Please consult the online course catalog for cross-listed courses and full course information.
Freshman Seminar
Each year, the Anthropology Department offers a freshman seminar. This seminar aims to introduce a small group of freshman students to anthropology through discussion and research on a particular issue or topic. As an inaugural journey into the world of contemporary anthropology, the freshman seminar encourages class participation, student cooperation, group projects, and active research.
Course # (Section)
Title
Day/Times
Instructor
Location
Term
Course Details
AS.001.218 (01)
FYS: Means of Persuasion: Language, Culture, and Society
W 10:30AM - 1:00PM
Haeri, Niloofar
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
How does language get entangled in our cultural and social understandings? How do we learn to locate a person correctly in a particular social class or ethnicity? This course aims to show the ways in which language is at the center of our daily interactions and our institutions. We will learn conceptual tools to examine the ways in which writers and leaders attempt to persuade their publics in important matters such as climate change, party politics, and religious differences.
×
FYS: Means of Persuasion: Language, Culture, and Society AS.001.218 (01)
How does language get entangled in our cultural and social understandings? How do we learn to locate a person correctly in a particular social class or ethnicity? This course aims to show the ways in which language is at the center of our daily interactions and our institutions. We will learn conceptual tools to examine the ways in which writers and leaders attempt to persuade their publics in important matters such as climate change, party politics, and religious differences.
Days/Times: W 10:30AM - 1:00PM
Instructor: Haeri, Niloofar
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.001.221 (01)
FYS: Music, Religion and Healing
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Ziad, Homayra
3003 N. Charles OMA Lounge
Fall 2023
Our class will explore how religious and spiritual communities have understood and practiced music as a healing and reparative force, with a particular focus on Sufi spirituality and the living South Asian musical tradition of khayal. Khayal is both a vocal practice and a system of spiritual self-development, and singers are trained to activate the healing that resides in sound. We will take this journey through essays, film, music, meditative listening, and conversations with musicians as well as practitioners of reparative and healing education in the arts. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in an ethnographic project on music and healing with artists and creators in Pakistan.
×
FYS: Music, Religion and Healing AS.001.221 (01)
Our class will explore how religious and spiritual communities have understood and practiced music as a healing and reparative force, with a particular focus on Sufi spirituality and the living South Asian musical tradition of khayal. Khayal is both a vocal practice and a system of spiritual self-development, and singers are trained to activate the healing that resides in sound. We will take this journey through essays, film, music, meditative listening, and conversations with musicians as well as practitioners of reparative and healing education in the arts. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in an ethnographic project on music and healing with artists and creators in Pakistan.
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Ziad, Homayra
Room: 3003 N. Charles OMA Lounge
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/12
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.010.469 (01)
Quarried, Sculpted, Carved: Lifecycles of Mesoamerican Sculpture
M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Popovici, Catherine H
Gilman 177
Fall 2023
Stelae, altars, colossal heads, thrones, figures, lintels. This course considers how artists created these stone monuments in Mesoamerica, the historical region that encompasses Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, and El Salvador. Sculptors meticulously carved stone blocks to shape and then scribes expertly incised their surfaces with hieroglyphic text or iconography. These stone monuments were then transported and moved into position, their physical placements structuring social hierarchy and mediating interactions with the divine. In reviewing recent literature within the fields of art history and material studies, we will explore the full cycle of production for monumental works of art.
×
Quarried, Sculpted, Carved: Lifecycles of Mesoamerican Sculpture AS.010.469 (01)
Stelae, altars, colossal heads, thrones, figures, lintels. This course considers how artists created these stone monuments in Mesoamerica, the historical region that encompasses Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, and El Salvador. Sculptors meticulously carved stone blocks to shape and then scribes expertly incised their surfaces with hieroglyphic text or iconography. These stone monuments were then transported and moved into position, their physical placements structuring social hierarchy and mediating interactions with the divine. In reviewing recent literature within the fields of art history and material studies, we will explore the full cycle of production for monumental works of art.
Days/Times: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Instructor: Popovici, Catherine H
Room: Gilman 177
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/15
PosTag(s): HART-ANC, ARCH-ARCH
AS.070.132 (02)
Invitation to Anthropology
T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Khan, Naveeda
Gilman 50
Fall 2023
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
×
Invitation to Anthropology AS.070.132 (02)
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Gilman 50
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/20
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (03)
Invitation to Anthropology
T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Khan, Naveeda
Gilman 50
Fall 2023
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
×
Invitation to Anthropology AS.070.132 (03)
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Gilman 50
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/20
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (04)
Invitation to Anthropology
T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Khan, Naveeda
Gilman 50
Fall 2023
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
×
Invitation to Anthropology AS.070.132 (04)
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Gilman 50
Status: Open
Seats Available: 1/20
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.132 (05)
Invitation to Anthropology
T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Khan, Naveeda
Gilman 50
Fall 2023
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
×
Invitation to Anthropology AS.070.132 (05)
This introductory course will focus on the theme of “encounter,” which has been central to anthropology’s self-formation. We will focus on the encounter with the other, the colonial encounter and the encounter with the possibility of human extinction to explore how newness comes into the world and how it may be structured by prior violence.
