Kritiske perspektiver på helse og sykdom

Knowledge:

This course will give you knowledge about

• various conceptions, definitions and explanations of health and disease
• historical perspectives on health and disease
• power and knowledge related to health and disease
• issues of equity and justice related to health and disease
• critical perspectives on health governance
• gendered perspectives on health and disease
• minority perspectives on health and disease
• critical perspectives on diagnoses and diagnostic systems
• critical perspectives on evidence and clinical guidelines related to health and disease
• anthropological and sociological perspectives on the body, health, and sickness

Skills:

This course will give you skills to

• identify and apply a range of perspectives in reflection on basic concepts in health care and the life sciences (such as health and disease)
• consider own and others’ research questions and research undertakings in the light of critical theories
• draw on critical perspectives when analyzing and interpreting data

General competence:

This course will give you knowledge and skills that are helpful in

• exercising theoretical reflexivity
• reflecting on your own research and placing it in a wider landscape of science
• maintaining a critical attitude to established conceptions and paradigms in the life sciences and in health care

PhD candidates admitted to a PhD programme at UiO sign up for classes and exam to this course in StudentWeb.

Applicants who are not admitted to a PhD programme at UiO must apply for a right to study before they can sign up for classes and exam to this course. See information here: How to apply for a right to study and admission to elective PhD courses in medicine and health sciences.

Applicants will upon registration receive an immediate reply in StudentWeb as to whether a seat at this course is granted or not.

The course will use a combination of lectures, group work, video, and reflection notes in order to engage the participants in active reflection over basic concepts in health-related research. It will actively use participants own research projects as examples.

Continuous reflection: Each day you are asked to reflect on the relevance of the topics for your own research. You will make reflection notes which can become valuable entries for your exam (essay).

Reading list: Each participant should put together an individual reading list of 350 pages where at least 200 pages stems from the core reading list of the course. The reading list has to be submitted by the end of the course week.

You have to participate in at least 80 % of the teaching to be allowed to take the exam. Attendance will be registered.

Home exam:

Write an essay where you apply the content of the course for a specific topic (e.g., from your own research). The essay should present, discuss, and summarize a specific issue, and the content must be the scope and stated learning outcome of the course.

The topic of the essay must be submitted as a task during the course week and be approved (to ascertain that it is within the course curriculum and learning outcomes).

• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Resitting an examination