Anthropology
Department Website:
https://www.haverford.edu/anthropology
Anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of human beings from a variety of perspectives—historical, linguistic, biological, social, and cultural—in pursuit of a deeper understanding of humankind and the promotion of informed social policy. Anthropologists:
- conduct “participant-observation” ethnographic research with diverse social groups in different parts of the world, examining how people imagine and structure their lives and aspirations.
- study social life and organization, modes of subsistence, exchange practices, the family, politics and power, ritual and religion, gender, and all forms of expressive culture.
- study social, economic, cultural, and political systems: how these systems are inhabited, contested, changed and reproduced over time.
- pay particular attention to the relationships between local contexts and broader global social, geographic and historical regimes and ideas.
- aim to address through ethnographic and documentary research the most pressing issues of our times, especially with reference to the effects of globalization, the challenges of social and ethnic diversity, and the pursuit of social justice in the domains of health, the environment, and human rights.
At Haverford we teach socio-cultural anthropology, which has three central traits:
- It is comparative: we compare social and cultural phenomena in one place to those in another and in relation to general theories about humans and human societies. This comparative method allows us to tease out what is unique and distinctive about the subject we are studying and what more generally tends to be true.
- It is holistic. We study practices and institutions as they are embedded in context.
- It involves participant-observation fieldwork. Social and cultural anthropologists live in the communities they are studying for extended periods of time, to build a perspective that integrates an insider’s and an outsider’s points of view.
Anthropologists have long studied both Western and non-Western civilizations, including people and social institutions re-imagining modernity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, paying particular attention to the value and diversity of the full human cultural record as well as to the contemporary predicaments of marginalized peoples. Ethnographers work on small-scale communities as well as processes of globalization. More recently scholars in anthropology have begun to focus their work also on powerful metropolitan and cosmopolitan social actors, both in the United States and globally. As ethnographers study the work of business people, planners, state officials, doctors, artists, and professionals in transnational institutions such as Wall Street and the World Bank, the discipline has made key contributions in critical debates about globalization, financial reform, public health, education, environment, and urbanization. Our curriculum is fully engaged with these areas of research and study.
Learning Goals
The anthropology major teaches students the methods of social and cultural research and analysis and introduces them to the history of anthropology. Students are encouraged to think critically and self-reflectively about several areas of intellectual inquiry, including:
- The discipline of anthropology:
- To understand the unique contribution of anthropology to the study of the social, and the ways in which it addresses the most pressing issues of our times.
- To learn how to situate strange and familiar social practices and cultural categories in shifting and contingent historical, economic, and political formations and structures.
- To recognize the impact of the position of the scholar in the production of knowledge.
- To know the key figures in anthropology and their specific theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to the history and development of the discipline.
- To understand key contemporary debates in the field and how older categories of race, culture, nation, and language have shaped recent theoretical innovations.
- To be familiar with the subfields of the discipline (e.g., political and legal anthropology, medical anthropology, the anthropology of religion, environmental anthropology, visual anthropology, etc.) and their contributions to interdisciplinary knowledge production.
- The craft and theory of anthropological research:
- To have first-hand experience of data-collection methods, including ethnographic field research, interviewing, and archival research.
- To understand the ethical obligations of an ethnographic researcher and to be able to engage others with respect and compassion.
- To be versed in the ethnographic record of more than one society; to develop a capacity to think comparatively across cultures; to problematize and analyze familiar practice and “common sense” in a new light.
- To understand the relationship between theory and empirical data, i.e.:
- how specific anthropologists have used theory to interpret and explain social and cultural formations, and
- how particular ethnographic situations and circumstances have allowed or required specific anthropologists to revise, critique, and improve theoretical models.
- To understand ethnography as a methodology and a genre of writing.
- The basic skills of anthropological writing and communicating anthropological knowledge:
- To be able to write a critical essay, a fieldnote, an academic book review, and a review of the literature for a topic of anthropological interest.
- To understand the difference between a scholarly argument that proves a particular point (interpretive, explanatory), and an argument that advocates an attitude or action.
- To be able to construct a sound argument supported by evidence and to be able to engage in scholarly debate.
