Courses - Spring, Summer and Fall 2023

For information on class days and times, enrollment limits, enrollment status, course fees and classroom locations, visit the Online Directory of Classes at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/  

Registration begins for most Schools on Monday, November 14, 2022

COURSES IN SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:

Anthropology UN1002y THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURE.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Syantani Chatterjee. The anthropological approach to the study of culture and human society. Case studies from ethnography are used in exploring the universality of cultural categories (social organization, economy, law, belief system, art, etc.) and the range of variation among human societies.  Mandatory recitation sections:  TBA.

Anthropology UN1009y INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. 3 pts.  Instructor:  Mara Green.  This is an introduction to the study of the production, interpretation, and reproduction of social meanings as expressed through language. In exploring language in relation to culture and society, it focuses on how communication informs and transforms the sociocultural environment.   

Anthropology UN2005y THE ETHNOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION.  3 pts.  Instructor:  María José de Abreu.  Introduction to the theory and practice of “ethnography”—the intensive study of peoples’ lives as shaped by social relations, cultural images, and historical forces. Considers through critical reading of various kinds of texts (classic ethnographies, histories, journalism, novels, films) the ways in which understanding, interpreting, and representing the lived words of people—at home or abroad, in one place or transnationally, in the past or the present—can be accomplished. Mandatory recitation sections:  TBA.

Anthropology UN2017y MAFIAS AND OTHER DANGEROUS AFFILIATIONS.  3 pts. Instructor:  Naor Ben-Yehoyada.  Regimes of various shapes and sizes tend to criminalize associations, organizations, and social relations that these ruling powers see as anathema to the social order on which their power depends: witches, officers of toppled political orders, alleged conspirators (rebels, traitors, terrorists, and dissidents), gangsters and mafiosi, or corrupt officers and magnates. Our main goal will be to understand how and under what conditions do those with the power to do so define, investigate, criminalize and prosecute those kinds of social relations that are cast as enemies of public order. We will also pay close attention to questions of knowledge – legal, investigative, political, journalistic, and public – how doubt, certainty, suspicion and surprise shape the struggle over the relationship between the state and society.  The main part of the course is organized around six criminal investigations on mafia-related affairs that took place from the 1950s to the present (two are undergoing appeal these days) in western Sicily. After the introductory section, we will spend two weeks (four meetings) on every one of these cases. We will follow attempts to understand the Mafia and similarly criminalized organizations, and procure evidence about it. We will then expand our inquiry from Sicily to cases from all over the world, to examine questions about social relations, law, the uses of culture, and political imagination.

*Although this is a social anthropology course, no previous knowledge of anthropology is required or presumed. Classroom lectures will provide necessary disciplinary background.  Mandatory recitation sections:  TBA.

Anthropology UN3356y EARTH WORKS: ANTHROPOLOGY, ART, EXTRACTION.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Rosalind Morris.  This undergraduate seminar is offered to students interested in the anthropological analysis of extractive economies and the social and political forms associated with them, as well as the arts through which they have been made the object of both investment and resistance. The course this semester will be focused on mining, and is organized along three axes: 1) mineral object; 2) socioeconomic form; and 3) aesthetics, with the latter including the arts of artisanal extraction, and literary, visual and media artistic practice.  Permission of the instructor is required.  Enrollment Priorities:  Majors Preferred.  

Anthropology UN3665y THE POLITICS OF CARE.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Lesley Sharp. What are the consequences of entrenched inequalities in the context of care? How might we (re)imagine associated practices as political projects? Wherein lie the origins of utopic and dystopic visions of daily survival? How might we track associated promises and failures as they travel across social hierarchies, nationalities, and geographies of care? And what do we mean when we speak of “care”? These questions define the scaffolding for this course. Our primary goals throughout this semester are threefold.  First, we begin by interrogating the meaning of “care” and its potential relevance as a political project in medical and other domains. Second, we will track care’s associated meanings and consequences across a range of contents, including urban and rural America, an Amazonia borderland, South Africa, France, and Mexico. Third, we will address temporal dimensions of care, as envisioned and experienced in the here-and-now, historically, and in a futuristic world of science fiction. Finally, and most importantly, we will remain alert to the relevance of domains of difference relevant to care, most notably race, gender, class, and species. Note:  instructor Permission is required for Non-Majors.

