ANT 4930 and HON 4000 Spring 2011: Culture, Health and Aging,: Global and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

This is truly the age of aging – as you see in the chart above in less than 10 years there will be more people over age 65 than children under age 5!. We are on the leading edge of a demographic and health transition revolution which will globally shape almost all aspects of life, such as perceptions of the life cycle, the organization of health care systems; intergenerational relations; the nature of family life; the structure of communities and attitudes toward death.

This course will investigate health issues related to aging and cultural context in a world-wide sample of cultures. Special Topics to be considered include: the global demographic revolution and the health implications of population aging; dimensions of a qualitative gerontology; integrating qualitative methods into health and aging research; creating life-span and age friendly communities; the cultural context of health and disability in late adulthood; ethnicity and long-term care; cross-cultural and cross-national perspectives on dementia; health problems and self-help movements; caregiving environments; social support networks and community; gender, health and aging;.

We will also attempt to apply the concerns of anthropological and qualitative research to the problems of aging in our own society.  This should always be a goal in the back of your mind when you are reading the assignments.  You should come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Class participation will count toward your grade. The classes will run in seminar fashion but will include a combination of lectures, discussion and

occasional audiovisual presentations.  I hope to have a class at a local life care community and perhaps at a hospice center.

USE OF INTERNET: This class will also take advantage of access to global information available on the internet. Some of your assignments will include readings or visual materials from the web. Access to the web is available on campus at the computer center and the library. Most local libraries  also allow you to get connected. The most important sites will be: (1) our web site for the class (also available on Blackboard – see below) www.stpt.usf.edu/~jsokolov/syl4930 Age.htm - Note, the last part of the address is “/syl¼” that is a lower case L and not the number 1. At this site you will find the course outline and some important links which I will be adding to during the semester.

E-MAIL AND BLACKBOARD: I expect students to have an e-mail account (they are free through the computer center) and be able to access the web. When you are assigned to do a focus question MAKE SURE YOU ALSO PRINT AND BRING TO CLASS A COPY OF THESE ASSIGNMENTS.

USE OF BLACKBOARD: If you haven’t already done so, you will need to create a Net ID on Blackboard at: https://una.acomp.usf.edu/ get to blackboard at http://my.usf.edu  The syllabus, assignments, course documents, periodic announcements, and other materials will be posted there. Communications are made to your official USF e-mail account. If you use another e-mail address you must forward all USF e-mail messages to your other e-mail account (such as Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail).

**TO FORWARD E-MAIL: **TO FORWARD E-MAIL: Once you have your official USF email, do the following: 1. Go to https://mail.usf.edu/ and log in with your NetID and password.
2. Go to your Inbox and click on Settings tab at the top of the page.
3. Click on the Forwarding tab and click on “Add a Forwarding address” – then add in the address you want to use. 4. Below “POP Download”, click on one of the first two POP tabs, and fill in any other items you wish. REMEMBER TO CLICK “SAVE CHANGES” AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.

**Sending focus Questions Via “Assignments” in Blackboard: Important-for doing answers: (1) type answers in your word processor, save the file in the format for “Word” 2003 or older – PLEASE DO NOT SAVE IN WORD 2007 (click on the “file,” menu, then click the “save as” menu making sure you are saving as a word document). NOTE: IF YOU CANNOT SAVE IN WORD, THEN SAVE AS A rtf file NOT WPS FILES); and (2) highlight and copy the text of your answer into the appropriate comment space of Blackboard Assignment  (see below and then submit it along with the file).  All assignments are to be sent through the Blackboard “Assignment” menu. When you access the course via Blackboard, on the left of the page you will see a menu with the item “Assignments,” Click on “Assignments,” and under each assignment you will see underlined  “View/Complete Assignment:.”.  Click on this and then under item #2, “Assignment Materials” you do two things before submitting: (1) Just under the comment box to the right, click “Browse” to access the file on your computer with the answers. FINALLY - under #3 Submit, click “Submit” at the lower right of the page. There are no restrictions on the size of a file you submit.

FOCUS QUESIONS: For some classes 1-5 students will be selected to send answers via Blackboard by 11AM the day before the assigned class, in paragraph form, to questions related to the reading. If you cannot send them to me electronically, they should be placed in my office door envelope by 11am the day before class. Each hour they are late you will get 1 point deducted. Answers to these questions will be graded from 0-10 and counted as part of your class participation grade.  Please contact me immediately if you are having trouble with Blackboard.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Sometimes I will give you questions to specifically discuss at the beginning of class and while you will not have to e-mail these to me, you should be ready to answer them in class.  

Anthropology Club. Our campus has an active anthropology club which invites all students to participate in their exciting activities. Check out their web site, http://www.stpete.usf.edu/coas/anthropology/Index.htm

 ATTENDANCE: PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: 1. IT WILL BE VERY UNLIKELY FOR A STUDENT TO GET A GOOD GRADE IF MORE THAN A FEW CLASSES ARE MISSED. DO NOT PLAN ON GETTING AN A IF YOU MISS MORE THAN 3 CLASSES. If you miss more than 5 classes you cannot expect to get more than a grade of c for the class.

 Class Discussion Groups: Early in the semester I will break the class into 4 discussion groups and at the beginning of each class students will discuss the question assigned for write-up for one or more of the group members. All students will have 2-3 of these graded focus questions assigned to them during the semester.

Required Readings:

1) Sokolovsky, Jay, ed. 2009. The Cultural Context of Aging. 3^rd edition only, Greenwood/Praeger Publishers - softcover  - Note this book also has web chapters which will be assigned from: www.stpt.usf.edu/~jsokolov/webbook/

2) Joel Savishinsky The Ends of Time: Life and Work in a Nursing Home. New York: Bergin and Garvey. 1991.

3) Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days:

NOTE: You will be assigned other readings and you will either get these from Blackboard or a class handout.

NOTE: The fuller syllabus will be posted the week of classes.