- To understand the diverse media and forums through which anthropological knowledge is communicated to the public.
Haverford’s Institutional Learning Goals are available on the President’s website, at http://hav.to/learninggoals.
Major Requirements
Students are required to take a total of 11 courses in the major, including 6 required courses within the department. Individual programs require the advisor’s approval.
- ANTH H103, Introduction to Anthropology, preferably in the first or second year.
- ANTH H303, History and Theory of Anthropology, before the senior year.
- One course focused on an ethnographic or geographic area or a cohesive non-geographically specific field.
- One other 200-level course in this department.
- One other 300-level course in this department.
- Four additional courses approved by your major advisor.
- A two-credit, intensive Senior Thesis Seminar, during the fall and spring semesters of the senior year (ANTH H450 and ANTH H451).
All major programs require the approval of the major advisor. Students may count no more than one biological anthropology or archaeology course for the Haverford major. Students must take the remaining courses in the Haverford Anthropology Department, in an anthropology department within the Tri-Co or at Penn. Taking courses to count toward the major outside of Haverford’s Anthropology Department, outside of the discipline, or while studying abroad requires approval of the student’s advisor. Typically no more than two courses from outside of Tri-Co anthropology that relate to the student’s specific interests are counted towards the major though this can be discussed with the advisor in special cases.
Senior Project
The anthropology thesis is a year-long, two-credit independent research project designed and implemented by each senior anthropology major. Each student selects a research topic, defines a specific research question, describes how that question relates to a broader field of ethnographic and anthropological writing on the topic, conducts independent, original research with primary source materials that can be ethnographic, archival, and/or material, and develops and writes up an original argument, supported by evidence, about the primary source materials. This argument is informed by the relevant theory and by ethnographic and anthropological scholarship. Thus, a successful anthropology thesis will provide substantial evidence that students are able to conduct independent research and synthesize theoretical arguments with ethnographic materials, as well as displaying strong skills in presenting their research, and entering into intellectual dialogue with peers and faculty.
The senior thesis consists of two courses, ANTH H450 and ANTH H451. Anthropology 450 is a seminar course taught during the fall semester, typically by one faculty member who receives one teaching credit. For ANTH H450, students define their research question, write and rewrite a research prospectus, do ethnographic exercises, study professional ethics, familiarize themselves with IRBs, and conclude with a literature review of their topic. ANTH H451 is supervised research and writing. A faculty member receives one credit for supervising four to six senior theses. During ANTH H450, each student does guided research on their topic, drafts and writes a thesis, and does a public presentation of their thesis research, and takes an oral comprehensive exam.
Senior Project Learning Goals
- Define an anthropological research question.
- Situate their research question in a broader field of anthropological and scholarly inquiry.
- Conduct research with primary source materials (archival, ethnographic, and/or material).
- Develop an original argument about their primary source materials that is informed by relevant theory and anthropological literature.
Senior Project Assessment
For ANTH H450, students are assessed on a preliminary research proposal, a research prospectus, a literature review draft, a research presentation, and a literature review, as well as short in-class methodological exercises. For ANTH H451, students are assessed on their final thesis, public presentation, and oral exam. Two faculty members read and comment on each thesis. All faculty attend and evaluate the public presentations and the oral exams. The faculty collectively assign each student’s final grade for the course, as well as each of the three components (thesis, public presentation, and oral exam). The thesis also plays an important role in whether or not a student receives honors or highest honors in Anthropology.
Requirements for Honors
The faculty in the Department of Anthropology decides honors based upon overall excellence in the major:
- Outstanding work in the senior thesis (final written work and oral presentation).
- Strong cumulative performance in all anthropological coursework (typically a grade point average of 3.7 or higher).
- A record of consistent intellectual commitment and participation in the department.
Faculty awards high honors upon occasion, for exceptional contributions in all three areas.
Minor Requirements
The minor in anthropology consists of six courses, including:
- ANTH H103, Introduction to Anthropology
- ANTH H303, History and Theory of Anthropology
- An ethnographic area course
- Three other courses at the 200 or 300 level, including one course at the 300 level.
