Department of Anthropology

ANTH H103  INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An introduction to the basic ideas and methods of social anthropology. Examines major theoretical and ethnographic concerns of the discipline from its origins to the present, such as family and kinship, production and reproduction, history and evolution, symbolism and representation, with particular attention to such issues as race and racism, gender and sexuality, class, and ethnicity. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who have completed BMC ANTH 102

(Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

ANTH H106  SENSING BEYOND THE HUMAN  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the political, social, and historical dimensions that shape human attempts to extend their sensory capacities, usually through a proxy, delegate, or sentinel. It will examine how colonialism, race, gender, sexuality, and surveillance have shaped the human desire to perceive in extraordinary ways. Pre-requisite(s): None

ANTH H212  FEMINIST ETHNOGRAPHY  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course delves into the historical development and utility of feminist anthropology. Feminist Ethnography is both methodology and method that seeks to explore how gender, race, sexuality, and subjectivity operate in a variety of contexts. We will explore articulations and critiques of feminist ethnographic methods that engage researcher positionality and the politics of research. This course is one part analytic and another part how-to. Participants will read classic and contemporary ethnographies while learning to craft auto-ethnographic research. Prerequisite(s): One ANTH course or instructor consent

ANTH H222  HUMAN RIGHTS AND CULTURE  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. At the heart of this course is the question of “culture” and its relation to human rights. We will focus on the tensions and translations between human rights and culture and between global ideas and practices and local ones. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice and theorizing the intersections between social fields thought of as global and local. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): Intro to Anthropology OR Intro to PJHR

ANTH H233  DECOLONIZING VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World

This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ANTH H239  VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)

This course aims to deepen our understanding of Asian law and society through independent films by Asian directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into individual and collective struggles for gender justice, freedom of expression, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ANTH H245  ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA: CULTURE, POWER AND IDENTITY  (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course is a historical overview of some classic and contemporary ethnographic studies of Africa. The course focuses on the contribution of social anthropology to our understanding of the history and socio-cultural identities and practices of the people of Africa. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Africana Studies

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H250  READING MEXICO, READING ETHNOGRAPHY  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course examines the ethnography of contemporary Mexico, focusing upon themes such as gender, ethnic, and class inequality; social movements and protest; nationalism and popular culture; and urbanization and migration. Class will begin by exploring various approaches to reading, writing, and analyzing ethnographic texts; through deep reading of select ethnographies, we will examine the relationships between power, culture, and identity in Mexico while assessing current trends in anthropological fieldwork and ethnographic writing.

ANTH H265  MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Michael D'Arcy

Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What does it mean to attempt a critical anthropology of the body, illness experience, disease etiology, healing practices, and the epistemology of contemporary biomedicine across a diverse group of cultures and traditions? This course seeks to begin to answer this and other questions by examining the historical development of the field of medical anthropology, exploring the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the debates that have shaped the field, and examining the methodological concerns and ethnographic investigations that have broadened the scope of its inquiry. Readings range from classical ethnographic writings, philosophical treatises, anthropological theory, indigenous philosophers, and first person accounts of illness and health.

(Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

ANTH H266  SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

Through this course, students will develop ethnographic research and writing skills using sensory detail (taste, touch, sight, sound, smell and feeling) to evoke people, places, and things. Assignments are primarily writing-intensive with additional fieldwork and multimodal (e.g. photography, film) exercises. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Visual Studies Prerequisite(s): Any Anthropology course

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H275  RACE AND GENDER IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World

This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Visual Studies minors, then Anthropology majors/minors, then Film Studies minors

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H276  MEDIA, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course takes an anthropological approach to examine social and cultural practices of media production, circulation, and consumption. Drawing on ethnographic studies from around the world, it provides an overview of the increasing theoretical attention given to media by anthropologists. It examines cross-culturally how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the formation and transformation of subjectivities, collectivities and social relations in the contemporary world. Crosslisted: ANTH, VIST Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H277  MEDIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST  (1.0 Credit)

