About the Program

Medical anthropology entails the exploration of humans as simultaneously physical and symbolic beings in both contemporary and evolutionary contexts. As such, medical anthropology participates in anthropology as a whole, encompassing theory and practice from sociocultural, psychological, biological, biocultural, symbolic, and linguistic anthropology. It is concerned with questions of both theoretical and applied significance, and with research that is of relevance to the social sciences as well as to medicine and the biological sciences. Courses in bioevolutionary dimensions of disease are accompanied by seminars that explore pain, suffering, madness, and other human afflictions as a social language speaking to the critically sensitive or contradictory aspects of culture and social relations. Anthropological epidemiology asks the questions, "Who gets sick with what ailments?" (differential risks, forms of medical knowledge, and medical systems) and "Why?" (what social arrangements, cultural features, and biotechno-environmental forces account for these risks). Medical anthropology interprets individuals as actively constructing their medical realities and not simply adjusting to or coping with them.

Given the broad definition of medical anthropology, the joint graduate program at Berkeley-UCSF is extremely flexible, allowing for the individual needs and interests of each student. During the first year of training, students are required to take core courses in both sociocultural and biological aspects of medical anthropology, taught at both campuses. After the first year and successful completion of the preliminary qualifying examination, medical anthropology students develop a more specialized and individually tailored program under the supervision and guidance of their adviser.

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Admissions

Admission to the University

Uniform minimum requirements for admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A minimum grade-point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant comes from a country or political entity (e.g. Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, 230 on the computer-based test, 90 on the iBT test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants who already hold a graduate degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees as evidence of broad research training, not as vocational training certificates; therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to take up new subject matter on a serious level without undertaking a graduate program, unless the fields are completely dissimilar.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may only apply to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Any applicant who was previously registered at Berkeley as a graduate student, no matter how briefly, must apply for readmission, not admission, even if the new application is to a different program.

Required documents for admissions applications

1. Transcripts:  Upload unofficial transcripts with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcripts of all college-level work will be required if admitted. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) you have attended. Request a current transcript from every post-secondary school that you have attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs.
   If you have attended Berkeley, upload unofficial transcript with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required if admitted.
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants can request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants from countries in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This requirement applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and most European countries. However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a U.S. university may submit an official transcript from the U.S. university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature. If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests.

Admission to the Program

The Department of Anthropology at Berkeley, and the Graduate Group in Anthropology at the University of California at San Francisco, currently offer a joint PhD in medical anthropology. Students may apply to enter the program through either the Berkeley or the San Francisco campus but not to both. The point of entry determines the student's home base during the program. Financial aid, primary advising, and other routine services are provided by the campus through which the student enters the program. All students, however, benefit by taking required coursework on both campuses and by the participation of the faculty on both sides of the program on all qualifying examinations and on the doctoral dissertation committees. The degree is the same and bears the name of both campuses.

Applications to all graduate programs are considered once each year for admission the following fall semester. The application period opens in early September, and the deadline for receipt of both department and Graduate Division applications is December 15. Applications are screened by the anthropology faculty, and selections are made on the basis of academic excellence, letters of recommendation, GRE scores, relevant experience, and a strong statement of intellectual and professional purpose.

The minimum requirement for admission to the Berkeley doctoral program in anthropology and in medical anthropology is a BA. The UCSF program in medical anthropology requires a master's degree in anthropology or a related discipline, or a postbaccalaureate professional degree.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Normative Time Requirements

Normative Time to Advancement

Normative Time to Advancement is three years of coursework

Normative Time in Candidacy

Normative Time in Candidacy is one to two years of dissertation research, and one to two years of writing the dissertation.

Total Normative Time

Total Normative Time is 6 years.

Time to Advancement

Curriculum  

Foreign Language(s)

In addition to English, the program requires at least one other language. This language may be a language of international scholarship, a literary language, or a field language. The required language must be directly relevant to the research.

Field Papers

Students will write two field statements on topics in medical anthropology (for example, comparative medical systems, the anthropology of the body, reproduction, psychiatry and anthropology, political economy of health, science and biotechnology, shamanism, etc.). The third field statement is usually on the student's chosen ethnographic/geographical area (for example, Latin American peasants, urban India, post-colonial southern Africa, etc.). Each field statement is prepared with a faculty sponsor. Medical anthropology students usually work with three professors from the Anthropology Department. Field statements should not exceed 20 pages, excluding the bibliography.

Prospectus

The dissertation prospectus is the intellectual justification and research plan for the dissertation. Medical Anthropology students must get their prospectus signed by all three dissertation committee members and file it at the end of their third year, either before or after the PhD. Oral Qualifying Examination. There is no designated length for a medical dissertation prospectus, but the average proposal should be about 10-12 pages plus bibliography.

Time in Candidacy

Advancement

When the student has passed the Oral Qualifying Examination, submitted his or her dissertation prospectus, proposed his or her dissertation committee (see Dissertation Committee below) he or she may be advanced to candidacy for the PhD. by the Dean of the Graduate Division.

