MA Medical Anthropology and Intensive Language (2018 entry)

Start of programme: September

Mode of Attendance: Full-time or Part-time

Who is this programme for?:

• Intercalating medical students, or students intending to pursue a medical degree.  
• Students with a degree in the social sciences or humanities wishing to acquire a broad understanding of medical anthropology with reference to Asia or Africa, but also including other parts of the world
• People with professional experience in medical practice who have an interest in cross-cultural understandings of health and illness.  
• Students with a degree in social anthropology wishing to pursue more specialist topics in the anthropology of medicine.  
• Students without a previous degree in Anthropology looking for an MA conversion degree to serve as a qualification for pursuing a further research degree in anthropology
• The two-year intensive language pathway is directed at students who want to engage with a country in a professional as well as academic way, as the intensive language courses will enable them to reach a near proficient knowledge of the language.

As one might expect of study at SOAS, our programme is unique in that we take a cultural and phenomenological approach to the anthropology of medicine.  That is, we stress a truly cross-cultural method, one which unites all medical systems in a unified comparative perspective.  This allows students to grasp the underlying principles and questions common to all therapeutic systems.  Given the diversity of the School’s courses, students may choose options which strengthen either the humanities or the development studies aspects of their interests.  

It can also be taken with an intensive language pathway over two years, therefore making this programme unique in Europe.

The Japanese pathway is available for students who have an intermediate level of Japanese. Students will be required to take a placement exam in the week before classes begin in order to determine if their level is suitable. Please contact Professor Drew Gerstle (ag4@soas.ac.uk) for further information.

The Korean pathway is designed for beginner learners of Korean. Students with prior knowledge of Korean are advised to contact the programme convenor, Dr Anders Karlsson (ak49@soas.ac.uk). Students will take four course units in the Korean language, one of them at a Korean university during the summer after year 1.

The Arabic pathway is designed for beginner learners of Arabic. Students will take four units of Arabic, one of them at the Qasid Institute in Jordan or another partner institution during the summer after year 1. Programme convenor: Dr Mohamed Said (ms15@soas.ac.uk)

Programme Overview

The programme consists of 315 credits in total: 255 credits of modules and a dissertation of 10,000 words at 60 credits.  180 credits will be taken in the Deprtment of Anthropology and Sociology; 135 credits, in the Intensive Lanuguage specific discipline. 

The Programme can be taken as a full-time study over 2 years or part-time study over 4 years.

All students are expected to take the core and compulsory modules listed below, except for students with a previous Anthropology degree, who are not required to take the Theoretical Approaches to Social Anthropology module but may wish to select this as part of their 180 credits from the options lists.

All students must audit the compulsory module, Ethnographic Research Methods. This will not count towards the 315 credits.  Students will be expected to attend only lectures and do not attend seminars or submit any assessments.  Students may choose to take this module (worth 15 credits) as part of their 180 credits from the option lists.

All students are required to take 15 credits from list A.

The remaining credits can be selected from the relevant lists in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology or relevant options from other departments module.  See below for a detailed programme structure.

Programme Detail

Year 1 (two years full time)

For students WITHOUT previous Anthropology degree

Taught Component

AND

Language Component

Choose Post Graduate Language modules to the value of 60 credits

AND

Study Abroad

During the summer students will participate in a summer school abroad (location dependant on language) to the value of 45 credits

Year 2

Dissertation

Students must complete a Dissertation (10,000 words)

AND

Language Component

Choose a Post Graduate Language module(s) to the value of 30 credits

AND

Choose a module from the List A below to the value of 15 credits

AND

Choose module(s) from the List A or List B below to the value of 45 credits

Year 1 (two years full time)

For students WITH previous Anthropology degree

Taught Component

AND

Language Component

Choose Post Graduate Language modules to the value of 60 credits

AND

Choose a module from List A below to the value of 15 credits

AND

Study Abroad

During the summer students will participate in a summer school abroad (location dependant on language) to the value of 45 credits

Year 2

Dissertation

Students must complete a Dissertation (10,000 words)

AND

Language Component

Choose a Post Graduate Language module(s) to the value of 30 credits

AND

Choose module(s) from the List A or List B below to the value of 75 credits

Year 1 (four years part time)

For students WITHOUT previous Anthropology degree

Taught Component

Language Component

Choose Post Graduate Language modules to the value of 60 credits

AND

Study Abroad

During the summer students will participate in a summer school abroad (location dependant on language) to the value of 45 credits

