26 courses with the subject ANTH H, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ANTH H103INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY1.0
An introduction to the basic ideas and methods of social anthropology. Examines major theoretical and ethnographic concerns of the discipline from its origins to the present, such as family and kinship, production and reproduction, history and evolution, symbolism and representation, with particular attention to such issues as race and racism, gender and sexuality, class, and ethnicity. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who have completed BMC ANTH 102
ANTH H202AMONG MEN: THEORIES AND HISTORIES OF MASCULINITIES1.0
A comparative exploration of the socio-cultural politics of gender, with particular reference to masculinity, the course combines an intellectual historical approach, i.e. how the related notions of maleness, manhood and masculinity have featured in the history of social thought, and a thematic focus on issues such as the men's movements, popular culture, queer movement, etc. While the course will be grounded on an anthropological notion of the social basis of power, culture and identity formation, the readings will nonetheless be interdisciplinary -- including historical narratives, literature and film ethnographies (from Africa and the United States) and critical work from fields such as queer, feminist and postcolonial studies.
This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. At the heart of this course is the question of “culture” and its relation to human rights. We will focus on the tensions and translations between human rights and culture and between global ideas and practices and local ones. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice and theorizing the intersections between social fields thought of as global and local. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): Intro to Anthropology OR Intro to PJHR
This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies
ANTH H239VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA1.0
This course aims to deepen understandings of Asian struggles for justice and representation through independent films by Asian (including diaspora) directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into legal and social movement struggles for gender justice, self-determination, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights
ANTH H245ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA: CULTURE, POWER AND IDENTITY1.0
This course is a historical overview of some classic and contemporary ethnographic studies of Africa. The course focuses on the contribution of social anthropology to our understanding of the history and socio-cultural identities and practices of the people of Africa. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Africana Studies
What does it mean to attempt a critical anthropology of the body, illness experience, disease etiology, healing practices, and the epistemology of contemporary biomedicine across a diverse group of cultures and traditions? This course seeks to begin to answer this and other questions by examining the historical development of the field of medical anthropology, exploring the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the debates that have shaped the field, and examining the methodological concerns and ethnographic investigations that have broadened the scope of its inquiry. Readings range from classical ethnographic writings, philosophical treatises, anthropological theory, indigenous philosophers, and first person accounts of illness and health.
Through this course, students will develop ethnographic research and writing skills using sensory detail (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell and feeling) to evoke people, places, and things. Assignments are primarily writing-intensive with additional fieldwork and multimodal (e.g. photography, film) exercises. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): Any Anthropology course
ANTH H275RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING1.0
This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Anthropology majors/minors, then Film Studies minors
This course takes an anthropological approach to examine social and cultural practices of media production, circulation, and consumption. Drawing on ethnographic studies from around the world, it provides an overview of the increasing theoretical attention given to media by anthropologists. It examines cross-culturally how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the formation and transformation of subjectivities, collectivities and social relations in the contemporary world. Crosslisted: ANTH, VIST Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.
What can we learn about the Middle East by examining media? What can we about media by studying institutions of production and practices of consumption in the Middle East region? In this course, we will read ethnographies of media from the Middle East and look at and listen to media. We will explore cases from different countries, from Egypt to Syria, Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine/Israel. Crosslisted: VIST. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.
ANTH H281NATURE/CULTURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY1.0
An introduction to the ideas and methods central to environmental anthropology. Topics covered will include political ecology, crises and uncertainty, indigeneity and community management.