Minors must take a minimum of three courses in the Haverford department. All minor programs require approval of the minor advisor.
Faculty
Michael D'ArcyVisiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Laurie Hart
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Emily Hong
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Visual Studies
Wyatt MacGaffey
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Joshua Moses
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies; Visual Culture, Arts, and Media Faculty Fellow (2020-2022)
Zolani Ngwane
Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology
Zainab Saleh
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Zeynep Sertbulut
Visiting Assist Professor of Anthropology
Affiliated Faculty
Guangtian Ha
Assistant Professor of Religion
Terry Snyder
Visiting Associate Professor, Librarian of the College
Anna West
Assistant Professor and Director of Health Studies
Affiliated Faculty at Bryn Mawr
Gary McDonogh
Helen Herrmann Chair and Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities
Faculty of the Bryn Mawr Department of Anthropology
Courses
ANTH H103 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Zolani Ngwane
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
An introduction to the basic ideas and methods of social anthropology. Examines major theoretical and ethnographic concerns of the discipline from its origins to the present, such as family and kinship, production and reproduction, history and evolution, symbolism and representation, with particular attention to such issues as race and racism, gender and sexuality, class, and ethnicity. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who have completed BMC ANTH 102
(Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2024)
ANTH H106 SENSING BEYOND THE HUMAN (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the political, social, and historical dimensions that shape human attempts to extend their sensory capacities, usually through a proxy, delegate, or sentinel. It will examine how colonialism, race, gender, sexuality, and surveillance have shaped the human desire to perceive in extraordinary ways. Pre-requisite(s): None
ANTH H109 VISUAL APPROACHES TO AUTOETHNOGRAPHY (1.0 Credit)
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression
A visual project-based seminar that introduces students to the concept of autoethnography. A visual approach to autoethnography blends autobiography (cultural memoir), ethnography, and visual expression to interpret human experience. Through discussion-driven presentations, a short selection of readings, and “visual voice” media-making exercises, this course explores how personal reflections, epiphanies, and articulations of an individual’s perspective can serve as a basis for critical, cultural inquiry. Students will create visual vignettes as well as a final project. Crosslisted: ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None Lottery Preference: Visual studies minors, anthropology majors
ANTH H212 FEMINIST ETHNOGRAPHY (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course delves into the historical development and utility of feminist anthropology. Feminist Ethnography is both methodology and method that seeks to explore how gender, race, sexuality, and subjectivity operate in a variety of contexts. We will explore articulations and critiques of feminist ethnographic methods that engage researcher positionality and the politics of research. This course is one part analytic and another part how-to. Participants will read classic and contemporary ethnographies while learning to craft auto-ethnographic research. Prerequisite(s): One ANTH course or instructor consent
ANTH H222 HUMAN RIGHTS AND CULTURE (1.0 Credit)
Zeynep Sertbulut
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. At the heart of this course is the question of “culture” and its relation to human rights. We will focus on the tensions and translations between human rights and culture and between global ideas and practices and local ones. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice and theorizing the intersections between social fields thought of as global and local. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, Justice and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): Intro to Anthropology OR Intro to PJHR
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H233 DECOLONIZING VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Emily Hong
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World
This is a hybrid video production and theory course which grapples with the entanglements between ethnographic film/documentary and colonial structures of power. We will bring a decolonizing lens to explore—through texts, screenings, and making films—major modalities in the field including sensory ethnography, indigenous media, and feminist experimental film. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): at least one course in Anthropology or Visual Studies
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H239 VISIONS OF JUSTICE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND LEGAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN ASIAN CINEMA (1.0 Credit)
Emily Hong
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts)
This course aims to deepen our understanding of Asian law and society through independent films by Asian directors. We will analyze films that offer a window into individual and collective struggles for gender justice, freedom of expression, and environmental justice. Crosslisted: Visual Studies; Anthropology; East Asian Languages & Cultures; Peace, Justice and Human Rights
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H245 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF AFRICA: CULTURE, POWER AND IDENTITY (1.0 Credit)
Zolani Ngwane
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course is a historical overview of some classic and contemporary ethnographic studies of Africa. The course focuses on the contribution of social anthropology to our understanding of the history and socio-cultural identities and practices of the people of Africa. Crosslisted: Anthropology, Africana Studies
ANTH H250 READING MEXICO, READING ETHNOGRAPHY (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course examines the ethnography of contemporary Mexico, focusing upon themes such as gender, ethnic, and class inequality; social movements and protest; nationalism and popular culture; and urbanization and migration. Class will begin by exploring various approaches to reading, writing, and analyzing ethnographic texts; through deep reading of select ethnographies, we will examine the relationships between power, culture, and identity in Mexico while assessing current trends in anthropological fieldwork and ethnographic writing.
