Anthropology (ANTH)
ANTH 1050. Anthropology Focus. (3 Credits)
A first-year Eloquentia Perfecta seminar in anthropology. Topics are selected by the individual instructor.
Attributes: FRSS, INST, IPE, ISIN, SSCI.
ANTH 1100. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. (3 Credits)
We live in a shrinking international arena that demands greater sensitivity to the diversity of cultural patterns surrounding us. In this course, students investigate human beliefs and behavior, particularly in regard to forms of communication, marriage and the family, adaptions to the environment and to political, economic and religious institutions in a variety of past and present cultures.
Attributes: FRSS, GLBL, INST, ISIN, SSCI.
ANTH 1200. Introduction to Biological Anthropology. (3 Credits)
This introduction to biological anthropology satisfies a core life science requirement and serves as a general survey of the biological focus of anthropology. The course summarizes the different subdisciplines of biological anthropology and covers the history of evolutionary theories, human genetics and adaptation, primate biology, behavioral ecology and conservation, and an overview of the human fossil record. In particular, we emphasize the variations found in contemporary humans and non-human primates and the biological and cultural changes that took place in our ancestors over the past 7 million years. Lab sessions will provide a practical introduction to human osteology, primate morphology, primate conservation, and comparisons of human fossil morphology.
Attributes: ENST, ESEL, ESLS, LSCI.
ANTH 1300. Introduction to Archaeology. (3 Credits)
How do we study society when no living members of that culture remain? Students will examine the ways by which archaeologists have inferred former patterns of behavior from surviving evidence through a survey of traditional methods as well as new scientific techniques. Students will study artifacts from the University's collection and "excavate" their own archaeological site on paper to better understand the process of investigation.
Attributes: CLAS, FRSS, GLBL, IPE, MEST, SSCI.
ANTH 1413. Language and Culture. (4 Credits)
An introduction to linguistic science emphasizing the structure, functions, and origins of languages as the symbolic system of communication peculiar to humans. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: GLBL, LING, SSCI.
ANTH 1600. Introduction to Human Variation. (3 Credits)
This introductory physical anthropology course explores in detail issues of human biological variation, that is, why humans differ from each other. It satisfies a life science core requirement and examines evolutionary theories, human genetic variations, and human adaptations to environmental stresses. The main focus of investigation of human genotypic and phenotypic variations as observed in contemporary human populations to obtain an understanding of the biological basis for anatomical and physiological variation (incorrectly referred to as ‘race’ in a social context), including different evolutionary mechanisms that have shaped these variations, and how changing environments may have influenced these directions as well as the emergence of, and adjustment to, various chronic diseases. Lab sessions provide a practical introduction to cellular genetics, population genetics, osteology, anthropometry, statistics, and human evolution.
Attribute: LSCI.
ANTH 1999. Tutorial. (1 Credit)
Tutorial.
ANTH 2202. Anthropology of Performance. (4 Credits)
This course guides students to think about cultural performances such as dance, music, theatre, and verbal arts through a cultural anthropology lens: understanding a performance within its particular context, learning about a society through its cultural productions, and reflecting on what difference reveals about our own familiar cultures. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 2343. Witches or Saints: Women in Archaeology. (4 Credits)
Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich rightfully wrote: “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” It’s true that women have been left out of the general historical narrative and were only mentioned when they were exceptional or “ill-behaved.” However, archaeology has been recalibrating the balance by unmuting the voices of women, mothers, and other minorities that have been either intentionally or unintentionally left out of the historical narrative. During this course, students will learn how the field has developed innovative research, from advocating for women past and present to a more inclusive field invested in topics of gender archaeology and indigenous archaeologies. Through studies of archaeology, anthropology, theology, and history, this course examines the archaeologies of gender, women, and mothers. The course also focuses on the role of women and mothers in religion, magic, and medicine. Additionally, it studies the material culture of motherhood: infant feeding bottles, figurines, amulets, and shrines. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ANAR.
ANTH 2400. Introduction to Fashion and Culture. (4 Credits)
This introductory lecture course is required for students pursuing the fashion studies minor. In this class, students will be introduced to cultural and media studies concepts that will equip them with the theoretical and methodological tools necessary to explore fashion as a historically situated and context-dependent form of communication and meaning making. The course considers the implications of fashion within systems of power, every day acts of self-presentation, and larger politics of representation. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: FASH.
ANTH 2447. Passages: Life Cycles. (4 Credits)
Although the life cycle is biologically based, societies differ in the way they conceptualize the stages of life. This course explores differing concepts of personhood and how a person is linked to moral beliefs and ideologies of power. We examine the way rites of passage (e.g., birth, initiation ceremonies, marriage, parenthood, and death) shape personhood in different cultures. We consider how the perspectives of psychology and anthropology complement, challenge, and enrich our understanding of the life cycle. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, ISIN.
ANTH 2500. Taboo: Anthropology of the Forbidden. (4 Credits)
Taboo helps identify sources of social danger, establishing prohibitions designed to protect society from that which it considers dangerous or repulsive. Yet, the prohibitions always exert an undeniable attraction, leading to a fascination with transgression. Through exploration of the anthropological notion of taboo-and related cross-cultural concepts of impurity, contagion, and transgression-this course will explore the extent to which prohibition and danger structure social life. Topics considered will include incest, cannibalism, eroticism, filth, murder, madness, and sin. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: GLBL, INST, IPE, ISIN, REST.
ANTH 2520. Introduction to Forensic Anthropology. (4 Credits)
The course surveys methods in crime scene investigation and forensic archaeology. Often, the commision of a violent act leaves an unidentifiable corpse, which requires the expertise of a forensic anthropologist to identify the guilty party. Students will learn how forensic anthropologists create biological profiles from deceased individuals (using metric, non-metric, odontological, and genetic information). Notable persons and current research in the field will be introduced through the examination of case studies. The applications and abuse of forensic evidence in the courtroom and popular culture are also explored. Students will come to understand the direct relationship between archaeology, physical anthropology, and forensics in the quest not only to solve "Who Dunnit?", but "Who Was It?" Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANBA, ASSC.
ANTH 2614. Urbanism and Change in the Middle East. (4 Credits)
This course discusses urban traditions and theories in the Middle East. The course material will cover multiple Middle Eastern cities, old and new. Through ethnography we analyze the impact of colonial policies on the politics of space and place. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, INST, ISAC, ISIN, ISME, MEST.
