ANTHRO 210: Environmental Archaeology (ANTHRO 110, ARCHLGY 110)
This course investigates the field of environmental archaeology. Its goals are twofold: 1) to critically consider the intellectual histories of environmental archaeology, and, 2) to survey the various techniques and methods by which archaeologists assess historical environmental conditions through material proxies. The course will include lab activities.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 5
ANTHRO 210B: Examining Ethnographies (ANTHRO 110B)
Eight or nine important ethnographies, including their construction, their impact, and their faults and virtues.
Last offered: Winter 2024
| Units: 5
ANTHRO 216: Data Analysis for Quantitative Research (ANTHRO 116)
An introduction to numeric methods in Anthropology and related fields employing the Data Desk statistics package to test hypotheses and to explore data. Examples chosen from the instructor's research and other relevant projects. No statistical background is necessary, but a working knowledge of algebra is important. Topics covered include: Frequency Distributions; Measures of Central Tendency, Dispersion, and Variability; Probability and Probability Distributions; Statistical Inference, Comparisons of Sample Means and Standard Deviations; Analysis of Variance; Contingency Tables, Comparisons of Frequencies; Correlation and Regression; Principal Components Analysis; Discriminant Analysis; and Cluster Analysis. Grading based on take-home problem sets.
Last offered: Autumn 2023
| Units: 5
ANTHRO 216B: Anthropology of the Environment (ANTHRO 116B, ARCHLGY 116B)
This seminar interrogates the history of anthropology's approach to the environment, beginning with early functionalist, structuralist, and Marxist accounts of human-environment relationships. It builds towards more recent developments in the field, focusing on nonhuman and relational ontologies as well as current projects on the intersections of nature, capital, politics, and landscape histories. At the end of this class, students will be familiar with the intellectual histories of environmental anthropology and contemporary debates and tensions around questions of ethics, agency, environment, and historical causality.
Last offered: Spring 2022
| Units: 5
ANTHRO 221B: "The Will to Adorn": An Anthropology of Dress (AFRICAAM 121B, ANTHRO 121B, ARCHLGY 121B, ARCHLGY 221B, FEMGEN 121B)
This seminar explores sartorial practices as a means for examining formations of identities and structural inequalities across space and time. Building off the definition of dress, pulled from Mary Ellen Roach-Higgins and Joanne B. Eicher, this course examines sartorial practices as social-cultural practices, shaped by many intersecting operations of power and oppression including racism, sexism, and classism, that involve modifications of the corporal form (i.e., scarification, body piercings, and hair alteration) as well as all three-dimensional supplements added to the body (i.e., clothing, hair combs, and jewelry). The emphasis on intersecting operations of power and oppression within this definition of dress draws on Kimberlé Crenshaw's conceptualization of intersectionality. Through case studies and examples from various parts of the world, we will explore multiple sources of data - documentary, material, and oral - that have come to shape the study of dress. We examine how dress intersects with facets of identity, including race, age, ethnicity, sexuality, and class.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Flewellen, A. (PI)
ANTHRO 224B: Environmental Justice and Anthropology (ANTHRO 124B)
This course builds on the idea that considering environmental and social justice concerns together is possible and necessary. As such, it examines key issues in environmental justice alongside anthropological studies of related social and environmental concerns. We will study topics related to cities, agriculture, extraction, water, toxicity, and climate, alongside attentions to racial capitalism, settler colonialism, development, war-making, and state-sanctioned violence. In doing so, we will center a critical race and historical perspective that is attentive to social and environmental dynamics that have shaped present injustices. Through readings, discussions, hands-on projects, and interactive classroom engagement, we will consider the ongoing lived, analytical, and political stakes of these issues. Further emphasis on environmental justice strategies and movements will enhance our critical and heterogeneous understanding of these topics, their lived impacts, and their alternative possibilities.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 5
ANTHRO 229C: A Deep Dive Into the Indian Ocean: From Prehistory to the Modern Day (ANTHRO 129C, ARCHLGY 129C, EBS 129, EBS 229, OCEANS 129C, OCEANS 229C)
The Indian Ocean has formed an enduring connection between three continents, countless small islands and a multitude of cultural and ethnic groups and has become the focus of increasing interest in this geographically vast and culturally diverse region. This course explores a range of topics and issues, from the nature and dynamics of colonization and cultural development as a way of understanding the human experience in this part of the world, to topics such as religion, disease, and heritage The course guides studies in the many ways in which research in the Indian Ocean has a direct impact on our ability to compare developments in the Atlantic and Pacific. Significant work outside of class time is expected of the student for this course.
Last offered: Autumn 2023
| Units: 3
ANTHRO 232: Anthropology of Islam (ANTHRO 132)
This course explores how anthropologists have approached the study of Islam, intervening in debates about power, agency, and identity. Reading recent ethnographies of Muslim societies, we will examine the legacies of colonialism, the past and future of feminist politics, and the limits of multicultural and multiracial democracy. A major aim of the course is to provide students with resources for thinking critically about the history and politics of modern Muslim societies, with a particular focus on issues of law and ethics, gender and sexuality, and minority politics.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Tambar, K. (PI)
ANTHRO 233: Masculinity: Technologies and Cultures of Gender in the Age of AI (ANTHRO 133, FEMGEN 133M)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Kohrman, M. (PI)
ANTHRO 237A: The Archaeology of Africa and African Diaspora History and Culture (AFRICAAM 125, ANTHRO 137A, ARCHLGY 137A, ARCHLGY 237A)
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 addit
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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.
Last offered: Autumn 2023
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI