I had a brief meeting with one of my favorite professors today about concluding my minor in Anthropology. I graduate undergrad in the spring and rather than do the normal ANP capstone class (Read a few assigned ethnographies, discuss some social issue with no relevance to your field of study and write a paper) I want to do some actual research and preferably on a topic that would mean something to my career. Now I had this professor two years ago for my first Medical Anthropology course about illness and healing in various cultures, and the fusion of traditional medicine with the Biomedical approach of Western medicine in a ton of countries. (Indian Ayurveda in Germany, the decline of neurasthenia and the rise of depression in rapidly industrializing China, etc) It was a very interesting class and I contributed a lot to discussion. Fast forward two years, one of which she spent on sabbatical in India, she recognized me first day of class, and said I had been one of her favorite students of the past decade. Always awesome when a professor at a massive school remembers you.

Anyway, she's very excited about undergraduates taking an interest in actual study, data collection and analysis, rather than just rote learning, and she thinks it would be a much better use of our time than just spitting out something I'm not passionate about. So I'm super excited.

The super early subject I've been considering would be something to the effect of 'Pop illness, diagnosis and treatment in historical contexts with regards to modern medicine and it's future' Obviously the idea needs refinement, but there's a lot of stuff about epidemic research methodology, data collection and analysis that I need to read before I can get started.