Note: Baring approved exceptions, this is a laptop-free class. The brain-hand connection is important for intellectual development, and facilitates both note-taking and writing skills. (Robertson)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”226. Introduction to Historical Anthropology”]Cultural anthropology can be described as the study of how people “dothings differently” throughout themany societies and cultures around the world; social history is the study of how societies and cultures have changed over time. History and cultural anthropology clearly havea lot to say to each other. How has “the past” become “a foreign country”? Through what processes did “so alien a Then become so familiar a Now” ? How are our present societies and cultures connected to our own pasts and to the pasts of others? What historical pathshave led to the cultural differences we find around the world today? These questions are both anthropological and historical, and it takes the combined skills and techniques of both disciplines to address them. An anthropological awareness of cultural diversity also alerts us to the very real possibility that different cultures may have different ideas about “history.” How did the past happen? How “present” is it? How do we remember it? In writing? Through oral traditions? In other ways? How is the past inscribed in traces in the environment? How do social memories of the past shape cultures in the present? Are there conflicts within society about how the past should shape the present? How do social actors actively define and inscribe the past, perhaps in a struggle to control the present and future? How do conflicts over the meaning of the past reveal truths about social tensions, divisions, and processes in the present? In this course, we will study the convergences of anthropology and history from two angles: the uses of historical research to explain and illuminate cultural difference; and the use of anthropological research to understand cultural differences in approaches to history. Our objectives are to develop an anthropological sensitivity to the everyday workings of history, and to become more aware of how history is never “history” (in the colloquial sense of being over and done with), but is constantly being negotiated—and is constantly at workshaping the possibilities of our future. Grades will be based on class participation, a weekly journal, and three papers. (Frye)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”246. Anthropology of Religion”]An introduction to basic problems faced by religions and by the study of religion. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the course examines different ways people have confronted questions such as how one deals with an invisible world, what happens after death, why do bad things happen to good people, what makes life worth living, how can one obtain wealth and power. The emphasis will be on comparison, showing how very different traditions have dealt with the same or similar problems. In the process of examining these issues, the course also raises questions about the difficulties involved in studying other people’s most strongly held values and beliefs, and the relations between tolerance and faith. (Keane)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”256. Culture, Adaptation & Environment”]This course explores anthropological approaches to human relationships with their environments and resources. We will examine diverse conceptions of culture and nature, and time and space, and the interaction between contemporary global forces, indigenous societies, and theire cosystems. Particular interest for complementary materialist and culturalist analysis of human-environment relationships, through cultural anthropology case studies of hunting and gathering, pastoralism, farming, commerce, colonialism, modernization, and globalisation issues. We will read several short books about different people, places, and environmental problems (E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s “The Nuer”; Colin Turnbull’s “The Forest People”; Joe Kane’s “Savages”…). These books will not only provide case studies, but will also show us the way cultural anthropology has changed over the years, expanding its range of theories, descriptive practices, and audience on matters of culture, adaptation, and environment. There will also be a selection of articles about the ideas and concepts that are relevant for analyzing changing human-environment relationships, emphasizing todays interactions between economic growth, environmental change, and
human health. Frequent film clips and screenings will complement the readings. (Hardin)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”258. Honors Seminar in Anthropology: Culture & Medicine”]In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which health and illness are both constructed out of, and interpreted within, cultural settings. Focusing on Western biomedicine, we will discuss a broad range of illness experiences – from schizophrenia to cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder to asthma, Tourette’s to Alzheimer’s, among others – to address a number of questions currently central to medical anthropology. Topics may include (but will not be limited to) the meaning and alteration of self and personhood in illness; the ways in which medical knowledge is produced and imagined, the culture of science and technology, immunity and risk, illness narrative, and social and historical views of the body. Classes will be discussion based, with students expected to prepare for active participation and leadership in discussion. Requirements include written reading critiques and a final group project. The