Days/Times: T 9:00AM - 10:15AM, Th 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Gilman 50
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/20
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.202 (01)
Mapping Communities
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Procupez, Valeria
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
This course examines mapping through an ethnographic lens. We will both study the design of maps as a key technology to survey territories and populations, as well as forms of countermapping: practices that turn this top-down, governmental tool on its head and facilitate a ground-up, collaborative process of representing space. We will survey various forms of data visualization, oral history and narrative cartography, as methods for the generation of local knowledge. Cases include indigenous counter-mapping of communal land, collective cartography in Latin America, anti-eviction mapping projects in American cities, and others. The course involves critical discussions of theoretical and ethnographic texts, as well as the practical exploration of different mapmaking techniques (ArcGIS, hands-on activities on campus and its surroundings), and their importance as possible contributions to anthropological analysis and community engagement.
×
Mapping Communities AS.070.202 (01)
This course examines mapping through an ethnographic lens. We will both study the design of maps as a key technology to survey territories and populations, as well as forms of countermapping: practices that turn this top-down, governmental tool on its head and facilitate a ground-up, collaborative process of representing space. We will survey various forms of data visualization, oral history and narrative cartography, as methods for the generation of local knowledge. Cases include indigenous counter-mapping of communal land, collective cartography in Latin America, anti-eviction mapping projects in American cities, and others. The course involves critical discussions of theoretical and ethnographic texts, as well as the practical exploration of different mapmaking techniques (ArcGIS, hands-on activities on campus and its surroundings), and their importance as possible contributions to anthropological analysis and community engagement.
Days/Times: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Instructor: Procupez, Valeria
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 8/15
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.267 (01)
Culture, Religion and Politics in Iran
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Haeri, Niloofar
Mergenthaler 439
Fall 2023
This is an introductory course for those interseted in gaining basic knowledge about contemporary Iran. The focus will be on culture and religion and the ways they in which they become interwoven into different kinds of political stakes.
×
Culture, Religion and Politics in Iran AS.070.267 (01)
This is an introductory course for those interseted in gaining basic knowledge about contemporary Iran. The focus will be on culture and religion and the ways they in which they become interwoven into different kinds of political stakes.
This course explores the craft of ethnography as a mode of research and writing fundamental to anthropology. Through the close reading of several ethnographic works, we will consider the intertwining of description and argumentation; and through various observation and writing exercises, we will develop a practical understanding of the ethnographic method of transferring social worlds from the field to the text.
×
Ethnographies AS.070.273 (01)
This course explores the craft of ethnography as a mode of research and writing fundamental to anthropology. Through the close reading of several ethnographic works, we will consider the intertwining of description and argumentation; and through various observation and writing exercises, we will develop a practical understanding of the ethnographic method of transferring social worlds from the field to the text.
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Procupez, Valeria
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 4/15
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.070.286 (01)
Reading Gandhi in the Contemporary Moment
MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Joshi, Kunal
Hodson 301
Fall 2023
The course is designed to introduce students to the Indian anti-colonialist figure and political thinker Mahatma Gandhi, his key ideas on politics and society in their historical and political contexts, and to put them in conversation with contemporary social and political theory. Many today may consider Gandhi’s ideas, such as that of turning away from technology or an insistence on non-violence even in the face of threat and violence, as too idealistic or impractical for our complicated times. Through a close reading of his work, this course will challenge this reflex response, and explore the relevance of his thought for rethinking our approach to contemporary political and ecological crises.
×
Reading Gandhi in the Contemporary Moment AS.070.286 (01)
The course is designed to introduce students to the Indian anti-colonialist figure and political thinker Mahatma Gandhi, his key ideas on politics and society in their historical and political contexts, and to put them in conversation with contemporary social and political theory. Many today may consider Gandhi’s ideas, such as that of turning away from technology or an insistence on non-violence even in the face of threat and violence, as too idealistic or impractical for our complicated times. Through a close reading of his work, this course will challenge this reflex response, and explore the relevance of his thought for rethinking our approach to contemporary political and ecological crises.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Joshi, Kunal
Room: Hodson 301
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.322 (01)
The Politics of Land Rights
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Menezes, Benita Maria
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
Land acquisition by the government to create useful public infrastructure has long been perceived as both necessary and legal. However, recent land acquisition processes have encouraged widespread illegal land grabs, the loss of livelihoods and the largescale displacement of local communities. This course invites students to examine what has changed in terms of states, economies, and societies to make such processes globally disruptive and violent. We will also consider the range of protests available to prevent or modulate such excesses of the politics of land rights.
