Medical Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
University of Hawai'i

The Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i offers the MA and PhD in Anthropology with a concentration in Medical Anthropology.

Resources for training in Medical Anthropology include specific curricular and research foci within the Department of Anthropology, as well as related areas of instruction in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine and other academic units concerned with health, medicine, and human biology. The multiethnic communities of Hawai'i, and a variety of clinical settings, provide unusual opportunities for the study of sociocultural and epidemiologic problems related to health and illness, traditional/folk and biomedical approaches to illness prevention and therapeutics, and delivery of health care services among populations in transition. Special University resources in Asian and Pacific Studies encourage medical anthropological research in those areas.

Curriculum and Requirements

1. Students who specialize in Medical Anthropology fulfill general requirements for the MA and PhD in the Department of Anthropology while developing special competence in biological anthropology or cultural anthropology. A printed description of the graduate program is available from the Anthropology Department office. Other relevant information is described in the University of Hawaii Graduate Catalogue.

2. The special Medical Anthropology curriculum within the Department of Anthropology includes:
a) a general introduction to Medical Anthropology (ANTH 425)
b) at least two of these courses are recommended:

• Food, Health, & Society (ANTH 427)
• Body, Biopower & Cyborgs (ANTH 428)
• Anthropology of Infectious Disease (ANTH 606)
• Biomedicine and Culture (ANTH 667)

Selection among a series of one-semester seminars (ANTH 750C, repeatable) that center on: research methods in medical anthropology; medicinal plants; ethnopharmacology and biodiversity; ethnicity & illness; gender & health; growth and aging; religion and healing; development; medical anthropology in clinical and other institutional settings

3. Students in Medical Anthropology also will take a minimum of two courses outside the Department, in Public Health, Medicine, Botany, Geography, Political Science or other academic departments whose curricular foci transect the student's training in Medical Anthropology. These courses can include:

• Human Biology of the Pacific (ANTH 455)
• Forensic Anthropology (ANTH 458)
• Medical Ethnobotany (BOT 442)
• Hawaiian Ethnobotany (BOT 460)
• History of Science since 1700 (HIST 395)
• Seminar in History of Science (HIST 690)
• Studies in Genre: Psychobiographies (ENG 466)
• Studies in Diasporic Literature: Voodoo (ENG 472)
• Cultural Aspects of Food Habits (FSHN 476)
• Nutrition Policy Analysis (FSHN 683)
• Geography of Health and Disease (GEOG 415)
• Seminar in Medical Geography (GEOG 751)
• Health/Medicine in Religion (REL 431)
• Seminar in International Health (PH 790)
• Health Psychology (PSY 476)
• Seminar in Tropical Medicine (TRMD 690)
• Health Economics (ECON 434)
• Health & Aging (PH 640)
• Host-Parasite Relationships (MICR 681)

Core Medical Anthropology Faculty:

Nina L. Etkin (PhD Washington University-St. Louis 1975: Professor) etkin@hawaii.edu 
Ethnopharmacology, ethnobotany, health & diet, social pharmacy, biological anthropology, infectious disease, Nigeria and West Africa, Eastern Indonesia, Hawaii and the Pacific

Heather Young Leslie, (PhD York University 1999, Assistant Professor) hyleslie@hawaii.edu 
Biomedicine & modernity, indigenous health professionals, Pacific health issues, qualitative methods, gender, the 'body'; Tonga, Oceania, Canada.

Geoffrey White (PhD U of California-San Diego 1978: Professor) whiteg@ewc.hawaii.edu 
Cultural anthropology, culture and politics, identity, cognition and language, history, Oceania, USA

Other Anthropologists who Comprise the Medical Anthropology Faculty:

C. Fred Blake (PhD U of Illinois 1975: Associate Professor) fblake@hawaii.edu
Critical theory, ethnomedicine, symbolic systems, China, U.S.

Daniel E. Brown (PhD Cornell 1978: Professor) dbrown@hawaii.edu
Biological anthropology, biomedical ecology, stress and adaptation, culture change, Hawaii, Pacific Islands

Rebecca Cann (PhD U of California-Berkeley 1982: Professor) rcann@hawaii.edu 
Biological anthropology, anthropological genetics, human dispersal and divergence, mDNA, Pacific Islands, Asia, Native North America

Michael P. Hamnett (PhD U of Hawaii 1977: Professor) hamnett@hawaii.edu
Applied policy research, economic development, research management, Oceania

Terry L. Hunt (PhD U of Washington 1989: Associate Professor) thunt@hawaii.edu
Archaeology, disease & prehistory, paleoenvironments, evolutionary theory, ceramics, archaeometry, Oceania

Gregory Maskarinec (PhD U of Hawaii 1990: Affiliate Graduate Faculty) gregorym@hawaii.edu
Cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, ethnology, discourse practices, oral texts, religion, Himalayas, South and Central Asia

Michael Pietrusewsky (PhD University of Toronto 1969: Professor) mikep@hawaii.edu 
Biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, skeletal biology, paleopathology, biodistance studies, Hawaii, Pacific Islands, Southeast and East Asia, Australia

Paul Ross (MA, MSN, ANP Washington U & U of Hawaii 1973, 1999: Adjunct Instructor) paulr@sfhs-hi.org 
Medical anthropology, ethnicity and health, complementary and alternative medicines, culture and cancer, Nigeria and West Africa, Hawaii

Miriam Stark (PhD U of Arizona 1993: Associate Professor) miriams@hawaii.edu 
Archaeology, ecology, early village economies, ethnoarchaeology, ceramics, Southeast Asia, US Southwest

Faculty in other Departments and Institutions extend this range of health-related interests with expertise in, for example: ethnobotany, nutrition, culture change, ethnic and population studies, epidemiology, linguistics, human genetics, gender relations, public health, religion, and international development. These concerns are further endorsed through The Social Science Health and Medicine Faculty, an informal consortium that serves as a nucleus for sponsored colloquia and curricular developments.

Applications

The application deadline is January 15th for Fall admission. The Department of Anthropology accepts applications for Fall admission only. For application forms and information about financial support write to: Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; or contact Student Services Specialist, Department of Anthropology,

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