Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology

Step I
The student attends lectures and seminars and defines his or her topical and geographical specializations.

Course Work
In the first two years of the program, medical anthropology students are required to take a two-semester sequence on anthropological theory, Anthropology 240A and 240B, Fundamentals of Anthropological Theory. The goal of these courses is to cover classical and contemporary debates in the field and their genealogy in earlier philosophical anthropologies, in classic sociology and political economy, and in terms of intersecting frames of modernity, colonialism, nationalism, and biopolitics.

Also during the first two years, students must take a medical anthropology core course sequence, either Anthropology 215A-B "Advanced Medical Anthropology" (UCB),Anthropology 205A-B, "Introduction to Medical Anthropology Theory " (UCSF), and at least one seminar from Anthropology 219 "Special Topics in Medical Anthropology" (UCB) or Anthropology 211A "Research Training Seminar"(UCSF). Students are required to enroll in Anthropology 290 (departmental lecture series-UCB) each semester they are registered before advancing to candidacy.

Because the Medical Anthropology Program is a joint one, UCB students are required to complete three courses, of at least four units each, at the UCSF campus. Graduate courses that are co-taught by faculty members from both campuses can be counted towards the requirements for either campus depending on the need of the student. A student should consult with his or her adviser during the first year in residence concerning the most appropriate fulfillment of this requirement.

Students who already hold an M.A. in Anthropology or a closely related field cannot receive a second M.A. in Anthropology at Berkeley.

Departmental Review of Graduate Students
At the end of the each fall semester, an annual mid-year review of graduate student progress is conducted by the Head Graduate Advisor and the faculty of the department. This is generally a review of first-year students' progress but may include reviews of advanced students as well. Each student's progress is assessed and recommendations are made as appropriate.

At the end of spring semester a similar year-end review is conducted. This is a more general review of all graduate students in the department.

Step II
The student completes coursework and prepares for the Orals Qualifying Examination and Advancement to Candidacy.

Coursework
During the second year and leading up to the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination(a.k.a. "Orals")(usually by the end of the third year) the student will complete the coursework on both UCB and UCSF campuses as described in Step I above and, in consultation with his or her advisor, elect other appropriate seminars, courses, independent research, and language training. The individual's second and third year program should be directed toward preparing the three field statements and fulfilling the language requirement, both of which are necessary preparation for the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination. Included in this preparation, the student is expected to take a seminar or do individual research directed by members of the student’s proposed Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination Committee (see below), which includes the UCSF faculty member. All course requirements on both campuses must be completed prior to advancement to candidacy, which usually occurs after successfully passing the Ph.D. Orals Qualifying Exam.

The Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Committee
For Medical Anthropology students, the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination committee usually consists of four faculty, at least one of whom is the student's advisor, one of whom is from another department on the Berkeley campus (the outside member), and one of whom is from the UCSF Medical Anthropology faculty. The remaining member (also called "inside member") must be from the UCB Anthropology Department. The committee chair, one inside member and the outside member must all be members of UCB’s Academic Senate. (The chair of the orals committee cannot serve as chair of the dissertation committee.) The orals committee is proposed by the student and approved by the department and Dean of Graduate Division. The form for proposing the committee is available from the Graduate Student Affairs Officer (see field statement announcements, below). When the Dean of the Graduate Division approves the composition of the student’s Orals committee, the "outside member" is officially designated as the Dean’s representative (i.e., the person on the committee ensuring that the examination is fair and objective).

The Field Statements
Field statements are bibliographical essays on areas of specialization that are to address substantive areas of anthropology. Each field statement is a critical summary and analysis of key issues and debates in a specific field of knowledge. Students will write two field statements on topics in medical anthropology (for example, comparative medical systems, the anthropology of the body, reproduction, psychiatry and anthropology, political economy of health, science and biotechnology, shamanism, etc.). The third field statement is usually on the student's chosen ethnographic/geographical area (for example, Latin American peasants, urban India, post-colonial southern Africa, etc.).

Each field statement is prepared with a faculty sponsor. Medical anthropology students usually work with three professors from the Anthropology Department. Field statements should not exceed 20 pages, excluding the bibliography. Optimally, these statements will link strongly to the work planned for the dissertation.

The field statement requirement is in place to help the student prepare for the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination. Preparing the statements allows students to show that they have sufficient background in at least three major areas of anthropology.