×
The Politics of Land Rights AS.070.322 (01)
Land acquisition by the government to create useful public infrastructure has long been perceived as both necessary and legal. However, recent land acquisition processes have encouraged widespread illegal land grabs, the loss of livelihoods and the largescale displacement of local communities. This course invites students to examine what has changed in terms of states, economies, and societies to make such processes globally disruptive and violent. We will also consider the range of protests available to prevent or modulate such excesses of the politics of land rights.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Menezes, Benita Maria
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/18
PosTag(s): ENVS-MAJOR, ENVS-MINOR
AS.070.334 (01)
Contemporary Anthropology
T 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Khan, Naveeda
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
Students are invited to attend, for credit, the departmental research colloquium in anthropology. The colloquium meets most (but not all) Tuesday afternoons during the semester. Students are expected to attend and listen, encouraged to ask questions when they wish, and to write one brief reflection on contemporary trends in the field, based on what they have observed during these sessions. Prerequisite: Students must have completed one Anthropology course previously This course does not apply to Anthropology major or minors towards their minimum department requirement. It counts towards your total credit requirement to degree..
×
Contemporary Anthropology AS.070.334 (01)
Students are invited to attend, for credit, the departmental research colloquium in anthropology. The colloquium meets most (but not all) Tuesday afternoons during the semester. Students are expected to attend and listen, encouraged to ask questions when they wish, and to write one brief reflection on contemporary trends in the field, based on what they have observed during these sessions. Prerequisite: Students must have completed one Anthropology course previously This course does not apply to Anthropology major or minors towards their minimum department requirement. It counts towards your total credit requirement to degree..
Days/Times: T 4:00PM - 6:00PM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/10
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.338 (01)
Transnational Migration through the Lens of Kinship and Gender
TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Kim, Sojung
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
Migration or the global movement of people is occurring at all different scales across the world. While the focus has largely been on the causes and men’s experiences of migration as the norm, this course will focus attention on the relationship between migration, kinship and gender. We will ask, how do existing family relations structure movement, how do migrants form kinship relations in their new homes, and what happens to those left behind. What is a gender perspective on migration? Through an interdisciplinary range of readings, we will explore both the dominant, usually statist frameworks by which migration is studied and how bringing in the perspective of kinship and gender stands to push against these frameworks and commonsensical understandings as to why people migrate.
×
Transnational Migration through the Lens of Kinship and Gender AS.070.338 (01)
Migration or the global movement of people is occurring at all different scales across the world. While the focus has largely been on the causes and men’s experiences of migration as the norm, this course will focus attention on the relationship between migration, kinship and gender. We will ask, how do existing family relations structure movement, how do migrants form kinship relations in their new homes, and what happens to those left behind. What is a gender perspective on migration? Through an interdisciplinary range of readings, we will explore both the dominant, usually statist frameworks by which migration is studied and how bringing in the perspective of kinship and gender stands to push against these frameworks and commonsensical understandings as to why people migrate.
Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Kim, Sojung
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/18
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.387 (01)
Human Variation: “Race,” Biology, Culture
W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Lans, Aja Marie
Mergenthaler 439
Fall 2023
This course focuses on human variation from an anthropological perspective. We discuss biological variation within and between human populations as the product of adaptive, maladaptive, and random changes. This includes an understanding of the diversity of human biologies as the product of complex interactions between environment, culture, and biology.
×
Human Variation: “Race,” Biology, Culture AS.070.387 (01)
This course focuses on human variation from an anthropological perspective. We discuss biological variation within and between human populations as the product of adaptive, maladaptive, and random changes. This includes an understanding of the diversity of human biologies as the product of complex interactions between environment, culture, and biology.
Days/Times: W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Instructor: Lans, Aja Marie
Room: Mergenthaler 439
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/13
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.404 (01)
The Idea of Africa
F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Mohamed, Sabine
Mergenthaler 439
Fall 2023
This seminar interrogates the numerous ways that Africa, as a concept, has been generative in history, as well as in political and social thought. Although in the long arc of history, the period of European colonialism on the continent was brief, it fundamentally reshaped how we think about Africa as a space and place. Africa has long existed as a crucial “other” in European culture. But how do we think of Africa outside of this limiting history? The idea of Africa has also existed as an important rubric for African scholars to counter such colonial inheritances and for diasporas to re-engage the black Atlantic. The emergence of Pan-Africanism as well as liberation movements across the continent have pushed back against a reading of Africa simply as a site of exploitation, but as home (“Africa for Africans”), space (Afrofuturism), and as a site of radical politics. In this course, we explore the different histories, futures, and potentialities of Africa as an idea, re-sorting its geographies and stories.
