15 courses with the subject SOAN, 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.
SOAN 007CDistinguishing Difference: Music, Memory, and Jamaican Marronage1
(Cross-listed as MUSI 007C ) This course examines music and performance as key elements in articulations of identity, belonging, and difference in the contexts of Jamaican marronage. The Jamaican Maroon community is considered to be a monolith by some, situated firmly in Jamaica’s colonial and pre-emancipation past. This course explores the Jamaican Maroon communities of Charles Town, Scotts Hall, Moore Town, Accompong Town, and Trelawny-Flagstaff whose 17th and 18th century ancestors waged a successful war against the colonial British. These communities are dynamic, diverse, and relevant in discourse related to present-day Jamaica. Students will learn the ways in which the socio-cultural significance of those freedom fighters’ descendants is manifested in their music, dance, cultural icons, and spiritual practice. Jamaican Maroon cultural practices and social and political ideologies can become sites of collaboration, co-optation, and even contestation between and within Jamaican Maroon communities, and between Jamaican Maroons, the Jamaican state, and the global community. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST
SOAN 012CTech, Money, Power: Critical Perspectives on Computing and Capitalism1
(Cross-listed as CPSC 012 ) This course interrogates digital technology by “following the money”: How are technologies designed to produce power and money - and for whom? How do hierarchies of race and gender contribute to exploitation in the tech industry? How do governments mitigate - or contribute to - the power of the tech industry? How are emerging technologies like AI harming workers, disrupting industries, and impacting the environment? Who is fighting back, and how? This course explores examples from the history of computing, science and technology studies, and critical political economy. Your final project will “follow the money” for a technology of your choice, and imagine how it might be made otherwise. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for Digital Humanities (DGHU), FMST Spring 2027. Huber.
SOAN 017CDesign Justice:Towards Design and Computation for the Public Good1
(Cross listed as CPSC 011) This course explores theories and practices of “design justice.” We begin by interrogating how design and computation have been linked to exploitation, militarism, and the reproduction of social hierarchies. We will then explore the potential for liberatory design and computation through methods and traditions such as critical and speculative design, participatory action research, feminist data science and human-computer interaction. We will explore how design justice has been enacted in domains such as health and medicine, urban design and architecture, and education. Through this course students will identify and develop a design justice project in a domain of their choosing. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for FMST Fall 2026. Huber.
SOAN 020DMusic and Dance Cultures of the World (W)1
(Cross-listed as MUSI 005A ) In this course we take an ethnomusicological approach to examine music and dance cultures from around the world. We will consider music and dance both in and as culture with attention to social, political, and historical contexts. Topics will include identity, race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, memory, migration, globalization, tourism, and social and political movements. The course will provide an opportunity to develop critical listening and analytical skills to discuss sound and movement. Social sciences. Writing course. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, GLBL-Core
(Cross-listed as LING 021 ) This course introduces the theory and practice of Linguistic Anthropology/Anthropological Linguistics, the study of how people use languages to create identities, communities, and cultural traditions. We will cover diverse topics including oral performance, ethnopoetics, language and thought, and language revitalization. Students will also acquire skills in Ethnographic fieldwork used for documenting living cultures. We will consider how the techniques and insights of Linguistic Anthropology can help create positive social change and preserve cultural diversity. Social sciences. 1 credit. Fall 2026. Harrison.
SOAN 026The Sociolinguistics of Creole Languages.1
(Cross-listed as LING 026 ) A survey course on so-called Creole languages which arose out of contact between European languages and, in the circum-Caribbean, West African languages during the period of colonization. Come learn about the sociohistorical and linguistic circumstances that led to new languages and the racialized colonial ideologies which shape the study of Creoles and their status in Creolophone societies. Special focus on Creoles in Jamaica and Central America and the study of Hawaiian Creole in the early Creole Studies. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for Eligible for AFST at BMC and HAV, BLST, ESCH, GLBL, LALS
SOAN 040BSociolinguistics: Language, Culture and Society1
(Cross-listed as LING 025 ) This is an introductory survey course focusing on the interaction between language, culture and society. We will explore how these three aspects fit together so we can begin to understand how language shapes and is shaped by the world we live in. Students will be introduced to quantitative and qualitative approaches to linguistic analysis through a focus on spoken languages as they are used in the real world. Some topics we will cover: multilingual speech, language and power, raciolinguistics, linguistic ideologies, research ethics, and the interaction of language and social systems such as race, gender and class. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, ESCH Fall 2026. Fuller Medina.
(Cross-listed as EDUC 046 , ASAM 046) This course examines race, nation- and empire-building projects. Drawing on the rubrics of anthropology, history, and cultural studies, we explore processes of subject formation, especially as it articulates with ideas about race and un/belonging. Because these topics are of course not limited to the sphere of education, readings will encompass broader themes outside of education. We will, however, focus on how educational processes shape the material, psychological, economic, social, and political aspects of people’s lives, and how these contend within a changing global landscape. This course explores the different ways in which education figures into nation- and empire-building projects. These include schools as institutions that create internalized colonized mindsets; intelligence as a discourse for rationalizing scientific racism; and institutions of higher education as products of imperialism and its role in the new imperialism of neoliberalism.
EDUC 014 or permission of instructor. Social Sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, ASAM Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology Access the class schedule to search for sections.
SOAN 041Sociolinguistics II1
(Cross-listed as LING 082 ) This course builds upon foundational concepts in sociolinguistic theory to examine discourses of news and entertainment media, across science fiction and politics. Drawing upon contributions in applied linguistics, media studies, cultural studies, and animal studies, we ask which realities are mirrored in our everyday language and in the fictional and sensationalized worlds we engage in through the media we consume. What role does science fiction play in our explorations of social difference, deviance, control, disability, sexuality, and normativity? Can science fiction assist the goals of social justice and democracy? How does language surface in the biopolitics of human and non-humans? Together, we will explore key film and television, and select novels by authors Max Brooks, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, and George Orwell. Students will learn advanced methods and theories in multimodal critical discourse analysis, ethnography of communication, and digital humanities.
One course addressing foundational concepts of language in society, including LING 025 , SOAN 040B Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for BLST, ESCH, GLBL core Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology Access the class schedule to search for sections.
SOAN 096Senior Research Project1
The senior thesis project represents the centrality of research to our disciplines, and allows students to develop their research interests through working directly with a faculty member. Students develop their analytical and writing skills and learn the process of developing and conducting a substantial research project from proposal to completed manuscript. Seniors will normally take two consecutive semesters of research project tutorial. Students are urged to discuss their project proposals with faculty during the spring semester of their junior year, especially if they are interested in the possibility of fieldwork. Students enrolled in SOAN 096 must attend SOAN 098. Course sequence SOAN 096-097, students who start in SOAN 096-097 sequence must complete SOAN 097 to receive credit for SOAN 096. Required for course majors housed in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. Social sciences. 1 credit. Fall 2026. Staff. Fall 2027 Staff. Fall 2028 Staff.
The senior research project represents the centrality of research to our disciplines, and allows students to develop their research interests through working directly with a faculty member. Students develop their analytical and writing skills and learn the process of developing and conducting a substantial research project from proposal to completed manuscript. Seniors will normally take two consecutive semesters of research project tutorial. Students are urged to discuss their project proposals with faculty during the spring semester of their junior year, especially if they are interested in the possibility of fieldwork. Course sequence SOAN 096-097, students who start in SOAN 096-097 sequence must complete SOAN 097 to receive credit for SOAN 096. Required for course majors housed in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. Social sciences. Writing course. 1 credit. Spring 2027. Staff. Spring 2028 Staff. Spring 2029
This class meets weekly to support sociology and anthropology students in developing the skills necessary for their senior research project, including conducting literature searches, interpreting data, formulating research questions and analysis that contributes to the disciplines. The class complements and supports the work that students are doing with their senior project advisers. Students who have signed up for a senior research project credit are automatically enrolled in the class. The class is open to only seniors working on research projects. Required for all majors housed in SOAN. 0 credit. Fall 2026. Staff. Fall 2027 Staff. Fall 2028 Staff.
(Cross-listed as MUSI 100 ) Ethnomusicology is an academic discipline that examines music in and as culture. This seminar examines how the interdisciplinary field has developed over the 20th and 21st centuries through an investigation of its origins, approaches, methodologies, and contemporary theoretical questions. Course readings will address the relationships between music and a variety of conceptual themes including race, ethnicity, identity, nationalism, Diaspora, globalization, and gender. The music cultures we will examine in this course represent a wide range of cultures, geographic regions, musical genres, and historical periods. Students will complete introductory exercises in research, transcription, analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, & performance. Social sciences. 1 credit. Eligible for GLBL core
The senior thesis represents the centrality of research to our disciplines, and allows students to develop their research interests through working directly with a faculty member. Students develop their analytical and writing skills and learn the process of developing and conducting a substantial research project from proposal to completed manuscript. Candidates for honors will write theses during the senior year and it will be sent to an external honors examiner. Students are urged to have their thesis proposals approved as early as possible during the junior year, especially if they are interested in the possibility of fieldwork. Students enrolled in SOAN 180F must attend SOAN 098. Course sequence SOAN 180F-180S, students who start in SOAN 180F-180S sequence must complete SOAN 180S to receive credit for SOAN 180F. Required for honors majors housed in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. Social sciences. 1 credit. Fall 2026. Staff. Fall 2027 Staff. Fall 2028 Staff.
The senior thesis represents the centrality of research to our disciplines, and allows students to develop their research interests through working directly with a faculty member. Students develop their analytical and writing skills and learn the process of developing and conducting a substantial research project from proposal to completed manuscript. Candidates for honors will write theses during the senior year and it will be sent to an external honors examiner. Course sequence SOAN 180F-180S, students who start in SOAN 180F-180S sequence must complete SOAN 180S to receive credit for SOAN 180F. Required for honors majors housed in the department of Sociology and Anthropology. Writing course. 1 credit. Spring 2027. Staff. Spring 2028 Staff. Spring 2029
