Figuring Care at the Margins: Aging, Poverty, and Chronic Diseases

MMH 738 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

In recent decades, macroscale demographic and epidemiological trends have led to a marked increase in the number of older adults as a proportion of the global population. This transition is predicted to accelerate throughout the 21st century; indeed, by the year 2080, it is estimated that the global number of persons aged 65 and older will surpass the number of persons under 18 years of age. Nevertheless, elderhood remains an understudied stage of human life that, in many societies today, brings with it unique challenges, including increased risks of poverty, isolation, and chronic disease. This course will examine the role that ethnographic research and writing can play in illuminating the drivers, experiences, and moral stakes of those negotiating poverty and chronic disease in old age. Through a series of case studies drawn from anthropological literature, we will examine themes of elderhood, chronicity, belonging, identity, illness, kinship, infirmity, care, and visions of a good life and a good death, in relation to political economies of aging. Students will also complete a semester-long, independent ethnographic research project, experimenting with different approaches to ethnographic writing, to explore one of these themes or related theme, in great detail. All along, students will explore what a public facing practice of anthropology can contribute to the social and health inequities facing impoverished elders and other structurally vulnerable communities. This seminar-style course is intended primarily for students in Media, Medicine, and Health master's program. No prior coursework is required.