Anthropology UN3703y CLIMATE CHANGE AND COLONIALISM.  4 pts.  Instructor: Dilshanie Perera.  In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognized colonialism’s contributions to the climate crisis, citing its “historical and ongoing patterns of inequity.” This was the first time that this group of climate experts had ever formally acknowledged colonialism, despite activists, writers, artists, and scholars from around the world emphasizing the devastations of colonial extractions. A sole focus on the present and future of the climate crisis obscures a deeper understanding of how the crisis came to be. This course asks: How has colonialism, namely, colonial processes of domination, extraction, control, dispossession, knowledge-making, and violence, created the climate crisis as well as enduring inequalities? How does the past intimately structure the possibilities of the present? How can an understanding of colonialism’s “historical and ongoing” effects deepen calls for climate justice? This interdisciplinary seminar features an anthropological and historical exploration of the specificities of colonial regimes’ extractive violence against people, land, and resources. We will see how climate change is intensified through unequal social, political, and economic distributions of harm and advantage, and how climate vulnerability is created and maintained.  The goal of the course is to provide students with conceptual tools for historicizing climate change, and for critically engaging the consequences of colonial relations of power.

Anthropology BC3808y PUNISHMENT CULTURE. 4 pts.  Instructor:  Kaya Williams.  What is punishment, and what might attention to punitive practices teach us about the cultures in which they are used? Modern American culture is so saturated with punishment that it is difficult to know where to begin such an investigation. From childhood education to mass incarceration and from the crafting of financial futures to the training of horses and dogs, punishment is ubiquitous and often unquestioned. In many cases, punishment is the thread that connects allegedly disparate institutions and produces allegedly unforeseen forms of violence. In this course we will question both the practice and its prevalence, combining a genealogy of the concept with case studies in its modern use.  Notes: Open to Anthro majors; others require instructor Permission.

Anthropology UN3828y THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF WAR.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Nadia Abu El-Haj.  In this class, we will think about the various ways in which philosophers, social theorists, historians and anthropologists have thought about war, violence, and responsibility. The course focuses on a set of themes and questions: for example, the nature of violence and the question of responsibility or accountability, shifting technologies of warfare, and the phenomenology and aftermath of warfare, for civilians and for combatants. The reading list incorporates different approaches to such questions—from historical to philosophical to ethnographic accounts. Permission of the instructor is required.

Anthropology BC3868y ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH IN NYC.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Kaya Williams. This course provides the aspiring anthropologist with an array of primarily qualitative methodological tools essential to successful urban fieldwork. As such, it is a practicum of sorts, where regular field assignments help build one’s ability to record and analyze social behavior by drawing on several key data collection techniques. Because we have the luxury of inhabiting a large, densely populated, international city, this class requires that you take a head-first plunge into urban anthropology. The NYC area will define the laboratory for individually- designed research projects. Be forewarned, however! Ethnographic engagement involves efforts to detect social patterns, but it is often a self-reflexive exercise, too. Readings provide methodological, analytical, and personal insights into the skills, joys, and trials that define successful field research. Enrollment limit is 15.  Open to Barnard Anthropology majors; others need Instructor permission.

Anthropology BC3872y SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR II.  4 pts.  Instructors: Paige West, J.C. Salyer, and Camilla Sturm.  Prerequisites: Must complete ANTH BC3871x. Limited to Barnard Senior Anthropology Majors. Offered every Spring. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a Senior Essay in Anthropology will accompany research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual Senior Essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and her adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department each semester. Notes: Open to Barnard Anthropology majors.  Others need the permission of the instructors.