class is not open to first year students. (Peters-Golden)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”272. Language in Society”]This course introduces linguistic anthropology, the study of language in comparative social and cultural context. Some of the questions we address include, What is “language,” and why do anthropologists study it? How and to what extent does speaking a particular language construct a culturally specific model of the social and natural world, a sense of ‘reality’? How do our linguistic perceptions influence the ways we recognize social differences, such as those based on ethnicity, race, class, and gender? How do linguistic practices and perceptions of language reinforce social divisions and relationships of unequal power? In pursuing these questions, we cover a range of topics related to understanding how linguistic practices contribute to the social construction of racial and ethnic identity, as well as discrimination based on these perceived differences. We consider, for instance, how judgments about “grammatical” and “ungrammatical” or “educated” and “uneducated” speech are ultimately grounded in social rather than linguistic factors. Throughout the course we use examples and case studies from the United States and throughout the world. There are no prerequisites. (Meek)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”298.001 Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology: Making the Modern Mediterranean (Meets with HISTORY 329.001)”] This course explores the conceptual and political construction of “the Mediterranean,” critically examining scholarly debates as to whether (and if so, in what ways) we can talk about the Mediterranean as a regional unity in the 20th and 21st centuries and the political consequences of doing so. We consider different theoretical perspectives on the Mediterranean, notably those drawn from history and anthropology. We also look at literary and other artistic understandings of the region, which have been influential in both expressing and shaping more common-sense views of the Mediterranean. Particular emphasis will be given to the interplay of images articulated by outsiders (especially those from the “North”) and the self-images of Mediterranean actors; in both instances, these images prove inextricably bound up with questions of power, governance and desire.Although materials used in the course draw on various areas of the Mediterranean (including Turkey, former Yugoslavia, and North Africa), the emphasis will be on Mediterranean Europe and, in particular, Italy. The Italian case illuminates nicely the dual aspects of the inequalities defining the Mediterranean: the differences (in power, wealth, and socio-political systems) between Northern and Southern Europe,as well as within the Mediterranean. The perennial “Southern Question” in Italy, for example, reflects the problems of hierarchies and Orientalism within theMediterranean, reproducing within the European Mediterranean the broader issue of relations between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In considering these power relations, attention will be given to contemporary issues of immigration/emigration and racism. (Ballinger)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”302. Sex and Gender in Japan: (Meets with Anthrcul 558.003)”]This multi-media course explores the relationship among sex, gender, and sexuality in Japanese art, culture and society past and present. Our exploration covers a number of interlaced subjects and topics such as mythology and religion, social hierarchies and demographic changes, sex education, marriage and divorce, parenting, sex-workers and gendered professions, theatre, representations of the body in comics, anime and popular culture, ethnicity, and LGBT activism, robots and cyborgs, and consumerism and advertising, among others.Note: Baring approved exceptions, this is a laptop-free class. The brain-hand connection is important for intellectual development, and facilitates both note-taking and writing skills. (Robertson)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”317. Communism and Capitalism in Eastern Europe”] (Meets with REES An overview of East Central Europe from 1945 to the present. The first half of the course explores the workings of state socialism from an anthropological perspective (with particular focus on political economy and material culture) from the Stalinist 1950s to the more diversified decades of the 1960s to 1980s. The second half covers the “revolutions” of 1989 and contemporary social, cultural, economic and political processes, including struggles over membership to the E.U. Students will follow two countries from the region throughout the course. Feature films from East Central Europe will constitute part of the required assignments. (Fehervary)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”320. Mexico: Culture and Society”]This course will look at culture and society in the large and diverse country of Mexico. The fundamental aim of the course is to give students an overview of Mexican history, geography, cultural diversity, and contemporary social issues. Themes to be covered include: the search for a Mexican identity (how culture and national identity in Mexico have been historically and socially constructed over the past century); cultural variations among Mexicans; region, “race”, and ethnicity in the construction of Mexican culture; gendered views of Mexicanness and Mexican culture; the family or household and the community as centers of identity, social action, and economy; religious traditions and religious change; urban and rural views of the nation; performance, culture, and ethnic