Field Statement Announcements (i.e., "the paperwork")
Two forms are involved in the process of preparing the field statements. First the student files a Preliminary Announcement of Field Statements (a.k.a. "the green sheet"). On this form students outline the prospective field statements, faculty sponsors, how the language requirement will be met, and the projected composition of their Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination committee. This form should be filed as soon as possible, but no later than the end of the second year in the program.

The second form is the Final Announcement of Field Statements (a.k.a."the yellow sheet"). The final announcement is submitted to the department for faculty approval only when students finish their third and last field statement. This sheet confirms how the language requirement was fulfilled or will be fulfilled, the date of the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination, the final composition of the committee conducting the examination, and the composition of the dissertation committee. The final announcement is due by the end of the third year in the program and students must submit it 60 days before being admitted to the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination.

The Language Requirement
Language requirements in the Department of Anthropology are based on the individual graduate student's needs and his or her fields of specialization. In addition to English, the Department requires at least one other language. This language may be a language of international scholarship, a literary language, or a field language. The student's advisor may require more than one language, and in all cases, the required languages must be directly relevant to the research.

Language requirements must be satisfied before a student is eligible to arrange the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination, and can be satisfied by coursework, native language competence, or Departmental Examination.

To fulfill the language requirement by coursework, the student must have completed five college quarters, or four college semesters of a required language with a minimum average grade of "B."

A student whose native language is other than English may offer that native language as his or her required language. The native language (in addition to English) may comprise the requirement only if the advisor and the Department determine that no other language is necessary for the dissertation project. The Department may require a student to demonstrate competence in the native language in a written or oral examination.

A student may fulfill his or her language requirement by passing a Departmental Examination in the required language(s). The Anthropology Department offers examinations twice each year in French, German, and Spanish, and examinations in other languages may be arranged through the Graduate Advisor.

The exam consists of 300-word passages to be translated within a 90-minute time period with the aid of a dictionary, but without a grammar or verb collection. Sample past exams may be examined in the office of the Graduate Student Affairs Officer. Exams are graded by assigned faculty members.

Exam times are announced on the graduate listserv, anthrograd. The exams take place in 221 Kroeber and are graded by assigned faculty members.

The Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination
When all required coursework and field statements are completed and the language requirement met, the student can take the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination. Scheduled generally between the end of the second year and the end of the third year,* this examination is a three-hour oral examination conducted by the five members of the Orals Committee. The four examiners ask questions engaging the three fields the student has chosen.

(*"Normative time to qualifying examination" for Anthropology is six terms. See discussion of Normative time under Graduate Division Rules.))

Step II is completed when the student has passed the Oral Qualifying Examination, submitted his or her dissertation prospectus, proposed his or her dissertation committee (see Dissertation Committee below) and has been advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. by the Dean of the Graduate Division. Forms to petition for advancement to candidacy are available from the Graduate Student Affairs Officer.

The Dissertation Prospectus
The dissertation prospectus is the intellectual justification and research plan for the dissertation. Medical Anthropology students must get their prospectus signed by all three dissertation committee members and file it at the end of their third year, either before or after the Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination. There is no designated length for a medical dissertation prospectus, but the average proposal should be about 10-12 pages plus bibliography.

The Dissertation Committee
This committee typically consists of three professors: the student's advisor as the committee chair, an inside member from the UCB Anthropology department or from the Medical Anthropology program at UCSF, and an outside member from another department at UCB.

(The student may elect to include an additional member on his or her committee. If so, that member may be from a school other than UCB as long as the additional member's research is not represented already at UCB. This additional member is designated as an "additional inside" member.)

The Dissertation Committee chair and the outside member must be members of the UCB Academic Senate. As with the Orals Committee, the outside member functions as the Dean’s representative.

Teaching Experience
Graduate students are encouraged to serve at least two semesters as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) in the course of earning the Ph.D. The department believes it is training its students to be college and university professors with a high regard for excellence in teaching as well as research. GSI-ships in Anthropology are awarded to students at least once in their careers as graduate students and students are also encouraged to apply to other departments on campus.

 

Step III
After advancement to candidacy, the student undertakes dissertation research under the supervision of the dissertation committee (described above) which will have been formally appointed by the Dean of the Graduate Division. Field research usually requires at least one year and the writing of the dissertation another year. On completion of the research and approval of the dissertation by the committee, the student is awarded the Ph.D. degree.

After the dissertation is approved by the Graduate Division, the Department requires all students to submit a copy of their signed title page to Ned Garrett, Anthropology Graduate Student Affairs Officer, and a copy of the completed dissertation to the Anthropology Graduate Office for permanent storage in the Anthropology Library.