×
The Idea of Africa AS.070.404 (01)
This seminar interrogates the numerous ways that Africa, as a concept, has been generative in history, as well as in political and social thought. Although in the long arc of history, the period of European colonialism on the continent was brief, it fundamentally reshaped how we think about Africa as a space and place. Africa has long existed as a crucial “other” in European culture. But how do we think of Africa outside of this limiting history? The idea of Africa has also existed as an important rubric for African scholars to counter such colonial inheritances and for diasporas to re-engage the black Atlantic. The emergence of Pan-Africanism as well as liberation movements across the continent have pushed back against a reading of Africa simply as a site of exploitation, but as home (“Africa for Africans”), space (Afrofuturism), and as a site of radical politics. In this course, we explore the different histories, futures, and potentialities of Africa as an idea, re-sorting its geographies and stories.
Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Mohamed, Sabine
Room: Mergenthaler 439
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/8
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.431 (01)
Politics of Language
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
MacLochlainn, Scott
Mergenthaler 426
Fall 2023
How does language become a site of contestation? From the attention to speech on social media, discrimination and exclusion based on how people sound, the realism of ChatGPT, to debates regarding what constitutes proper and improper language in school textbooks, we seem to increasingly talk about how we talk. How do we study language in these spaces, and amidst contestation and social change? Moving between a number of different contexts, this course explores how language becomes a focal point of agreement and disagreement. Topics include the history of code-switching, language identities around the world, AI and chatbots, indigenous revitalization projects, and how language is thoroughly embedded in our understandings of gender, race, and the concept of the social “other.” Throughout the course, we will read some classic linguistic anthropology texts as well as a contemporary literature, that together provide a foundation for how to think about the role of language in our lives.
×
Politics of Language AS.070.431 (01)
How does language become a site of contestation? From the attention to speech on social media, discrimination and exclusion based on how people sound, the realism of ChatGPT, to debates regarding what constitutes proper and improper language in school textbooks, we seem to increasingly talk about how we talk. How do we study language in these spaces, and amidst contestation and social change? Moving between a number of different contexts, this course explores how language becomes a focal point of agreement and disagreement. Topics include the history of code-switching, language identities around the world, AI and chatbots, indigenous revitalization projects, and how language is thoroughly embedded in our understandings of gender, race, and the concept of the social “other.” Throughout the course, we will read some classic linguistic anthropology texts as well as a contemporary literature, that together provide a foundation for how to think about the role of language in our lives.
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: MacLochlainn, Scott
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/8
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.145.219 (01)
Science Studies and Medical Humanities: Theory and Methods
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Labruto, Nicole
Hodson 311
Fall 2023
The knowledge and practices of science and medicine are not as self-evident as they may appear. When we observe, what do we see? What counts as evidence? How does evidence become fact? How do facts circulate and what are their effects? Who is included in and excluded from our common-sense notions of science, medicine, and technology? This course will introduce students to central theoretical concerns in Science and Technology Studies and the Medical Humanities, focusing on enduring problematics that animate scholars. In conjunction with examinations of theoretical bases, students will learn to evaluate the methodological tools used in different fields in the humanities to study the production and circulation of scientific knowledge and the structures of medical care and public health. This problem-centered approach will help students understand and apply key concepts and approaches in critical studies of science, technology, and medicine.
×
Science Studies and Medical Humanities: Theory and Methods AS.145.219 (01)
The knowledge and practices of science and medicine are not as self-evident as they may appear. When we observe, what do we see? What counts as evidence? How does evidence become fact? How do facts circulate and what are their effects? Who is included in and excluded from our common-sense notions of science, medicine, and technology? This course will introduce students to central theoretical concerns in Science and Technology Studies and the Medical Humanities, focusing on enduring problematics that animate scholars. In conjunction with examinations of theoretical bases, students will learn to evaluate the methodological tools used in different fields in the humanities to study the production and circulation of scientific knowledge and the structures of medical care and public health. This problem-centered approach will help students understand and apply key concepts and approaches in critical studies of science, technology, and medicine.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Labruto, Nicole
Room: Hodson 311
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.211.323 (01)
Bees, Bugs, and other Beasties: Insects in Literature
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Frey, Christiane
Gilman 186
Fall 2023
Beetles, fleas, bees, ants, ticks, butterflies: as the earth’s most abundant animals, insects affect our lives in countless ways. In this seminar, we will explore the diverse world of insects and other arthropods and analyze their appearance in philosophy, literature, and the sciences. Reading our way from John Donne’s “The Flea” and Robert Hooke’s “Micrographia” to Mandeville’s “The Fable of the Bees,” Uexküll’s biosemiotics, and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” we will ask how concepts and stories of insects reflect and shape the ways we imagine our ecological milieus. We will look more closely at how entomological imaginaries evolved over time and pursue lines of inquiry that will shed new light on human interactions with the environment, politics, and cultural diversity. This course covers a wide range of sources from different European languages (all made available in English translations) and is writing intensive.
×
Bees, Bugs, and other Beasties: Insects in Literature AS.211.323 (01)
Beetles, fleas, bees, ants, ticks, butterflies: as the earth’s most abundant animals, insects affect our lives in countless ways. In this seminar, we will explore the diverse world of insects and other arthropods and analyze their appearance in philosophy, literature, and the sciences. Reading our way from John Donne’s “The Flea” and Robert Hooke’s “Micrographia” to Mandeville’s “The Fable of the Bees,” Uexküll’s biosemiotics, and Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” we will ask how concepts and stories of insects reflect and shape the ways we imagine our ecological milieus. We will look more closely at how entomological imaginaries evolved over time and pursue lines of inquiry that will shed new light on human interactions with the environment, politics, and cultural diversity. This course covers a wide range of sources from different European languages (all made available in English translations) and is writing intensive.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Frey, Christiane
Room: Gilman 186
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/15
PosTag(s): ENVS-MAJOR, MSCH-HUM
AS.363.253 (01)
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Han, Clara
Ames 234
Fall 2023
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
×
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies AS.363.253 (01)
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Instructor: Han, Clara
Room: Ames 234
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.363.253 (02)
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Han, Clara
Ames 234
Fall 2023
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
×
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies AS.363.253 (02)
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Instructor: Han, Clara
Room: Ames 234
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.363.253 (03)
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Han, Clara
Ames 234
Fall 2023
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
×
Disease, Illness and Medicine from the Perspective of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies AS.363.253 (03)
This course invites students to take the perspectives of women, gender and sexuality studies in the study of illness and disease. The course asks: What difference do such perspectives make in the study of disease? Are ways of describing and responding to illness and suffering made available for us to rethink the experience of affliction as such? The course will invite students to consider disease, illness, and suffering as embedded within social worlds and as sites where institutions, medical knowledge, and intimacy are entangled. We will explore topics including: the gender politics of asylum, displacement and refugeehood; the clustering of violence and illness in neighborhoods marked by chronic exposure to police violence; the counter-politics of care in the context of claims to reproductive justice; the politics of the population and the household decision-making in relation to scarcity; the rethinking of the clinical encounter as it is criss-crossed by law in cases of sexual violence.
Days/Times: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, F 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Instructor: Han, Clara
Room: Ames 234
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.070.105 (01)
City Life: Adventures in the Urban Environment
T 10:30AM - 11:45AM, Th 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Procupez, Valeria
Hodson 315
Spring 2024
This course is an introduction to urban anthropology through the study of diverse "urban experiences," how they are shaped by power relations as well as resistance, and how they change through the evolution of technology, shifts in capital investment, and flows of migration. We will examine a variety of ethnographic and historical examples from many regions of the globe to discuss how culture, class, race and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, inflect the experience of urbanity; and we will assess how different concepts and perspectives capture the variety of affects and dynamics of urban everyday life in the contemporary world.
×
City Life: Adventures in the Urban Environment AS.070.105 (01)
This course is an introduction to urban anthropology through the study of diverse "urban experiences," how they are shaped by power relations as well as resistance, and how they change through the evolution of technology, shifts in capital investment, and flows of migration. We will examine a variety of ethnographic and historical examples from many regions of the globe to discuss how culture, class, race and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, inflect the experience of urbanity; and we will assess how different concepts and perspectives capture the variety of affects and dynamics of urban everyday life in the contemporary world.
Days/Times: T 10:30AM - 11:45AM, Th 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Procupez, Valeria
Room: Hodson 315
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/25
PosTag(s): ENVS-MAJOR
AS.070.208 (01)
Designing a Social Research Project
M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Procupez, Valeria
Mergenthaler 439
Spring 2024
This is a hands-on course that introduces students to the process of designing a project of social research, from the initial idea to the final proposal. The class provides tools on: how to frame a problem, ask key questions, review the relevant scholarly literature and determine the data needed to check hypotheses. We will discuss issues related to what defines social science inquiry: its quantitative and qualitative methods, its forms of collecting and evaluating evidence, using archives, doing fieldwork, conducting interviews and surveys, or interacting with various groups of people on the ground, and ethical concerns related to social research. Social science implies venturing into the real, empirical world and its contemporary problems. We will study how researchers analyze, interpret and make sense of multiple human experiences and social processes.
