Course |
ANTH 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology |
|
Professor |
Megan Callaghan |
|
CRN |
17007 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 3:00 -4:20 pm OLIN 201 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A/C |
NEW: Social
Science / Rethinking Difference
|
Related interest: Global
& Int’l Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies
During the past few decades, `culture’ has suddenly
become pervasive in popular discourses, with phrases such as `internet,’
`fetish,’ and `corporate cultures’ automatically conjuring certain sets of
images and assumptions. This course explores the intellectual angles through
which anthropologists have engaged culture as a central, and yet often elusive
concept in understanding how societies work. The analysis of culture has
undergone many transformations over the past century, from arguing for the
existence of integrated systems of thought and practice among so-called
`primitives’, to scrutinizing the cultural values of colonial subjects, to
attempting to decipher the anatomy of enemy minds during World War II. In
recent years, anthropology has become more self-reflexive, questioning the
discipline’s authority to represent other societies, and critiquing its
participation in the creation of exoticized others. Thus, with our ethnographic
gaze turned inward as well as outward, we will combine discussions, lectures,
and films to reflect upon the construction of social identity, power, and
difference in a world where cultures are undergoing rapid reification. Specific
topics we will examine include the transformative roles of ritual and symbol;
witchcraft and sorcery in historical and contemporary contexts; cultural
constructions of gender and sexuality; and nationalism and the making of
majorities/minorities in post-colonial states.
On-line
registration
Course |
ANTH / HIST 2103 Global Core Course: Cultural Politics of Empire: The Case of British India |
|
Professor |
Laura Kunreuther / Lia Paradis |
|
CRN |
17494 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 1:00 -2:20 pm OLIN 102 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: C |
NEW: History
|
Cross-listed: History, Victorian Studies
Related interest: Gender & Sexuality Studies
The focus of this course is the reciprocal impact
that Britain and India had on each other as a result of the British imperial presence
in India from the mid- 19th Century until decolonization in 1948. No
other colony was more prized or the object of more fantasy than India, “The
Jewel in the Crown.” It is important, however, to acknowledge that imperialism
did not only profoundly change the cultures of the Indian subcontinent but also
the British people themselves – both those who were first-hand participants
(soldiers, administrators, entrepreneurs, etc.) and those citizens who never
left Britain. Domestic politics, science, popular culture and education were
all changed irrevocably by the imperial project. In India, sites of resistance
to the imperial project were also sites of negotiation, where the rhetorical
model of the Enlightenment and the central tenets of British liberal ideology
were adopted and recast to give voice to the Indian nationalist movement. On-line
registration
Course |
ANTH 212 Historical Archaeology: Early Inhabitants of the Bard Lands, 1650-1850 |
|
Professor |
Christopher Lindner |
|
CRN |
17181 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 306 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: C/E |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed:
American Studies
Field trips on campus and in neighboring towns
provide first-hand contact with diverse groups who left their vestiges here:
Native Americans, African-Americans, German, and British settlers. The class
will work with their artifacts Contact Prof. Lindner prior to On-line registration registration. On-line registration
Course |
ANTH 213 Anthropology of Medicine |
|
Professor |
Diana Brown |
|
CRN |
17225 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 1:30 -2:50 pm OLIN 107 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: C |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed: Gender Studies; Human Rights; Science, Technology &
Society
From an ethnomedical perspective, all notions of
health and illness and forms of treatment are taken as socioculturally
constructed, embedded within global systems of knowledge and power and
hierarchies of gender, class and race. This course will explore medical
knowledge and practice in a variety of healing systems including that of
western biomedicine, focusing on the human body as the site where illness is
experienced, and upon which social meanings and political actions are
inscribed. We will be concerned with
how political economic systems, and the inequalities they engender--poverty,
violence, discrimination--affect human well-being. Readings and films will represent different ethnographic
perspectives on embodied experiences of illness and bodily imagery and
treatment within widely differing sociopolitical systems. Topics will include biomedical constructs
and body imagery, non-biomedical illnesses and healing systems including those
in contemporary American society, the shaping of epidemic diseases such as
malaria, TB and AIDS, colonial and post-colonial constructions of diseased
bodies, cosmetic medical interventions, and new medical technologies.
Course |
ANTH / HR 233 Problems in Human Rights |
|
Professor |
John Ryle |
|
CRN |
17465 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 310 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed: Human Rights (core course), PIE core
course
The global expansion of the human rights movement
has been accompanied by a high degree of professionalization in research and
advocacy and an expanding body of rights doctrine. But the ascendancy of human
rights discourse has not gone unchallenged. The course approaches current
debates about rights through an examination of the problems faced and
techniques developed in specific campaigns - from the nineteenth-century
anti-slavery campaign to the landmine ban campaign of the 1990s. The course has
a practical bias. How are human rights reports written? How do human
rights organizations measure their success? What is the difference in
approach between different organizations, e.g. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red
Cross? The course considers the challenges to the western discourse of
human rights posed by such issues as child soldiers and female genital cutting.
When, if ever, are indigenous values more important than universal
principles? It looks at the question of genocide and the failure of
international action in Rwanda and Sudan. And it considers the current
embrace of human rights discourse by the evangelical Christian movement and its
relation to the original anti-slavery campaign. What is the relation of human
rights to religious values? Has human rights itself become a kind of
religion? Finally, what are the limits of rights? Do animals have
rights? Which animals? And what rights? On-line registration
Course |
ANTH 250 Reading Baseball as Metaphor |
|
Professor |
Mario Bick |
|
CRN |
17180 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 201 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A/C |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed:
American Studies
Baseball has often been labeled the quintessential
American sport. This course explores that claim while it examines the history
and diffusion of the game, its performance and representation, and its
connections to the politics of work, ethnicity, race, gender, class, region,
and place. Cultural constructions are explored and contrasted in baseball as
played in the United States, Japan, and Latin America. Sources in fiction,
film, and analytic literature are employed, in conjunction with attendance at
amateur (Little League) and professional baseball games.
Course |
ANTH / HR 261 Anthropology of Violence and Suffering |
|
Professor |
Laura Kunreuther |
|
CRN |
17013 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 4:00 -5:20 pm OLIN 204 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A/C |
NEW:
Humanities / Rethinking Difference
|
Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies, Human Rights (core course)
Why do acts of violence continue to grow in the
‘modern’ world? In what ways has
violence become naturalized in the contemporary world? In this course, we will consider how acts of
violence challenge and support modern ideas of humanity, raising important
questions about what it means to be human today. These questions lie at the heart of anthropological thinking and
also structure contemporary discussions of human rights. Anthropology’s commitment to “local
culture” and cultural diversity has
meant that anthropologists often position themselves in critical opposition to
“universal values,” which have been used to address various forms of violence
in the contemporary world. The course will approach different forms of
violence, including ethnic and communal conflicts, colonial education, torture
and its individualizing effects, acts of terror and institutionalized fear, and
rituals of bodily pain that mark individuals’ inclusion or exclusion from a
social group. The course is organized
around three central concerns. First,
we will discuss violence as a means of producing and consolidating social and
political power, and exerting political control. Second, we will look at forms of violence that have generated
questions about “universal rights” of humanity versus culturally specific
practices, such as widow burning in India and female genital mutilation in
postcolonial Africa. In these examples, we explore gendered dimensions in the experience
of violence among perpetrators, victims, and survivors. Finally, we will look
at the ways human rights institutions have sought to address the profundity of
human suffering and pain, and ask in what ways have they succeeded and/or
failed. Readings will range from
theoretical texts, anthropological ethnographies, as well as popular
representations of violence in the media and film. This course fulfills a core class requirement for the Human
Rights program. On-line
registration
Course |
ANTH 270 Gender and Feminism in Anthropology |
|
Professor |
Megan Callaghan |
|
CRN |
17010 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 2:30 -3:50 pm OLIN 204 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed: Gender and Sexuality Studies, Human Rights
This course examines the emergence and
transformation of gender studies within anthropology since the 1970s. We will read early texts that challenged
anthropologists to recognize women’s lives as valid subjects of study, as well
as more recent work that encompasses constructions of both femininities and
masculinities. In doing so, we will
explore the division between and interrelation of biological and social factors
in determining sex and gender. How are
perceived biological differences accorded social meaning in various
contexts? How are bodies interpreted
and shaped within gender discourses?