identity; “borderlands”; the disparate impact of globalization, transnational migration, and transculturation on communities and individuals across Mexico; and the regions of Mexico. The books to be read include Judith Adler Hellman, Mexican Lives; Ruth Behar, Translated Woman; Matthew Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho; Héctor Carrillo, The Night Is Young; and Bianet Castellanos, A Return to Servitude. Grades will be based on class participation, a weekly journal, two papers, and a final paper or project. (Frye)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”331. Kinship, Social Organization, and Society”]In this course we examine anthropological approaches to social relationships, broadly defined, both historically and across the field of anthropology today. We begin with changing perspectives on kinship and marriage, and then turn to gifts and other forms of exchange, relationships to place, and various relational aspects of religion involving rituals, taboos, ancestral spirits, sorcery and witchcraft, and social explanations for misfortune. Throughout the class attention is paid to the importance of identity, interpretive knowledge, moral systems, and metaphor, particularly in contexts of global change and emerging inequalities. Many of the readings are classic anthropological analyses, which are critiqued and extended in lectures from current anthropological perspectives. Each section of the course builds on those that came before. Ethnographic cases are drawn mostly from Africa and Melanesia. Grading is based on two essay exams covering readings and lectures, and a short research paper. Besides articles and book chapters, we will read three books: Ladislav Holy’s Anthropological Perspectives on Kinship; Edward Schieffelin’s, The Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers (any edition); and Peter Geschiere’s Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust: Africa in Comparison. (Akin)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”342. Nature / Culture Now!”]Contestations over the primacy of nature or culture in the shaping of human bodies and behaviors drove some of the most heated debates of twentieth century American life. Divisive battles over racial difference, women’s rights, homosexuality and the origins of illness continue to be fought through claims about biological determinism and cultural construction. This course, co-taught by a biological and a cultural anthropologist, investigates the ongoing power of this opposition through an examination of anthropology’s central role in formulating the nature/culture dichotomy itself. We begin with a unit on the very recent historical underpinnings of the nature/culture debate, both within anthropology and in American life more generally, and proceed with three case studies, exploring current biological and cultural approaches to race, sex and disease. Throughout the course, students will be challenged to become conversant with both biological and cultural approaches to human bodies and behavior. Each unit will end with a class wide conversation. Debate will be a central part of the class experience. Our goal is to teach students how to think, not what to think. (Roberts)(Bigham) (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”Anthro Cul.344.001 Medical Anthropology”]The concepts of “health” and “illness” are culturally constructed. This course will examine beliefs about these states of being, and the ways in which they are both products and illustrations of the larger social system in which they are found. Ideas about the history of disease, social construction of the body, illness causation, therapies and therapists, healing symbols and rituals, and the social roles of patients and healers will be explored. In addition to examining these beliefs and processes cross-culturally, we will also draw upon examples from Western biomedicine — among them cancer, AIDS, eating disorders, schizophrenia — to illustrate the powerful ways in which illness and culture are bound together. (Peters-Golden)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”347. Race & Ethnicity”]This course is a comparative analysis of race and ethnicity as social and political phenomena with emphasis on the current theoretical literature. It analyzes the criteria by which different peoples classify races and/or ethnic groups; the implications of these classifications for intergroup relations; and the study of how attitudes and values surrounding race and ethnicity have shaped contemporary world events. (Williams)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”349. Indigenous Political Movements”]This course examines the prospects and limits of contemporary indigenous political movements. The emergence of the indigenous as a legal category and social movement has opened up new politics and debates about alternative forms of sovereignty and led to new rights-based claims to culture in many parts of the world. These movements also express concerns about the physical and cultural survival of their members, control over natural resources and protection of the environment, linguistic continuity, and political autonomy. Paradoxically, securing these rights requires movement and translation across cultural, political, and geographical boundaries. Strategic alliances with nongovernmental organizations, which have their own agendas, may result in significant compromises. Yet indigenous movements retain the capacity to introduce new ideas into the public domain in a compelling fashion, including alternatives to familiar forms of the state, science, and capital. Course requirements include a series of short writing assignments varying in length and style, some based solely on readings and discussions, others requiring independent research. (Kirsch)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”356. Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology: The Modern Corporation”]Corporations have emerged as the dominant governance institutions on the planet, with the largest among them reaching into virtually every country in the world and exceeding most governments in size and power. While corporations are characters in larger in stories of industrialization and capitalism, this seminar will emphasize the specific features of public corporations and their historical and contemporary relations to individuals, states, families, ethnic and racial groups, and other social actors. How did corporations emerge? How are they controlled and by whom? Under what circumstances do they exercise military force? How do we participate in them as consumers, employees, stockholders and what are the conflicts among these forms of participation? What rights and responsibilities should corporations have? How should we engage them as citizens? We will examine these questions especially with reference to the greatest early joint stock corporation, the English East India Company, and today’s largest corporation, Wal-Mart. (Hull)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”356. Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology: Contested Illness and Anthropological Theories of the Body”]This course will explore a range of contemporary contested illnesses in the United States through the lens of anthropological and social theories of the body. These illnesses include, but are not limited to, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic Lyme disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism, and Gulf War syndrome. In the first half of the class, we will familiarize ourselves with critical ideas and concepts in the anthropology of biomedicine, such as the disease/illness dichotomy, the “normal” and the “pathological,” the “medical gaze,” the historical production of medical knowledge, “technologies of the self,” “local biologies,” medicalization, and the individual/social/political body. In the second half of the class, we will use our newly acquired theoretical toolkit to examine and better understand the sociocultural and biopolitical dimensions of the abovementioned contested illnesses. (Dumes)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”370. Language and Discrimination: Language as Social Statement”]This course examines the ways language serves as a potential site of social statement, and sometimes social conflict, particularly with respect to questions of “race” and ethnicity. We will explore issues concerning language-based discrimination in various public and private contexts, multilingualism, regional and ethnically-linked dialects, ideologies about language and language variation and finally hate speech and political correctness. As we explore these issues, we will also examine the ways in which language is used to construct and reflect social identities and social group boundaries. We will discuss how different aspects of social identity relate to language practice and will use the critical lens of race and ethnicity to center most of our discussions. (Queen)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle] [toggle title=”399. Honors in Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology”]This honors course sequence in cultural anthropology is designed for undergraduate anthropology concentrators who are specializing in cultural anthropology and have applied for senior honors in the Department of Anthropology. This course is divided into two parts. In the Fall Term, the students will meet once a week in seminar to read and discuss a selection of significant monographs and papers in ethnology, and a selection of writings on fieldwork methods and research strategies in ethnology. This seminar provides background for the students to define their own senior honors thesis project. By the end of the term, the students will have decided on a project, and begun preliminary work on it. In consultation with the honors advisor the student may request any member of the Anthropology Department to serve as a main thesis advisor or second reader. In the Winter Term, the students will convene periodically in seminar with the honors advisor to discuss their research projects and get feedback from the group, as well as staying in contact with the honors advisor and second reader.
By the end of the term, each student should have completed the research and write-up for their thesis so that they can make a formal summary presentation of it for the group. Original field research or library work may be used for honors projects. (Mueggler)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Anthro African Cultures”]Africa is considerably more important, more interesting and certainly more complex than its popular image suggests. The course provides an introduction to the peoples and cultures of tropical (sub-Saharan) Africa. Topics covered include: the historical geography of Africa; pre-colonial and colonial roots of contemporary African state-societies; case studies of changing systems of kinship, marriage, family and gender relations; race, ethnicity, language, class and the dynamics of cultural, national and pan-African identity; religion, music, dance and the arts in contemporary Africa; globalization and the challenge of African development. The course is open to both anthropology concentrators and non-concentrators. Grades are based on four 5-6 page or three 7-8 page type-written,
take-home papers, and contributions to class discussion. Film/videos shown in class when available.
Basic Texts: Vincent Khapoya, “The African Experience, An Introduction” Third Edition, and R. Olaniyan, ed “African History and Culture”. (Owusu)() (Cost:
Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”417. Possessing Culture: Mediumship and Ethnography in Southeast Asia”]From factory floors in Malaysia, to Karoland, to Chiang Mai, from Central Java, to Bicol, to the Meratus Mountains, from Aceh, to Mount Banahaw, to Kuala Lumpur and beyond, Southeast Asia has provided an exceptionally good locus from which to get accustomed to the phenomena of spirit possession and mediumship. This seminar asks why this is so, whether mediumship and possession reveal a shared regional culture of negotiating power and difference, or, by contrast, if its prevalence in the literature and perceived importance is largely the product of a (mostly American) ethnographic imaginary. To this end we will begin by engaging several of the classic and contemporary debates about Southeast Asian cultures and history,alongside some of the non-region specific theories of possession and mediumship whose logics seem particularly relevant to this context. We will then examine the mediating role that ethnographies of Southeast Asia have played in presenting spirit possession and mediumship as especially productive sites for both illustrating and generating cultural analysis and critical theory. (de la Cruz)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”437. The Anthropology of Death, Dying and the Afterlife”]This course will explore how different cultures imagine death and the afterlife, drawing on insights from the anthropology of religion, health, and political anthropology. Based on readings that range from classical ethnographies of death and dying in India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and Japan to contemporary debates surrounding death in North America and Europe, we will discuss cultural theories on what constitutes the moment of death and what happens after. The topics covered include conceptualizations of the body and mind, ideas of the spirit world, shamanism, witchcraft, mortuary rituals, royal and communist corpses, relic veneration, organ donation, end-of-life care, concepts of biopolitics and bare life, cryonics, and political lives of dead bodies. (Mueggler)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”439. Economic Anthropology and Development”]Contemporary Third World countries of Africa, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing rapid and exciting social and economic transformation. This course introduces students to the practical and theoretical problems raised by the modernization of rural, village-based tribal and peasant economies and the urbanization and industrialization of local and national communities of the non-western world.Topics covered include:
the making of the Third World economies with the overseas expansion of Europe, creation of the world market and the international economic order; the
nature of economic anthropology — its scope, basic concepts, methods and objectives — and how it relates to indigenous economies,
conventional and development economics;
anthropological (social science) perspectives on ‘development’, ‘underdevelopment’, ‘sustainable development’, ‘globalization’ and ‘climate change’; and
CASE STUDIES of problems or current issues of Third World development and underdevelopment: e.g., the UN Millenium Development Goals;
gender equality; HIV/AIDS, international migration, micro-finance, NGO’s and poverty alleviation; human rights and democracy.
The course is recommended for anthropology and non-anthropology concentrators — that is all students with serious interest in comparative cultures
and social change.
Lecture/discussion format. Films/videos shown when available. Final grades based on three take-home papers and contributions to class discussion.
Basic texts: Lucy Mair, “Anthropology and Development”; “UNDP Human Development Report 2003”, (Online) Maxwell Owusu, “Third World” in James D.
Wright ed, “International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences”. sevier, Vol 24, 2nd Edition, 2015. (Online) Jeffrey D. Sachs, “The Age of Anthro Environmental Anthropology
This course uses the tools of political ecology to examine contemporary environmental problems in an era that geologists recently named the “Anthropocene.”
We will consider what it means to live in a world in which human influence on the environment is pervasive. We will study how the world is being transformed by the accelerated circulation of persons, things, and ideas through globalization. We will also learn about the institutions and forces that mediate anthropogenic impacts on the environment, including the relationships between corporations and their critics; states and their legal systems; the links between
production, consumption, and waste; and the role of nongovernmental organizations focused on environmental issues. Readings include several monographs and articles posted online. Students will write several short discussion papers. (Kirsch)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”446. Sex and the City: Urban Geography and Sexual Locations”]This course examines contemporary sexual diversity in the context of urban geography, urban studies, and the political economies of sexuality and space. It addresses the spatial locations of sexual populations and situates the formation and disappearance of sexual neighborhoods and territories in terms of the larger dynamics of urban life. Topics include relationships between urban size and sexual specialization, the impact of redevelopment and gentrification on the texture of urban neighborhoods, and specific studies of red light districts, prostitution, and homosexuality. (Rubin)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”447. Culture, Racism, and Human Nature”]This course examines the possible origins of culture to understand the unique behavior and historical development of Homo sapiens and traces the salient features of human history and contemporary modernity to discuss and explain the nature of humans. The understanding of the nature