Dissertation

This committee typically consists of three professors: the student's advisor as the committee chair, an inside member from the UCB Anthropology department or from the Medical Anthropology program at UCSF, and an outside member from another department at UCB. The Dissertation Committee chair and the outside member must be members of the UCB Academic Senate.

Required Professional Development

Teaching

Graduate students are encouraged to serve at least two semesters as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) in the course of earning the PhD. The department believes it is training its students to be college and university professors with a high regard for excellence in teaching as well as research. GSI-ships in Anthropology are awarded to students at least once in their careers as graduate students and students are also encouraged to apply to other departments on campus.

Courses

Medical Anthropology

Faculty

Professors

Pertti J Anttonen, PhD, Professor.

Stanley H. Brandes, Professor. Cultural anthropology, ritual and religion, food and drink, alcohol use, visual anthropology, Mediterranean Europe, Latin America, Spain, Mexico.
Research Profile

Charles L. Briggs, Professor.

Lawrence Cohen, Professor. Social cultural anthropology, medical and psychiatric anthropology, critical gerontology, lesbian and gay studies, feminist and queer theory.
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Terrence W. Deacon, Professor. Neuroscience, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary biology, neurobiology, semiotics, primates, linguistic theory.
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Junko Habu, Professor. Japan, anthropology, archaeology, climate change, sustainability, East Asia, Jomon hunter-gatherers.
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William F. Hanks, Professor. Social and cultural anthropology, linguisitics, shamanism, language, Yucatan Mexico, Maya culture.
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Christine Hastorf, Professor. Anthropology, archaeology, paleoethnobotany/archaeobotany, ancient plant use, foodways, Andean South America, ritual, agriculture.
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James Holston, Professor. Citizenship, Brazil, architecture, law, planning, the United States, cities, democracy, political and social anthropology, urban ethnography, the Americas.
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Rosemary A. Joyce, PhD, Professor. Latin America, anthropology, gender, archaeology, sexuality, museums, cultural heritage, ethics, Central America, feminism.
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Kent G. Lightfoot, Professor. California archaeology, coastal hunter-gatherers, North American archaeology, archaeology of colonialism, indigenous landscape management.
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Xin Liu, Professor. History and/of anthropology, contemporary trends in social theory, social/cultural anthropology, comparative societies, capitalism and culture, America and China/East Asia.
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Anne M. Lovell, Professor.

Laura Nader, Professor. Latin America, Mexico, social anthropology, comparative ethnography of law, dispute resolution, conflict, controlling processes, comparative family organizations, the anthropology of professional mind-sets, ethnology of the Middle East, contemporary U.S.
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Aihwa Ong, Professor. Cultural anthropology, anthropology, transnationalism, citizenship, global cities, migration, Southeast Asia, urbanism.
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Paul M. Rabinow, Professor. Cultural anthropology, social thought, modernity, biotechnology, genome mapping, France, Iceland.
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Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Professor. Ethnography, medical anthropology, violence, genocide, body, inequality, marginality, childhood, family, psychiatry, deinstitutionalization, medical ethics, fieldwork ethics, globalization medicine, social/ political illness, disease, AIDS, Ireland, Brazil, cuba.
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Laurie Wilkie, Professor. Anthropology, historical archaeology, oral history, material culture and ethnic identity, family and gender relations; North America, Northern California, Caribbean. Bahamas, African consumerism, creolization, multi-ethnic community.
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Associate Professors

Sabrina C Agarwal, Associate Professor. Bioarchaeology, skeletal biology, gender research, biological and evolutionary anthropology, osteology and osteoporosis, health and disease, paleopathology.
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Mariane C Ferme, Associate Professor. Social and cultural anthropology, gender theory, symbolic anthropology, colonialism, West Africa, West Europe, phenomenology, religion, Islam, political culture.
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Cori Hayden, Associate Professor. Latin America, Mexico, social and cultural anthropology, kinship, anthropology of science, technology, and medicine, post-colonial science, gender, queer studies.
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Charles Hirschkind, Associate Professor. Islam, anthropology, religious practice, media technologies, political community, Middle East, Europe.
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Saba Mahmood, Associate Professor. Religion, Islam, gender, anthropology of secularism, and postcolonial politics, feminist and poststructuralist theory, the Middle East, and South Asia.
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Donald S. Moore, Associate Professor. Ethnicity, development, cultural politics, race, and identity, spatiality and power, governmentality, environment, postcolonial theory, Africa.
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Stefania Pandolfo, Associate Professor. Cultural anthropology, Islam, Middle East, theories of subjectivity, postcolonial criticism, anthropology and literature, the Maghreb, mental illness.
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Alexei Yurchak, Associate Professor. Language, Discourse, power, social theory, late socialism, theories of ideology, subjectivity, popular culture, ideology, Soviet and post-Soviet culture and society, post-socialism, telecommunications, linguistics, speech synthesis.
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Assistant Professors

Daniel T Fisher, Assistant Professor.

Lisa A. Maher, Assistant Professor. Archaeology, hunter-gatherers, prehistory, geoarchaeology, landscape use, stone tools technology, emergence of social complexity.
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Jun Sunseri, PhD, Assistant Professor. Archaeology.
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Lecturers

Nathan Kwame Braun, Lecturer.