Fall

AFST 10000. INTRODUCTION TO AFRICANA STUDIES Interdisciplinary foundation course presents overview of the historical, social, psychological, political, economic, and cultural experiences of all the major branches of people of African descent. Course focuses on the contributions and achievements of Africana people, with some emphasis on African Americans, and it explores the concerns as well as the challenges they face. Students are introduced to African-centered perspectives of prominent continental and diasporic scholars, artists, and activists, who mostly challenge the tenets and assumptions of the dominant cultural and intellectual paradigms. [AH, C, HSS, D]

AFST 21300. RACISM 101 Americans have historically found it difficult to discuss issues of racism openly. This course examines the historical foundations of racism towards Blacks as a vestige of chattel slavery in the United States. It explores various manifestations of racism in Black-White relationships in contemporary American society. [C, HSS, W, D]

ANTH 11000. INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY An introduction to the five fields used by anthropologists to explore broadly the variety of human groups that have developed across the globe and throughout time. The five fields include biological, cultural, linguistic, applied anthropology, and archaeology. The course will prepare students to take a holistic perspective on contemporary human cultures. It will also foster an appreciation of cultural relativity in the sense of understanding other cultures in their own terms as coherent and meaningful designs for living. [C, HSS, D, GE]

ANTH 19902. Global Youth Cultures and Politics This course provides an overview of anthropological and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of adolescence and youth, emphasizing how the definition and experiences of these groups vary cross-culturally. Using a range of text and audiovisual media, we will examine youth cultural production and agency, socialization, rites of passage, and subcultural styles, such as hip-hop and punk. We will also explore how states and citizens attempt to regulate and manage youth, and how youth in turn negotiate and resist these efforts. Other topics we will explore include youth activism, war and peacebuilding, youth media, play/labor, and the intersection of racism, sexism, classism, and nationalism on the lives of young people around the world.

ANTH 23110. PEOPLE AND CULTURES: CONTEMPORARY U.S. This course is designed as a general survey of some of the rich cultural traditions found in contemporary America. Each of these cultures is a product of their unique heritage combined with the influences of the colonial and contemporary elite power structures of Euro-American traditions. The readings and lectures focus on the multiplicity of beliefs that comprise an American culture, particularly those aspects that are concerned with the interrelationships between social structure, economics, politics, and religion. The readings and movies also provide differing perspectives on the cultural construction of festivals, landscape, gender, and race in terms of these social institutions. In addition, this course offers you an opportunity to explore many aspects of the discipline of cultural and social anthropology. Major theoretical issues in the anthropological consideration of the United States presented in this course include: fieldwork methodologies, symbol

ANTH 35200. CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY This course introduces students to important theoretical perspectives in sociocultural anthropology over the past half century. We begin with the broad paradigms that dominated anthropology till the 1980s, such as functionalism, cultural materialism, and cognitive and symbolic anthropology, and then move on to critical theory and to postmodern and feminist critiques, as well as theoretical work in selected subfields, such as medical anthropology. For each theoretical tradition covered, we focus on understanding its main ideas and underlying assumptions, situating its emergence in historical perspective, comparing and contrasting it with other theoretical approaches, and assessing its implications for understanding contemporary social issues. The course should prove useful to students who are searching for a research problem and theoretical framework for their senior independent study project. The final project for the course will involve developing a research p

ARCH 10300. INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY As an overview of the discipline, this course includes study of the historical development of archaeology, consideration of basic field and analytical methods, and a review of world prehistory beginning with the emergence of the first humans to the rise of civilization. Emphasis is on how archaeologists reconstruct past societies out of fragmentary evidence. Required prior to ARCH 35000 and recommended prior to other courses listed under Archaeological Perspectives and Methods, which best serve as specialized case studies. [HSS, D]

ARCH 40100. JUNIOR INDEPENDENT STUDY A one-semester course that focuses upon the research skills, methodology, and theoretical framework necessary for Senior Independent Study.