Wearing a cloak and many hats: Expectations of anthropologists in an academic health science center in Texas

Abstract

Historically, medical humanities has buttressed medical education by asking students to consider themselves in relationship to their patients. As medical anthropologists, we have troubled this notion by encouraging students to consider the social determinants of health as well as reflect upon the economics and politics of medicine and their own motivation for becoming a doctor. This chapter analyzes the tensions between professional medical education and the disciplines of anthropology and humanities, noting their own internal logics and theoretical frictions. We use examples from interprofessional training and the integration of art in medical education to illustrate ways of incorporating the values of medical anthropology to shape medical students in their first 2 years of study. While we are proud of our medical anthropology training and work, we found that in order to effectively navigate the academic health sciences, we have had to cloak our anthropological identity and wear the hats more formally recognized in medical education.