Anthropology UN3880y LISTENING: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF SOUND SEMINAR.  4 pts. Instructor: John Pemberton. We explore the possibilities of an ethnography of sound through a range of listening encounters: in resonant urban soundscapes of the city and in natural soundscapes of acoustic ecology; from audible pasts and echoes of the present; through repetitive listening in the age of electronic reproduction, and mindful listening that retraces an uncanniness inherent in sound. Silence, noise, voice, chambers, reverberation, sound in its myriad manifestations and transmissions.  From the captured souls of Edison’s phonography, to everyday acoustical adventures, the course turns away from the screen and dominant epistemologies of the visual for an extended moment, and does so in pursuit of sonorous objects.  How is it that sound so moves us as we move within its world, and who or what then might the listening subject be? Permission of the instructor is required.

Anthropology UN3939y THE ANIME EFFECT: MEDIA AND TECHNOCULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Marilyn Ivy. Culture, technology, and media in contemporary Japan. Theoretical and ethnographic engagements with forms of mass mediation, including anime, manga, video, and cell-phone novels. Considers larger global economic and political contexts, including post-Fukushima transformations. Permission of the instructor is required.

Anthropology UN3947y TEXT, MAGIC, PERFORMANCE.  4 pts.  Instructor:  John Pemberton.  This course pursues interconnections linking text and performance in light of magic, ritual, possession, narration, and related articulations of power. Readings are drawn from classic theoretical writings, colonial fiction, and ethnographic accounts. Domains of inquiry include: spirit possession, trance states, séance, ritual performance, and related realms of cinematic projection, musical form, shadow theater, performative objects, and (other) things that move on their own, compellingly. Key theoretical concerns are subjectivity - particularly, the conjuring up and displacement of self in the form of the first-person singular I - and the haunting power of repetition. Retraced throughout the course are the uncanny shadows of a fully possessed subject --within ritual contexts and within everyday life.  Permission of the instructor is required. This course counts toward the Global Core requirement.

Anthropology UN3998y SUPERVISED INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH. 2-6 pts.  Anthropology Instructors.  Prerequisite: the written permission of the staff member under whose supervision the research will be conducted.

Anthropology UN3999y SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR IN ANTHROPOLOGY.  4 pts.  Instructor: Brinkley Messick.  Students must have declared a major in Anthropology prior to registration. Students must have a 3.6 GPA in the major and a preliminary project concept in order to be considered. Interested students must communicate/meet with thesis instructor in the previous spring about the possibility of taking the course during the upcoming academic year. Additionally, expect to discuss with the instructor at the end of the fall term whether your project has progressed far enough to be completed in the spring term. If it has not, you will exit the seminar after one semester, with a grade based on the work completed during the fall term. This two-term course is a combination of a seminar and a workshop that will help you conduct research, write, and present an original senior thesis in anthropology. Students who write theses are eligible to be considered for departmental honors. The first term of this course introduces a variety of approaches used to produce anthropological knowledge and writing; encourages students to think critically about the approaches they take to researching and writing by studying model texts with an eye to the ethics, constraints, and potentials of anthropological research and writing; and gives students practice in the seminar and workshop formats that are key to collegial exchange and refinement of ideas. During the first term, students complete a few short exercises that will culminate in a substantial draft of one discrete section of their senior project (18-20 pages) plus a detailed outline of the expected work that remains to be done (5 pages). The spring sequence of the anthropology thesis seminar is a writing intensive continuation of the fall semester, in which students will have designed the research questions, prepared a full thesis proposal that will serve as a guide for the completion of the thesis and written a draft of one chapter. Only those students who expect to have completed the fall semester portion of the course are allowed to register for the spring; final enrollment is contingent upon successful completion of first semester requirements. In spring semester, weekly meetings will be devoted to the collaborative refinement of drafts, as well as working through issues of writing (evidence, voice, authority etc.). All enrolled students are required to present their project at a symposium in the late spring, and the final grade is based primarily on successful completion of the thesis/ capstone project. Note: The senior thesis seminar is open to CC and GS majors in Anthropology only. It requires the instructor’s permission for registration. Students must have a 3.6 GPA in the major and a preliminary project concept in order to be considered. Interested students should communicate with the thesis instructor and the director of undergraduate study in the previous spring about the possibility of taking the course during the upcoming academic year. Additionally, expect to discuss with the instructor at the end of the fall term whether your project has progressed far enough to be completed in the spring term. If it has not, you will exit the seminar after one semester, with a grade based on the work completed during the fall term. Requirements: Students must have completed the requirements of the first semester of the sequence and seek instructor approval to enroll in the second.  Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor is required.

