The courses are open to:

• Health and health-related professionals;
• PhD students in health or social science;
• Master’s students in health or social science.

The courses are taught in English. Participants will be exposed to the latest thinking in medical anthropology and will be stimulated to discuss and exchange ideas. This winter school is part of  Master’s programme in Medical Anthropology and Sociology offered by the Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam. 

Lecturer

Dr. Cristobal Bonelli

Course objectives

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

• Critically explore contemporary approaches to planetary thinking and practices of care across anthropology, science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and related fields.
• Analyse how ecological crises, public health challenges, extractive economies, and contested relations to land and place shape divergent possibilities for planetary futures.
• Reflect on the political, epistemological, and ethical tensions involved in framing the planet as an object of governance, intervention, and care.
• Engage with diverse situated perspectives on the planetary — from climate science to Indigenous cosmopolitics — and imagine their implications for research, responsibility, and transformative practices.
• Develop imaginative, interdisciplinary responses to planetary challenges, attentive to relational vulnerabilities, historical entanglements, and emergent practices of care.
• Experiment with thinking otherwise about the planet — fostering critical creativity for reimagining planetary futures.

Content

What does it mean to think with the planet — in times of ecological collapse, extractive violence, and contested futures?

This course invites you to reimagine the planet as a site of urgent struggles, diverse knowledges, and relational care. Drawing from anthropology, science and technology studies, environmental humanities, and multispecies ethnography, we explore how "the planet" is thought, contested, and enacted across different fields of concern — from climate science to extractive zones, from ecological breakdown to emergent practices of care and repair.

Participants will engage with two interconnected matters of concern: planetary thinking and practices of care. Through lectures, collaborative discussions, and creative assignments, we ask: How might thinking with the planet unsettle dominant narratives of progress and control? What other futures — rooted, relational, and responsible — might become thinkable? And how can the social sciences contribute to opening up planetary possibilities amid crisis?

Course code

73940017AY

Schedule

Credits

UvA Master of Medical Anthropology and Sociology students take the course for 4 EC as part of their curriculum. VU Master Global Health students take the course for 6 EC as part of their electives. All other participants take the course for 4 EC.  

•  4 EC course: attendance, readings and small assignment
•  6 EC course: attendance, readings, an extra assignment, and a more substantial paper

Tuition fee

Students enrolled in a full time Master’s programme at a Dutch university are legally exempt from paying extra tuition.

PhDs at a Dutch university:

• 4 EC course = € 820,-

Professionals and PhDs and students from a non-Dutch university:

• 4 EC course = € 1525,-

Lunch is not included.

Invoices can be paid by employers, research institutes or individuals.

Application

The winter schools have a limited capacity. Applications can be sent in from 1 October 2025. Students of the Medical Anthropology and Sociology Master programme are guaranteed a spot in one of the courses. You will be informed about the admission decision by 1 December 2025 latest. Applicants will send in a CV and motivation letter upon registration. Entry requirements for the winter courses are:

• having a Bachelor’s degree or higher from a university or University of Applied Sciences related to health or social science, or the equivalent thereof
• and/or a minimum of 2 years of relevant working experience.
• or being a PhD candidate

Are you an international participant? Please note that housing/hotel and visa arrangements need to be made individually and are not included in the tuition fees. In case you need a visa, please start procedures as soon as possible.

Application deadline

1 November 2025

More information

For more information contact the study adviser via studyadvisor-mas@uva.nl