Winter 2022 Class Schedule
*Starred courses required of all majors
Winter quarter 2022 course descriptions.
ANTHRO 101-6-21: First-Year Seminar: Cities: Six Millennia and Counting
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. The growth of modern cities suggests that humans thrive in urban environments. But cities are a relatively recent phenomenon in history. Further, history demonstrates that cities are not essential for human survival. The question then arises: why cities? This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the city. Some of the questions we will discuss in this course include: What is a city? How did cities develop? How do cities function socially, politically, and economically? What are some of the major social issues facing cities in the twenty-first century? In this course we will approach a wide range of cities across time and space. Chicagoland will feature prominently in our discussions. Drawing broadly on scholarship in anthropology and other disciplines, we will examine the characteristics of urban life in human history, from the first experiments with urbanization 6,000 years ago to contemporary global cities.
ANTHRO 211-0-1: Culture and Society
Often, anthropology is talked about as the study of human culture, where it originates, how it is transmitted, how it changes. But what is "culture"? Rather than a universal, one-size-fits-all answer, anthropologists today seek to understand how ideas and actions interact within specific social contexts. Through a focus on ethnography, the fundamental method of our field, students will learn how to conduct research into the processes that shape the social world, emphasizing human agency in relation to sociohistorical, economic, political, and environmental forces. A key feature will be to denaturalize notions such as "common sense," reinterpreting what we might know from our own contexts, as a starting point to understand others. Students will have the opportunity to practice anthropological research through multiple possible modalities, both face-to-face and online.
ANTHRO 232-0-20: Myth and Symbolism
This course is an introduction to three of the leading theories about the nature and meaning of myth: psychoanalytic, functionalist, and structuralist. Each of these three approaches will be considered primarily through the writings of their respective founders: Sigmund Freud, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Claude Levi-Strauss. Lectures will be primarily concerned with explaining these three theories. Examples of how these theories can be applied to the analysis of specific myths will largely be drawn from the Old Testament Book of Genesis.
ANTHRO 307-0-20: Anthropology of Peace
What is peace? Peace often sounds either too abstract or too naive in a world filled with inequality, injustice and violence. And yet, peace continues to serve as a framework for many forms of global engagement, from international activities at elementary schools to humanitarian action and high-level diplomatic negotiations. The anthropology of peace takes seriously all these levels of aspiration for peace and seeks to identify divergent loci of peace and peace-building in today's complex world.
The course offers a broad survey of anthropological approaches to peace, including ethnographic studies of "peaceful societies," cultural mechanisms for dispute and conflict resolution, compensation, truth and reconciliation commissions, the relationship between peace and commerce, and the role of literature, art and material culture in peace activism. In this survey, we will be introduced to a variety of concrete efforts to foster peace and peaceful relationships. The course will also include two special events featuring examples of global peace activism.
ANTHRO 309-0-20: Human Osteology
Knowledge of human osteology forms the basis of physical and forensic anthropology, bio-archaeology, paleoanthropology and clinical anatomy. This course will provide an intensive introduction to the human skeleton; particularly the identification of complete and fragmentary skeletal remains. Through this course, you will be exposed to techniques for identification and classification of human skeletal anatomy through hands-on, dry laboratory sessions. Additional time outside of class is available and may be required to review practical materials.
ANTHRO 325-0-20: Archaeological Methods Lab
What kind of wine did King Midas drink? How does the health of ancient people compare to today? Where do we find the earliest evidence of domesticated plants and animals? And how have people and goods moved across long distances in the past? Archaeologists address these questions and many more through a wide array of techniques borrowed from the hard sciences. New methods can reveal surprising information and radically transform our knowledge about past societies, and as such are essential parts of every archaeologist's toolkit. In this hands-on class, we will survey a range of archaeological science techniques to understand how they work; how to do them; and what they can tell us about the past. This course will provide a basic introduction to the primary techniques of archaeological science, including the analysis of plant and animal remains, residues, human skeletons, ceramics, and more.
ANTHRO 359-0-20: The Human Microbiome and Health
Did you know that all the microbes on and in your body weigh as much as your brain? And they can influence your body almost as much as your brain? They can determine how much weight you gain on a certain diet or whether you develop the symptoms of an autoimmune disease, and they can even affect your mood and behavior. Although we have long known the importance of microbes in the context of disease, recent advances in technology have opened up an entirely new field of research that is transforming perspectives on human health. In this course, we will explore the human microbiome beginning with an overview of different types of microbes and the methods we use to study them. Following that, the majority of the course will be dedicated to exploring new research on the microbes of the skin, mouth, gut, and uro-genital tract and their impacts on human health. We will also consider the influence of geography, politics, social structures, and culture on global patterns in the human microbiome and health
ANTHRO 386-0-20: Methods in Human Biology
Biological anthropologists endeavor to understand the global range of human biological variation, and human biologists in particular are interested in investigating the effects of culture and ecology on human adaptation, development and health. This course will provide an overview of the logic and method underlying empirical research in human biology and health. The course will introduce students to the scientific method, as well as the process of research design, data analysis, and interpretation. The course emphasizes hands-on laboratory experience with a range of methods for assessing human nutritional status, physical activity, growth, cardiovascular health, endocrine activity, and immune function.
ANTHRO 390-0-23: Topics in Anthropology: Archaeology of Sustainability and Collapse combined with ENVR_POL 390-0-26
This course is a seminar that uses archaeological case studies from the past to interrogate human-environment relationships across time and space, including the present and the future. The emphasis here will not be on learning environmental archaeology methods. Instead, we will be focusing on how archaeologists think about key environmental concepts, including climate change, sustainability, and resilience. We will discuss examples of "failure" and "success" in the long history of human-environment interactions, and see if there's room for nuance along the way. We will also use this course as an opportunity to consider how archaeology can contribute to environmental sustainability and environmental justice efforts. Prior coursework in archaeology is not required to appreciate this class or do well, but would be helpful.
ANTHRO 390-0-24: Topics in Anthropology: Language, History, Truth with LACS 391-0-20)
This seminar will apply a linguistic anthropological approach to understanding how social facts are determined by historical trajectories and, in parallel, how events in the past are narrated into history via a set of specific discursive and social processes. We will identify historical ideologies embedded in understandings of colonization in the Caribbean, the struggle for Indigenous rights in the Andes, and radical political thought in the US, and find points of intersection between them. We will consider their impact in subject formation by attending to their social, political, and economic effects. Because a monopoly over truth (and especially historical truth) has been central to the forms of power and authority that undergird ongoing systems of neocolonialism, we will consider the actors and institutions that develop, codify, and transmit notions that individuals—as members of different social collectivities—believe to be true. What can we learn about how “truth” settles, and thus unlearn some of the exclusionary practices embedded within the production of knowledge? The course will seek to develop a methodology that pairs linguistic and discursive analyses with basic ethnographic approaches. Focus topics will include colonization, social media, and governance.
ANTHRO 390-0-26: Topics in Anthropology: Comparative Approaches to Ancient Empires ART_HIST 319-0-1 CLASSICS 390-0-1 MENA 390-4-20 HUM 370-4-20
Stimulated by current interest in decolonization and globalization, the study of ancient empires is now thriving. A major research trend adopts a comparative, cross-cultural framework to try to understand and explain commonalities and differences, which this course explores. Did the first complex territorial states we call empires emerge and develop in similar ways? What factors or institutions were crucial to their trajectory and success, and what theories have been proposed to account for them? What are the benefits and challenges of a comparative, multidisciplinary perspective, and what new kinds of histories might it produce? Many recent investigations compare Rome and Qin/Han China; others consider the historical sequence of empires in the Middle East, such as the Neo-Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian empires; still others analyze characteristics of imperial formation and rule in historically unrelated empires in different geographical regions and eras.
This course examines selected case studies drawn from a wide geographical and chronological range, with special focus on the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. We will examine different aspects of territorial expansion, consolidation, and rule, including state ideology, bureaucracy, cosmopolitanism, urbanism, borders and frontiers, religion, and the creation and circulation of the imperial image. Readings will represent contributions by scholars working in different disciplines, including history, art history, and archaeology.
ANTHRO 390-0-28: Topics In Anthropology: Nationalism & Archaeology in the Americas (Combined with LACS 391-0-21)
What role has archaeology played in the emergence and consolidation of modern nation-states in the Americas? Across the world, states use monuments and archaeological artifacts to present national narratives in museums, ancient sites, and online platforms. In the Americas, nation-states have controlled who has access to the material remains from the past while transforming buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts into national patrimony. In the process of creating national patrimony, nation-states often estrange Indigenous communities from their landscapes and their cultural heritage. In this course, we will examine the role of archaeology in the creation and preservation of national identities in the Americas from the 18th century to the present. In weekly readings and discussions, we will learn about the institutionalization of archaeology as a state-sponsored discipline, the development of archaeological sites as national monuments and tourist destinations, the display and interpretation of artifacts in museums and heritage sites, and the monopolization of tangible cultural heritage by the state. Ultimately, we will evaluate the intersections of identity and politics throughout the history of Latin America.
ANTHRO 390-0-29: Topics In Anthropology: Queer Criminality and Political Transgression (GNDR_ST 353 / POLI_SCI 390)
This course addresses the political potentials of criminality within queer life by considering historical and contemporary acts of queer transgression as “criminal.” We will draw from literature that underscores the criminalization of queer life, particularly the hyper-criminalization of queer communities of color, but this course will also move beyond mechanisms of criminalization by asking critical questions about queer illegalism and its capacity to destabilize an existing political world. Reading within historical studies of criminality in the social sciences, specifically anthropology and political science, we will consider queer criminality as a departure from other interpretations of crime as - for instance - pathological, symptomatic, opportunistic, reactionary, constructed, or in collusion with “legitimate” political and economic orders. While still attending to these themes through keys texts in the study of crime, this course reflects on how conceptualizations of political transgression and crime have been historically transformed and renewed through queer thought and approaches, particularly through figures such as the deviant, the outlaw, or the rebel. We will discuss these figures within theorizations of broader political transgression, such as social movements, uprisings, and revolutions.
ANTHRO 398-0-20: Senior Seminar
This course is for all anthropology majors writing a senior thesis. It will provide students with a forum for writing their thesis. The course is an opportunity for you to analyze findings/data from your original research on a topic of your choice within anthropology and to draft a paper based on that research. A range of issues will be considered, including research and writing styles characteristic of all four subfields, clarifying research and writing goals, preparing a critical literature review, data analysis and presentation and, most importantly, writing processes. Students will be expected to make brief presentations (in large and small group settings) about the development of their paper throughout the quarter. The goal for this class is to produce a ~20-page paper that outlines your research questions/issues/problems and presents an analysis using material from field research, laboratory work, data sets or library research; this will serve as the thesis you submit to the Anthropology Department in early spring quarter.
ANTHRO 401-3-1: Logic of Inquiry (Cult)
This course focuses on the key themes, concepts and debates that have characterized cultural anthropology's logic of inquiry. We pay careful attention to the historical precedents of the sub-field's mode of questioning, both within the broader discipline and in the social sciences and humanities, more generally. We will also inquire into how cultural anthropology articulates with the other sub-fields of the discipline as it changes in the broader social fields of academe and American political economy. Examining these core dimensions of the sub-field will provide a strong understanding of how cultural anthropologists conceptualize their subjects/objects of study in relationship to the shifting terrains in academia and national and global political economic processes. Throughout, we will address the larger stakes—both ethical and political—of taking particular ethnographic and theoretical approaches. We will both cultivate a critical approach to the readings, and try to understand them on their own terms in the circumstances of their production. Key concepts we will investigate include: culture/society; self/other; structure/agency; time; nature/science; economy; materiality; emotion/affect; institutions.
ANTHRO 475-0-20: Seminar in Contemporary Theory
In recent years, it has becoming increasingly clear that "theory" is not the preserve of any particular discipline. At the same time that other disciplines have been enthusiastically adopting "ethnography" in one form or another as a research strategy, anthropologists have been borrowing perspectives from literary studies, philosophy, and history among other disciplines. This class will serve as an introduction - a consumer's guide of sorts - to thinkers whose ideas have been frequently cited, if not used, by contemporary anthropologists among others. The seminar will provide a forum for evaluating their relevance (or irrelevance) to the research agendas of students in the class.
