Master of Arts Health and Society in South Asia

The programme Health and Society in South Asia (MAHASSA) will be discontinued in 2025. There will be no new call for applications. 

The Master of Arts Health and Society in South Asia (MAHASSA) is a two-year degree, combining Medical Anthropology with South Asian Studies.Medical Anthropology is the study of healing systems, not primarily in terms of scientific theories or health policies, but rather focusing on how they are practiced in concrete, socio-cultural and political-economic contexts. The program includes many health-related topics, including plural medical systems, Ayurveda and other forms of traditional Indian medicine, social inequality and health, mental health, public health, global health, Science, Technology and Medicine, health and environment, gender and reproduction, religion and healing, and fieldwork methods.

MAHASSA is integrated with the curriculum at Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute, one of the world’s leading centers of interdisciplinary research and teaching on South Asia. This allows students to integrate courses from the other disciplines at the Institute in geography, political science, history, development economics, or South Asian languages into their plan of study. Most students base their Master’s Thesis on field research conducted in South Asia. MAHASSA students have observed and participated in health-related NGOs and development projects, worked in hospitals and with traditional healers, and conducted research on the health problems of South Asian migrants in Europe, just to name a few projects.