Spring 2022
ANTH 101 General Anthropology
Dr. Anna Agbe-Davies
An introduction to anthropology, the science of humans, the culture-bearing animal. Topics considered: human evolution and biological variations within and between modern populations, prehistoric and historical developments of culture, cultural dynamics viewed analytically and comparatively. Honors version available
ANTH 206: American Indian Societies.
Dr. Valerie Lambert
This course engages in an exploration of 20th– and 21st-century American Indian tribes in the United States. We will wrestle with material that provides insight into the experience and challenges of particular tribes or communities. As we learn about the different kinds of sociocultural landscapes and histories that shape Indian and non-Indian experience in these geographic spaces, we also gain a perspective on the range of experiences, problems, and challenges American Indians in the United States face both as tribes and as individuals.
ANTH 203: Approaches to American Indian Studies.
Dr. Valerie Lambert
A required class for the major in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (within the Department of American Studies), this class explores issues and topics in this interdisciplinary field from the perspective of historians, cultural anthropologists, archaeologists, religious-studies scholars, and artists.
ANTH 142. Local Cultures, Global Forces. 3 Credits.
Dr. Towns Middleton
This course provides an introduction to globalization, as seen through the lens of sociocultural anthropology. We will pay particular attention to cultural, economic, political, and social patterns in conflicts and institutions throughout the world. We will examine a number of specific issues that have taken different forms in various regions and cultures: colonialism and its legacies; conceptions and consequences of “development”; the construction of a global economy; the globalization of popular culture and consumerism; sources of ethnic and religious conflicts; migrations, diasporas, and multiculturalism; debates over the environment; global public health issues; and new social movements and global institutions.
ANTH 461. Colonialism and Postcolonialism: History and Anthropology. 3 Credits.
Dr. Towns Middleton
Is colonialism really a thing of the past? From the Americas to Africa and South and Southeast Asia, European imperialism forever altered the world. Its legacies remain with us today. This course explores how this has become the case—and what is to be done about it. Together we will be engaging the dynamic intellectual-political field of postcolonial theory. Drawing on history and anthropology, we will chart a deliberate path from the twilight of the formal colonial era, through the turbulence of decolonization, and into the lived realities of the postcolonial present.
ANTH 290: Covid-19 and Inequality
Dr. Angela Stuesse
When the world went into lockdown in spring 2020 and Americans were beginning to grapple with the sacrifices and losses still ahead in the global fight to “flatten the curve,” the Covid-19 pandemic was dubbed “the great equalizer” by politicians and the media alike. This disease would transcend age, nationality, race, wealth, and fame—we were told—as every human on the planet was equally vulnerable. However, as the days stretched into weeks and then months wore on, we learned that not everyone faced the same risk of infection, hospitalization, or death. Instead, long-standing social and economic inequalities set the stage for dramatically different pandemic experiences and outcomes. Centering cultural anthropology’s fundamental analytical frames of globalization, power, and inequality, this course explores how race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality have dramatically shaped communities’ lived realities in relation to the coronavirus.