Summer 2016 - SA 218 D100
Illness, Culture and Society (SA) (4)
Class Number: 3687
Delivery Method: In Person
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
May 9 – Aug 8, 2016: Mon, 1:30–5:20 p.m.
Burnaby
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Instructor:
Stacy Pigg
pigg@sfu.ca
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Prerequisites:
SA 101 or 150 or 201W.
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
The study of socio-cultural factors related to health and illness. Focus will be on patterns of health seeking activity, systems of health care, causal and symbolic factors involved in physical and mental illness, and the medicalization of life in contemporary society. The disciplinary focus of the course will vary from semester to semester. Students with credit SA 460 when offered as Medical Anthropology may not take SA 218 for further credit.
COURSE DETAILS:
This course introduces key frameworks developed in anthropology for understanding health, illness, and healing in its social, cultural, and historical contexts. Depending on who you are and where you live, there are differences in the harms you experience, the impact these have in your life and relationships, and the material and social resources you have available to resolve your situation.
We will explore how cultural conceptions of the body (especially the conceptions embedded in “western” biomedicine) shape both patient experience and medical care. We will stretch our imaginations to understand realities that are not recognized by western, modern medical institutions. We will study the ways different groups (e.g. families, health care professionals, civic leaders, support groups, traditional healers, public health officials) organize action in the face of affliction. We will question the medical forms through which social inequalities are often reinforced. The first section of the course looks at the experience of illness and the work of healers, with an emphasis on the ways people use narrative to make sense of disturbing events. The second unit of the course looks at the paradoxical world of cancer care and sufferers’ experiences, with an emphasis on how structural systems are evident in the everyday moments. We also visit (through readings) occupational therapists as they chat in their lunch rooms, sit in on genetic counselors as they advise prospective parents on amniocentesis, join new American medical students as they conduct their first autopsy, contemplate how to get back a lost soul or get rid of a possessing spirit, sit in a chemo chair, and eavesdrop on a breast cancer survivor’s group. Throughout the course, we’ll also be turning to the medium of comics (aka graphic novels) to think about what visual story-telling can reveal about social interactions in medical settings.
Course format: (1) You will be reading two books, plus articles. Class time is organized around in-depth discussion of issues raised by the readings (not lectures explaining the readings), so you should be prepared to use weekly out-of-class study time to read and prepare notes before each class. (2) We will also be playing with visual thinking: (a) by interpreting of best-selling comics-format memoirs about cancer, and (b) trying our hands at cartooning medical encounters (no drawing skill or experience necessary!) Overall, this course teaches students to work with richly contextualized, highly specific case studies as a source for broad, comparative insights that can enhance our understanding of multiple, intersecting social processes and that can be applied to new events.
Grading
REQUIREMENTS:
Where a final exam is scheduled and you do not write the exam or withdraw from the course before the deadline date, you will be assigned an N grade. Unless otherwise specified on the course outline, all other graded assignments in this course must be completed for a final grade other than N to be assigned.
Academic Dishonesty and Misconduct Policy
The Department of Sociology and Anthropology follows SFU policy in relation to grading practices, grade appeals (Policy T 20.01) and academic dishonesty and misconduct procedures (S10.01‐ S10.04). Unless otherwise informed by your instructor in writing, in graded written assignments you must cite the sources you rely on and include a bibliography/list of references, following an instructor-approved citation style. It is the responsibility of students to inform themselves of the content of SFU policies available on the SFU website: http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student.html.
Materials
REQUIRED READING:
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. (note: you can use either the first of second edition of this book)
Jain, Sarah Lochlain. Malignant: How Cancer Becomes Us. Berkeley: University of California Press 2013
Articles (posted on Canvas)
RECOMMENDED READING:
We’ll be working with these three graphic novels. You don’t need to buy all three but you should be prepared to share books and/or use copies on reserve. Instructions in first class.
- Pekar, Harvey and Joyce Brabner. Our Cancer Year. Running Press, 1994.
- Engelberg, Miriam Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person. Harper Perennial, 2006.
- Fies, Brian Mom’s Cancer. Harry N. Abrams, 2009.
Registrar Notes:
SFU’s Academic Integrity web site contains information on what is meant by academic dishonesty and where you can find resources to help with your studies. There is also a section on tutoring.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS