Health & Human Sciences BSc (Hons)

UCAS Code: B991

Length: 3 years full time or up to 7 years part time

Typical offer: ABB or IB 34 points

Location: Queen’s Campus, Stockton

Programme Outline

Medical anthropology draws on socio-cultural anthropology, biology and biological anthropology, psychology and medicine to develop a deeper understanding of the local and global interrelationships between health, welfare and contemporary issues. The Health and Human Sciences degree offers a multidisciplinary education in medical anthropology, integrating the cross-cultural approaches of medical anthropology with a grounding in the social and biological sciences.

The courses offered will give you the opportunity to study, investigate and understand issues related to physical and mental health, different healing practices and political dimensions of socio-medical interventions, from the direct experience of researchers who have conducted extended fieldwork among populations the world over. You will have the possibility to follow courses aimed to train you in tackling these issues by writing effective policy proposals and collaborate with funding agencies to hit the ground running.

In your first two years, you get a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of anthropology in the broadest sense, addressing the core disciplines of social and biological anthropology as well as a number of challenging interdisciplinary approaches to culture, society and health.

In your third year, you can tailor the course to your own interests by selecting the modules that appeal to you most from across either campus as well as some third year modules in other departments. Third year modules are generally based on the research expertise of staff, and epitomise the University's ideal of research-led teaching.

Teaching is delivered via lectures, small-group tutorials and one-on-one supervision. Students acquire both humanities-based transferable skills such as critical thinking, essay writing and presentation, as well as science-based transferable skills such as computing skills, data collection, statistical analysis and research-report writing.

The Erasmus Programme offers students the opportunity to spend time studying abroad as part of their degree.

Queen's Campus Mentor Scheme - Human Sciences

The mentoring scheme is designed so that existing university students can offer support, encouragement, guidance, information, technical expertise and personal direction to new mature students coming to university for the first time.

A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser or guide. On a general level, their role as a mentor is to build a relationship of mutual regard and trust with their mentees with whom they will work. They act as an effective role model and provide a basis for achieving greater happiness and success at university and beyond.

A key aspect of this role is to provide encouragement and motivation. In this respect, the mentor will be trying to help mentees become more fully aware of their capacity to succeed. The role of mentor will also include tutoring mentees in their general application to their work and on their attitude to learning and, in appropriate circumstances, in specific subject areas.

Modules

Year 1

Human Diversity

Provides a broad overview from a social and biological anthropological perspective of how humans vary across the world both socially, in their customs and institutions, and biologically, in their physiology, anatomy and genes.

Ways of Life

Provides an introduction to how social anthropologists have studied people living in various parts of the world, encouraging students to develop a critical awareness of how people living in other places are represented both in anthropology and in popular accounts.

Biological and Social Origins

Looks at the biological and social origins of our species through the study of non-human primate behaviour, the fossil record and prehistoric material culture.

Health & Society I: Illness and Culture

Introduces the field of medical anthropology, in particular the cross-cultural study of health, illness and healing.

Health & Society II: Well-being

Covers the ways in which well-being and health are measured and understood, such as patterns of food consumption and causes of poverty.

Anthropological Study and Research Methods with Information Technology

Equips students with the key writing, research and IT skills needed in future modules.

Year 2

Human Ecology

Examines how ecology, in the form of disease, nutrition and resources, influence human behaviour across societies.

Health Development and Policy I: International Health and Development

Provides a grounding in theories of international development and how these theories apply to international health issues and policy.

Health Development and Policy II: Critical and Applied Medical Anthropology

Examines medical ecology, cultural and symbolic theories, critical medical anthropology and historical perspectives on global health, such as colonial legacies, creation of the WHO, primary health care and community-based approaches.

Cultures and Classifications

Provides social anthropological perspectives on the diversity of human social life, building on the concepts introduced in Ways of Life.

Methods and Analysis I: Research Techniques

Teaches students a range of methodologies including ethnographic participant-observation, lab experiments, focus groups, anthropometry and questionnaires.

Methods and Analysis II: Research Project

Students in groups of 3-4 conduct an original research project on a topic of their choice, using the skills that they have acquired in Methods and Analysis I.

Year 3

Dissertation

A double module in which students are supervised by a single member of staff of their choice in an area of their own interest. Students conduct an original piece of research written up as a dissertation.

Other optional modules from:

Current Issues in Medical Anthropology

Environmental Anthropology

Power and Governance

Anthropological Perspectives on Science and Biotechnology

Understanding Behaviour

Anthropology of Community in Britain

Evolutionary Medicine: Reproduction and Infant Health

Mental Health, Illness and Drug Use

Business Anthropology
or modules from other departments

Mothers’ Hard Work Pays Off with Big Brains for Their Babies

Brain growth in babies is linked to the amount of time and energy mothers 'invest', according to new research by the Anthropology department.