ANTH H265 MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Michael D'Arcy
Division: Humanities
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
What does it mean to attempt a critical anthropology of the body, illness experience, disease etiology, healing practices, and the epistemology of contemporary biomedicine across a diverse group of cultures and traditions? This course seeks to begin to answer this and other questions by examining the historical development of the field of medical anthropology, exploring the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the debates that have shaped the field, and examining the methodological concerns and ethnographic investigations that have broadened the scope of its inquiry. Readings range from classical ethnographic writings, philosophical treatises, anthropological theory, indigenous philosophers, and first person accounts of illness and health.
(Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2024)
ANTH H269 DISASTER: DISCOURSES OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This class offers students an opportunity to develop a broad vocabulary of international policy 'buzz words', while also honing critical inquiry and discourse analysis skills around international solidarity and the imaginaries of human suffering that underlie moral imperatives to international action. Crosslisted: Anthropology; Peace, justice, and Human Rights Prerequisite(s): PEAC H101, PEAC H201 or instructor's approval
ANTH H271 THE BODY AND EMBODIMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST (1.0 Credit)
Zainab Saleh
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course surveys anthropological and historical approaches to the body and embodiment in the Middle East, with a focus on themes of representation and power. Our aim is to read up, across, and through prisms of class, gender, and colonialism to better grasp at the stakes of politics and to question the contours and limits of the normal, the healthy, the able, and the pious. Pre-requisite(s): one 100-level course in Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, or History
ANTH H272 THE POLITICS OF PARADISE: AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF TOURISM (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
What does tourism sell? How do touristic representations of place condition our engagement with destinations, its people, and the histories they embody? This seminar explores tourism beyond vacation and pleasure to consider its implications as a model for development, nation branding, environmental protection, heritage conservation, and the commodification of traumatic histories through “dark tourism.”
ANTH H273 LAW AND ANTHROPOLOGY: THE WAR ON DRUGS (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course explores anthropological approaches to the law and legal regimes, with special emphasis on the relationship between law, power and politics, social hierarchy and the institutionalization of inequality in the United States in the context of the War on Drugs. We will consider how this happens through an extended study of criminalization, punishment, mass incarceration and The War on Drugs in the United States. We will explore the effects of the criminalization system on drug users, communities, and incarcerated people themselves, and discuss the relationship between criminalization processes and other modes of social segregation and stratification.
ANTH H274 PRISON ABOLITION: HISTORY, THEORY, & PRACTICE (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
In this course, students will engage with the contemporary prison abolition movement as both a vision for the future and a concrete set of strategies to create safety and undo incarceration in the present. Pre-requisite(s): One introductory level course in Anthropology.
ANTH H275 RACE AND REPRESENTATION IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING (1.0 Credit)
Zeynep Sertbulut
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World
This is an introductory cross-listed (Visual Studies/Anthropology) production course on the theory and practice of documentary filmmaking through an exploration of race onscreen. The objective of the course is to enable students to build a critical awareness of the ways in which film and media in general perpetuate racist discourses and representations and explore how students can challenge such representations through their own filmmaking practices. As inspiration, we will watch and study a wide variety of innovative documentary films that bring alternative voices and histories to screen and read/watch filmmaker interviews. Classes will combine elements of a studio (sharing and critiquing filmmaking work in progress) and seminar (discussing weekly themes). Crosslisted: VIST. Lottery Preference: Senior students in anthropology and visual studies have a priority to take this class.
