AANK13519U Medical Anthropology, advanced course; Bio-socialities and citi-zenships

Biosociality, biovalue, biological citizenship, biocapital… These are some of the many new concepts that have emerged out of recent anthropological studies of the life sciences. How can it be that biology – that most ‘reductionist’, ‘determinist’ and ‘positivist’ of disciplines – has made such a comeback in medical anthropology? In this course we will examine how anthropologists have begun engaging with the ‘new’ biology, namely genetics, reproductive medicine, neuroscience, stem cell science, and more. It was Paul Rabinow who, in reflecting on developments in genetics in 1992, suggested that a new form of sociality was emerging: “in biosociality nature will be remade through technique and will finally become artificial, just as culture becomes natural”. Since then, anthropologists have been engaging with biology, carrying out empirical studies into how new reproductive technologies, neuroscience, forms of genetic testing or experimental stem cell therapies are giving rise to new relationalities, socialities, identities and citizenship claims. The course will take students through this new bio-field with a focus on empirical studies, while critically examining its core concepts of ‘biosociality’, ‘biological citizenship’ and ‘biopolitics’. We will also critically examine whether, and if so how, such a focus on/fascination with ‘frontier technologies’ has come at the cost of other urgent health-related concerns.

The course is aimed at Masters (KA) students and will take the form of weekly sessions. We expect students to read, be well-prepared and ready to engage in discussion and debate. While the course will of course appeal to those students considering writing a thesis within the field of medical anthropology, any student interested in exploring questions around inter-disciplinarity, expertise and the role of science in society today will gain a lot from our sessions. The course will consist of lectures, class discussions, group exercises, presentations and debate. We will together formulate a class problem statement to ensure that each session is linked together. Class presentations will be organised around a common class project which will culminate in a seminar on the final day of our course.