281 - 290 of 337 results for: Anthropology

Emphasis is on how health, illness, and healing are understood, experienced, and constructed in social, cultural, and historical contexts. Topics: biopower and body politics, gender and reproductive technologies, illness experiences, medical diversity and social suffering, and the interface between medicine and science.

To what extent can sound or music heal? This interdisciplinary course asks questions about music and healing around the world, drawing on the fields of medical ethnomusicology, medical anthropology, sound studies, and music therapy. Our case studies will be multi-sited, as we interrogate sound-based healings and healing sounds from diverse cross-cultural, global, and historic perspectives. No musical background is needed to interrogate these issues. We begin with the knowledge that the social, cultural, and political contexts where definitions of music and healing are created inform sound and its various and often conflicting interpretations and meanings. This course is currently full for Autumn Quarter 22-23 enrollment.

How have artists contributed to healing during the Covid-19 pandemic? How does art shape or express diverse cultural understandings of health and illness, medicine and the body, death and spirituality, in response to crisis? How do such understandings directly impact the physical healing but also the life decisions and emotions of individuals, from caregivers to patients? And finally, how do these affect social transformation as part of healing? This course examines the art of COVID-19, from a contemporary and historical perspective, using the tools of Health Humanities, a relatively new discipline that connects medicine to the arts and social sciences. Materials for this course include art from different media (from poetry and fiction to performance and installation), produced during COVID-19 in mostly Western contexts, in diverse communities and with some forays into the rest of the world and into other historical moments of crisis. They also include some non-fiction readings from the disciplines Health Humanities draws from, such as history of medicine, anthropology, psychology, sociology, cultural history, media studies, art criticism, and medicine itself. We will thus be introduced to basics of Health Humanities and its methods while addressing the pandemic as a world-changing event, aided by the unique insights of artists. The course will culminate in final projects that present a critical and contextual appreciation of a specific art project created in response to COVID-19; such appreciations may be creative art projects as well, or more analytical, scholarly evaluations.

What do you think of when you think of language in Japan? Perhaps you have heard the Japanese language described as "difficult" or "complex," "polite" or "indirect," or even "ancient" or "poetic." Perhaps a gendered aspect or an abundance of scripts garner attention. Given the many representations of language in Japan in social media, popular discourse, or even your own language classes, this course asks, what are the stories that are told about language in Japan, and how do we evaluate those stories? The course draws on readings from diverse fields, including linguistic anthropology, linguistics, cultural history, and literary history. The course is divided into three parts. The first part introduces theories on the relationship between language, ideology, and power. This part helps us identify discourses about what a given language is and what it should be, while exploring the consequences of those discourses. The second part focuses on language ideology and policy in Japanese history, with particular attention to script reform, dialect management, and state language pedagogy. The third part connects the history of language ideologies to present-day language topics, including gendered language, formality, the status of minority languages, and second language acquisition. Throughout, we ask what discourses persist, and why? What theoretical and epistemological tools might we employ to critique those discourses? Although the course centers on language in Japan as a case study, the theories and methods we explore will be applicable to language ideologies in multiple national, transnational, and local contexts. Japanese language abilities are not required - readings will be in English - but you are welcome to leverage any and all knowledge at your disposal.

This course explores the material culture of early modern Japan from the perspectives of literature, material history, aesthetics, and making. Drawing inspiration from cultural practices in which an aesthetic object acquired its cultural identity and social value precisely because it could be used, the course combines readings of primary and secondary sources, lectures, and practical hands-on training in two core traditional disciplines: woodworking and ceramics. Coursework includes making a series of objects as a way to begin to develop technical knowledge and skills but also as an opportunity for conceptual exploration, shared construction, and reflection. This course is designed for students with interests in making, art history, literature, engineering, anthropology, studio, intellectual history, and the material culture of East Asia more generally. No previous technical or language expertise required. Course taught in English.

This course explores the material culture of early modern Japan from the perspectives of literature, material history, aesthetics, and making. Drawing inspiration from cultural practices in which an aesthetic object acquired its cultural identity and social value precisely because it could be used, the course combines readings of primary and secondary sources, lectures, and practical hands-on training in two core traditional disciplines: woodworking and ceramics. Coursework includes making a series of objects as a way to begin to develop technical knowledge and skills but also as an opportunity for conceptual exploration, shared construction, and reflection. This course is designed for students with interests in making, art history, literature, engineering, anthropology, studio, intellectual history, and the material culture of East Asia more generally. No previous technical or language expertise required. Course taught in English.

(Same as PSYCH 283, POLISCI 403.) Sponsored by the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation (SCICN). Conflict, negotiation, and dispute resolution with emphasis on conflicts and disputes with an international dimension, including conflicts involving states, peoples, and political factions such as the Middle East and Northern Ireland. Guest speakers. Issues including international law, psychology, and political science, economics, anthropology, and criminology.

This reading group will investigate unresolved issues in Critical Race Theory. Questions explored will include: What exactly are advocates for racial justice fighting for? That is, what does racial justice look like? What is the place of "culture" in our racial present and in a racial utopia? What are the roles of agency and structure -- individuals and institutions -- in perpetuating, and remedying, racial inequality? What is the role of law in undermining and/or entrenching racial stratification? Readings will be highly varied, coming from the fields of law, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, among others. Meeting Dates: This class will meet 4:15PM - 7:15PM on Thursday, September 29, October 27 and November 17. Elements used in grading: Grading will be based on participation, short reaction/response papers, and a final paper.

This course explores the co-articulation of language, race, and ethnicity with a particular emphasis on race relations in US contexts. We will examine the varieties of English spoken by minoritized racial/ethnic groups in conjunction with theories from sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and adjacent social sciences to problematize common notions surrounding race and language. No prior knowledge of linguistics is required for this course.