Evaluate what you think anthropologists can contribute to understanding this pandemic? What things do you think they need to take into account? What kinds of questions would anthropologists raise that doctors or public health experts might overlook?

Your final writing assignment is to write a two-four page reflection essay in response to the article by Svea Closser and Erin Finley (published in the American Anthropologist in 2016 and recently reprinted in the special issue on Disease and Pandemics) entitled, “A New Reflexivity: Why Anthropology Matters in Health Research and Practice, and How to Make it Matter More.” A link to the article is provided on module 6.

The authors, who are anthropologists conducting research in public health, make an argument about why the methods and theory in our discipline are crucial for achieving positive public policy outcomes. As your read through the article you will be familiar with many themes of their argument.

Suggestions for writing this reflection essay:

*Summarize the key themes the authors foreground. You might want to make an outline for yourself of the key points in the article and note examples of studies that they provide;

*Go over your own posts for the remote learning section of the course. Many of you have provided reflections about how a particular body of theory can be helpful in thinking through the complexity of our current pandemic;

*Make an outline of how to re-frame some of your posts into the reflection essay so that you can use your reflections as a kind of dialog with the authors of the article ;

*Try to evaluate what YOU think anthropologists can contribute to understanding this pandemic? What things do you think they need to take into account? What kinds of questions would anthropologists raise that doctors or public health experts might overlook?