UCSF Guides: Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine: Anthropology, History and Social Medicine

Department Information

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UCSF Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
This graduate program will train students to examine the history of health sciences (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, alternative healing, and biomedical research) from a variety of critical approaches
Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology increases our understanding of health-related beliefs and behaviors of all kinds, from the precise products of science to the silent rituals of culturally scripted healing. Anthropological research on social and cultural processes in the arena of health have both theoretical and practical utility addressing many of the central quandaries of the human condition: from social suffering and institutional inequality to chronic pain, warfare, and everyday violence.
Social Medicine
Social Medicine is a field of interdisciplinary academic investigation that examines the many ways that health, disease, and the practices of medicine, the bio-medical sciences and implementation of medical technologies are affected by societal forces.

Faculty Members

Acting Chair

Dr. Nancy Milliken, MD, Vice Dean for the School of Medicine, Professor of Clinical Medicine OB-GYN, Director of UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health

Core Faculty

Vincanne Adams, Ph.D., Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Medical Anthropology
Judith Barker, Ph.D., Professor in Residence
Brian Dolan, Ph.D., Professor
Galen Joseph, Ph.D, Assistant Professor
Dorothy Porter, Ph.D., Professor
Elizabeth Watkins, Ph.D., Professor, Director of Graduate Studies History of Health Sciences
Ian Whitmarsh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Anthropology, History, and Social Medicine

Contact Information

Department Information

Faculty Members

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