×
Designing a Social Research Project AS.070.208 (01)
This is a hands-on course that introduces students to the process of designing a project of social research, from the initial idea to the final proposal. The class provides tools on: how to frame a problem, ask key questions, review the relevant scholarly literature and determine the data needed to check hypotheses. We will discuss issues related to what defines social science inquiry: its quantitative and qualitative methods, its forms of collecting and evaluating evidence, using archives, doing fieldwork, conducting interviews and surveys, or interacting with various groups of people on the ground, and ethical concerns related to social research. Social science implies venturing into the real, empirical world and its contemporary problems. We will study how researchers analyze, interpret and make sense of multiple human experiences and social processes.
Days/Times: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Procupez, Valeria
Room: Mergenthaler 439
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.227 (01)
Sex, Gender, Culture
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Mohamed, Sabine
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
What is gender? We talk so much about it, but what is it really? How does one distinguish between the social and historical life of gender vis-à-vis sex as a biological category? Yet even the category sex as biology is not as straightforward as it seems and often indicates arbitrariness and blurriness when it comes to demarking definite lines of difference between a binary gender model (male, female). Anthropologists are increasingly exploring gender in multiple contexts, from kinship structures and political economies, as well as in settings of piety and religiosity, to spaces in which the category of human itself becomes difficult to define. In this course we will engage in genealogies as well as current debates. We will learn and discuss a wide array of perspectives, debates, and theories that have shaped feminist anthropology, queer theory, and black feminist theory.
×
Sex, Gender, Culture AS.070.227 (01)
What is gender? We talk so much about it, but what is it really? How does one distinguish between the social and historical life of gender vis-à-vis sex as a biological category? Yet even the category sex as biology is not as straightforward as it seems and often indicates arbitrariness and blurriness when it comes to demarking definite lines of difference between a binary gender model (male, female). Anthropologists are increasingly exploring gender in multiple contexts, from kinship structures and political economies, as well as in settings of piety and religiosity, to spaces in which the category of human itself becomes difficult to define. In this course we will engage in genealogies as well as current debates. We will learn and discuss a wide array of perspectives, debates, and theories that have shaped feminist anthropology, queer theory, and black feminist theory.
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Mohamed, Sabine
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 3/15
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.070.305 (01)
Law after Mass Violence in Latin America
TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Wherry, Anna Elisabeth
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
This course invites students to examine an idea central to theories of transitional justice: that holding perpetrators of mass violence legally accountable enables transitions from war to peace and authoritarianism to democracy. We will examine this idea by focusing on Latin America, where social movements for legal accountability and human rights prosecutions have flourished since the 1980s, influencing law and transitional justice mechanisms globally. By engaging ethnographies of transition, we will critically examine concepts such as justice, accountability, catastrophic violence, transition, and the rule of law, comparing how anthropologists and lawyers reason, formulate questions, and engage evidence.
×
Law after Mass Violence in Latin America AS.070.305 (01)
This course invites students to examine an idea central to theories of transitional justice: that holding perpetrators of mass violence legally accountable enables transitions from war to peace and authoritarianism to democracy. We will examine this idea by focusing on Latin America, where social movements for legal accountability and human rights prosecutions have flourished since the 1980s, influencing law and transitional justice mechanisms globally. By engaging ethnographies of transition, we will critically examine concepts such as justice, accountability, catastrophic violence, transition, and the rule of law, comparing how anthropologists and lawyers reason, formulate questions, and engage evidence.
Days/Times: TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Instructor: Wherry, Anna Elisabeth
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Waitlist Only
Seats Available: 0/18
PosTag(s): INST-CP
AS.070.317 (01)
Methods
T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Haeri, Niloofar
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
This course aims to teach basic fieldwork skills: Choosing and entering a community; establishing contacts; learning to listen and to ask questions and locating archival material that might be relevant. It is a hands-on course that increases student familiarity with various neighborhoods such as the Arts District in Baltimore. Recommended Course Background: two or more prior courses in anthropology (not cross-listed courses). Course is a requirement for anthropology major.
×
Methods AS.070.317 (01)
This course aims to teach basic fieldwork skills: Choosing and entering a community; establishing contacts; learning to listen and to ask questions and locating archival material that might be relevant. It is a hands-on course that increases student familiarity with various neighborhoods such as the Arts District in Baltimore. Recommended Course Background: two or more prior courses in anthropology (not cross-listed courses). Course is a requirement for anthropology major.
Days/Times: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Haeri, Niloofar
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/20
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.334 (01)
Contemporary Anthropology
T 4:00PM - 5:30PM
Khan, Naveeda
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
Students are invited to attend, for credit, the departmental research colloquium in anthropology. The colloquium meets most (but not all) Tuesday afternoons during the semester. Students are expected to attend and listen, encouraged to ask questions when they wish, and to write one brief reflection on contemporary trends in the field, based on what they have observed during these sessions. Prerequisite: Students must have completed one Anthropology course previously This course does not apply to Anthropology major or minors towards their minimum department requirement. It counts towards your total credit requirement to degree..