Anthropology GU4108y FILM AT LOW TEMPERATURES: CINEMAS OF THE ARCTIC.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Tyler Adkins. This seminar explores the screen cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Polar and Circumpolar regions of Canada, The United States, Russia, Scandinavia, and Greenland as they exist at the unstable boundary between cinematic object and creative subject. Viewing work by Indigenous filmmakers, we will draw on from Indigenous Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Film Studies to examine the complicated role of film in the Arctic.

Anthropology GU4143y ACCUSATION. 3 pts.  Instructor:  Rosalind Morris.  This course examines the politics and practices of collective accusation in comparative perspective. It treats these phenomena in their relation to processes of political and economic transition, to discourses of crisis, and to the practices of rule by which the idea of exception is made the grounds for extreme claims on and for the social body-usually, but not exclusively, enacted through forms of expulsion. We will consider the various theoretical perspectives through which forms of collective accusation have been addressed, focusing on psychoanalytic, structural functional, and poststructuralist readings. In doing so, we will also investigate the difference and possible continuities between the forms and logics of accusation that operate in totalitarian as well as liberal regimes. Course readings will include both literary and critical texts.  Permission of the instructor is required.

COURSES IN ARCHAEOLOGY:

Anthropology UN1008y THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Terence D’Altroy. The rise of major civilization in prehistory and protohistory throughout the world, from the initial appearance of sedentism, agriculture, and social stratification through the emergence of the archaic empires. Description and analysis of a range of regions that were centers of significant cultural development: Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River Valley, China, North America, and Mesoamerica. $25.00 Anthropology Lab Fee.  DO NOT REGISTER FOR A RECITATION SECTION IF YOU ARE NOT OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR THE COURSE. This course counts toward the Global Core requirement.  Refer to the Directory of Classes http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/ for a list of recitation sections.

Anthropology BC2012 LABORATORY METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Severin Fowles.  Only the most recent chapters of the past are able to be studied using traditional historiographical methods focused on archives of textual documents. How, then, are we to analyze the deep history of human experiences prior to the written word? And even when textual archives do survive from a given historical period, these archives are typically biased toward the perspectives of those in power. How, then, are we to undertake analyses of the past that take into account the lives and experiences of all of society’s members, including the poor, the working class, the colonized, and others whose voices appear far less frequently in historical documents? From its disciplinary origins in nineteenth century antiquarianism, archaeology has grown to become a rigorous science of the past, dedicated to the exploration of long-term and inclusive social histories. “Laboratory Methods in Archaeology” is an intensive introduction to the analysis of archaeological artifacts and samples in which we explore how the organic and inorganic remains from archaeological sites can be used to build rigorous claims about the human past. The 2022 iteration of the course centers on assemblages from two sites, both excavated by Barnard’s archaeological field program in the Taos region of northern New Mexico: (1) the Spanish colonial site of San Antonio del Embudo founded in 1725 and (2) the hippie commune known as New Buffalo, founded in 1967. Participants in ANTH BC2012 will be introduced to the history, geology, and ecology of the Taos region, as well as to the excavation histories of the two sites. Specialized laboratory modules focus on the analysis of chipped stone artifacts ceramics, animal bone, glass, and industrial artifacts. The course only demands participation in the seminars and laboratory modules and successful completion of the written assignments, but all students are encouraged to develop specialized research projects to be subsequently expanded into either (1) a senior thesis project or (2) a conference presentation at the Society for American Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, or Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting. Prerequisites: the instructor permission.

Anthropology UN2028y THINK LIKE AN ARCHAEOLOGIST. 3 pts.  Instructor. Allison McGovern.  This course provides a comprehensive introduction to methods and theory in archaeology – by exploring how archaeologists work to create narratives about the past (and the present) on the basis on the material remains of the past. The course begins with a consideration of how archaeologists deal with the remains of the past in the present: What are archaeological sites and how do we ‘discover’ them? How do archaeologists ‘read’ or analyze sites and artifacts? From there, we will turn to the question of how archaeologists interpret these materials traces, in order to create narratives about life in the past. After a review of the historical development of theoretical approaches in archaeological interpretation, the course will consider contemporary approaches to interpreting the past. $25.00 Anthropology Lab Fee.  Mandatory recitation sections:  TBA.

Anthropology BC3222y GENDER ARCHAEOLXGY.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Camilla Sturm.  This seminar critically reexamines the ancient world from the perspective of gender archaeology. Though the seedlings of gender archaeology were first sown by of feminist archaeologists during the 70’s and 80’s, this approach involves far more than simply ‘womanizing’ androcentric narratives of past. Rather, gender archaeology criticizes interpretations of the past that transplant contemporary social roles onto the archaeological past, casting the divisions and inequalities of today as both timeless and natural. This class challenges the idea of a singular past, instead championing a turn towards multiple, rich, messy, intersectional pasts. The ‘x’ in ‘archaeolxgy’ is an explicit signal of our focus on this diversity of pasts and a call for a more inclusive field of practice today.  Notes: Non-Majors need instructor permission.  

Anthropology GU4346y LAB TECHNIQUES IN ARCHAEOLOGY.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Allison McGovern.  Laboratory Methods in Archaeology” is an intensive introduction to the analysis of archaeological artifacts and samples in which we explore how the organic and inorganic remains from archaeological sites can be used to build rigorous claims about the human past. In 2023, this course will focus on pre-contact and post-contact assemblages from the New York-metro area, including materials from the legacy collections of Ralph Solecki. Participants will be introduced to the history, geology, and ecology of the New York area and specialized laboratory modules focus on the analysis of chipped stone artifacts, ceramics, animal bone, glass, and a range of post-contact artifacts.  The course only demands participation in the seminars and laboratory modules and successful completion of the written assignments, but all students are encouraged to develop specialized research projects to be subsequently expanded into either (1) a thesis project or (2) a conference presentation at the Society for American Archaeology, Society for Historical Archaeology, or Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting.  Permission of the instructor is required. $25.00 Anthropology Lab Fee.  

COURSE IN PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY:

Anthropology GU4148y HUMAN SKELETAL BIOLOGY II. 3 pts. Recommended for archaeology and physical anthropology students, pre-meds, and biology majors interested in the human skeletal system. Intensive study of human skeletal materials using anatomical and anthropological landmarks to assess sex, age, and ethnicity of bones. Other primate skeletal materials and fossil casts used for comparative study.  The permission of the instructor is required.

Columbia University Summer Session 2023: Applications are now open! (Learn More)

2023 Summer Courses in Anthropology

Ellen Marakowitz, Director of Summer Session, Department of Anthropology
Contact Information:  [email protected]

Columbia University
School of Professional Studies
203 Lewisohn Hall
2970 Broadway, MC 4119
New York, NY 10027
https://summer.sps.columbia.edu/courses/summer-courses 
[email protected]
Contact Us: 212-854-9666

For course sessions, registration dates, descriptions, meeting days and times, and other information, please visit  https://summer.sps.columbia.edu/courses/summer-courses/anthropology or the directory of classes at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/
 

Projected Registration Dates for Fall 2023:  Monday, April 17, 2023, for more information visit: https://www.registrar.columbia.edu/content/registration-dates-2022-2023 

Refer to the online Directory of Classes http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/  for maximum course limits, restrictions, classrooms, and days and times courses will be offered.

COURSES IN SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY:

Anthropology UN1002x THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURE.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Naor Ben-Yehoyada.  The anthropological approach to the study of culture and human society. Case studies from ethnography are used in exploring the universality of cultural categories (social organization, economy, law, belief system, art, etc.) and the range of variation among human societies.  Recitation section required.  Days and times will be announced a few weeks before the start of term. Please refer to the Directory of Classes for detail information http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/.