ANTH 2619. Magic, Science, and Religion. (4 Credits)
Magic, science and religion will be analyzed, compared and contrasted. Problems in the comparative study of these topics, especially of religion, the "supernatural," and world view, are discussed in the context of various cultures. (Every other year). Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: BESN, BIOE, GLBL, INST, IPE, ISIN, LALS, LASS, REST, RSCS, RSHR.
ANTH 2620. The Anthropology of Cities. (4 Credits)
This course explores the everyday life of cities in a range of international contexts. We will investigate the formation of urban neighborhoods, urban ties based on ethnicity and religious beliefs, multilingualism and changing notions of the city due to globalization. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, IPE, ISIN, URST.
ANTH 2700. You Are What You Eat: The Anthropology of Food. (4 Credits)
As the center of all significant human rituals and ceremonies, food is studied by a range of natural and social scientists. For the anthropologist, food is connected to the human body, health social relations, identity, and even ideology; we are literally what we eat. This course examines the role food plays in shaping cultural practices throughout the world. Students will explore changing concepts of food through time, beginning with early humans, modes of food production, and consumption. Through primary literature, lectures, local ethnic markets, and sharing meals throughout the semester, this class will immerse you in the theoretical and empirical significance of the cross-cultural significance of food. Bon Appetit! Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ASSC, ENST, ESEL, ESHC, INST, IPE, ISEU.
Mutually Exclusive: ANTH 2800.
ANTH 2770. Anthropology of Childhood. (4 Credits)
This course will explore the experience of childhood cross-culturally, including, for example, toddlers in New Guinea, North American tweens, and child soldiers in Sierra Leone. We will address issues such as discipline, emotion, authority, and socialization within the broader context of race, religion and gender. Special attention will be given to the effects of war, poverty, and social inequality on children and the recent development of a set of universal human rights for children. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, ASHS, GLBL, INST, IPE, ISIN.
ANTH 2800. The Anthropology of Food: Community Engaged Learning. (4 Credits)
This course examines food and eating from an anthropological perspective. We will look at the meaning of food, how it gets to our plates, and how people eat and think about food across the world. Through this course, we’ll seek to understand how food plays an important role in heritage, history, identity, labor, social hierarchies, gender roles, global economies, and our local communities. How does food both unite and divide us? You will have the opportunity to experiment with anthropological fieldwork methods to answer these questions. Please note that this course involves a required Community Engaged Learning component of site visits and an internship placement with a local food-based organization. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, ASSC, INST, IPE, IPED, ISIN, SL.
Mutually Exclusive: ANTH 2700.
ANTH 2880. Human Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective. (4 Credits)
Human sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Human sexuality presents a challenge to anthropology which, as a general practice, continues to divide the biological from cultural. Sexuality depends on biology, but its actual practices arise in specific cultural contexts, which vary widely. In this course, we examine older anthropological theories of sexuality as well as a new emerging interactionist paradigm that recognizes the power of both biology and culture. Specific topics include enthnographic method in the study of sexuality, evolutionary theory, cultural constructivism, heteronormativity, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues, in a range of societies. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, INST, IPE, ISIN, WGSS.
ANTH 2885. Anthropology of Economics. (4 Credits)
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the major theoretical and methodological perspectives in the anthropological study of human economies, past and present. The course will explore the principles and history of economic analysis in anthropology, including the cultural factors that shape and guide economic behavior in diverse societies from the stone age to modem times. Readings will cover topics in ethnography, human ecology, social theory, political economy, and economic development. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 2886. Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. (4 Credits)
Are sex roles biologically determined or culturally defined? A cross-cultural perspective provides a unique opportunity to explore answers to this question through an examination of the roles of men and women in marriage and the family and in economic, political and religious institutions, as well as how such roles are interrelated with conceptions of masculinity, femininity, honor and shame. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, GLBL, INST, IPE, ISIN, PJGS, PJST, WGSS.
ANTH 2888. Gender and Islam. (4 Credits)
This course will examine gender roles, ideologies, and debates in majority-Muslim societies around the world, as well as the global politicization of gender and Islam. Specific topics to be covered include gender in Islamic texts and law and their interpretation over the centuries; the gender question in political movements, ranging from nationalism to Islamism; sex segregation practices and the issue of honor; and Western images of Muslim women. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, ISAC, ISIN, ISME, MEST.
ANTH 2890. Visual Anthropology. (4 Credits)
Culture affects what and how we see, and what we see affects our culture. Film, still photography and video each enable anthropologists to capture and analyze aspects of this relationship, and of culture in general. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, FITV.
ANTH 2892. Power and Film: The Politics of Representation. (4 Credits)
From Nanook of the North to Harlan County USA to Anthony Bourdain's travels to "Parts Unknown," filmmakers have tried to capture lives and communities that often veer far from their own experiences. But in our current age of global voices, who has the right of representation? How does a visual anthropologist, a documentary filmmaker or a television news correspondent convey cultural differences without condescension, appropriation or exploitation? Through close examination of documentaries and news pieces, this class will examine how the camera lens pretends to show its subjects "as is," but is actually filled with all the complications and challenges of representation. We will look at television footage from natural disasters to war zones to the crime blotter, where tight deadlines, physical danger, and linguistic distance can bend the image, and affect our understanding of conflict and victims. Who gets to tell these stories, how they are told, and how is this changing in a globalized world form part of the politics of representation. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 2895. Anthropology of Capitalism. (4 Credits)
What is the ‘economy’? Is money a fiction? Does globalization exacerbate inequality? This course will explore key anthropological debates, theoretical frames, and ethnographies of capitalism. In this course, we examine the complexity of economic processes and concepts surrounding us, such as capitalism, money, globalization, markets, and dispossession. Each unit focuses on contemporary economic issues of pressing relevance—including transnational commodity chains, financial crisis, and reparations and piracy—across Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. By understanding contemporary capitalism as historically situated and culturally mediated, students will consider how ‘economics’ is in fact intertwined and inextricable from historical, political, and cultural contexts and processes. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, GLBL, INST, ISIN.
ANTH 2999. Tutorial. (2 Credits)
ANTH 3002. Art and Anthropology. (4 Credits)
In this class, we will explore the century-long dialogue between anthropology and the creative arts. From Picasso and Matisse appropriating African arts, and Zorah Hurston drawing on her anthropological research for her novels, to Michael Taussig's use of fiction as an ethnographical tool, the study of culture and the creation of art have long been closely intertwined. We will read essays, ethnographies, poems, novels, and life histories, tracing the possibilities of anthropology as a creative discipline and a way of understanding creativity. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 3006. Arab-Americans and the Diasporic Experience. (4 Credits)
This course explores the ways Arab-Americans integrate into the larger immigrant communities in the United States in general and in the larger New York area in particular. Arab-American communities live in urban areas (Dearborn, Michigan; Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Patterson, New Jersey; Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; and Chicago, Illinois). The readings will highlight the intersecting and divergent lives of Arabs and Muslims in the United States, from the early immigrant experiences of the late 19th century to more recent dimensions of life in a post-9/11 America. The profiling and discrimination against Arab-Americans is also associated with an increase in cultural and artistic productions by members of the community. In this multidisciplinary course, students will read writings from the fields of anthropology, sociology, and history as well as literary and visual material that documents the lives and experiences of Arab-Americans. In this Community Engaged Learning course, each student will work with an Arab-American nonprofit organization in the New York/New Jersey area and report to class. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASSC, ISAC, MEST, SL, URST, WGSS.
ANTH 3007. Feminist Ethnography. (4 Credits)
What is a feminist approach to ethnography? And what is an ethnography? This course addresses these questions by situating ethnographic methods within feminist epistemologies. A feminist approach to ethnographic methods attends to dynamics of race, gender, and power that shape the ethics of doing research. In addition, the class will explore forms of engaged research that reflect the political stakes of producing knowledge. We ground the course with a key text titled Feminist Ethnography, which introduces students to the history and theory of feminist ethnography. The class also explores key debates in feminist research related to why narratives, testimonies, and experiences matter for building theory. The course draws on a wide variety of ethnographies from across the world including non-Western/non-hegemonic perspectives. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 3013. Anthropology of Palestinian Communities. (4 Credits)
In this course, students will be introduced to Palestinian culture and societies by reading anthropological writings from Palestine and the diaspora. The readings will guide students to understand the larger context of society and the qualities of daily life among Palestinians. After reading ethnographic and fieldwork analyses, students will be able to consider how Palestinians have been represented over the past 100 years. Students will gain knowledge that leads them to a multifaceted, nuanced understanding of the political, intellectual, and cultural expression of Palestinians at home and in the diaspora, moving beyond the political rhetoric and controversies of news headlines. The course begins with an orientation to the respective disciplines and a historical overview and then moves across the various zones of Palestine—from the much-studied site of the West Bank to Gaza, inside Israel, Jerusalem, refugees in Arab countries, and the diaspora in the U.S. and elsewhere. The class allows students to explore Palestine as both a symbolic site and as an extended transnational community that constitutes a complex social-cultural-political identity. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, GLBL, ISAC, ISME, MEST, MLL.
ANTH 3110. Ancient Cultures of the Bible. (4 Credits)
What was it really like in Biblical times? Through an archaeological investigation of the Holy Land, particularly the Canaanite, Israelite and classical cultures of Old and New Testament times, this course provides students with a better understanding of the ancient social and religious background of our modern Judeo-Christian tradition. Extensively slide illustrated. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANAR, ASSC, CLAS, GLBL, MEST, MVST, PJRJ, PJST, REST, THEO.
ANTH 3111. New World Archaeology. (4 Credits)
What were the Americas like before the arrival of Europeans? This course investigates the prehistory of the western hemisphere with emphasis on the arrival and expansion of hunter-gatherer societies throughout the New World. Explore ancient Native American cultural adaptations from the Ice Age to today's global warming within the diverse and dynamic habitats of early times. Students will gain a broader appreciation of American Indian culture and diversity, as well as its extraordinarily long record of survival and achievement. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, AMST, ANAR, ASHS, GLBL, LALS, LASS, LAUH, MVST.
ANTH 3112. Archaeologies of the Present: Historical Archaeology and Advocacy. (4 Credits)
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." (Faulkner). How can archaeology help us to understand the past as it inhabits the present and haunts the future? This course will use historical archaeology, the study of the modern world as shaped by colonialism, capitalism, and globalization, to excavate present discourses on major issues such as racism, class, and gentrification. We will examine the archaeological production of knowledge and archaeological practice as tools for advocacy in the present and for the future. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANAR, ASSC.
ANTH 3115. Introduction to Medical Anthropology. (4 Credits)
The interdisciplinary field of medical anthropology focuses on the study of health and healing within cultural, biosocial and cross-cultural contexts. Students will develop an understanding of how to apply core concepts and methods from anthropology to understanding and addressing problems located at the intersection of culture, well-being, disease and death.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3154. Sports: An Anthropological Perspective. (4 Credits)
Why is sports so pervasive throughout the world? Sports entertains and generates billions in revenue, but it has a more profound role in human society. This course will examine sports as an integral part of human culture that can both reproduce and challenge cultural structures. We will discuss how issues such as race, class, gender, sexuality and nationalism are embodied and performed on the field and in the stands, using the context of multiple sports. While we will take a critical look at sports, this course will also approach the topic with an eye to the common human experience of joy in the game. As Galeano said, “when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don't give a damn which team or country performs it.” Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, ISEU.
ANTH 3180. Ethnographic Methods. (4 Credits)
This course explores the cultural diversity of New York City from an anthropological perspective. The focus will be on how different groups (e.g., ethnic and religious communities within the city and urban subcultures) use urban public spaces. Students will use readings to inform their own ethnographic research on the cultures of New York. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, APPI, ASHS, LALS, LASS, URST.
ANTH 3182. Ethnographic Methods: Cultures of London. (4 Credits)
This module introduces a range of ethnographic research methods and their practice. It allows for practice and experimentation with this suite of methods in the classroom, before these are applied in the planning and completion of a research project that examines an aspect of culture in London. Students will design research projects from scratch and demonstrate their mastery of ethnographic practice, while also finding out more about the fascinating city they are living in. There are also guest lectures from some cutting-edge early careers researchers on their fieldwork practice, and thematic lectures on the anthropology of Britain to help contextualize the setting for these ethnographic projects. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3197. Peoples of South Asia. (4 Credits)
This course explores the people, history, culture and politicsof South Asia. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 3260. Politics of Reproduction. (4 Credits)
The biological reproduction of the human species is a complex process that engages all major institutions of society: family, religion, morality, health, economy, and government. Using cross-cultural and social historical materials, this course will examine cases in which the control over reproduction is contested, focusing on such issues as family limitation, new reproductive technologies, and child custody. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction .
Attributes: ASSC, BESN, BIOE, GLBL, INST, ISIN, PJGS, PJST, WGSS.
ANTH 3333. Seeing Race: American Visual Culture in Historical Perspective. (4 Credits)
The idea of race, as well as its derivatives of racial difference and racism, is inextricably linked to the human ability to assign meaning to what we see. This course examines the role of photography and other 19th- and 20th-century visual traditions in propelling racial ideologies that continue to permeate American life today. We will draw on readings on critical race, gender, border, and visual theories to interpret a variety of primary sources such as historical photographs, films, posters, cartoons, and performances. Students will be encouraged to use library reference material on regional and global developments such as colonization, slavery, military incursions, displacement, and migration. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ASSC, LALS, LASS.
ANTH 3339. Irish and Mexican Migration: New York Focus. (4 Credits)
The course will take a comparative look at the historical and contemporary Irish and Mexican migrations to New York City. Special emphasis will be given to ethnographic exploration and analysis of the different communities' migration processes, including how each has impacted on the city, and also transformed the origin populations back home in Ireland and Mexico. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ASSC, IRST, LALS, LASS, SOCI.
ANTH 3340. Anthropological Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity. (4 Credits)
A cross-cultural, interdisciplinary consideration of the concepts of race and ethnicity, this course examines racial and ethnic categories and explores how they form, how society gives them meaning and the circumstances under which they change. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, ASSC, INST, IPE, ISIN, LALS, LASS, PJRC, PJST, PLUR, URST.
ANTH 3343. Ghettos and Gated Communities. (4 Credits)
How do humans order their urban landscapes? Do different cultures segregate certain peoples in the urban landscape? Do cultures exclude certain groups from certain neighborhoods? Students will become acquainted with ghettos and gated communities in different cultures around the world and compare them with their own to discover what they share and don’t share. Students will learn how anthropologists study global urban communities. Topics to be covered in this course are urbanization, creation of ghettos and gated communities, influences on the urban landscape from gender, political, economic, social, and global forces. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, ASSC, GLBL, INST, ISIN, PJRC, PJST, URST.
ANTH 3347. Anthropology of HIV/AIDS. (4 Credits)
This course explores the cultural, historical, political, economic, and public health aspects of HIV/AIDS. We will study the emergence, development, and contemporary meaning of HIV/AIDS in the US and internationally, impacts across multiple sectors of society, experience of affected populations, responses of health, political and social sectors; and varying approaches to prevention and treatment. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 3351. Comparative Cultures. (4 Credits)
This course will survey the diversity of cultures in the world and the processes that have produced similarities and differences among and within various geographic areas. Some of the central topics of discussion include human adaptation and adaptability, social change, modernization and ideas of development in small scale as well as in complex societies today. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ASSC, GLBL, INST, IPE, ISIN, ISWH, LALS, LASS, MEST, PJST.
ANTH 3353. Anthropology of Globalization. (4 Credits)
Although globalization began in the 14th century with the voyage of Columbus, it is very much a contemporary concept. More than any other social system, globalization has permeated every institution, structure, and human relationship, thereby generating a whole new structure of values. Even though globalization has resulted in more development, it also brought great inequalities, frustrations, and conflicts among nations. The objective of this course is to provide students with substantive knowledge and understanding of the process from its many anthropological and cultural dimensions. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: PJST, URST.
ANTH 3354. Race, Identity, and Globalization. (4 Credits)
The course will explore the power of racial discourses in the production of global difference over the last five decades. Particular emphasis will be placed on the work of James Baldwin to understand the insights of the North American civil rights movement, and its global influence since the 1960's. The civil rights movement coalesced at an important moment of global historical questioning, and along with the African and Caribbean nationl liberation movements, anti-Vietnam war protests, feminist and gay struggles and the student uprisings in Europe and Latin America, marked a particular manner in which to re-think global concepts such as democracy, citizenship, transnational identity, and political consciousness. The objective of the course is to make use of Baldwin's racial, national, and global reflections to understand the global effects of the progressive movements initiated five decades ago. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, INST, ISIN, LALS, LASS, URST.
ANTH 3355. Culture and Anticolonialism. (4 Credits)
In this course students will read and discuss major texts in the anticolonial traditions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The course will also address how the search for a "native" esthetics marked the cultural production of these regions in the Twentieth Century. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, INST, ISAF, ISIN, ISLA, PJRC, PJST.
ANTH 3356. Uprisings: Protest and Resistance Across the Globe. (4 Credits)
This course will examine anthropologies of protest and resistance, with a special focus on urban and transnational social movements. It will offer anthropological tools for understanding resistance and power, as well as ethnographic methods for studying them. It will include case studies (for example, anti-colonial and anti-apartheid movements, the Arab Spring, and indigenous rights activism) and opportunities for students to research protest and resistance in digital media and in New York City. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASSC, GLBL, INST, ISIN.
ANTH 3357. Globalization and Migration. (4 Credits)
From the world wide web to international finance, migration to world music, the signs of globalization are all around us. This course will examine how this globalized world came to be and how we can use anthropological tools to understand how it works today. In particular, we will explore the relationship between the local and global and consider how globalization affects individual lives and experiences—including our own—creating both opportunities and barriers. Paying special attention to the inequalities of globalization, we examine how and why new borders and walls are being built in our global age. Taking advantage of our location in New York, we will explore the way that the city has been shaped by globalization and migration, from the more obvious cultures of food, fashion, and media to the hidden economies and transnational networks that make the city. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, INST, ISIN, LALS, LASS.
