Skip to main content

224.863.01
Doctoral Seminar in Research Methods in Applied Medical Anthropology I

Location
East Baltimore
Term
1st Term
Department
International Health
Credit(s)
4
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
In-person
Class Time(s)
Tu, Th, 8:30 - 10:20am
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Prerequisite

224.690 and 224.691 Qualitative Research or equivalent

Description
Discusses and explores advanced topics in qualitative methods, including participant observation, interviews and focus groups, content analysis, discourse analysis, and online ethnography. Discusses theories in medical anthropology that are particularly useful in the design and analysis of international health interventions.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Describe different ways in which the concept of ethnography as a methodology is operationalized in qualitative studies on health
  2. Identify the appropriate qualitative method(s) for a given research question, including participant observation, interviews, focus groups, content analysis, discourse analysis, performance analysis, and/or phenomenology
  3. Describe the strengths, limitations, and varieties of practice for each of the methods listed above, and design research projects that use these methods appropriately and to their best advantage
  4. Evaluate methodologies used in published qualitative studies
  5. Determine how history and power relations affect relationships between a researcher and those they interact with, and consider ways to confront these issues
  6. Assess the ways that health and illness is constructed, and how politics and power shape these constructions
  7. Integrate core medical anthropological concepts into the framing of research questions and the analysis of results
  8. Design a theoretically-grounded research study on social, cultural, and behavioral aspects of health, differentiating between qualitative and quantitative designs
  9. Describe the strengths, weaknesses, and variations in practice for the range of qualitative methods used in public health, including participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and content analysis; and design research that uses these methods appropriately and to their best advantage
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
  • 25% Discussion
  • 40% Participation
  • 25% Final Paper
  • 10% Peer-feedback