Zeynep Sertbulut

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What can we learn about the Middle East by examining media? What can we about media by studying institutions of production and practices of consumption in the Middle East region? In this course, we will read ethnographies of media from the Middle East and look at and listen to media. We will explore cases from different countries, from Egypt to Syria, Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine/Israel. Crosslisted: VIST. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ANTH H278  DECOLONIZING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Staff

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

What does it mean to decolonize science and technology? How are scientific knowledge and various technologies produced under or against colonialism? This course grapples with these questions by engaging with anthropologies and histories of scientific knowledge production, the deployment of technology in (ongoing) colonial projects, and the entangled politics of science, technology, and society. Students learn about contemporary efforts to conduct scientific research and innovate technology in the global South. Lottery Preference: Students waitlisted for ANTH H106 (Fall 2022 only); Anthropology Students

ANTH H281  INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Joshua Moses

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An introduction to the ideas and methods central to environmental anthropology. Topics covered will include political ecology, crises and uncertainty, indigeneity and community management.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H302  OIL, CULTURE, POWER  (1.0 Credit)

Zainab Saleh

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course will examine the political, social, and cultural history of oil. As the single most important commodity in the world, the story of control over this highly prized resource is a complex and violent one. It will discuss the ways in which oil has defined the fates empires and nation-states, the rise and fall of local political movements, violence, neoliberal governmentality, and knowledge production. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in anthropology, political science, sociology, or history, or instructor consent

ANTH H303  HISTORY AND THEORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY  (1.0 Credit)

Zainab Saleh

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The development of anthropological thought. Theories of society and the human subject, social organization and social structure, and the culture concept. Structuralism, Marxist anthropology, the crisis of representation in the 1980s and 1990s, postmodernism, the relationship between ethnography and history, and practice theory. Prerequisite(s): One course in ANTH, excluding BMC ANTH B303

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H328  THE FIGHT AGAINST IMPUNITY: THE TURN TO INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course traces the conceptual shift or ‘turn’ towards individual criminal prosecutions for grave violations of human rights and humanitarian principles, the related conceptual shifts (from responsibility to individual accountability or from human rights reporting to evidence collection) and the international, national and regional organizations that are part of this turn. This is an interdisciplinary course offering students an introduction to the field of international criminal justice. Through a series of weekly ‘dossiers’, with readings drawn from a wide range of sources including academic literature, NGO reports, blog posts, Twitter threads and case law, we will explore the emergence of international criminal justice as a distinct field of practice and seek to uncover the underlying assumptions and principles that inform the field. This course will offer an introduction to international criminal law as a legal framework. At the same time, we will work to situate this legal framework within broader, interdisciplinary conversations and current affairs: justice and social repair, humanitarianism, the role of non-state actors and civil society, international development, the influence of technology and social media, etc. Crosslisted: Peace, Justice and Human Rights; Anthropology Prerequisite(s): 200 level course in PJHR, ANTH or POLS, or consent of instructor

ANTH H333  THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF MIGRATION AND GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH: POLITICS, EPISTEMOLOGIES, CRITIQUES  (1.0 Credit)

Michael D'Arcy

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

How should anthropologists think about the relationship between migration and ongoing debates in the international psychiatric community about global mental health in theory and practice? What happens when both people and ideas move across political borders, between institutions of care, and through the historical and intellectual borderlands that sit between different healing traditions? This course explores these and other related questions through a variety of readings in sociocultural and medical anthropology with a focus on the subjects of the politics of asylum, medical humanitarianism, and transcultural psychiatry. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): 200 level course in Anthropology, Heath Studies, History, Sociology, Political science, or Peace Justice and Human Rights. Lottery Preference: Anthropology and Health Studies seniors.

ANTH H334  RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES  (1.0 Credit)

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores how race is intertwined with infectious diseases in producing persistent social and health inequalities in the U.S. and abroad. It will examine how human group difference is understood as a given and natural condition despite sociocultural, historical, political, and economic contexts that shape it. It will deal with incidents demonstrated racialized understanding of the body and racial discrimination and inequalities perpetuated in the context of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Ebola, Cholera and Covid 19. Crosslisted: AFST,ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None. Lottery Preference: declared Health Studies minors, then African studies minors or Anthropology majors

ANTH H335  THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ECSTASY: PSYCHE, SOMA, AND THE OUT-OF-BODY  (1.0 Credit)

Michael D'Arcy

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

How should contemporary anthropology understand trance, possession, and ecstatic experience? Through course readings, we will interrogate normative understandings of the relationship between mind, body, and collective life via a range of classical and contemporary anthropological texts. Drawing upon diverse theoretical paradigms such as symbolic and structural anthropology, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology, we will explore the ways in which individual engagements with collective life act directly upon and constitute this mind/body interface, at times destabilizing it altogether. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): 200 level course in the social sciences Lottery Preference: I would prefer students who are majoring in anthropology and/or health studies be given preference.

ANTH H336  SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE, POWER: (DE)COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION & EPISTEMOLOGICAL COMMUNITY  (1.0 Credit)

Michael D'Arcy

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course traces the relationship between scientific knowledge production, notions of technological "progress," and political, economic, and institutional power through the disciplinary histories of anthropology and Science and Technology Studies. Texts will include STS classics that frame contemporary science and medicine as the products of political and economic history, as well as work in anthropology and STS that center non-western and indigenous traditions of knowledge and the voices of BIPOC and feminist scholars. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): Introductory level coursework in anthropology (sociocultural or medical) or health studies Lottery Preference: Anthropology, health studies, history, political science

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ANTH H337  ANTHROPOLOGY OF WRITING AND THE POLITICS/POETICS OF INTERTEXTUALITY  (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

An interdisciplinary exploration of writing as a social institution, personal ritual, cultural artifact and a technology, this course theorizes the interface between tradition and innovation as a way to think about intertextuality using Jewish American fiction as a case study Crosslisted: COML

(Offered: Spring 2025)

ANTH H338  THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ADDICTION: SUBSTANCE, COMMUNITY, AND THE PROBLEM OF CARE  (1.0 Credit)

Michael D'Arcy

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This course explores the conceptual, methodological, and ethical complexities of marking “addiction” as an object of anthropological inquiry. Together we will investigate what anthropologists, medical doctors, public health scholars, and people living with addiction can gain from ethnographic research. We will ask: how can ethnography help us to better understand the degree to which the phenomenon of addiction is socially, culturally, and scientifically constructed but also experienced in intimate and often deeply painful ways? Crosslisted: HLTH.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H339  ANTHROPOLOGY OF EMPIRE  (1.0 Credit)

Ezgi Guner

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

This advanced seminar is an anthropological exploration of empire both as an analytic category and a historical phenomenon. It begins by introducing the discipline's historical entanglements with empire and the anthropological critique of this epistemological legacy. Focusing on cases from the Caribbean, Africa, America, and the Middle East, it discusses the emergence of the anthropology of empire. Key concepts and debates for this course are race, genocide, settler colonialism, security, diaspora, material culture and museums.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H450  SENIOR SEMINAR: RESEARCH AND WRITING  (1.0 Credit)

Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The fall semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students do archival and ethnographic research, write a research prospectus, get training on ethics, and write a review of the anthropological literature on their area of inquiry.

(Offered: Fall 2024)

ANTH H451  SENIOR SEMINAR: SUPERVISED RESEARCH AND WRITING  (1.0 Credit)

Emily Hong, Joshua Moses, Michael D'Arcy, Zainab Saleh, Zeynep Sertbulut, Zolani Ngwane

Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World

The spring semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students complete research on their thesis and write an ethnography. Most of the semester is individual meetings between thesis writers and advisors. The spring senior thesis seminar includes a public thesis presentation and an oral exam.

(Offered: Spring 2025)