Fall 2020

This course introduces students to the varied peoples and cultures in the Caribbean region, including the historical, colonial, and contemporary political-economic contexts, as well as the religious, migratory, and other cultural practices. The Caribbean is composed of several islands united by the experiences of indigenous decimation, European colonization, and re-population...

Many researchers in the environmental sciences argue that human activities on the planet have created a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Arguments abound about what date should demarcate the onset of the Anthropocene – the rise in global consumption of goods and resources since the 1950s, the Industrial Revolution in...

The earliest civilizations on earth were found in such diverse settings as Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, China, Mexico and Central America, and Andean South America. These civilizations had huge cities’ powerful rulers, fascinating religious beliefs, and elaborate temples and palaces. In this course, we will study the...

What does it mean to think anthropologically? This course will provide an overview of the history and foundations of anthropological thought, with a special focus on the key method of anthropology: ethnography. Drawing on both classical and contemporary anthropological texts from a broad range of international settings, we will analyze...

Where did human beings come from? How did we come to inhabit the world? Why don’t we eat wild foods anymore? How did complex urban societies rise and fall? All this and more….. Professor Douglas Bamforth See the University Catalog for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

While we humans tend to focus on ourselves, the goal of this course is to examine the natural history and behavior of your closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. Through lectures, streaming videos and web based materials, you will explore the diversity of primates from an evolutionary, biological and ecological perspective...

This is a demanding upper-level cultural (and medical) anthropology course designed for advanced undergraduate and early graduate students interested in the intersections of science and the production of knowledge, the practice of medicine, and the effects on the health of diverse populations. The course uses a case study approach and...

This is a project-based, hands-on course. Students will experiment using different qualitative research methods in cultural anthropology such as participant observation, oral history, and interviewing. They will also practice writing fieldnotes, analysis and ethnography. Through practice and reflection on individual and group research projects, students will think critically about the...