ANTH 3364. Anthropology of Social Justice. (4 Credits)
In this course, we will begin by defining social justice and reviewing watershed moments in its recent history. We will then explore how anthropology has always challenged social injustice—and we will also investigate past incursions of racism and colonialism in the field. The anthropology of #MeToo, antiracism, NGOs, and our evolving language practices will be presented. We will appraise current concepts of social justice from religion, finance, and marketing, and learn how to merge social justice theory with real-world action in the field. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3380. Hazards, Disasters, and Human Experience. (4 Credits)
Sandy, Katrina, 9/11. Natural and anthropogenic disasters are not new (consider Pompeii or even Noah's flood), but because of global climate change, the intensity and frequency of storms is increasing along with tragic human suffering and property destruction. Anthropological perspectives are increasingly relevant to disaster prevention and relief efforts, especially since anthropologists participate in inquiry and cleanup in the aftermath of these disasters. By exploring the complexities of recent and past natural and human caused disasters, this course explores the ways in which cultures perceive and respond to disaster. We will identify pragmatic actions which can mitigate or prevent human suffering and improve relief efforts. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, APPI, ASHS, ASSC, ENST, ESEL, ESHC, HHPA, HUST, INST, ISIN.
ANTH 3385. Post-Apocalyptic Societies. (4 Credits)
Humans have a long fascination with cataclysmic events. This course will use post-apocalyptic fiction as ethnography to examine the processes and forms of culture change in the wake of catastrophic events such as nuclear war, viral epidemics, and alien invasions. Using popular culture, we will study how humans adapt to the loss of the familiar structures that shape their lives, and will seek to develop a broad understanding of human cultural formation through these cases of its complete annihilation. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, INST, ISIN.
ANTH 3393. Graffiti: The Challenges and Conundrums of Street Art. (4 Credits)
The course will focus on the history and development of graffiti since its ancient inceptions in cities like Pompeii to its post-modern ex[ressions. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of graffiti in resisting and critiquing official state power, and how, over the centuries it has been a focus of state censorship and repression. Scholars and colleagues will also be invited to talk about graffiti from different perspectives. Meanwhile students are expected to carry out a research term paper about the history, development, and unique issues of graffiti in a particular urban center. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, AMST, ASAM, ASHS, ASSC.
ANTH 3394. Horror Americana: Stephen King's and George Romero's Terror Gospels. (4 Credits)
Stephen King and George Romero are two of the most prominent literary and visual artists, respectively, to represent contemporary North American horror. Over the past five decades, both have expressed multiple scenarios of terror as displayed by fantasies of recurring supernatural or human violence, as well as pandemic scenarios that now ring more familiar than ever. In this course, we will look to explore and analyze the multiple strands of their production of Horror Americana, and how it relates and reproduces historical, cultural, economic, and ideological discourses central to the nation. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3395. Horror Films and Globalization: Narratives of Terror, Commodification, and Inequality. (4 Credits)
The course will look to assess how horror films enter into the narrative of globalization, particularly as they provide a grammar to understand and express the experience of terror. This has been quite a modern cinematic tradition since the Italian Giallo horror films and Hitchcock's paradigmatic production. However, more than ever, films of zombies, plagues, and post-apocalyptic scenarios are not seen as mere fiction but rather serve to assess and wonder about our contemporary reality post pandemic. In this manner, the course will explore not only the social but also the political and economic structure of horror film production, since horror films are more than ever a commodity of global consumption. However, unlike their global appeal, they have very limited national production, with countries like the United States, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain, and very few others defining the market. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3470. People and Cultures of Latin America. (4 Credits)
This course surveys the diversity of Latin America as a continent and as a complex mixture of peoples and cultures with an increasing presence in the United States. It will place particular emphasis on the discussion of ethnicity, race, gender, religion, artistic production, and economic and political inequality. The aim of the course is to understand the cultural and social particularities of contemporary Latin America and to place them in a global context. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, GLBL, INST, ISLA, LAIN, LALS, LASS.
ANTH 3471. Ancient Tales of the Andes: Taki Ongoy, Tin Tin, and Enchaquirado Narratives. (4 Credits)
This course will explore the narratives that were produced about the Andes in the 16th and 17th centuries, placing particular attention to those produced by the chroniclers from Europe but also those produced by Andean subjects both in European and American languages. Particular attention will be placed on the social movements like the Taki Ongoy, ancestral deities like the Tin Tin and El Duende, and transgendered groups like the Enchaquirados. The course will look to understand the syncretic world in which these stories were told and reproduced and the manner in which they expressed and reflect the globalization dynamics in play since the 16th century to our present time. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, LALS, LASS.
ANTH 3476. Latin American Social Movements. (4 Credits)
This course examines past and present social movements across Latin America to develop a deeper understanding of citizenship, the state, and power in the Americas. Stretching across time and geographic space, we will first explore pivotal historical grassroots movements (including the Mexican Zapatistas, the Madres de la Plaza, and Nicaraguan Sandinistas) and also current, emergent movements (including #niunamas, the Migrant caravan, and the Maya Environmental movement). In each of these case studies, we will situate the demands, strategies, and challenges of the movement in its regional historical context and analyze the underlying social problems and history of oppression from which they arise. Students will interact with a variety of media, including classic anthropological theory on social movements and the state, popular media and film, and texts written by the protagonists of the movements themselves. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ASSC, HHPA, HUST, INST, ISLA, LALS, LASS, PJSJ, PJST.
ANTH 3482. Reading Latin America: The Colonial Archive. (4 Credits)
The course will assess non-Western theoretical approaches that incorporate ancestral understandings and cosmologies rejected by the colonial onslaught but that still survive in both pre-colonial texts and contemporary Indigenous Andean communities. The course will focus on the earliest 16th century ethnohistoric documents of the region, including: Guamán Poma de Ayala’s La nueva crónica y buen gobierno by Guamán; Cristóbal de Albornoz’ La instrucción para descubrir las guacas del Pirú y sus camayos y haziendas; and Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo’s La historia natural de las Indias. Ultimately the course looks to assess how these non-Western Andean theoretical categories might prove useful to understand historical knowledge and social transformation differently. The course will be structured as an upper-class seminar with close reading of the texts, as well as regular class discussion and participation. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3510. Museums: Representing / Engaging Culture(s). (4 Credits)
This course will explore the purposes museums serve and the meanings museums create in New York City and throughout the world. We will consider practices of representation and strategies for community engagement, and cover both the historical development of museums and contemporary museum-related controversies. The course will include visits to New York City museums during and outside of regular class time. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, AMST, ANAR, APPI, ASAM, ASHS, ASSC, LALS, LASS, URST.
ANTH 3520. Forensic Investigation of the Human Skeleton. (4 Credits)
To understand how the human skeleton is utilized to identify the deceased and sometimes solve crimes, knowledge of skeletal biology and anatomy is paramount. This course has two primary objectives: first to provide basic but solid knowledge of the human skeleton, and second to explain the application of that knowledge to forensic anthropology. Students can expect to obtain a critical understanding of human skeletal anatomy and forensic osteology, as well as the ability to think critically about the recent media glamorization of forensic practice. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANBA, ASSC.
ANTH 3570. Applied Human Rights. (1 Credit)
Most people working on international affairs, and other disciplines internationally oriented, might confront cases of human rights violations. Some international workers try to prevent those directly, or to deal with these impacts, and others need to document, at least partially, those violations as the relate to their core mission (e.g. implement health programs for teenagers in a conflict area, or address displacement of indigenous peoples by corporations). How can we understand the relations between different international programs and human rights works? What are the similarities, differences and intersections? What ablities and methods are required for all international workers confronting human rights violations? What are some of the most recent successes in international law and domestic regulations? In this seminar, we will present diverse examples in several domestic regulations? In this seminar, we will present diverse examples in several countries that intersect with human rightts violations. We will describe the professional roles of different team members (lawyers, psychologists, social workers, doctors, communitiy actors, etc.) and the tools and protocols needed in order to successfully register their experiences (in context of warfare, environmental damage, and even in natural disasters). We will listen to the testimonies of survivors and human rights workes, and will present specific cases emphasizing the security needs and the risks involved in those.
Attributes: ASSC, BESN, BIOE.
ANTH 3605. Mothering and Motherhood. (4 Credits)
This course provides an in-depth look at what is often assumed to be the most basic and fundamental building blocks of all human relations: mothering. But what does it mean to be a mother? Who is allowed to mother? Whose motherhood is lost or denied? What qualifications does it take mother? And how does what appears to be the private practice of motherhood, intersect with larger political processes, gender ideals and hierarchies, science and technology, and public expressions of intimacy? We will explore the concepts of mothering and motherhood to understand its dynamics beyond birth, bake sales, and kissed boo-boos. This course provides an opportunity to question and rethink mothering and motherhood in a variety of social and cultural contexts both within and outside the U.S. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, ASHS, INST, ISIN, WGSS.
ANTH 3618. Asian America in New York City: An Ethnographic Exploration. (4 Credits)
New York City is home to an estimated 1.2 million Asians and Asian Americans, or 14% of the city’s population. This course explores the vast diversity of Asian American life in New York City, from iconic neighborhoods (e.g., Chinatown(s), Koreatown, Jackson Heights) to a range of topical themes such as historical community formation, immigration status, gentrification, post-911 surveillance and policing, public education, and community organizations and activism. The course will also incorporate at least two city site visits, depending on the semester, to neighborhoods, museums, political events, and cultural institutions. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AAST, ASSC, PLUR.
ANTH 3620. Border Cultures in the City: Summer in New York. (1 Credit)
The course will explore a migrant New York City normally not visable to most of the native inhabitants of the city. In this manner, the course will allow students to meet and understand the different struggles and lived-in reality of migrants, particularly Mexican ones, as they strive to make a dignified living for themselves and their families. The course will look to asses and discuss the physical, cultural and emotional border culture that migration has created between Mexico and the United States but also between many of the Central and South American nations. To this degree it will also explore the newly invigorated Latino culture in the United States, one that figures more and more prominently in the future of the United States and the continent. Finally, through daily lectures and site visits to migrant organizations and communities students will explore the myriad of manners in which politcs of identity and culture have taken shape and have shaped our city.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ASSC.
ANTH 3650. Africa in the World. (4 Credits)
Is the world map upside down? What is “Africa” and who is African? Is the Global South a place or an ideological project? This seminar introduces students to key debates and intellectual interventions in African studies concerning the politics of knowledge production, geopolitical formation, and Africa’s regional and global connections. By critically examining how social categories—such as culture, religion, race, economy, and ideology—have been mapped onto different parts of the world, the course traces how legacies of colonialism and imperialism in Africa continue to inform contemporary perspectives on economic development, capitalism, and globalization. The course will foreground perspectives of people who mobilized to transform them, from anti-colonial fighters and postcolonial scholars to the Third World solidarity movement and contemporary artists. Lastly, the course explores the complexity of “Global South” through Africa’s south-south engagements. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AFAM, ASSC, HUST, INST, ISAF, ISIN.
ANTH 3710. Bilingualism: Local Practices and Global Perspectives. (4 Credits)
Human beings have produced at least 7,000 languages in the history of the world, many communities support the use of more than one of these within their boundaries and many individuals acquire multiple languages over the course of a lifetime, sometimes switching among tongues within the same conversation even in today's global English. The course examines the many approaches that sociolinguists and linguistic anthropologists have developed for studying how and why humans do this. What are the causes and consequences of retaining moe than one language in our domestic lives, cultural institutions, and nation-states? What are the costs and benefits? Why, in short, do humans continue to value and invest in bilingualism, both locally and globally? Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, ISIN.
ANTH 3721. The Currency of Historical Memory. (4 Credits)
The objective of the course will be to discuss and learn about the myriads of ways in which history and memory play essential roles in the production of identities and nation-states today. Historical representations are essential for countries, communities, and individuals to survive in today’s global ecumene. For this reason, history and memories have become essential commodities that are produced, consumed, and exchanged on a daily basis and at lightning speeds. These historical productions and consumptions have been normalized to such a degree that we barely are able to understand that this is where we speak from, as well as what defines even what we see as reality. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 3725. Anthropological Theory. (4 Credits)
This course covers selected issues in the relationship of human behavior and culture, including the concept of culture, culture and the individual, culture contact, and culture change. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ACUP, ADVD, AMST, APPI, ASHS, GLBL, HHPA, HUST, INST, IPE, ISIN, ISWH, MEST.
Prerequisite: ANTH 1100.
ANTH 3726. Language, Gender, and Sexuality. (4 Credits)
This course examines how everyday language use is constituted by cultural ideas about gender, sexuality, power, and identity. Students will analyze various theoretical frameworks through ethnographic case studies from Mexico, Malagasy, Senegal, Hungary, Nepal, and the United States. We will focus on issues such as prestige, politeness, inequality and hierarchy, language shift, multilingualism, code-switching, and literacy. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANLA, ASSC, INST, ISIN, LING, WGSS.
ANTH 3771. Pyramids, Gods, and Mummies. (4 Credits)
The course looks to explore the myriad of manners in which these politics of identity and culture have taken shape over the last centuries (and even millennia). Through lectures, readings and site visits to archaeological and historical sites around Puebla and Mexico City the course will assess how these migrating notions of culture have served to enable contesting identities across and through the border production between the United States and Mexico. It is particularly useful to view this dynamic from down below to better complete the authoritative picture officially espoused by the governing bodies of both countries. To this degree the value of the course will be to explore, first through lectures, secondly through site visits, and thirdly through small research papers and a final small research project how sometimes similar, and at other times differing, notions of what it means lobe American has permeated the landscape of the continent, and continues to fuel our cultural and political identities. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, ASHS.
ANTH 3800. Internship. (3 Credits)
Internship.
ANTH 3888. Arab Women and Social Movements. (4 Credits)
This course explores the participation of Arab women in social movements before and after the 2011 “Arab Spring”. The course will be examining why and how women contribute to political and social changes, the challenges they encounter, and the changes in their understanding of their roles as citizens in the postcolonial nation-state. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: INST, ISME, PJGS, PJST, WGSS.
ANTH 3999. Tutorial. (3 Credits)
Independent study.
ANTH 4000. Bodies, Trauma, Healing. (4 Credits)
Bodies, Trauma, and Healing (ICC, American Pluralism) Widespread frameworks of trauma are making it possible to ask questions like, how does your body hold trauma? Is it in your cells, memories, past experiences, and past generations? And if your body can hold trauma in all these ways, what does healing look like? This course explores interdisciplinary approaches to studying, diagnosis, treating, and caring for minds and bodies. We focus on understanding different theories and methods of studying bodies across science and society to better understand how stress, trauma, and adversity can impact health across the lifecourse and across generations. We also draw on examples from dance, art, film, creative nonfiction, poetry, and auto-ethnographies, to explore how storytelling can be its own form of healing. Students will learn how to critically think about bodies, trauma, and healing from multiple points of view across race, gender, and disability. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: DISA, WGSS.
ANTH 4002. Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Values. (4 Credits)
What cultural, political, and environmental values shape the production of science and technology? This course explores how human values and histories all shape the design and development of science and technology. We explore multiple points of view across race, class, religion, disability, and gender to understand how science and technology impact people and environments. This course integrates anthropological methods and theories that examine science and technology studies. From this lens, we examine how histories of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism shape tech markets, trade, and innovation. We explore a variety of topics such as Big Data, AI, genomics, healthcare, and environmentalism to better understand the challenges and opportunities of developing effective, sustainable, and accessible technologies. From an anthropological lens, students will learn how to identify and think critically about the complex ethical issues of science and technology. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 4004. Art Worlds: Anthropology and Sociology Perspectives. (4 Credits)
Incorporating methods and insights from sociology and anthropology, and drawing on the resource of the immediate context of New York City's cultural communities and institutions, this course will analyze many of the arts and artistic communities of New York City. The study of culture generally, aand art worlds more specifically, allows us to understand art and culture not only as aesthetic experiences, but also as institutional, economic, social and political phenomena. Our summer mid-day time slot will allow us to avail ourselves of numerous field trips and cultural excursions to support our discussions, readings, and lectures. This course currently fulfills an Interdisciplinary Capstone Core requirements for Fordham College students and is expected to be listed as an EP3 course by Summer 2014. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ICC.
ANTH 4006. Palestinian Culture at Home and in Diaspora. (4 Credits)
This ICC course introduces students to Palestinian culture through two disciplines: cultural anthropology and literature in translation, covering fiction, poetry, memoir, and drama. While cultural anthropology guides students to understand the larger context of society and qualities of daily life among Palestinians through reading fieldwork analyses, literature studies guides students to consider how Palestinian authors have represented and expressed responses to the same context and quotidian experiences. The two approaches, in conjunction, will lead students to a multi-faceted, nuanced understanding of political, intellectual, and cultural expression of Palestinians at home and in diaspora, moving beyond the political rhetoric and controversies of news headlines. The course trajectory begins with an orientation to the respective disciplines and an historical overview, and then moves across the various zones of Palestine—from the much-studied site of the West Bank to Gaza, inside Israel, Jerusalem, refugees in Arab countries, and the diaspora in the U.S. and elsewhere—interspersed by several weeks focused on themes that enable anthropology and literature cross-pollination, such as cultural resistance, food, and gender. Interlacing imaginative and expository genres, and testing methods of textual analysis and fieldwork, students explores Palestine as a literal place, a symbolic site, and an extended transnational community that constitutes a complex social-cultural-political identity. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: GLBL, HUST, ICC, INST, ISME, MEST, PJRC.
ANTH 4114. Anthropology of Health Healing and Social Justice. (4 Credits)
Health and illness will be studied as an interrelationship of biology, ecology, and culture in antiquity and contemporary societies. Among concepts of health and healing explored in Euro-American and non-Western cultures are: What is "normal"? What causes disease? Who can heal? What treatments are provided? What impact does modernization have on these cultural patterns? Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, ASHS, BESN, BIOE, GLBL, ICC, INST, IPE, ISIN, PJSJ, PJST.
ANTH 4200. Climate Change and Culture. (4 Credits)
This course examines climate change in terms of how it has been conceptualized as a crisis, as well as how it is actually lived by communities who inhabit the many worlds that together, but unevenly, constitute life on earth. We will examine the concept of “the Anthropocene”—that humankind has essentially become a geologic force—alongside critiques of this concept. Rather than an expression of a universal human nature, these critiques assert that climate change is the consequence of specific cultures and historic ideologies, including plantation colonialism, industrial capitalism, and technological modernism. Drawing on recent ethnographic research, we will trace and evaluate these various interpretations of climate change through present and emergent confrontations between diverse peoples, cultures, and changing environments. Throughout the semester, we will return to the question: What is the meaning of “the human” in relationship to the Earth, its multispecies inhabitants, and climate change? Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ENST, ESEL, ESHC, GLBL, HHPA, HUST, INST, IPE, ISIN.
ANTH 4341. Race, Sex, and Science. (4 Credits)
This course introduces students to interdisciplinary debates about the relationship between race, sex, and gender, on the one hand, and science, technology, and medicine, on the other. We will examine two interrelated questions: How do scientific claims influence cultural understandings of race, gender, and sexuality; and how do cultural beliefs about race, sex, and gender influence scientific research and knowledge production? The course will explore the role that understandings of race, sex, and gender have played in the development of Western science; the relationship among race, sex, gender, and scientific research in genomics and health disparities research (among other fields); and finally, the ways in which race, gender, and social inequalities become embodied and affect human biology. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AASR, ADVD, AMST, ASHS, ICC, PJGS, PJST, PLUR, SOCI, URST, WGSS.
ANTH 4344. Reproductive Technologies: Global Perspective. (4 Credits)
The interdisciplinary course will focus on issues in technology and reproduction, emphasizing the view that reproduction is not simply a biological process, but one that is laden with symbolic, political, and ideological meanings. Drawing on the fields of anthropology, sociology, history, public health, law, and science, technology and society. We will examine the contested meanings of reproduction, in particular how reproductive technologies are changing lives around the globe. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AASR, BESN, GLBL, HUST, ICC, INST, ISIN, WGSS.
ANTH 4373. Environment and Human Survival. (4 Credits)
This course is an inquiry into the biological and cultural processes by which human populations have adapted to the world's diverse ecosystems. Particular attention is devoted to issues of group survival in difficult habitats and the environmental impact of preindustrial and recently Westernized cultures. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ADVD, AMST, ANAR, ANBA, APPI, ASHS, ASRP, ENMI, ENST, ENVS, EPLE, ESEL, ESHC, GLBL, HHPA, HUST, ICC, INST, IPE, ISIN.
ANTH 4490. Anthropology of Political Violence. (4 Credits)
Political violence happens everyday, whether we endure it personally or hear about it through the media. But seldom do we ask ourselves what it is. This course investigates the nature of political violence and articulate its many forms from the anthropological perspectives of gender, class, ethnicity, economics, and of course, politics. Specific areas of study include Northern Ireland, Germany, Sudan, Palestine, Mexico, Argentina, China, Australia, and the U.S. The course will discuss the motivations for action (or inaction) by governments, elites, and insurgents, and students will get to know some of the organizations working against political violence. Field trips will include visits tothe United Nations, The United Holocaust Museum, and Ground Zero. Podcasts, news broadcasts, movies and audio documentation of events will provide further access to examples of global political violence. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AMST, APPI, ASHS, HHPA, HUST, ICC, INST, IPE, IRST, ISIN, PJST, PJWT.
ANTH 4600. Global South Megacities. (4 Credits)
The vast majority of the world’s megacities are located in the contemporary Global South, across Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. This seminar explores cultural and political life across megacities in the Global South such as Delhi, São Paulo, Johannesburg, Lagos, Guangzhou, Bogota, Mumbai, Jakarta, Tehran, Dubai, and Mexico City. Through ethnographies, theoretical texts, and popular representations such as films, we will consider colonial and postcolonial histories of urban planning, racialized imaginaries of the Global South, transnational and domestic migration, speculative finance and neoliberalism, infrastructural development and inequality, spatial segregation and policing, and ecological sustainability. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: GLBL, INST, ISIN, URST.
ANTH 4616. Contemporary Issues in Asian America. (4 Credits)
This course examines historical and contemporary issues facing Asian Americans from the 1960s to the contemporary moment. By drawing on empirical and ethnographic studies, the course will illuminate Asian Pacific American experiences in the U.S. and globally. Major themes include race, class, gender, sexuality, marriage/family, health, aging, work, and transnationalism. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: AAST, ICC, PLUR.
ANTH 4700. Economic Theologies. (4 Credits)
As we face the interconnected crises of neoliberal austerity measures, job precarity, and debt, a number of social theorists have turned to theology to justify their vision for a post-work, post-debt society. Seemingly ancient and apolitical concepts like the “Sabbath” and the “Jubilee” have been refunctioned to justify global debt forgiveness and to imagine a world without work. Why do these texts hold so much power? How are these thinkers retooling and reinterpreting ancient religious texts to address today’s global economic crises? Where do we situate their arguments in a longer genealogy of social thought concerned with the relationship between “religion” and “economy”? The course will also turn to recent work in the anthropological canon, offering alternative religious and cosmological models for imagining work and rest, (re)distribution and recognition, prosperity and austerity, debt, credit, and charity. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attribute: ASSC.
ANTH 4722. Primate Ecology and Conservation. (4 Credits)
This course is an introduction to primates. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and observation projects, students will investigate the emergence of the order and explore the diversity of primates around the world. The course will address issues of ecological adaptation, social organization, and conservation, especially of the species most threatened by extinction, and it will illustrate how habituation projects make it possible to conduct effective field studies. The evolutionary basis of the special characteristics of primates will be discussed, as well as the question of what nonhuman primate behavior can tell us about ourselves. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANBA, ENST, ENVS, ESEL, ESHC, ESLS, ESNS, ICC.
ANTH 4802. Archaeology of New York. (4 Credits)
The history of New York City and its environs takes on a completely different feel when the people and times are illustrated using material culture, the artifacts representing the daily activities of previous lives. Borrowing from the university's extensive collection of objects dating from prehistory to the 20th century, the course will examine former times through the lens of the items recovered from archaeological excavations, landfills, subsurface trash accumulations, and construction worksites in order to provide a more personal and intimate view of the past. Historical in the broadest sense, the curriculum will not include a detailed chronology of the city but instead explore the worlds of household, industrial production, urban infrastructure, and other social dimensions that the real objects make accessible. Aspects of conservation and curation of these rare documents of the past will be covered as well. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
Attributes: ANAR, ASSC.
ANTH 4965. Science Fiction and Social Crisis. (4 Credits)
The course presents science fiction as a literary genre, one that does not attempt to give us an image of our future, but rather provides a unique social critique to defamiliarize and restructure our own reified present. Through its strategy of indirection, science fiction reflects on the object and ground of all human life, while itself being a reflection of its time. The genre often draws upon science and technology to create thought experiments of alternate utopian and dystopian worlds. As a literary form, science fiction has evolved from its pulp fiction origins in America for a mass audience to a highly creative art form practiced by some of the most outstanding writers of our time. Note: Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 4998. Senior Thesis. (4 Credits)
Independent research under mentor guidance. Four-credit courses that meet for 150 minutes per week require three additional hours of class preparation per week on the part of the student in lieu of an additional hour of formal instruction.
ANTH 4999. Tutorial. (4 Credits)
Supervised individual study project.