Anthropology UN2004x INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL THEORY.  3 pts.  Instructor:  John Pemberton.  
This course presents students with crucial theories of the social, paying particular attention at the outset to classic social theory from the early 20th century.  It thus traces a trajectory of thought concerning signification and exchange from Ferdinand de Saussure, Émile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, and Karl Marx, before moving on to the historiographic reflections of Max Weber and the structuralist ethnographic elaborations of Claude Lévi-Strauss, revisiting occasionally observations from Franz Boas, founder of Anthropology at Columbia, and turning as well to the expansive critical thought of W.E.B. Du Bois.  We conclude with Kathleen Stewart’s A Space on the Side of the Road—an ethnography of late 20th century Appalachia and the haunted remains of coal-mining country—with its depictions of an uncanny otherness within dominant American cultural narratives.

Anthropology UN3040x ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Brian Larkin.  Comprehensive and in-depth engagement with foundational and contemporary theoretical concepts and texts in Anthropology.  Required of all Barnard students majoring in Anthropology (including specialized tracks). Permission of instructor required for non-majors. Not open to First Year students. Prerequisite:  an introductory (1000 level) course in Anthropology. 

Anthropology UN3321x INFRASTRUCTURES.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Brian Larkin. Infrastructures are the built networks moving goods, commodities, people, energy, waste organizing human action in modern societies. This course critically examines the work of infrastructures globally. It examines issues of urbanism, racial infrastructures, infrastructural breakdown and emergency, postcolonial infrastructures, climate change, and extraction.

Anthropology UN3808x PUNISHMENT CULTURE. 4 pts.  Instructor:  Kaya Williams.  What is punishment, and what might attention to punitive practices teach us about the cultures in which they are used? Modern American culture is so saturated with punishment that it is difficult to know where to begin such an investigation. From childhood education to mass incarceration and from the crafting of financial futures to the training of horses and dogs, punishment is ubiquitous and often unquestioned. In many cases, punishment is the thread that connects allegedly disparate institutions and produces allegedly unforeseen forms of violence. In this course we will question both the practice and its prevalence, combining a genealogy of the concept with case studies in its modern use.

Anthropology UN3861x ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE.  4 pts.  Instructor.  Paige West. This course focuses on the political ecology of the Anthropocene. As multiple publics become increasingly aware of the extensive and accelerated rate of current global environmental change, and the presence of anthropogenesis in ever expanding circumstances, we need to critically analyze the categories of thought and action being developed in order to carefully approach this change. Our concern is thus not so much the Anthropocene as an immutable fact, inevitable event, or definitive period of time (significant though these are), but rather for the political, social, and intellectual consequences of this important idea. Thus, we seek to understand the creativity of The Anthropocene as a political, rhetorical, and social category. We also aim to examine the networks of capital and power that have given rise to the current state of planetary change, the strategies for ameliorating those changes, and how these are simultaneously implicated in the rhetorical creation of The Anthropocene.

Barnard UN3871x SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR I:  4 pts.  Instructors: Paige West, Lesley Sharp, Mara Green, and Camilla Sturm.  Prerequisites: Limited to Barnard Anthropology Seniors. Offered every Fall. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a Senior Essay in Anthropology will accompany research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual Senior Essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and her adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department each semester. Limited to Barnard Anthropology Seniors Only. 

Anthropology UN3879x THE MEDICAL IMAGINARY.  4 pts.  Instructor: Lesley Sharp.  How might we speak of an imaginary within biomedicine? This course interrogates the ideological underpinnings of technocratic medicine in contexts that extend from the art of surgery to patient participation in experimental drug trials. Issues of scale will prove especially important in our efforts to track the medical imaginary from the whole, fleshy body to the molecular level. Key themes include everyday ethics; ways of seeing and knowing; suffering and hope; and subjectivity in a range of medical and sociomedical contexts. Non-Anthropology majors require the permission of the instructor prior to registration; no first-year students.