×
Contemporary Anthropology AS.070.334 (01)
Students are invited to attend, for credit, the departmental research colloquium in anthropology. The colloquium meets most (but not all) Tuesday afternoons during the semester. Students are expected to attend and listen, encouraged to ask questions when they wish, and to write one brief reflection on contemporary trends in the field, based on what they have observed during these sessions. Prerequisite: Students must have completed one Anthropology course previously This course does not apply to Anthropology major or minors towards their minimum department requirement. It counts towards your total credit requirement to degree..
Days/Times: T 4:00PM - 5:30PM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 12/15
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.358 (01)
Anthropology of the Archive: The Cold War Politics of Knowledge Production in Asia
W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Kim, Yuna
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
This course will invite students to inquire into knowledge production in the context of the Cold War in Asia by exploring how our knowledge of wartime is selected, regenerated, and repressed by archives. The course will examine the dual nature of archives in documenting conflicts and serving as evidence of state violence. We will also consider how the archive may extend beyond documents to incorporate oral narratives and material artifacts.
×
Anthropology of the Archive: The Cold War Politics of Knowledge Production in Asia AS.070.358 (01)
This course will invite students to inquire into knowledge production in the context of the Cold War in Asia by exploring how our knowledge of wartime is selected, regenerated, and repressed by archives. The course will examine the dual nature of archives in documenting conflicts and serving as evidence of state violence. We will also consider how the archive may extend beyond documents to incorporate oral narratives and material artifacts.
Days/Times: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Kim, Yuna
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/18
PosTag(s): INST-CP
AS.070.406 (01)
Governing Health: Care, Inequality, and the State
F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Ziv, Tali R
Mergenthaler 426
Spring 2024
Governing health explores the vital relationship between governance and health. The class interrogates how the stratification and management of populations are linked with the diagnoses, categories, and inequities that make up our contemporary health landscape. We will explore how the concept of governance troubles our understandings of key concepts in medical anthropology like care, inequality, and the state. Moving from the level of the population to the individual body, from state institutions to the four walls of the clinic, this course traces governance as it generates and degenerates health.
×
Governing Health: Care, Inequality, and the State AS.070.406 (01)
Governing health explores the vital relationship between governance and health. The class interrogates how the stratification and management of populations are linked with the diagnoses, categories, and inequities that make up our contemporary health landscape. We will explore how the concept of governance troubles our understandings of key concepts in medical anthropology like care, inequality, and the state. Moving from the level of the population to the individual body, from state institutions to the four walls of the clinic, this course traces governance as it generates and degenerates health.
Days/Times: F 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Ziv, Tali R
Room: Mergenthaler 426
Status: Open
Seats Available: 7/15
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.070.410 (01)
Households and Crisis
Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Khan, Naveeda
Mergenthaler 439
Spring 2024
The household appears as commonsensical to us. It is where people, most often those of a family, reside together, sharing its resources, labor and collective fate. However, anthropologists have been arguing against this commonsense since it emerged in the 1950s. Yet the household is back again in current policy discussions as being most vulnerable to the problems associated with temperature extremes, food insecurity, exacerbated disease, enhanced competition and political violence. How might anthropological debates and controversies relating to households and householding as an activity within the context of war, famine and migration, provide important insights into today’s urgencies?
×
Households and Crisis AS.070.410 (01)
The household appears as commonsensical to us. It is where people, most often those of a family, reside together, sharing its resources, labor and collective fate. However, anthropologists have been arguing against this commonsense since it emerged in the 1950s. Yet the household is back again in current policy discussions as being most vulnerable to the problems associated with temperature extremes, food insecurity, exacerbated disease, enhanced competition and political violence. How might anthropological debates and controversies relating to households and householding as an activity within the context of war, famine and migration, provide important insights into today’s urgencies?
Days/Times: Th 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda
Room: Mergenthaler 439
Status: Open
Seats Available: 6/10
PosTag(s): n/a
AS.070.419 (01)
Logic of Anthropological Inquiry: African American Pioneers
M 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Lans, Aja Marie
Mergenthaler 439
Spring 2024
African American Pioneers: Courses focusing on the history and canon of anthropology often fail to consider the important role African American scholars have played in shaping the discipline. This course serves as an intervention by focusing on the contributions these underrepresented intellectuals have made to the field.
Restrictions: For advanced undergraduates who have taken anthropology or sociology. Requirement for Anthropology Majors
×
Logic of Anthropological Inquiry: African American Pioneers AS.070.419 (01)
African American Pioneers: Courses focusing on the history and canon of anthropology often fail to consider the important role African American scholars have played in shaping the discipline. This course serves as an intervention by focusing on the contributions these underrepresented intellectuals have made to the field.
