Postgraduate Course: Health, Environment and Society (SCAN11032)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Understanding the relationship between society, health and environment as the effects of climate change and other forms of environmental harm continue to escalate, is becoming increasingly urgent. This course will analyse these complex problems by combining insights from medical and environmental anthropology. |
| Course description |
Climate change and environmental degradation are intensifying health challenges worldwide. Heat waves, floods, pollution, and biodiversity loss are reshaping patterns of disease and exacerbating social inequalities tied to race, gender, disability, migration, and wealth. These challenges are rapidly unfolding within an increasingly fraught social and political space marked by economic precarity, environmental activism, and growing distrust in biomedicine and government. This course takes a transdisciplinary approach, building on ethnographic methods to learn from community expertise while drawing upon medical and environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, human geography, sociology, and history.
The course is structured in two parts. The first half introduces key theoretical frameworks including structural violence, political ecology, and multispecies anthropology, and examines diverse Indigenous and global majority perspectives on environment, health, and healing. Students will critically engage with emerging frameworks such as One Health and Planetary Health, considering how environments actively shape and are shaped by human and nonhuman health outcomes. The second half applies these concepts through case studies exploring topics such as heat and health, toxic environments, health systems resilience, and landscapes of wellbeing. Throughout, we will examine how historical inequalities influence the distribution and experience of environmental health challenges, ultimately considering how to reimagine health systems in an era of climate change.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 15 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
20% Critical concept map, 1000 words
80% Case study analysis, 4000 words
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| Feedback |
The first assessment, the critical concept map is intended as a low-stakes activity that will allow students to practice integrating key concepts in a visual, dynamic way. Students will build on an in-class activity during which they will work individually or in small groups using large sheets of paper, sticky notes, or digital tools (Miro) to identify key concepts from the lectures and readings, and map relationships between these concepts and health and environment issues. They will annotate their diagrams with explanations of the connections they have made. The students will present their concept maps to peers and the lecturer for informal, formative feedback. They will draw on this experience to submit for assessment a digital or hand drawn map (the latter can be scanned into a word document) together with a short 750 word essay that explains the concepts and justifies the connections drawn between them on the map.
There will be a non-standard rubric for this critical concept map to inform students how the visual component (the concept map), and the written explanation of the map will be assessed. Feedback on conceptual thinking will highlight areas where students might need more clarity, and will help them prepare for the second assessment. Generalised feedback on the concept maps will be given in person by the lecturer to the whole class after assessment one has been marked.
The second assessment, the case study analysis, builds on the critical concept map. It will take the form of a conventional essay in which students will analyse a real world case study, inspired by one of the topics discussed in the second half of the course, using the analytical frameworks that they have learnt about in the first half. Students will be provided with example case studies, and will also, with the guidance of the lecturer, be permitted to choose a case study that develops their own interests. The emphasis on analysing a case study will make it more difficult for students to use AI to write their essays.
The case study analysis will be marked according to a suitably modified version of the marking descriptors of the School of Social and Political Science.
Verbal formative feedback will be offered by lecturers throughout contact hours and during additional office hours for students who require it. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of theoretical debates around how environmental changes intersect with health outcomes, critically evaluating the strengths and limitations of anthropological approaches.
- Critically evaluate and compare emerging health frameworks such as One Health and Planetary Health, analyzing their theoretical foundations and critiquing their implications for sustainability and justice in health systems.
- Synthesize and critically evaluate diverse theoretical perspectives to develop original analyses of complex real-world case studies of health and environmental challenges, demonstrating awareness of current debates in the field.
- Critically analyze and interpret ethnographic and lived experience using advanced theoretical frameworks to evaluate how historical processes and inequalities shape the distribution and experience of health and environmental interactions,
- Apply sophisticated anthropological concepts and methods to develop innovative and sustainable solutions for rethinking health systems in light of climate change and environrmental harms, demonstrating awareness of theoretical and practical implications.
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Reading List
Baer, Hans, and Merrill Singer. 2012. Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health: Emerging Crises and Systemic Solutions. Routledge.
Fearnley, Lyle. 2020. Virulent Zones: Animal Disease and Global Health at Chinas Pandemic Epicenter. Experimental Futures. Durham: Duke University Press.
Nading, Alex. 2025 The Kidney and the Cane. Duke University Press.
Petryna, Adriana. 2002. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Yusoff, Kathryn. 2019. A Billion Black Anthropocenes. MIT Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Curiosity for learning that makes a positive difference
Passion to engage globally and locally
create, identify and evaluate options in order to solve complex problems.
analyse, synthesise, critically and methodically appraise thoughts to break down complex problems into manageable components
use information and knowledge effectively in order to abstract meaning from information and to share knowledge across fields
to think independently, exercise personal judgment and take initiatives
think outside the box
have an ability to work with people from a range of cultures and backgrounds
have multicultural and global awareness
have a capacity to thrive in a globalised society and economy, and an awareness of other cultures
have the ability to produce clear, structured written work
articulating and effectively explaining information |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Rebecca Marsland
Tel: (0131 6)51 3864
Email: r.marsland@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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