ANTHRO 490-0-21: Topics in Anthropology: Gender, Sexuality, Archaeology
Over the past few years new attention to archaeological studies of gender and sexuality has had a transformative effect on the field of archaeology. The goal of this graduate level seminar is to examine the fields of gender and sexuality studies in archaeology today and discern why this research is playing a pivotal role in defining contemporary archaeology. The course will begin by examining field-defining texts written in the past decade (or past year) in Black Feminist Archaeology, Indigenous Feminist Archaeology, Queer Archaeology, and Engendered Heritage Praxis. We will reflect upon how this constellation of archaeologies is providing a foundation for epistemological shifts in the broader field of archaeology. The course will also provide a history (short history) to the study of gender, feminist, and queer archaeologies which originate in 1980s critiques of androcentrism in archaeology. We will conclude by examining gender, sexuality, sexual discrimination, and sexual assault in archaeology today.
ANTHRO 490-0-22: Topics in Anthropology: Primate Diversity
Within the Primate order an astounding range of physiological adaptations and behaviors are represented. What processes led to this extreme diversification? How can an understanding of primate diversity inform studies of human physiology and behavior? In this course we will use both classic and recent non-human primate studies to explore topics such as nutrition, growth, disease, sociality, cognition, and communication. The course will rely heavily on reading and discussion of the primary literature, and is designed to be flexible so as to address the research interests and backgrounds of all participants. At the end of this course, students will have better insight into ecological and evolutionary theories relevant for explaining variation in a range of traits across the primate phylogeny and appreciate how studies of non-human primates impact our perspectives on human physiology and behavior.
ANTHRO 490-0-23: Ethnographic Methods
This course is designed to familiarize students with methods used in ethnographic research, and to prepare them to design research projects. We will study and discuss the importance of qualitative data collection “tools” such as participant-observation, oral histories, interviewing, photo-elicitation, and writing field notes. In addition to discussing the methods as technique, we will examine issues related to the practice of ethnographic research; these include but are not limited to IRB, ethics, gender, race, class, age, etc. Our discussions will be based on the assigned readings and on students’ own proposed research and field experiences. The course will enable you to understand why certain methods are chosen for different kinds of research, which method(s) would be most useful in your own research, and how to draft such data collection agendas into a grant proposal. Students will work on designing their dissertation proposal during the quarter. If made available, we will also review research proposals –funded and not – to discuss components of successful proposals, as well as the review process across various funding agencies.
ANTHRO 490-0-24: Topics in Anthropology: Ethnography in the Archives
The defining research method of ethnography is participant observation with living interlocutors. Ethnographic understanding emerges through human exchange and collaborative meaning making, both between the anthropologist and research participants (participation) and between individuals in the field of investigation or field site (observation). What does it mean, then, to do ethnography in the archives? Archives -- inscribed traces of lived worlds left by people – seeming cannot speak back to the reader. Without this lived exchange, what can we learn from documents created historically for administrative purposes of states or colonial empires? In this graduate seminar, we consider both narratives of state domination through text creation and possible stories about actions of individuals in non-dominant social groups, especially women, children, the poor, and ethnic minorities. Rather than adopting purely an anti-empirical approach to archived texts, we consider ways in which the bureaucratic scribe’s record is both situated fact and angled purpose, and how documents’ potential stories exceed their intended purposes. Theoretical and conceptual readings frame case studies from the MENA region including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco. Students write and workshop original research papers from an archival corpus of their choice.
ANTHRO 496-0-20: Bridging Seminar
The bridging seminar is designed as a forum to generate conversation across anthropology's four subfields. Intended for first year anthropology PhD students, the bridging seminar covers material across the subfields that relates to a specific theme or set of themes that rotates every year. Students are expected to complete readings, attend department colloquium talks, and be an active discussant. This year, we will focus on a mix of external speakers and readings on the hottest topics in linguistic, sociocultural, biological, and archaeological anthropology, including the impact of COVID-19 on anthropological research. Readings will be articles that will be made available as pdfs. There is no paper or exam for this class. Classes will meet approximately three times each quarter, beginning in the fall.