Restrictions: For advanced undergraduates who have taken anthropology or sociology. Requirement for Anthropology Majors
Days/Times: M 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Instructor: Lans, Aja Marie
Room: Mergenthaler 439
Status: Open
Seats Available: 9/15
PosTag(s): ARCH-RELATE
AS.145.219 (01)
Science Studies and Medical Humanities: Theory and Methods
TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Robbins, Gabrielle Lydia Marie
Krieger 304
Spring 2024
The knowledge and practices of science and medicine are not as self-evident as they may appear. When we observe, what do we see? What counts as evidence? How does evidence become fact? How do facts circulate and what are their effects? Who is included in and excluded from our common-sense notions of science, medicine, and technology? This course will introduce students to central theoretical concerns in Science and Technology Studies and the Medical Humanities, focusing on enduring problematics that animate scholars. In conjunction with examinations of theoretical bases, students will learn to evaluate the methodological tools used in different fields in the humanities to study the production and circulation of scientific knowledge and the structures of medical care and public health. This problem-centered approach will help students understand and apply key concepts and approaches in critical studies of science, technology, and medicine.
×
Science Studies and Medical Humanities: Theory and Methods AS.145.219 (01)
The knowledge and practices of science and medicine are not as self-evident as they may appear. When we observe, what do we see? What counts as evidence? How does evidence become fact? How do facts circulate and what are their effects? Who is included in and excluded from our common-sense notions of science, medicine, and technology? This course will introduce students to central theoretical concerns in Science and Technology Studies and the Medical Humanities, focusing on enduring problematics that animate scholars. In conjunction with examinations of theoretical bases, students will learn to evaluate the methodological tools used in different fields in the humanities to study the production and circulation of scientific knowledge and the structures of medical care and public health. This problem-centered approach will help students understand and apply key concepts and approaches in critical studies of science, technology, and medicine.
Days/Times: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Instructor: Robbins, Gabrielle Lydia Marie
Room: Krieger 304
Status: Open
Seats Available: 2/18
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.145.307 (01)
Making Medicines: Cultures of Therapeutic Preparation and Production
W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Robbins, Gabrielle Lydia Marie
Gilman 119
Spring 2024
Before they are ever marketed or consumed, therapeutic resources must first be made. “Pharmaceutical manufacturing” today may conjure the sterile corporate lab, but such antiseptic images obscure the contested spaces – fields, forests, farms, factories, and more – worldwide where medicinal ingredients often begin their lives. This course therefore historicizes and contextualizes the development of global corporate medicine by examining the wide range of ways therapeutic resources (plants, animals, minerals, molecules, compounds) have been prepared and produced in different modern contexts. Students will engage with material from history, anthropology, science & technology studies (STS), and art and music to examine how medicine-making operates across cultures and time periods, as well as becomes integral to socio-political processes like social hierarchization, colonial expansion and anti-colonial struggle, and industrial development. By asking who can make medicines, with what, when, how, and where, this course offers interdisciplinary analytical toolkits to understand therapeutic substances as highly-contested things integral to the exercise of power, with profound effects on the world beyond the body.
×
Making Medicines: Cultures of Therapeutic Preparation and Production AS.145.307 (01)
Before they are ever marketed or consumed, therapeutic resources must first be made. “Pharmaceutical manufacturing” today may conjure the sterile corporate lab, but such antiseptic images obscure the contested spaces – fields, forests, farms, factories, and more – worldwide where medicinal ingredients often begin their lives. This course therefore historicizes and contextualizes the development of global corporate medicine by examining the wide range of ways therapeutic resources (plants, animals, minerals, molecules, compounds) have been prepared and produced in different modern contexts. Students will engage with material from history, anthropology, science & technology studies (STS), and art and music to examine how medicine-making operates across cultures and time periods, as well as becomes integral to socio-political processes like social hierarchization, colonial expansion and anti-colonial struggle, and industrial development. By asking who can make medicines, with what, when, how, and where, this course offers interdisciplinary analytical toolkits to understand therapeutic substances as highly-contested things integral to the exercise of power, with profound effects on the world beyond the body.
Days/Times: W 4:00PM - 6:30PM
Instructor: Robbins, Gabrielle Lydia Marie
Room: Gilman 119
Status: Open
Seats Available: 5/12
PosTag(s): MSCH-HUM
AS.310.331 (01)
Islam in Asia
TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Henning, Stefan
Mergenthaler 266
Spring 2024
You will learn about the efforts of ordinary, non-elite Muslims to shape the relation between their communities and the state as well as to (where applicable) the non-Muslim majority through collective organizing over the last forty years. We will read and discuss books by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists studying Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
×
Islam in Asia AS.310.331 (01)
You will learn about the efforts of ordinary, non-elite Muslims to shape the relation between their communities and the state as well as to (where applicable) the non-Muslim majority through collective organizing over the last forty years. We will read and discuss books by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists studying Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia.