The class haven’t been quite what I was expecting going into the program. As a group, we’ve had some issues with the way the classes have been run and the faculty members. I’m definitely not learning as much as I would be at Macalester, but I think things are starting to get better. Before vacation started, we had faculty evaluation sessions and finally had a good chance to voice out opinions about the classes.
In the globalization and health (g+h) and public health (ph) courses, we want more focus on themes, connections between lectures, and discussions. In medical anthropology and research methods, we want more structure to discussions. In the latter two, there are very good signs of progress. In the first two, we’re hopeful the evaluations will provide some good feedback to work with. The professor of g+h and ph was also very flexible and changed our reading assignments from focusing on the readings themselves to using the readings as a springboard for discussions with our host families, which turned out to provide a lot of interesting information. However, the lectures still need some work.
I’ve also realized that I am not and will not be an anthropologist. There have been several discussions amongst the kids as to whether or not a lot of anthropology is just bullshit, and I’ve had a hard time seeing the practical applications of a lot of what we learn in anthro and how it will help me in the future.
On a positive note, the classes have helped to realize that in medicine I would like to be able to work with individual patients, but at the same time work on the macro level as well through public health initiatives or maybe policy.
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