81 - 90 of 337 results for: Anthropology

We live in politically turbulent times, and so much of the confounding social and political movements of our times seem to position themselves against 'the elite': feminist movements against patriarchal states, autonomists against neoliberal capitalism and the police, White nationalists, nativists and populist strongmen against 'liberals', etc. These expressions of social and political discontent stand oddly at their political opposites (Left v. Right), share common grievances around the lack of structural responses by the states and the international community towards climate change, neoliberalism, racism and the like. They also all use decentralized, global networks and mediascapes to make themselves present. This course looks at social formations that emerge at the absence, or in opposition to, state and elite control. We will begin by delving into the anthropological record to understand how people throughout history have developed forms of counter-power that delegitimized or put the elites in check. Then, we will look into contemporary ethnographic studies of social and political mobilization that might adopt such strategies of counter-power for different and often contradictory and antagonistic goals. Case-studies will be drawn from Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

What is masculinity? How are masculinities invested with power and meaning in cultural contexts? How is anthropological attention to them informed by and extending inquiry across the academy in spheres such as culture studies, political theory, gender studies, history, and science and technology studies? Limited enrollment. Significant work outside of class time is expected of the student for this course.

This course examines social, political, and religious dimensions of various Middle Eastern societies. Key topics include the development of the modern nation-state, the Islamic revival, human rights, and discourses of democracy. Course materials include ethnographic studies, novels, and films, which provide a rich contextualization of social life and cultural politics in the region.

This is a hands-on museum practicum course open to students of all levels that will culminate in a student-curated exhibit. It entails a survey of the range of museum responsibilities and professions including the purpose, potential, and challenges of curating collections. While based at the Stanford University Archaeology Collections (SUAC), we will visit other campus collections and sites. Students will plan and realize an exhibition at the Stanford Archaeology Center, gaining skills in collections management, research, interpretation, and installation.

In recent decades, there has been a surge in archaeological research related to the African diaspora. What initially began as plantation archaeology and household archaeology to answer questions of African retention and identity, has now developed into an expansive sub-field that draws from collaborations with biological and cultural anthropologists. Similarly, methodological approaches have expanded to incorporate geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and, more recently, maritime archaeological practices. The growth of African diaspora archaeology has thus pushed new methodological and theoretical considerations within the field of archaeology, and, inversely, added new insights in the field of Africana Studies. This course covers the thematic and methodological approaches associated with the historical archaeology of Africa and the African diaspora. Students interested in Africa and African diaspora studies, archaeology, slavery, and race should find this course useful. In addition to an overview of the development of African diaspora archaeology, students will be introduced to the major debates within the sub-field as well as its articulation with biological and socio-cultural anthropology. The course covers archaeological research throughout the wide geographical breadth of the African diaspora in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, East, and West Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The themes covered include gender, race, identity, religion, and ethics in relation to the material record. Lectures will be supplemented with documentary films and other multimedia sources.

The course discusses the politics and practices of exhumation of individual and mass graves. The problem of exhumations will be considered as a distinct socio-political phenomenon characteristic of contemporary times and related to transitional justice. The course will offer analysis of case studies of political exhumations of victims of the Dirty War in Argentina, ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, the Holocaust, communist violence in Poland, the Rwandan genocide, the Spanish Civil War, and the war in Ukraine. The course will make use of new interpretations of genocide studies, research of mass graves, such as environmental and forensic approaches.

In this course, we will explore the ways archaeology and disability relate to each other, including both the ways archaeologists interpret disability in the past and how ableism shapes the practice of archaeology in the present. We will examine a variety of theoretical frames drawn from Disability Studies and other disciplines and consider how they can be usefully applied to archaeology. Case studies from a variety of geographic and temporal contexts will provide the basis for imagining an anti-ableist archaeology. By the end of the quarter, students will be able to: 1. Articulate several major ideas from disability studies and apply them to archaeological case studies; 2. Explain how disability studies and disabled self-advocates are reshaping the practice of archaeology; 3. Demonstrate improvement in the research and writing skills that they have chosen to develop through the flexible assignment structure of the course.

Why do some organizations - technological, societal, or cultural - fail spectacularly, while others adapt and endure? How have some societies turned failure into a catalyst for creativity and transformation? What do ruins and dystopias have to say about the human condition? This course offers a concise survey of anthropological and archaeological case studies of failure that span diverse temporal and spatial scales. Topics include design flaws, maintenance lapses, unfulfilled promises, infrastructure breakdowns, and societal collapse. Students will examine how past human responses to these failures have succeeded or fallen short, gaining insights into solutions for building a resilient future at individual, community, and societal levels. In addition to case studies, the course introduces theoretical frameworks on failure drawn from philosophy, infrastructure studies, queer theory, and Anthropocene scholarship. By critically engaging with these perspectives, students will develop an expansive understanding of the complexities of failure and its implications for the past, present, and future.

Medical Humanities is a humanistic approach to the topic of medicine. The approach generally emphasizes the subjective experience of health and illness as captured through the expressive arts (painting, music and literature), expressed across historical periods and in different cultures, and interpreted by humanistic scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Its goal is to give students and scholars an opportunity to explore a more holistic and meaning-centered perspective on medical issues. It draws attention not only to diagnosis, but to the meaning and experience of diagnosis, to the way that medicine is an art form as well as a science, to the way institutions and culture shape the way illness is identified, experienced and treated. This workshop includes four sessions per quarter focused on scholarly or artistic presentation and professional development. Winter Quarter 2025 it will be held on the following Wednesdays from 5:30-7pm: April 15, April 29, May 13 and May 27.