersection of disease, environment and the inequities brought by processes of globalization and global capitalism. In this field, medical anthropology students are encouraged to examine intersections and consequences of global disparities in wealth and the relationship between health and structural violence. They are also encouraged to examine the construction of illness categories, the narratives used to articulate these, and the social and political hierarchies such categories may produce or maintain.
MY RESPONSE: Sounds very interesting, and includes a great many aspects that I have either studied before and found fascinating, or have wanted to study further. Plus, the "helping people" part of this sounds so possible! And if the faculty has done all that, how good would they be at teaching their students? This is the broader perspective (less narrowed down to a specific culture), but odds are you can specialize in a culture of choice.
2) Gender and Health: Through ethnographic engagement in women’s lives, the medical anthropologists at UM-Ann Arbor have contributed considerably to theoretical debates surrounding gender and health, including issues of embodiment, agency, identity, suffering, and resistance to (dis)ease-producing social relations and conditions. UM-Ann Arbor faculty specialize in the broad area of gender and health, in both their research and teaching. Topics highlighted in their work include the social construction and “disciplining” of the female body; women’s changing health needs through the life cycle; women as reproducers in the West and across various global sites; the biologization, medicalization, and technologization of women’s health; the health-demoting effects of racism, poverty, and patriarchy; the effects of inhumane conditions of labor on women’s lives; and ultimately, how women narrativize and make meaning of their suffering...
MY RESPONSE: Less stimulating...more interesting for the knowledge that might be gained from looking into how racism and povery affect women's health (which is very related to minority groups), but not the full package I'm looking for with far too much "making meaning of their suffering" for my taste.
3) Medical Anthropology and History: The University of Michigan has a unique Joint Ph.D. Program in Anthropology and History, which has attracted many Ph.D. students wishing to combine anthropological and historical methods in their work on medicine, health, and the body, especially in contexts of colonial and post-World War II humanitarian aid and development. Furthermore, several faculty members are interested in the history of comparative medical systems, including both ethnomedicine and biomedicine in pre- and post-colonial settings around the world...
MY RESPONSE: Not for me, but interesting nonetheless. Still, I have to leave school sometime...can't do it all!
4) Global Public Health: Through research and training projects conducted in international settings, several UM-Ann Arbor faculty members specialize in issues of global public health and teach courses of this nature in the UM School of Public Health. Topics highlighted in their research and teaching include the history and critique of the major international health agencies and their development paradigms; the political economy and ecology of health, including infectious disease; child survival and women’s reproductive health; and men’s health under “modernization.” Students who take courses in this area learn about a) medical anthropology in global public health (i.e., the principles, methods, and approaches of applied medical anthropology in international health settings, including public health educational interventions and disease control programs); b) medical anthropology of global public health (i.e., the ways in which medical anthropologists attempt to understand global health problems in a larger cultural, historical, ecological, and political-economic context); and c) medical anthropological critiques of global public health (i.e., the ways in which medical anthropologists have critically analyzed notions of health “development” and have pointed out the challenges of developing effective, long-term public health interventions for many of the most serious global health problems). Medical anthropology students at UM are encouraged to seek global public health training, through student-initiated dual-degree enrollment (PhD-MPH) in UM’s School of Public Health (UM-SPH). In Fall 2003, UM-SPH initiated a Global Health Interdepartmental Concentration, which provides specialty training in global health to interested students who are pursuing MPH degrees in any of SPH’s departments. UM-SPH already offers a Reproductive and Women’s Health Interdepartmental Concentration of this nature. One UM medical anthropology faculty member, Marcia Inhorn, is jointly appointed in Anthropology and SPH through the Department of Health Behavior and Education (HBHE), thereby providing a critical link for medical anthropology students interested in dual-degree training in global public health.
MY RESPONSE: Very intersting, but a little more than I think I actually want. I mean, global health...great for me who's going abroad and for me who thinks it would be cool to work in other countries. But I don't know that I will, and there's a lot of need right here in the US. I could run to another culture's country, or I could try to help the other culture present in our own, whether it's the latest arrivals from that culture or second-or-third generations who need answers because not everything that works for white people works for the rest of us.