of humans and their development will enable the students to comprehend, explain and resolve racism, part of a pan-human phenomenon. Is racism fundamental to the character of human culture? The course will suggest that many of our modern social problems have a common generation – the nature of human culture. That would suggest that the solutions will require a social transformation in the character of human culture. These examinations of human culture will require us to return to the discussions of Leslie White (culture is autonomous) and Alfred Kroeber (culture is superorganic) to determine the possibilities of social transformations that contemporary society may require. The course looks at human Biophobia – the denial, defiance, and defilement of our animal kinship. This biophobia and denial gives humans an inferiority complex that is only assuaged by classism, racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, sectarianism, ageism, nationalism, disableism, speciesism, and power (CRESSANDS-POWER). The present stockpile of human weapons, the rage of international terrorism, and the oppression that CRESSANDS-POWER creates requires a new human revolution — THE ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. In that revolution the human body and the Earth will have such value that we can develop a new human-global community and end the human plague that CRESSANDS-POWER has brought upon our species. (Williams)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”458. Topics in Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology: Engaged Anthropology”]Engaged Anthropologists have a long and rich tradition of addressing social problems in their work, applying anthropological concepts to improve the lives of others, and using anthropology to critique systems of power and knowledge. In recent decades, anthropologists have called for the discipline to become more engaged: write for public audiences, to carry out more collaborative research projects, and to become more involved in the political challenges of our time. This course considers both the historical roots of these endeavors and recent claims made about these projects. In particular, the course focuses on new forms of engagement, which can be understood as a series of experiments in how to make anthropology and ethnographic knowledge politically relevant. What are the consequences for anthropology when it is conceptualized as a form of political engagement? How might these new projects reshape the field? Are they beneficial or detrimental? Readings include historical works, polemical essays, and a variety of contemporary experiments in different forms of public, collaborative, activist, and engaged anthropology. In addition to informed participation in classroom discussions and writing a literature review reflecting on
these issues, students will also carry out small group projects using one of the research methods in question; this exercise is intended to provide insight into
the subject matter of the course. (Kirsch)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”458. Topics in Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology: Anthropology of Islam (Meets with INTLSTD 401.006 and MENAS 591.001)”]This course is about how ordinary Muslims negotiate the varieties of religious experience in their everyday lives. We will examine ethnographies set of three countries – Egypt, Indonesia and France – that illuminate in contrasting ways the intersections of Muslim religiosity with a plethora of hot-button transnational issues, including bio-ethics and medical technologies, globalization and economic development, and state secularism and religious minorities. Before delving into our specific ethnographic contexts, we begin the course by asking how we can think about “Islam” as a historically situated religion, a moral and legal tradition, and an object of academic study. We will end the course by looking at the rise of ISIS and both popular and academic debates around how to understand its use of violence. (Moll)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Anthro Undergraduate Reading and Research in Anthropology”]Independent reading and research under the direction of a faculty member. Ordinarily available only to students with background in anthropology. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”xxx. Coderre course. Humanistic Studies of Historical and Contemporary China”]This course will examine the present state of research in selected areas of scholarly inquiry in Chinese studies – language, literature, history, religion material culture, and art history – as we interrogate such seemingly commonsense notions as “civilization,” “culture,” “tradition,” “modernity,” and above all, “Chineseness.” Our goals are to develop good treading skills, stimulate critical thinking, and inspire imaginative approaches to humanistic problems. (Coderre)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”COURSES FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS below” [/toggle]
[toggle title=”Traditions II”]A continuation of Traditions in Ethnology I, roughly covering the period from 1950 to the present. The course focuses on major ideas and debates in anthropological theory, stressing questions and concepts, and the epistemological and ethical problems they have involved. (Keane)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Theory and Practice in Medical Anthropology”]This seminar examines the theoretical foundations of medical anthropology as well as particular studies which represent subfield interests in cultural concepts of health and illness; local and global aspects of public health; the social construction of knowledge and healing; science technology studies and the politics of science; ethnomedicine and healing; and perceptions of environment and health. (Roberts)(Stonington) (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Current Issues in Sociocultural Anthropology: Sex and Gender in Japan”]This multi-media course explores the relationship among sex, gender, and sexuality in Japanese art, culture and society past and present. Our exploration covers