The Anthropology Department at McMaster is a node of expertise in a University with extensive interdisciplinary resources.

Students in the Anthropology of Health concentration take advantage of many other health research areas at McMaster and beyond, and we encourage inquiry-based learning and research that is multi-disciplinary, participatory and collaborative in nature.

Students are encouraged to take at least one course outside of the department.

Faculty and students have carried out fieldwork in many parts of the world in urban and rural environments, and in clinical, laboratory and community settings.

Our interests are wide ranging – from the study of ancient DNA and molecular processes, skeletal evidence for health and disease in the past, through explorations of illness experiences, social relationships and healthcare settings, and the analysis of historical and contemporary epidemics, health care policies and the structural inequalities that impact well-being.

The Anthropology of Health program provides a learning environment in which students are encouraged to pursue their individual interests.

Students are supported in developing professional skills both for academic positions, and for practicing anthropology in non-academic settings.

• 705: Advanced Skeletal Biology
• 707: Past Perspectives on Health
• 710: Gastronomic Heritage
• 717: Readings in the Anthropology of Health
• 740: Biocultural Synthesis
• 744: Ancient Biomolecules and Bioarchaeological Chemistry
• 745: Topics in Bioarchaeology

Other Departments, Programs, and Schools at McMaster with Health-Related Graduate Courses

• Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
• Global Health
• Health, Aging and Society
• Religious Studies
• School of Geography and Earth Sciences
• School of Nursing
• Social Work
• Sociology

Please note that permission to take these courses must be obtained from the instructor in the relevant department.

• Ellen Amster, Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of History
• Andrea Frolic, Director, Office of Clinical and Organizational Ethics Hamilton Health Sciences
• Karen Trollope-Kumar, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine

Elshahat, Sarah
2024: Uncovering the Complexity of Food/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Mental Health Among Arab Immigrants/Refugees in Ontario, Canada: The Can-Heal Study

Duignan, Sarah
2021: Be Like the Running Water: Exploring the Intersections of Health and Water Security with Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation

Medeiros, Priscilla
2019: On the Margins of Care: Women and HIV in Atlantic Canada

Wallace, Lauren J.
2016: Making Modern Families: Family Size and Family Planning in Northern Ghana

Holland, Alyson
2016: Thwarting the silent thief: Informing nutrition-based osteoporosis prevention education for Canadian young adults

Downey, Bernice
2014: Diaspora Health Literacy: reclaiming and restoring Nibwaakaawin (wisdom) and mending broken hearts.

Nafte, Myriam
2014: Trophies and Talismans: The Traffic of Human Remains

Pace, Jessica E.
2013: Meanings of Memory: Understanding Aging and Dementia in First Nations Communities on Manitoulin Island, Ontario

Battles, Heather T.
2013: Examining Mortality Patterns in the Epidemic Emergence of Poliomyelitis in Southern Ontario, Canada (1900-1937)

Carraher, Sally
2013: “Never Say DIE!” An Ethnographic Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori Infection and Risk Perceptions in Aklavik, NWT

Galley, Andrew
2011: Colombian Refugee Migrant Experiences of Health and Social Services in Ottawa, Canada: Navigating Landscapes of Language and Memory

Cowall, Emily S.
2011: Puvaluqatatiluta, When We Had Tuberculosis: St. Luke’s Mission Hospital and the Inuit of the Cumberland Sound Region, 1930–1972

Oresnik, Sarah
2020: The Intersection of Food Insecurity, Gestational Diabetes, and Mental Health Conditions: Examining Pregnancy From a Biocultural Perspective

Oliphant, Allyson
2017: “If Not Me, Then Who?” The Narratives of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) Providers and Supporters Around Their Professional Identity and Role in MAiD

Burns, Rebecca
2017: “If they fund people with good food, maybe they don’t end up on the medical end of things…”: Food Insecurity and Type 2 Diabetes among People Receiving Food Assistance in Halton Region, Ontario

Goertzen, Andrea
2012: Patient Perceptions and the Path Less Travelled? A Review of the Literature on Alternative Cancer Treatments

Hornung, Lynnette
2011: Cultivating Change: Building on Emergency Food by Incorporating Fresh, Local Produce into Hamilton’s Food Banks to Overcome the Good Food Gap

Boychuk, Martyna
2010: “Don’t Reject Me:” Directed and Non-Directed Living Organ Donor Narratives and the Construction of the Organ Donation and Transplantation Process as a Meaningful Experience

Chadwick, Sarah
2010: Child Feeding Practices, Authoritative Knowledge, and Medication of Social Support Networks Among New Canadian Mothers Living in Hamilton, ON.