(Offered: Fall 2023)
ANTH H276 GLOBAL MEDIA WORLDS (1.0 Credit)
Zeynep Sertbulut
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course takes an anthropological approach to examine social and cultural practices of media production, circulation, and consumption. Drawing on ethnographic studies from around the world, it provides an overview of the increasing theoretical attention given to media by anthropologists. It examines cross-culturally how media as representation and as cultural practice have been fundamental to the formation and transformation of subjectivities, collectivities and social relations in the contemporary world. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.
(Offered: Fall 2023)
ANTH H277 MEDIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST (1.0 Credit)
Zeynep Sertbulut
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
What can we learn about the Middle East by examining media? What can we about media by studying institutions of production and practices of consumption in the Middle East region? In this course, we will read ethnographies of media from the Middle East and look at and listen to media. We will explore cases from different countries, from Egypt to Syria, Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Palestine/Israel. Crosslisted: VIST. Pre-requisite(s): 100-level course in social sciences, or humanities. Lottery Preference: Senior anthropology students have a priority to take the class.
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H278 DECOLONIZING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
What does it mean to decolonize science and technology? How are scientific knowledge and various technologies produced under or against colonialism? This course grapples with these questions by engaging with anthropologies and histories of scientific knowledge production, the deployment of technology in (ongoing) colonial projects, and the entangled politics of science, technology, and society. Students learn about contemporary efforts to conduct scientific research and innovate technology in the global South. Lottery Preference: Students waitlisted for ANTH H106 (Fall 2022 only); Anthropology Students
ANTH H281 INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Joshua Moses
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
An introduction to the ideas and methods central to environmental anthropology. Topics covered will include political ecology, crises and uncertainty, indigeneity and community management.
ANTH H302 OIL, CULTURE, POWER (1.0 Credit)
Zainab Saleh
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course will examine the political, social, and cultural history of oil. As the single most important commodity in the world, the story of control over this highly prized resource is a complex and violent one. It will discuss the ways in which oil has defined the fates empires and nation-states, the rise and fall of local political movements, violence, neoliberal governmentality, and knowledge production. Prerequisite(s): One 100-level course in anthropology, political science, sociology, or history, or instructor consent
ANTH H303 HISTORY AND THEORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Zolani Ngwane
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
The development of anthropological thought. Theories of society and the human subject, social organization and social structure, and the culture concept. Structuralism, Marxist anthropology, the crisis of representation in the 1980s and 1990s, postmodernism, the relationship between ethnography and history, and practice theory. Prerequisite(s): One course in ANTH, excluding BMC ANTH B303
(Offered: Fall 2023)
ANTH H314 FEMINIST FILMMAKING STUDIO (1.0 Credit)
Emily Hong
Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Creative Expression; B: Analysis of the Social World
Through engagement with intersectional and decolonial feminist theory, students will work to deconstruct and challenge dominant gazes in film. Students will translate theoretical and autoethnographic insights to filmmaking practice by producing a short film.. Crosslisted: Visual Studies, Anthropology Prerequisite(s): any course in anthropology, visual studies, or gender and sexuality studies or instructor consent
ANTH H317 ETHNOGRAPHIES OF MAGIC AND THE MAGIC OF ETHNOGRAPHY (1.0 Credit)
Guangtian Ha
Division: Humanities
Domain(s): A: Meaning, Interpretation (Texts); B: Analysis of the Social World
Do ethnographies of magic exude their own magical quality, thus enfolded into the very thing they purport to explain? This seminar examines what constitutes ‘good’ ethnographic writing, and in what manner ethnography may be considered a type of modernist literature that crosses over into the science of social investigation. Crosslisted: ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): at least one 100-level course on Religion or Anthropology, preferably a 200-level course in either field Lottery Preference: 1. Religion majors and minors 2. Anthropology majors and minors
ANTH H319 DEVIANT BODIES: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER AND RACE (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
What is the relationship between white supremacy, racial capitalism, and the construction of gender difference, gender deviance, and racial hierarchy? How can we think about gender non-normativity as a challenge to racial capitalism and its regimes of value, while simultaneously recognizing the dangers of recuperating white gender nonconformity into the ruling racial regime? In this course, students will encounter scholars from a range of disciplines—anthropology, Black studies, history, performance studies, and comparative literature—exposing the colonial invention and imposition of race/sex difference as a foundational move of colonialism, transatlantic slavery, and capitalism. In the second half of the course, taking cues from Ferguson’s Aberrations in Black, Williamson’s Scandalize My Name, and McMillan’s Embodied Avatars, we will consider the (trans) liberation politics that coalesce through antinormative gendered positions refuting racial capitalism’s regimes of value. Prerequisite(s): 100 level course in Anthropology or Instructor consent
ANTH H326 WHITENESS IN ANTHROPOLOGY (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
The violence of whiteness is occluded and concealed by treating whiteness and white people as normative, rational, and inevitable. In this class, we will turn our analytic gaze upon whiteness itself, exposing its insidious modes of self-and-other construction, and destabilizing its ocular power to define others. We will pay special attention to how the white, “colonial gaze” has operated in the purportedly-liberal discipline of anthropology, and explore ethnographic methods for studying whiteness and white supremacy. Pre-requisite(s): Two prior courses in Anthropology, or permission of the instructor.