5) Science & Technology Studies (STS): ... Medical anthropology STS students will have the opportunity to take classes from several disciplinary bases that together ask such questions as: How does scientific and medical knowledge, about such things as genetics, gender, sexuality, race and disease, stratify and constrain the life chances of individuals? Why are more and more areas of private and public lives being medicalized? What is bioethics, what does it replace, and why has it become part of the medical establishment? How are truth and efficacy in medicine established? Does the corporate sponsorship of medical experimentation promote health and accountability? What are the connections between bioweapons and the medical establishment? Is scientific or medical knowledge political, and if so, in what ways?...
MY RESPONSE: Too techy for what I mean to do, though I bet you it's fascinating stuff...would love to talk to someone taking this!
6) Biocultural Medical Anthropology: The University of Michigan has several physical anthropology faculty who focus on biocultural issues of interest to medical anthropology. Particular strengths exist in nutritional anthropology, including understanding the ways in which diverse food preferences among humans are population specific. Faculty attempt to determine the extent to which cultural food preferences are related to genetic factors. For example, avoidance of dairy products in some populations and among some individuals is related to genetic differences in the activity of lactase. Some populations have evolved cultural adaptations to overcome this genetic difference and thus still consume dairy products. Similarly, it is unknown whether the extent to which humans avoid bitter foods is related to genetic differences in the ability to taste bitter biochemical traits. Biocultural anthropologists at the University of Michigan attempt to understand this dynamic interaction between cultural and biological factors with respect to individual and population differences in food preference and avoidance.
MY RESPONSE: That whole thing just sounds cool. I'd be torn between the first one and this one, though I'd want to know what else this one looks into besides nutrition (as cool as food is).
So there's a lot to think about, and it of course gets even more complicated when I think about the fact that I probably should go to another college for grad. school...though, I mean, I don't have to, do I? My dad always said it would be a good idea, but I don't really understand that. What does it matter, so long as you're at a top school getting a quality education? Then again, I suppose it matters how many UM undergrads the grad. program is willing to accept. Some departments only take about 20% or less from the UM undergrads, preferring to take more from other schools.
I dunno, it's all just food for thought. I have a lot to figure out. It's just that talking with Josh about the GREs last night made me think about how I have to do some life-figuring, and talking with Linds last Sat. at lunch about the PeaceCorp and Teach for America, and getting a little concerned about either prospect, makes me feel more and more like I should figure out my grad. school situation.
I'm getting more excited about Spain. I finally got my financial aid letter, and I think, while I may have to take out a loan for living expenses, the trip itself should be covered. Thank goodness! I'm pretty well set, I think, but I just e-mailed the OIP in case. Plus, I want to know if the program cost listed is a two-time charge or for the full year...that makes a huge difference in the loans I'm gonna need come winter. :P
Meanwhile, since Aaron A is being ridiculously indecisive about whether or not we can manage to meet for lunch tomorrow, I'm going to just chalk it up to how God made men and go do something with my life. Why he's being so stupid about this, I don't know. (...I sound like him. He wants to know when we can hang out because he wants to see me before I go, yet when I tell him when I'm available all I get is "idk".) We were supposed to hang out today, but he never called, and I told him I couldn't do anything later in the day. So whatever...if he can't get his act together, that is not my fault. Bums me out, but not my fault.
What if I went into Graduate School for Medical Anthropology?
My reasoning: As much as I would love to revamp the education system, I am also very interested in health related issues within the divisions of culture. There are a lot of questions that I find are hard for me to get answers to as a Latina, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's simply because it's not a very flushed out or well-studied field. Maybe by focusing on hispanic issues relating to health (and possibly gender, though women studies has never had a huge pull for me) I could utilize my cultural anthropology while still becoming involved in a science related field.
The reason I say this is because as interesting as being an Intercultural Communications expert sounds, part of me is going to miss the science. As tough as FB (Foundations of Biology, for those who don't remember me pouring out my woes over that class my senior year) was for me, I learned a ton in it. It was a college-level course that I got very good grades in. I have always liked science, and after taking the physical anthro course this past winter semester, I realized how much I missed that.
Combined with that is my feeling that I've always really enjoyed health studies. Also, I'm just not sure I want to end up being a social worker or a teacher. At UM, there are six distinct branches of medical anthrpology:
1) Critical Studies of Culture, Illness, and Medicine: In various fieldsites-from the U.S. to the Middle East and Japan, from Africa to Europe-the medical anthropologists at the University of Michigan analyze the relations among health, illness, social institutions and cultural representations. In particular, they examine the intersection of health, culture and political-economic power, combining biomedical perspectives with those that join personal with social problems. Their work points to the differences in the ways bodies count: who falls ill and why; who has access to resources, not just in terms of biological vulnerability, but of culture and power. Faculty members have contributed to the study of the production of medical knowledge in the field of breast cancer, reproduction, and infectious disease; have examined questions of stigma and the relationship between health, illness, race and citizenship; and have probed critical issues of biopolitics, immigration, marginality, and the body. They also look at new infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS, and the intersection of disease, environment and the inequities brought by processes of globalization and global capitalism. In this field, medical anthropology students are encouraged to examine intersections and consequences of global disparities in wealth and the relationship between health and structural violence. They are also encouraged to examine the construction of illness categories, the narratives used to articulate these, and the social and political hierarchies such categories may produce or maintain.
MY RESPONSE: Sounds very interesting, and includes a great many aspects that I have either studied before and found fascinating, or have wanted to study further. Plus, the "helping people" part of this sounds so possible! And if the faculty has done all that, how good would they be at teaching their students? This is the broader perspective (less narrowed down to a specific culture), but odds are you can specialize in a culture of choice.
2) Gender and Health: Through ethnographic engagement in women’s lives, the medical anthropologists at UM-Ann Arbor have contributed considerably to theoretical debates surrounding gender and health, including issues of embodiment, agency, identity, suffering, and resistance to (dis)ease-producing social relations and conditions. UM-Ann Arbor faculty specialize in the broad area of gender and health, in both their research and teaching. Topics highlighted in their work include the social construction and “disciplining” of the female body; women’s changing health needs through the life cycle; women as reproducers in the West and across various global sites; the biologization, medicalization, and technologization of women’s health; the health-demoting effects of racism, poverty, and patriarchy; the effects of inhumane conditions of labor on women’s lives; and ultimately, how women narrativize and make meaning of their suffering...
MY RESPONSE: Less stimulating...more interesting for the knowledge that might be gained from looking into how racism and povery affect women's health (which is very related to minority groups), but not the full package I'm looking for with far too much "making meaning of their suffering" for my taste.
3) Medical Anthropology and History: The University of Michigan has a unique Joint Ph.D. Program in Anthropology and History, which has attracted many Ph.D. students wishing to combine anthropological and historical methods in their work on medicine, health, and the body, especially in contexts of colonial and post-World War II humanitarian aid and development. Furthermore, several faculty members are interested in the history of comparative medical systems, including both ethnomedicine and biomedicine in pre- and post-colonial settings around the world...
MY RESPONSE: Not for me, but interesting nonetheless. Still, I have to leave school sometime...can't do it all!
4) Global Public Health: Through research and training projects conducted in international settings, several UM-Ann Arbor faculty members specialize in issues of global public health and teach courses of this nature in the UM School of Public Health. Topics highlighted in their research and teaching include the history and critique of the major international health agencies and their development paradigms; the political economy and ecology of health, including infectious disease; child survival and women’s reproductive health; and men’s health under “modernization.” Students who take courses in this area learn about a) medical anthropology in global public health (i.e., the principles, methods, and approaches of applied medical anthropology in international health settings, including public health educational interventions and disease control programs); b) medical anthropology of global public health (i.e., the ways in which medical anthropologists attempt to understand global health problems in a larger cultural, historical, ecological, and political-economic context); and c) medical anthropological critiques of global public health (i.e., the ways in which medical anthropologists have critically analyzed notions of health “development” and have pointed out the challenges of developing effective, long-term public health interventions for many of the most serious global health problems). Medical anthropology students at UM are encouraged to seek global public health training, through student-initiated dual-degree enrollment (PhD-MPH) in UM’s School of Public Health (UM-SPH). In Fall 2003, UM-SPH initiated a Global Health Interdepartmental Concentration, which provides specialty training in global health to interested students who are pursuing MPH degrees in any of SPH’s departments. UM-SPH already offers a Reproductive and Women’s Health Interdepartmental Concentration of this nature. One UM medical anthropology faculty member, Marcia Inhorn, is jointly appointed in Anthropology and SPH through the Department of Health Behavior and Education (HBHE), thereby providing a critical link for medical anthropology students interested in dual-degree training in global public health.
MY RESPONSE: Very intersting, but a little more than I think I actually want. I mean, global health...great for me who's going abroad and for me who thinks it would be cool to work in other countries. But I don't know that I will, and there's a lot of need right here in the US. I could run to another culture's country, or I could try to help the other culture present in our own, whether it's the latest arrivals from that culture or second-or-third generations who need answers because not everything that works for white people works for the rest of us.
5) Science & Technology Studies (STS): ... Medical anthropology STS students will have the opportunity to take classes from several disciplinary bases that together ask such questions as: How does scientific and medical knowledge, about such things as genetics, gender, sexuality, race and disease, stratify and constrain the life chances of individuals? Why are more and more areas of private and public lives being medicalized? What is bioethics, what does it replace, and why has it become part of the medical establishment? How are truth and efficacy in medicine established? Does the corporate sponsorship of medical experimentation promote health and accountability? What are the connections between bioweapons and the medical establishment? Is scientific or medical knowledge political, and if so, in what ways?...
MY RESPONSE: Too techy for what I mean to do, though I bet you it's fascinating stuff...would love to talk to someone taking this!
6) Biocultural Medical Anthropology: The University of Michigan has several physical anthropology faculty who focus on biocultural issues of interest to medical anthropology. Particular strengths exist in nutritional anthropology, including understanding the ways in which diverse food preferences among humans are population specific. Faculty attempt to determine the extent to which cultural food preferences are related to genetic factors. For example, avoidance of dairy products in some populations and among some individuals is related to genetic differences in the activity of lactase. Some populations have evolved cultural adaptations to overcome this genetic difference and thus still consume dairy products. Similarly, it is unknown whether the extent to which humans avoid bitter foods is related to genetic differences in the ability to taste bitter biochemical traits. Biocultural anthropologists at the University of Michigan attempt to understand this dynamic interaction between cultural and biological factors with respect to individual and population differences in food preference and avoidance.
MY RESPONSE: That whole thing just sounds cool. I'd be torn between the first one and this one, though I'd want to know what else this one looks into besides nutrition (as cool as food is).
So there's a lot to think about, and it of course gets even more complicated when I think about the fact that I probably should go to another college for grad. school...though, I mean, I don't have to, do I? My dad always said it would be a good idea, but I don't really understand that. What does it matter, so long as you're at a top school getting a quality education? Then again, I suppose it matters how many UM undergrads the grad. program is willing to accept. Some departments only take about 20% or less from the UM undergrads, preferring to take more from other schools.
I dunno, it's all just food for thought. I have a lot to figure out. It's just that talking with Josh about the GREs last night made me think about how I have to do some life-figuring, and talking with Linds last Sat. at lunch about the PeaceCorp and Teach for America, and getting a little concerned about either prospect, makes me feel more and more like I should figure out my grad. school situation.
I'm getting more excited about Spain. I finally got my financial aid letter, and I think, while I may have to take out a loan for living expenses, the trip itself should be covered. Thank goodness! I'm pretty well set, I think, but I just e-mailed the OIP in case. Plus, I want to know if the program cost listed is a two-time charge or for the full year...that makes a huge difference in the loans I'm gonna need come winter. :P
Meanwhile, since Aaron A is being ridiculously indecisive about whether or not we can manage to meet for lunch tomorrow, I'm going to just chalk it up to how God made men and go do something with my life. Why he's being so stupid about this, I don't know. (...I sound like him. He wants to know when we can hang out because he wants to see me before I go, yet when I tell him when I'm available all I get is "idk".) We were supposed to hang out today, but he never called, and I told him I couldn't do anything later in the day. So whatever...if he can't get his act together, that is not my fault. Bums me out, but not my fault.