Year 2

Taught Component

AND

Language Component

Choose a Post Graduate Language module(s) to the value of 30 credits

Year 3

Taught Component

AND

Choose a module from List A below to the value of 15 credits

AND

Choose a module from List A or List B below to the value of 15 credits

Year 4

Dissertation

Students must complete a Dissertation (10,000 words)

AND

Taught Component

Choose module(s) from the List A or List B below to the value of 30 credits

Year 1 (four years part time)

For students WITH previous Anthropology degree

Language Component

Choose Post Graduate Language modules to the value of 60 credits

AND

Study Abroad

During the summer students will participate in a summer school abroad (location dependant on language) to the value of 45 credits

Year 2

Taught Component

AND

Language Component

Choose a Post Graduate Language module(s) to the value of 30 credits

Year 3

Choose a module from List A below to the value of 15 credits

AND

Choose modules from List A or List B below to the value of 45 credits

Year 4

Dissertation

Students must complete a Dissertation (10,000 words)

AND

Taught Component

Choose module(s) from the List A or List B below to the value of 30 credits

List of Modules (subject to availability)

List A

List B

Anthropology and Sociology

History

Religions and Philosophies

Language Modules

Choose Post Graduate Language modules

This is the structure for applicants

Programme Specification

• MA Medical Anthropology and Intensive Language Programme Specification 2018/19 (pdf; 190kb)

Important notice

Year abroad

Yes (summer)

Teaching & Learning

Contact Hours

All Masters programmes consist of 180 credits, made up of taught modules of 30 or 15 credits, taught over 10 or 20 weeks, and a dissertation of 60 credits. The programme structure shows which modules are compulsory and which optional.

As a rough guide, 1 credit equals approximately 10 hours of work. Most of this will be independent study, including reading and research, preparing coursework, revising for examinations and so on. It will also include class time, which may include lectures, seminars and other classes. Some subjects, such as learning a language, have more class time than others. At SOAS, most postgraduate modules have a one hour lecture and a one hour seminar every week, but this does vary.

More information is on the page for each module.

Aims and Outcomes

• All students are introduced to the types of problem and areas of questioning which are fundamental to the anthropology of medicine.
• Students new to the discipline are given knowledge of the general principles of anthropological enquiry
• All students develop advanced knowledge and understanding of the theoretical approaches which help form an anthropological perspective.
• All students gain an understanding of the practical methods by which this perspective is applied in field research.  
• All students will be provided with a near proficient ability in a language.

 Knowledge

• Students will be familiar with the foundational literature on the basis of which medical anthropology is linked to and emerges from broader disciplinary concerns.
• Students will have knowledge of the intersections linking medical anthropology to related fields, such as social studies of science, studies in bioethics, and critical approaches to public health
• Students will be familiar with the numerous ethnographic studies of health and illness.  

Intellectual (thinking) skills

• Students will learn to deploy an ethnographic kind of questioning – one directed toward teasing out of complex situations the sets of particular norms or principles which condition or shape them.
• As anthropologists, they will be trained to look for the specifically social in everything (even & especially in the “natural”)
• Students will learn how to form an anthropological problem – that is to distinguish an anthropological problem from a mere topic or area of interest.

Subject-based practical skills

• Personal drive: Students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning
• Students will develop research skills: including location and adjustment to differing types of library collection, as well as locating organizations and people who hold significant information
• Listening & understanding: Students will be able to assimilate complex arguments quickly on the basis of listening – and to discuss or disagree constructively with points made by others.  
• Planning and problem solving: students will be able to set targets and achieve them, and will be able to work well to deadlines.
• Working in a group: students will learn to lead by contributing to the development of consensus.  
• In the two year intensive language pathway, to acquire/develop skills in a  language to Effective Operational Proficiency level, i.e., being able to  communicate in written and spoken medium in a contemporary language.

 Transferable skills

• Students will develop an ability to begin from a general question or issue and develop an appropriate research model and method.
• Ability to clearly represent a concise understanding of a project/problem and its solution.
• An ability to recognize and appreciate for what it is an unconventional approach or an unfamiliar idea  
• An ability creatively to resolve conflict while working in a team; being able to see the other person’s point of view
• An ability to work and feel at ease in multicultural or cross cultural environments.

Tuition Fees

Full details of postgraduate tuition fees can be found on the Registry's Postgraduate Tuition Fees page.

This is a Band 1 tuition fee.

Fees for 2018/19 entrants. The fees below are per academic year. Please note that fees go up each year. 2 year full-time programmes have 2 years of full-time fees - the fee in the second year will be higher than the fee for the first year (the full time fee below is for the first year only).

Scholarships

For further details and information on external scholarships visit the Scholarships section

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