Additionally, we will focus on the politics of gender, including its
relation to ideologies of colonialism, nationalism, and capitalism. How are broader political and economic
forces connected to kinship, reproduction, work, and sexuality? How do anthropologies of gender relate to
political feminism, construed narrowly as advocacy of women’s rights or more
broadly as attention to the role of gender in structuring society? Finally, how might one do feminist
anthropology? This course includes
examination of cross-cultural constructions of gender structures and practices. It also requires critical interpretation of
gender and sexuality in contemporary American popular culture. Prior experience with anthropology is
preferable but not necessary. On-line registration
Course |
ANTH 278 The State in Sub-Saharan Africa |
|
Professor |
Mario Bick |
|
CRN |
17009 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 9:00 - 10:20 am OLIN 107 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed: Human Rights
An exploration of state formation in Sub-Saharan
Africa beginning with pre-colonial states, the colonial settler and
administrative states, the course then shifts to contemporary post-colonial
nation states, collapsed and vampire states. Case studies will be drawn
primarily from Liberia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Course |
ANTH 279 Islam and Europe |
|
Professor |
Jeffrey Jurgens |
|
CRN |
17012 |
|
Schedule |
Tu Th 10:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 305 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: C |
NEW: Social
Science / Rethinking Difference
|
Cross-listed:
Global & International Studies, Human Rights, Middle Eastern Studies, Studies in Race and Ethnicity
This course examines Islam and its practitioners’
complex relationships with Europe as a geographic territory, sociopolitical
entity, and discursive category. While
there has been a great deal of attention recently paid to Muslim immigration
and settlement since World War II, the Islamic presence in (what came to be
known as) Europe dates back to Arab and Berber incursions into the Iberian
Peninsula in the eighth century. In
addition, Islam, Muslims, and Muslim polities have left a significant imprint
on Eastern Europe, primarily as a result of the Ottoman Empire’s expansion into
the Balkans. Given this long-standing
presence, why is Islam so commonly conceived as a moral and cultural formation
external to Europe, European history, and European identities? Why are Muslims regarded (at best) as in Europe
but not of it? How does this
tacit or explicit exclusion shape the everyday practices and perceptions of
Muslims who currently live there? And
finally, how does the representation of Muslims as a fundamentally foreign
element inform contemporary debates about Islam’s compatibility with secularism
and liberal democratic citizenship?
This course will examine these questions through readings, films, and
other materials that work comparatively across national contexts and historical
eras. It will include a number of case
studies relating, among other themes, to the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The
Satanic Verses, Turkey’s admission to the European Union, the recent
depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoon form, and the response to remarks
by Pope Benedict XVI.
On-line registration
Course |
ANTH 280 The Edge of Anthropology |
|
Professor |
John Ryle |
|
CRN |
17466 |
|
Schedule |
Mon Wed 12:00 - 1:20 pm OLIN 310 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science
|
Cross-listed: Human Rights
Anthropological writing is diverse both in style
and in subject. The course examines the range of genres and techniques that
anthropologists and others have used to convey the lived experience of other
cultures. It examines the tension within the discipline between the desire to
make these cultures vivid and comprehensible and the need to respect difference
and to render the whole in a framework of theory. It considers the
aesthetic problems and ethical controversies that arise from writing at the
limits of academic discourse. The genres addressed include classic field-based
ethnographic monographs, travel narratives, historically-informed critiques of
earlier ethnographies, reflexive accounts of the process of field work,
journalistic reportage, visual documentation and works of fiction. The course
takes the form of close readings of outstanding examples, drawn mainly from the
anthropology of Africa and Latin America, and set in context by accounts from
other media. Works considered include Claude Levi-Strauss’ Tristes Tropiques,
The Children of Sanchez by Oscar Lewis, City of Women by Ruth
Landes, Sharon Hutchinson’s Nuer Dilemmas, Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of
Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda, Madumo by Adam Ashforth, Don
Kulick’s Travestí, Michael Taussig’s My Cocaine Museum, The Last of
the Nuba by Leni Riefenstahl and Samba by Alma
Guillermoprieto. On-line registration
Course |
MUS 287 Musical Ethnography |
|
Professor |
Mercedes Dujunco |
|
CRN |
17341 |
|
Schedule |
Tu
Fr 10:30 - 11:50 am BLUM N210 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Analysis
of Art /
Rethinking
Difference
|
Cross-listed:
Anthropology, Studies in race and Ethnicity
This course provides practical instruction in field
research and analytical methods in ethnomusicology. It is intended to assist students who are considering doing a
senior project that is ethnomusicological in nature in sorting through critical
decisions regarding choice of topic, area interests, research models, etc. by
providing a sense of the field, its options, and the real-life practice of
ethnomusicology. Topics will include
research design, grantsmanship, fieldwork, participant observation, writing
