DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Winter 2023 Class Schedule

*Starred courses required of all majors

 ANTHRO  101-6-21: First-Year Seminar: Pathologies of Power

At the height of the 2013-2016 West African Ebola pandemic, it was often said that the fears of the disease globalized more quickly than the disease itself. Similar claims were made about Covid-19 in the months leading to global spread of this still evolving viral disease. These kinds of statements – and the proliferation of official efforts to both define and control epidemics – show the significance of cultural, social, political and economic dimensions of mass disease events. This seminar privileges a critical medical anthropology perspective on the dynamics of epidemics and pandemics: from defining and naming an event a pandemic, to the ongoing dynamics of disease transmission to prevention and control. Together, we will investigate these pathologies of power: how complex interactions among social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors influence the natural history of infectious disease and public health efforts to understand and address them. The seminar focuses on contemporary issues with the explicit purpose of addressing questions of equity and justice.

ANTHRO  101-6-22: First-Year Seminar: DNA and society - Possibilities and pitfalls

Recent advances in genetic analysis have opened up new opportunities to examine how genes influence our health and our potential, and to investigate our family roots. Although these are revolutionary advances, the scientific implications of genetic research are not always as straightforward as press releases and media coverage imply; and in some domains genetic research raises thorny new ethical and other societal questions. In this discussion-based seminar, we will critically read several recent books that tackle various dimensions of the social lives of our DNA, augmented by additional scientific, popular and journalistic readings. We will address questions that sit at the interface of genetics and society, such as: How do our genes really influence our health? What are the problems with the concept of genetic race, and why do scientists who study race describe race as a social construct? How do new genetic approaches help us dig deeper into our ancestries, and what are the societal and ethical implications of those approaches? Readings for this class will not require specialist knowledge of biology or genetics, but will benefit from a curiosity about science and a willingness to engage in critical analysis and discussion.

ANTHRO  101-6-23: First-Year Seminar: Cities, Six Millennia and Counting

In this first-year seminar you will develop and refine your critical thinking and writing skills. You will do so by reading and writing about a quintessential human space: the city. 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. Cities, however, are a relatively recent phenomenon in history. Further, cities are not essential for human survival. Then, why do cities dominate the modern world? Drawing broadly on scholarship in anthropology and other disciplines, we will read about the characteristics of urban life in human history, from the first experiments with urbanization 6,000 years ago to contemporary global cities. This course is not intended to be an introduction to anthropology or to urban studies. This seminar will be a workshop in which you will be introduced to college-level modes of thinking, writing, and arguing through reading and writing about cities.

ANTHRO 211-0-01: 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 290-0-21: Topics in Anthropology: American Suburbs: Race, Class, Placemaking

This course will explore U.S. suburbia through an anthropological lens. In addition to the study of the history of suburban development and sprawl, this course examines ethnographies, film, and popular media to explore major themes related to suburban landscapes: the construction of the American suburb in the national imaginary; the relationship between the city and the suburb; race and racial formation; class and mobility; gender and generation; and shifting demographics, politics, and labor in contemporary suburbs.

ANTHRO 290-0-22 / MENA 290-3-20: Topics in Anthropology & MENA: North Africa through Film

This course introduces students to everyday life in North Africa through feature and documentary film, with an emphasis on North African filmmakers. The southern Mediterranean region is often considered an appendage of the Muslim Middle East, but it merits study on its own, given its French colonial past and its connections to both sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Readings draw from anthropology, literature, biography, popular culture, and film studies. Thematic foci include ethnic minorities and majorities, migration, gender, law, human rights, and religion. Students develop analytical skills, especially in regards to perspective and bias in both image production and audience reception. One class meeting per week is devoted to lecture and discussion of readings, and the other class meeting to discussion of the week’s film. Films will be available streaming on Canvas and watched outside of class.

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 360-0-1: Topics in Language and Culture: Oral History and Narrative

This course introduces students to understanding world events through individual experiences, and will provides them with methodological training to conduct life history interviews, transcribe recordings, analyze the narratives in them, and craft readable life histories targeted to a generalist audience. The Oral History approach values the experiences and understandings of everyday people, placing them not only in their immediate lives but also in the fabric of broader social processes, moving beyond statistics, policy, and normative expectations of how individuals in certain gendered, racial, class, or political categories experience the world. Students learn about the uses, circulations, and repositories of oral histories, and how the oral history tool can enrich their own research and post-university work skills. Drawing on linguistic anthropological insights into narrative as co-constructed in everyday life, students will learn to identify narratives and stories in everyday interactions. Students will conduct an oral history project that links to an event familiar to the wider public: the Covid-19 pandemic, experiences of confinement, or distance learning; the rise of authoritarian and polarizing politics; the expansion or elimination of women's reproductive rights; climate change / extreme weather events (fires, floods, heat, drought); or another topic of choice that merges the intimate and the global. No previous research experience is necessary. Class meetings will include journal responses to material in and out of class, small group workshopping, and collaborative refining of interviewing skills. Required reading materials will be provided. Attendance at first class meeting required unless excused in advanced.