a number of interlaced subjects and topics such as mythology and religion, social hierarchies and demographic changes, sex education, marriage and divorce, parenting, sex-workers and gendered professions,theatre, representations of the body in comics, anime and popular culture, ethnicity, and LGBT activism, robots and cyborgs, and consumerism and advertising, among others. Note: Baring approved exceptions, this is a laptop-free class. The brain-hand connection is important for intellectual development, and facilitates both note-taking and writing skills. (Robertson)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”577. Language as Social Action”]The purpose of this course is to develop a a framework for viewing language as a social, cultural, and political matrix, and as incorporating forms of practice through which social relations, cultural forms, ideology, and consciousness are constituted. Through this perspective, analysis of linguistic practice can offer tools for ethnographic and textual research as well as for research on language itself. Topics covered include: models of language as action; the interactional construction of social actors and reference; meaning and intentionality; the role of language in a political economy,and vice versa (the political economy of linguistic forms); the relation of language to social formations and institutions; metalanguage and ideology; the emergence of meanings in interaction; the organization of conversation and other linguistic activities; the linguistic dimension of social and cultural stereotypes; performance and poetics. This year we will give particular attention to the following themes: analytical scales and metrics; the analysis of social events, and their relationship to social formations and linguistic practice. Methodological tools such as narrative and textual analysis, and conversation analysis, as well as the siting of research, will also be emphasized. (Mannheim)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Method and Interpretation in Sociocultural Anthropology”]This course is intended for second-year, second semester graduate students in any field in anthropology who are preparing grant proposals for submission the next fall for dissertation research. The course examines anthropological methods, including field research, from research design and proposal writing to data collection and analysis. Students will write the parts of a grant proposal over the course of the semester while considering different facets of research design. They will produce a finished grant proposal draft by the end of the semester that can serve both as a guide for summer research and a template for proposals submitted in the fall. (McGovern)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Comparative Analysis of Kinship”]This course will examine current theoretical and methodological issues in the analysis of kinship and religion, using case studies from Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Europe, and North America. In the words of anthropologist Robert McKinley: “Kinship itself is a moral philosophy. It answers the question of how it is possible for one human being to be morally bound to another. The strength of a kinship system is based on its ability to draw people into this framework of mutual trust.” Yet kin relations may also be fraught with violence, ranging from sacrifice to murder; some would argue that kinship and racism are simply different dimensions of the same phenomenon. This course will focus on the social processes through which people define, create, extend, limit, sever or transform their relatedness with others within and over generations. We will explore how people conceptualize who is, or is not, their own “kin” or “kind” and why; the moral imagination involved in working through the contradictory loyalties characterizing even the most intimate, small-scale relations; where, how and why people draw the lines between themselves and other forms of organic life; how generative relations are expressed in forms ranging from substanceslike blood, milk, or semen, to new reproductive technologies and genetic genealogies; and the significance of places in creating, shaping, containing, transforming relations over time. (Feeley-Harnik)(Trautmann) (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Seminar in Anthropology and History”]The Core Seminar of the Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History provides a context in which to examine the categories, theories, methods and craft of social research and writing, focusing on the interplay of anthropology and history, ethnography and historiography. The seminar addresses the intersections and mutual engagements between anthropology and history as regards their research methodologies, conceptual concerns and modes of analysis. It inquires into the history of these engagements and into the emergence of inter and trans-disciplinary work. The Core Seminar is organized as a year-long program that runs from the Winter term through the following Fall term. The Winter term is dedicated to the intensive discussion of writings, both monographs and articles, that illuminate significant issues and debates within and across these disciplines. The Fall term is organized as a “research seminar” that provides a space for attention to the crafts of analysis and writing and for the discussion of research papers being prepared for the seminar by its members. Papers written within the Fall term seminar satisfy the Department of History’s Research Seminar requirement. Dissertation writers may find this a particularly useful forum for the development of their own writing.The Core Seminar is a required sequence for students in the Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History. However it is also open, by permission of instructors, to graduate students in the Departments of Anthropology and History who are interested in developing studies and research that involve the integration of anthropological and historical perspectives or who are in conversation with some of the developments associated with the unfolding of historical