This course will examine the political, social, and cultural history of oil. As the single most important commodity in the world, the story of control over this highly prized resource is a complex and violent one. It will discuss the ways in which oil has defined the fates empires and nation-states, the rise and fall of local political movements, violence, neoliberal governmentality, and knowledge production. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in anthropology, political science, sociology, or history, or instructor consent
The development of anthropological thought. Theories of society and the human subject, social organization and social structure, and the culture concept. Structuralism, Marxist anthropology, the crisis of representation in the 1980s and 1990s, postmodernism, the relationship between ethnography and history, and practice theory. Prerequisite(s): One course in ANTH, excluding BMC ANTH B303
This course traces the relationship between scientific knowledge production, notions of technological "progress," and political, economic, and institutional power through the disciplinary histories of anthropology and Science and Technology Studies. Texts will include STS classics that frame contemporary science and medicine as the products of political and economic history, as well as work in anthropology and STS that center non-western and indigenous traditions of knowledge and the voices of BIPOC and feminist scholars. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): Introductory level coursework in anthropology (sociocultural or medical) or health studies Lottery Preference: Anthropology, health studies, history, political science
ANTH H337ANTHROPOLOGY OF WRITING AND THE POLITICS/POETICS OF INTERTEXTUALITY1.0
An interdisciplinary exploration of writing as a social institution, personal ritual, cultural artifact and a technology, this course theorizes the interface between tradition and innovation as a way to think about intertextuality using Jewish American fiction as a case study Crosslisted: COML
ANTH H338THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ADDICTION: SUBSTANCE, COMMUNITY, AND THE PROBLEM OF CARE1.0
This course explores the conceptual, methodological, and ethical complexities of marking “addiction” as an object of anthropological inquiry. Together we will investigate what anthropologists, medical doctors, public health scholars, and people living with addiction can gain from ethnographic research. We will ask: how can ethnography help us to better understand the degree to which the phenomenon of addiction is socially, culturally, and scientifically constructed but also experienced in intimate and often deeply painful ways? Crosslisted: HLTH.
This advanced seminar is an anthropological exploration of empire both as an analytic category and a historical phenomenon. It begins by introducing the discipline's historical entanglements with empire and the anthropological critique of this epistemological legacy. Focusing on cases from the Caribbean, Africa, America, and the Middle East, it discusses the emergence of the anthropology of empire. Key concepts and debates for this course are race, genocide, settler colonialism, security, diaspora, material culture and museums.
This is an interdisciplinary course offered over two semesters, focusing respectively on the African continent (I) and the Middle East (II). While the course examines race-making in these regions separately, it nonetheless highlights their interconnectedness. Both semesters, we will explore premodern conceptualizations of social difference, intersectionality of race and religion, racialization within the contexts of slavery, colonialism, apartheid, and postcolonial nation-states. Students are encouraged but not required to enroll in both courses. Crosslisted: AFST.
This experiental courses introduces students to a range of design thinking and practices in the context of the planetary ecological crisis. Students will meet with local entrpreneurs, community activists and artists working at the nexus of entrepreneurship and complex socio-environmental challenges. Building on readings and experiences students will then develop their own projejects to be presented at the end of the semester. Crosslisted: ENVS, ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): ENVS 101 (or the equivalent) and at least one 200 level social science or humanities course.
ANTH H343GLOBAL ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA AND ITS DIASPORA1.0
Global Ethnographies of Africa and Its Diaspora explores Africa’s global entanglements through ethnographic texts. Centering African and diasporic experiences, the course examines religion, migration, media, development, and urban life while interrogating the politics of representation and knowledge production. Students will engage with key anthropological and sociological debates, analyzing how African communities shape and contest global forces. Readings, discussions, and a final research project will guide critical reflections on Africa’s place in the world.
ANTH H370ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS: THE ETHNOGRAPHIC AFTERLIFE OF A METAPSYCHOLOGY1.0
This course explores the long and complicated relationship between the theory and practice of anthropology and the discourse of psychoanalysis—a relationship historically characterized by both contention and cooperation. Together we will interrogate the conceptual stakes of each of these respective disciplines as they attempt to observe, to formalize, and to write about the tangled relationship between the psyche and the social. By pairing readings in both classical and contemporary anthropology with a wide range of psychoanalytic texts, we will ask what it means to consider the dream, the symptom, and the psychopathology of everyday life as inherently dual phenomena, both artifacts and agents of a shared cultural world.
The fall semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students do archival and ethnographic research, write a research prospectus, get training on ethics, and write a review of the anthropological literature on their area of inquiry.
ANTH H451SENIOR SEMINAR: SUPERVISED RESEARCH AND WRITING1.0
The spring semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students complete research on their thesis and write an ethnography. Most of the semester is individual meetings between thesis writers and advisors. The spring senior thesis seminar includes a public thesis presentation and an oral exam.
Discussion leader and course assistant in Anthropology 103, Anthropology 110, or other selected anthropology courses; includes responsibility for selected tutorials. Final Paper.