ANTHRO 370-0-20: Anthropology in Historical Perspective

Major schools of thought in social, archaeological and biological anthropology over the last century. Prerequisite: one 200-level course in anthropology or consent of instructor.

ANTHRO 386-0-20: Methods in Human Biology Research

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 390-0-22/490-0-22 & MENA 390-3-20/490-0-20: Topics in Anthropology: Sexing the Middle East: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of a Region

Are gender and sexuality useful categories of analysis in contemporary Middle East? What sexual assumptions underpin studies of the Middle East? And what kind of a Middle East grounds gender and sexuality studies in the region? This course engages with queer studies and critical race and feminist scholarship in anthropology, history and sociology to probe these questions. In this course, we will attend to the formation of “gender” and “sexuality” as categories of sociocultural analysis, surveying the major shifts within the intellectual history of studies in gender and sexuality, while interrogating the ways in which race, class, and nationality complicate studies of gender and sexuality and of mobility alike. In other words, if one major question that animates the course is what intersectional studies of mobility have to contribute to historical and anthropological studies of gender and sexuality in the Middle East, the other is what kind of new analytical ground studies of gender and sexuality could open up in sociocultural analysis of mobility, migration and transnationalism across the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

ANTHRO 390-0-27: Topics in Anthropology: African Archaeologies for the 21st Century

In this class, we will consider how information gleaned from archaeology in Africa can be used to address some of the main challenges of the 21st century, including decolonization, climate change, food security, and poverty. Rather than approaching Africa’s past in terms of chronological developments, we will critique the lenses through which the past has been viewed, as well as how historical inequalities have shaped the practice of archaeology in the continent. We will consider case studies from around the continent that examine ancient responses to climate change and poverty, and how they might inform present day challenges. We will also consider how movements to decolonize the study of Africa’s past chart a different future both within the continent and across the globe.

ANTHRO 390-0-30: Topics in Anthropology: Nationalism and Archeology in the Americas

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 the Americas.

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 401-4-1: Logic of Inquiry in Anthropology (Ling)

Advanced introduction to the core of anthropology for beginning graduate students.

ANTHRO 490-0-21: Topics in Anthropology: Anthropology of Food

Public and scholarly interests in food have grown exponentially in recent years, but the topic has been of interest to anthropologists since the inception of our discipline. This is not surprising, since four-subfield anthropology is uniquely positioned to address the complexity of factors that define and motivate food practices. Food is at once culturally defined, biologically necessary, and historically situated. In this class, we will explore how each of the four-subfields has approached food practices and how they change over time. The goal is to understand how the multi-faceted nature of foodways demands a non-disciplinary approach, and how we might better match our methods and writing styles to this subject of study.

ANTHRO 490-0-23: Topics in Anthropology: Ethnographic Writing

This graduate seminar is an intensive writing workshop, focusing on ethnography as a particular genre of scholarly writing that weaves together the theoretical and experiential, description and abstraction. We will read and discuss examples of ethnographic writing as a way of prompting and facilitating our own writing practice; perform in-class writing exercises to develop evocative descriptions, meaningful analyses, and deep engagement with our data and the scholarly literature; and workshop short excerpts in ‘table readings’ of works-in-progress. The course is for graduate students who have collected substantial ethnographic data (e.g. field notes, archives/primary sources, interviews/oral histories) and plan to write those data up in the form of book chapter, journal article, dissertation, or other longform medium (this includes second-year papers).

ANTHRO 490-0-24: Topics in Anthropology: Human Population Biology

Human biological systems are products of natural selection, evolved to develop and function in whole organisms that are integral components of surrounding social and physical environments. The overarching objective of this course is to investigate the causes and consequences of human biological variation, in time and space, and across multiple levels of analysis. The focus is on understanding human biology “in the real world,” and the course emphasizes a field-based, comparative approach that engages with conceptual and methodological tools that advance our understanding of human biology in relation to developmental and ecological contexts and processes. After constructing a solid theoretical and historical foundation, the course will apply these tools to illuminate the following topics: growth and development, aging, reproduction, immune function, energetics/metabolism, and stress.

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."