intersexed infants .” signs 16 H u m a n i t i e s

Within the topic of “Medical anthropology, Controversy, and violence,” see the below-mentioned subtopics, one of which should be clearly used and cited in the paper:

-Illness, affliction, and the
complexity of stigma

-HIV/AIDS today

-Missionary colonialism and sexualities in Southern Africa

-Colonial violence against
indigenous peoples and healthcare

Assignment prompt: Write a critical paper on the topic of Medical Anthropology, Controversy, and Violence that draws on ethnographic research and refers to health inequalities and/or issues of medical injustice from a medical
anthropology perspective.

The term ethnographic research here means you should look to texts (books, journal articles, etc)
which draw on research conducted among a group of people. You are not meant to conduct primary
(first-hand) research but instead analyze studies already published.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

The title does not need to address every aspect of the paper requirements but should be clear and
fit the paper well. Consider using a subtitle after a colon if that’s helpful for conveying your paper
content.

You do not need to define ‘medical anthropology,’ but as you write, you should be clear in your
thinking about what medical anthropology entails (e.g. considering the body and embodiment,
science as cultural, etc). To write from a medical anthropology perspective therefore means to
consider medical anthropology theory, e.g. anthropological/medical histories, relativism, body
techniques, the mind-body, belief, etc. You won’t need to write about more than one, but you
should mention a reading or readings from class which we have discussed to elaborate on these.

It is important that the original thesis statement you come up with (a sentence summarizing the
key points that your paper will make and support with evidence) shows adherence to the paper
requirements, i.e. that you are referring to specific ethnographic examples to discuss health
inequalities and/or issues of medical injustice from a medical anthropology perspective. The thesis
statement should generally be placed at the end of a brief introduction paragraph.

keep in mind that a critical paper utilizes your own personal voice and writing style but is not apersonal essay or an opinion piece. The paper should interpretand analyze texts, evaluate the arguments of authors, and formulate an argument (or set of arguments) which is supported by evidence.You are still welcome to use first-person (‘I’statments)if you wish.

When you make a statement like “It is clear that” or “I believe that,” always ask: have I backed
this statement up with evidence? Counter-arguments can be helpful here.

You are welcome to bring in whatever case studies and examples, including from outside of class
that you see fit, but again you should not write about the same topic/themes as your Midterm.

You should cite at least 5 sources total, including at least one of the required readings from the
course, referring to them in the text and including them in your Works Cited. The recommended
readings should also be helpful here. Feel free to cite these as sources along with others you may
find. I encourage you to check out the UCI online library catalog for additional books and journal
articles and consult Google, including Google Books and Google Scholar.

Please make sure at least 3 of your sources are academic sources (books or journal articles). You
are welcome to also cite news/online articles, including but not limited to the ones we read in class,
but be careful in selecting web articles based on quality.

The style of your citations is up to you (e.g. MLA, Chicago, Harvard), but they should be
consistent, and you should generally use page numbers (or ‘n.p.’ for no page) if you use direct
quotes within the text. The citations in your Works Cited should appear in the body of the text.

In the Works Cited, you should normally include the author(s), date, title, publication the text can
be found in (e.g. the name of a book the chapter is in, the name and issue of the journal an article
is in, the name and issue of the newspaper an article is in), the total pages of the cited text (if
applicable), and the publisher and location (if a book). Most styles require you to include a link
for web sources, if you use a news article or journal article that can be found online.

Examples of in-text citations:
• Kessler (1990) discusses how norms about gender influence the medical management of
sex.
• A system of binary gender categories does not allow for “express[ing] gender identities in
diverse ways” (Christiansen and Fischer 2016: 7).

Examples of sources in Works Cited:
• Christiansen, Lars and Nancy Fischer (2016). “Working in the (Social) Construction
Zone.” Introducing the New Sexuality Studies. 3rd Edition. 3–11. Routledge: New York.
• Kessler, Suzanne J. (1990). “The Medical Construction of Gender: Case Management of
Intersexed Infants.” Signs 16 (1): 3–26.