anthropology and anthropological history. The Core Seminar may be taken as a two-term sequence or as independent units. (Lemon)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Current Developments in Anthropological Theory: Communication and Enchantment”]This course is a series of lectures on a work in progress on a topic related to the current scholarly research of the instructor. This semester’s lectures by Alaina Lemon are based on her book manuscript (Lemon)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Anthro Sociocultural Workshop”]Presentations of work-in-progress by faculty, students, and guests on topics relevant for the sociocultural subfield, with work-shopping of papers and discussion of talks. (Roberts)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”777. Linguistic Anthropology Laboratory”]Linguistic anthropology is a laboratory field. The reasons for it were several. First, we regard graduate training in linguistic anthropology to much more closely resemble an apprenticeship model, than in cultural anthropology. Second, there are new technologies being developed that are increasingly being used in data analysis, including sound and visual analysis of face-to-face interaction. These require special training and resources. And third, but perhaps most importantly, a laboratory model provides a framework for encouraging research collaboration among graduate students and between students and faculty, rather than a model of research as done by a solitary ethnographer. This aspect of the lab framework has worked very well. A single lab-group has met on a regular basis for almost 10 years, discussing papers by visitors, discussing each other’s works in progress, and practicing talks for professional meetings and for job interviews. We have succeeded in creating a strongly supportive, cooperative, and nurturing environment for within which students have been able to try out first ideas and first critiques of work by many of the leading figures in the field. The special issue of Michigan Discussions in Anthropology on Linguistic form and social action (1998) is a direct outcome of the lab structure. (Meek)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Sociocultural Lab”]For anthropology graduate students returning from fieldwork. Sociocultural anthropology is based on fieldwork, which is usually conducted independently. The ethnography lab is a context in which graduate students who have completed fieldwork and are engaged in writing their dissertations can meet in a structured fashion to discuss their research and writing. The instructor for the course will work with these graduate students by providing relevant readings and exercises. Students will also read and critique each other’s work. The ethnography lab will also invite guests to present their work, with a special emphasis on the practical aspects of moving between ethnographic observation and theory through analysis. The ethnography lab will also provide a forum for these graduate students to present conference papers and practice job talks; the major advisors of these students will also be invited to participate in these events.
Students will also receive guidance and direction on the process of turning conference papers and dissertation chapters into published articles. (Kirsch)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Anthro Cul.830.001Anthropology & History Workshop/Reading Group”]This one-credit course is to support a workshop/reading group of students in the Anthro/History program. It will be a seminar in format with the purpose of discussing works-in-progress and especially significant pieces of scholarship in the field. Presentations will be circulated and read in advance. The two hour session is dedicated fully to discussion of the work among all those present. (Lemon)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Responsible Conduct of Anthropological Research”]This course covers the responsible conduct of research in anthropology. Topics include: appropriate citation of sources and avoiding plagiarism; authorship, publication and grantsmanship practices; data acquisition, management, and sharing; research misconduct, including data fabrication and falsification; conflicts of interest; supervising, mentoring and collaborative responsibilities; human participant and animal subject welfare. (De León)(Mannheim) (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”Research Practicum in Anthropology”]The course provides students with the opportunity to design and to conduct fieldwork or laboratory analysis of original anthropological data. A faculty member may undertake it as a special aspect of a research project under investigation or the student under the supervision of a faculty member may initiate it. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”958. Anthropological Research”]This course requires a substantial research paper or an extensive exploration and critical evaluation of relevant sources on a particular topic. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”959. Survey of Literature on Selected Topics”]This course requires an annotated bibliography. A written statement detailing a program of readings and objectives is to be submitted to the instructor. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”990. Dissertation, Precandidacy”]Election for dissertation work by doctoral student not yet admitted as a Candidate. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”993. GSI Training”]A seminar for all beginning graduate student instructors, consisting of a two day orientation before the term starts and periodic workshops/meetings during the Fall Term. Beginning graduate student instructors are required to register for this class. (Peters-Golden)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
[toggle title=”995. Dissertation, Candidacy”]Graduate School authorization for admission as a doctoral Candidate. N.B. The defense of the dissertation (the final oral examination) must be held under a full term Candidacy enrollment period. (Staff)() (Cost: Wait:)[/toggle]
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