Results for ANTHRO126

Core course for Urban Studies majors. We will study urban space both historically and cross-culturally. Urban Studies, by definition, is an interdisciplinary field, where the methodological approaches draw upon a diverse set of analytic tools. Disciplines that occupy a prominent place in this class are geography, cultural anthropology, sociology, history, media studies, and literature. In this context, we will discuss the importance of cities around the world to the economic, cultural, and political well-being of modern societies and examine how forces such as industrialization, decentralization, and globalization affect the structure and function of cities.

The past is never dead, William Faulkner once wrote. It's not even past. This seminar explores the contested meanings of history in the political present. It particularly focuses on how archaeological work and heritage becomes entangled in larger questions of identity, belonging, belief, economics, and the stories we tell about ourselves. Students will gain an expansive and in-depth perspective on why humans so value what has come before us, and why making meaning from the past is a process suffused with power.