271 - 280 of 337 results for: Anthropology

Indigenous knowledges have been traditionally treated as a field of research for anthropologists and as mistaken epistemologies, i.e., un-scientific and irrational folklore. However, within the framework of environmental humanities, current interest in non-anthropocentric approaches and epistemic injustice, animism emerged as a critique of modern epistemology and an alternative to the Western worldview. Treating native thought as an equivalent to Western knowledge will be presented as a (potentially) decolonizing and liberating practice. This course may be of interest to anthropology, archaeology and literature students working in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities/social sciences, students interested in the Anthropocene, geologic/mineral, bio-, eco- and geosocial collectives, symbiotic life-forms and non-human agencies. The course is designed as a research seminar for students interested in theory of the humanities and social sciences and simultaneously helping students to develop their individual projects and thesis.

A critical introduction to one of the most ambitious theories in the human and social sciences, which has the potential to revolutionize them, including anthropology, sociology, economics, but also philosophy and theology. Professor Girard (1923 - 2015) taught at Stanford for more than twenty years and is internationally recognized as one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. This seminar will be anything but an exercise in proselytism. It will keep a critical distance towards the theory, questioning its internal consistency as well as putting it to the test of actual facts and events.

"To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric," Theodor Adorno wrote after the end of World War II, casting doubt on the poet's ability to capture the horrors of the third Reich. But what about theory or philosophy? Is philosophy better equipped to meet the social and cultural demands of life in postwar Germany? In this course, we will explore the wide range of philosophical movements and topics taken up by German thinkers after 1945, from post-war existentialism and the Frankfurt school to the philosophical Anthropology of Arnold Gehlen and Peter Sloterdijk. How does meaning making relate to the writing of history in Hannah Arendt and Hans Jonas? What role does history play in Gadamer's hermeneutics or Blumenberg's metaphorology? How do Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Kittler, and Niklas Luhmann respond to the development of new technology? And how do these analyses relate to the myriad cultural and political concerns that emerged in a rapidly complexifying society? Taught in German and English.

Indigenous knowledges have been traditionally treated as a field of research for anthropologists and as mistaken epistemologies, i.e., un-scientific and irrational folklore. However, within the framework of environmental humanities, current interest in non-anthropocentric approaches and epistemic injustice, animism emerged as a critique of modern epistemology and an alternative to the Western worldview. Treating native thought as an equivalent to Western knowledge will be presented as a (potentially) decolonizing and liberating practice. This course may be of interest to anthropology, archaeology and literature students working in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities/social sciences, students interested in the Anthropocene, geologic/mineral, bio-, eco- and geosocial collectives, symbiotic life-forms and non-human agencies. The course is designed as a research seminar for students interested in theory of the humanities and social sciences and simultaneously helping students to develop their individual projects and thesis.

Current media coverage dwells on the plight of migrants passing through North Africa in search of higher-wage jobs in Europe. But labor migration from, to, and through North Africa and the Middle East is nothing new. Pushing beyond widespread views of labor migration as a policy problem for Western governments to "solve," we will instead explore how migrant laborers shaped the modern history of North Africa and the Middle East, from the late Ottoman Empire until today. We will read an array of texts in history and historical anthropology--each deploying different sources, methods, and empirical examples--to discuss how migrant laborers molded 1) conceptions of race and gender, 2) the development of capitalism, 3) political mobilization, and 4) the boundaries between nations and regions. Among other examples, we will discuss trans-Atlantic migrants from the Ottoman Levant who shaped labor and gender relations within the Middle East and the Americas; migrant workers from North Africa and the Middle East who sustained wartime industries in European empires and metropoles; the construction of an oil economy in the Gulf that was built by migrant labor; and sub-Saharan African domestic workers in the Middle East facing exploitation and crisis. Throughout, we will devote particular attention to the ways in which our readings place migrant laborers and their communities at the center of analysis, despite the fact that migrant laborers do not have a voice in dominant archives.

This interdisciplinary course explores how modern African histories, bodies, and natures have been entangled with technological activities. Viewing Africans as experts and innovators, we consider how technologies have mediated, represented, or performed power in African societies. Topics include infrastructure, extraction, medicine, weapons, communications, sanitation, and more. Themes woven through the course include citizenship, mobility, labor, bricolage, in/formal economies, and technopolitical geographies, among others. Readings draw from history, anthropology, geography, and social/cultural theory. PhD Students in History completing the two-quarter graduate research seminar requirement should enroll in HISTORY 449A in Winter and 449B in Spring quarter.

Indigenous knowledges have been traditionally treated as a field of research for anthropologists and as mistaken epistemologies, i.e., un-scientific and irrational folklore. However, within the framework of environmental humanities, current interest in non-anthropocentric approaches and epistemic injustice, animism emerged as a critique of modern epistemology and an alternative to the Western worldview. Treating native thought as an equivalent to Western knowledge will be presented as a (potentially) decolonizing and liberating practice. This course may be of interest to anthropology, archaeology and literature students working in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities/social sciences, students interested in the Anthropocene, geologic/mineral, bio-, eco- and geosocial collectives, symbiotic life-forms and non-human agencies. The course is designed as a research seminar for students interested in theory of the humanities and social sciences and simultaneously helping students to develop their individual projects and thesis.

How is power made material? And how do material things--objects, commodities, technologies, and infrastructures --reflect, change, consolidate, or distribute power? This research seminar is aimed at PhD students in history, anthropology, and STS who are working on such questions. All geographic specialties welcome. A small amount of common reading will launch the course, whose main goal is to guide students towards producing a research paper draft that's close to submission-ready for a journal. Along the way, we'll also address practical topics, including how to pick and submit to a journal, how to present a paper, and more.

How is power made material? And how do material things --objects, commodities, technologies, and infrastructures--reflect, change, consolidate, or distribute power? This research seminar is aimed at PhD students in history, anthropology, and STS who are working on such questions. All geographic specialties welcome. A small amount of common reading will launch the course, whose main goal is to guide students towards producing a research paper draft that's close to submission-ready for a journal. Along the way, we'll also address practical topics, including how to pick and submit to a journal, how to present a paper, and more.