fieldnotes, interviews and oral histories, survey instruments, textual
analysis, audio-visual methods, archiving, performance as methodology,
historical research, and the poetics, ethics, and politics of cultural
representation. Students will conceive, design, and carry out a limited
research project over the course of a semester. To prepare for the experience of applying for research grants in
the future, they will also write up a proposal for a project (this may be the
same as the semester project) and defend it in a mock review by a small panel
that will include faculty and/or scholars from related disciplines. On-line
registration
Course |
ANTH 348 Discipline, Punishment, and the Embodied Self in China |
|
Professor |
Angela Zito |
|
CRN |
17182 |
|
Schedule |
Mon 3:00 – 5:20 pm OLIN 101 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science / Rethinking Difference
|
Cross-listed: Asian Studies, Human Rights
Writing the history of people of another culture presents problems different
from those found in the Euro-american context because we cannot know that
categories of experience will be the same. This cultural-historical course
provides an extended exploration of the Chinese construction of basic
categories like gender, body, family and belief. Issues of embodiment and selfhood (two important categories
in anthropological thinking) will especially
provide us with a basis for understanding how Chinese conceptualized and
practiced discipline and punishment. We will weave together historical and
ethnographical work from China with readings on discipline, punishment, and
systems for creation of justice. We
will take as our point of departure Michel Foucault’s classic Discipline and Punish, and try to enrich
his important but historically specific Euro-centric proposals about human
subject formation with some comparative insights generated out of engagement
with China. We will ask of the Chinese
work: How have notions of li/ritual,
self-cultivation, institutions of family, practices of gender distinction
formed a sense of personhood and how has that shifted over time? What implications does the different
historical experience of China have for its sense of discipline and punishment?
And we will also be exploring some questions that haunt not only anthropology,
but modernity in general: How are human
beings different, and how the same?
How/can we learn from culturally specific difference as we stand in our
own locations?
Course |
MUS 357 Special Topics in Ethnomusicology: Music & Tourism in South East Asia |
|
Professor |
Mercedes Dujunco |
|
CRN |
17347 |
|
Schedule |
Wed 1:30 -3:50 pm BLUM N210 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Analysis
of Art / Rethinking
Difference
|
Cross-listed: Anthropology, Asian Studies, Studies in Race & Ethnicity
Each offering in this course series will focus on
one of several different topics and its related issues that are presently of
interest among scholars in both the humanities and social science disciplines
and explore it ethnomusicologically in relation to the music culture(s) of a
particular country or region. Through a combination of lectures and discussions
based on key readings in the literature and audiovisual materials on the given
topic and the music culture(s) being explored, the course will allow students
to examine a topic in depth through a musical lens and draw significant
insights through the application of relevant theories to specific area case
studies. For Spring 2007, we will consider the topic of music and tourism in
the context of music cultures in Southeast Asian countries such as the
Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Students will gain an
understanding of how tourist settings, events, and artifacts are produced,
interpreted, and consumed, and the important role of music and music-related
practices in the process. In particular, we will zero in on two specific
settings common to many tourists' experiences – festivals and the
"cultural show". Among the issues that we would explore are the
production of difference and the exotic for the consumption of the
"other"; tradition and authenticity; the commodification of music
culture and history; and the politics and aesthetics of tourist
cultural/musical production. Coursework will include three short response
papers and a 12 to 15-page research paper. On-line registration
Course |
ANTH 370 Anthropology of Time & Space |
|
Professor |
Megan Callaghan |
|
CRN |
17015 |
|
Schedule |
Mon 9:30 - 11:50 am OLIN 107 |
|
Distribution |
OLD: A |
NEW: Social
Science
|
This course begins by considering the extent to
which time and space are cultural constructions that vary within and across
social groups. As we challenge
understandings of these concepts as natural or inevitable, we will also explore
different possibilities for measuring, representing, and creating meaning in
relation to them. Time and space are so
fundamental that we are often unaware of the ways they are embedded in our
lives. Yet on a daily basis they
reflect and reinforce interpersonal and institutional relations of power. This course therefore also investigates
spatio-temporal dynamics and strategies as elements of social hierarchy. In addition, it examines time and space as
organizing concepts with which to understand the world. For example, why is it problematic to study
a contemporary society as if it represented another society’s past? What are the implications of dividing the
world spatially into categories such as East and West or core and
periphery? Finally, we will consider
how political economy structures experiences of time and space. This includes temporal disciplines of commodity
production, state seizure of “private” time under socialism, and descriptions
of time-space compression in late capitalism. On-line registration