ANTH H328 THE FIGHT AGAINST IMPUNITY: THE TURN TO INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course traces the conceptual shift or ‘turn’ towards individual criminal prosecutions for grave violations of human rights and humanitarian principles, the related conceptual shifts (from responsibility to individual accountability or from human rights reporting to evidence collection) and the international, national and regional organizations that are part of this turn. This is an interdisciplinary course offering students an introduction to the field of international criminal justice. Through a series of weekly ‘dossiers’, with readings drawn from a wide range of sources including academic literature, NGO reports, blog posts, Twitter threads and case law, we will explore the emergence of international criminal justice as a distinct field of practice and seek to uncover the underlying assumptions and principles that inform the field. This course will offer an introduction to international criminal law as a legal framework. At the same time, we will work to situate this legal framework within broader, interdisciplinary conversations and current affairs: justice and social repair, humanitarianism, the role of non-state actors and civil society, international development, the influence of technology and social media, etc. Crosslisted: Peace, Justice and Human Rights; Anthropology Prerequisite(s): 200 level course in PJHR, ANTH or POLS, or consent of instructor
ANTH H331 CRITIQUES OF THE HUMAN FROM AFRICA (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This advanced seminar focuses on approaches from Africa and the diaspora that consider the category, experience, and radical potential of being (post)human. Course readings and discussions challenge and reframe desires to transcend or go beyond the bodily, psychological, and technological limits of the human, situated in Africa and the diaspora. We engage with ethnographies and histories of/from Africa by anti-colonial writers, postcolonial leaders, Black feminists, storytellers, scholars, and working people in Africa and beyond. Pre-requisite(s): One course in Anthropology, or permission by instructor Lottery Preference: None
ANTH H332 OWNERS OF THE SIDEWALK: AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF INFORMALITY (1.0 Credit)
Staff
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course traces the history of neoliberalism in a global context with particular attention to informal practices in the global south and in cities with large immigrant populations. It contemplates the ways in which city-dwellers, who often experience various forms of vulnerability, generate networks of communication, care, resource management, entrepreneurialism in order to survive amidst the changing urban landscape. Geographic areas include the North America, Latin America, continental Africa and Asia. Pre-requisite(s): One course in anthropology or permission of the instructor
ANTH H333 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF MIGRATION AND GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH: POLITICS, EPISTEMOLOGIES, CRITIQUES (1.0 Credit)
Michael D'Arcy
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
How should anthropologists think about the relationship between migration and ongoing debates in the international psychiatric community about global mental health in theory and practice? What happens when both people and ideas move across political borders, between institutions of care, and through the historical and intellectual borderlands that sit between different healing traditions? This course explores these and other related questions through a variety of readings in sociocultural and medical anthropology with a focus on the subjects of the politics of asylum, medical humanitarianism, and transcultural psychiatry. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): 200 level course in Anthropology, Heath Studies, History, Sociology, Political science, or Peace Justice and Human Rights. Lottery Preference: Anthropology and Health Studies seniors.
ANTH H334 RACE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES (1.0 Credit)
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course explores how race is intertwined with infectious diseases in producing persistent social and health inequalities in the U.S. and abroad. It will examine how human group difference is understood as a given and natural condition despite sociocultural, historical, political, and economic contexts that shape it. It will deal with incidents demonstrated racialized understanding of the body and racial discrimination and inequalities perpetuated in the context of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Ebola, Cholera and Covid 19. Crosslisted: AFST,ANTH. Pre-requisite(s): None. Lottery Preference: declared Health Studies minors, then African studies minors or Anthropology majors
ANTH H335 THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ECSTASY: PSYCHE, SOMA, AND THE OUT-OF-BODY (1.0 Credit)
Michael D'Arcy
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
How should contemporary anthropology understand trance, possession, and ecstatic experience? Through course readings, we will interrogate normative understandings of the relationship between mind, body, and collective life via a range of classical and contemporary anthropological texts. Drawing upon diverse theoretical paradigms such as symbolic and structural anthropology, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology, we will explore the ways in which individual engagements with collective life act directly upon and constitute this mind/body interface, at times destabilizing it altogether. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): 200 level course in the social sciences Lottery Preference: I would prefer students who are majoring in anthropology and/or health studies be given preference.
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H336 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, MEDICINE, POWER: (DE)COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION & EPISTEMOLOGICAL COMMUNITY (1.0 Credit)
Michael D'Arcy
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
This course traces the relationship between scientific knowledge production, notions of technological "progress," and political, economic, and institutional power through the disciplinary histories of anthropology and Science and Technology Studies. Texts will include STS classics that frame contemporary science and medicine as the products of political and economic history, as well as work in anthropology and STS that center non-western and indigenous traditions of knowledge and the voices of BIPOC and feminist scholars. Crosslisted: HLTH. Pre-requisite(s): Introductory level coursework in anthropology (sociocultural or medical) or health studies Lottery Preference: Anthropology, health studies, history, political science
(Offered: Fall 2023)
ANTH H337 ANTHROPOLOGY OF WRITING AND THE POLITICS/POETICS OF INTERTEXTUALITY (1.0 Credit)
Zolani Ngwane
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
An interdisciplinary exploration of writing as a social institution, personal ritual, cultural artifact and a technology, this course theorizes the interface between tradition and innovation as a way to think about intertextuality using Jewish American fiction as a case study Crosslisted: COML
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H353 CITIZENSHIP, MIGRATION, AND BELONGING (1.0 Credit)
Zainab Saleh
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
Migration, displacement and tourism at a mass scale are a modern phenomenon. These different forms of movements have intensified debates over the other, identity, home, and exile. This course offers a critical examination of the question of human movement in the age of globalization. Some of the issues that will we focus on include: national identity and globalization, mass media, nostalgia and the notion of home, and imagination of the past/home among migrant groups. The course will also explore new academic approaches that have emphasized hybrid identities and double-consciousness among both migrant communities and the host countries. Crosslisted: Anthropology, PJHR Prerequisite(s): one 200-level course in ANTH, POLS, SOCL, or HIST, or instructor consent
ANTH H450 SENIOR SEMINAR: RESEARCH AND WRITING (1.0 Credit)
Emily Hong
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
The fall semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students do archival and ethnographic research, write a research prospectus, get training on ethics, and write a review of the anthropological literature on their area of inquiry.
(Offered: Fall 2023)
ANTH H451 SENIOR SEMINAR: SUPERVISED RESEARCH AND WRITING (1.0 Credit)
Emily Hong, Michael D'Arcy, Zeynep Sertbulut, Zolani Ngwane
Division: Social Science
Domain(s): B: Analysis of the Social World
The spring semester of the two-semester senior thesis seminar. Students complete research on their thesis and write an ethnography. Most of the semester is individual meetings between thesis writers and advisors. The spring senior thesis seminar includes a public thesis presentation and an oral exam.
(Offered: Spring 2024)
ANTH H480 INDEPENDENT STUDY (1.0 Credit)
Zolani Ngwane