Anthropology UN3888x ECOCRITICISM FOR THE END TIMES.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Marilyn Ivy. This seminar aims to show what an anthropologically informed, ecocritical cultural studies can offer in this moment of intensifying ecological calamity. The course will not only engage significant works in anthropology, ecocriticism, philosophy, literature, politics, and aesthetics to think about the environment, it will also bring these works into engaged reflection on living in the end times (borrowing cultural critic Slavoj Zizeks phrase). The seminar will thus locate critical perspectives on the environment within the contemporary worldwide ecological crisis, emphasizing the ethnographic realities of global warming, debates on nuclear power and energy, and the place of nature. Drawing on the professor’s long experience in Japan and current research on the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, the seminar will also take care to unpack the notion of end times, with its apocalyptic implications, through close considerations of works that take on the question of ecocatastrophe in our times. North American and European perspectives, as well as international ones (particularly ones drawn from East Asia), will give the course a global reach. The permission of the instructor is required. MUST email for permission at [email protected]

Anthropology BC3911x THE SOCIAL CONTEXTS OF U.S. IMMIGRATION LAW AND POLICY.  4 pts.  Instructor:  JC Salyer.  Examines the historical and contemporary social, economic, and political factors that shape immigration law and policy along with the social consequences of those laws and policies. Addresses the development and function of immigration law and aspects of the immigration debate including unauthorized immigration, anti-immigration sentiments, and critiques of immigration policy. The permission of the instructor is required.  Notes: Priority: Jr/Sr. & students w/related majors or thesis topics.

Anthropology BC3932x CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL MIGRATION, AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE. 4 pts.  Instructor:  JC Salyer. Examines the historical and contemporary social, economic, and political factors that shape immigration law and policy along with the social consequences of those laws and policies. Addresses the development and function of immigration law and aspects of the immigration debate including unauthorized immigration, anti-immigration sentiments, and critiques of immigration policy. The permission of the instructor is required.   Notes: Priority: Jr/Sr. & students w/related majors or thesis topics.

Anthropology UN3997x SUPERVISED INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH.  2-6 pts.  STAFF.  Prerequisite: the written permission of the staff member under whose supervision the research will be conducted.  The permission of the instructor is required. 

Anthropology UN3999x SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR IN ANTHROPOLOGY.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Lila Abu-Lughod.  Students must have declared a major in Anthropology prior to registration. Students must have a 3.6 GPA in the major and a preliminary project concept in order to be considered. Interested students must communicate/meet with thesis instructor in the previous spring about the possibility of taking the course during the upcoming academic year. Additionally, expect to discuss with the instructor at the end of the fall term whether your project has progressed far enough to be completed in the spring term. If it has not, you will exit the seminar after one semester, with a grade based on the work completed during the fall term. This two-term course is a combination of a seminar and a workshop that will help you conduct research, write, and present an original senior thesis in anthropology. Students who write theses are eligible to be considered for departmental honors. The first term of this course introduces a variety of approaches used to produce anthropological knowledge and writing; encourages students to think critically about the approaches they take to researching and writing by studying model texts with an eye to the ethics, constraints, and potentials of anthropological research and writing; and gives students practice in the seminar and workshop formats that are key to collegial exchange and refinement of ideas. During the first term, students complete a few short exercises that will culminate in a substantial draft of one discrete section of their senior project (18-20 pages) plus a detailed outline of the expected work that remains to be done (5 pages). The spring sequence of the anthropology thesis seminar is a writing intensive continuation of the fall semester, in which students will have designed the research questions, prepared a full thesis proposal that will serve as a guide for the completion of the thesis and written a draft of one chapter. Only those students who expect to have completed the fall semester portion of the course are allowed to register for the spring; final enrollment is contingent upon successful completion of first semester requirements. In spring semester, weekly meetings will be devoted to the collaborative refinement of drafts, as well as working through issues of writing (evidence, voice, authority etc.). All enrolled students are required to present their project at a symposium in the late spring, and the final grade is based primarily on successful completion of the thesis/ capstone project. Note:  Columbia College & General Studies Majors by instructor’s permission only. 

Anthropology GU4196x MEXICO’S DISAPPEARED PRACTICUM.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Claudio Lomnitz.  This practicum is an exercise in engaged pedagogy.  The academic work we do will be conducted for the benefit of the cause of Mexico's now over 110,000 disappeared persons.  Students will be engaged in a sustained research effort to development a "context analysis" of disappearances in the state of Zacatecas (Mexico)-- an exercise in social study that focuses on the economic, political, social, and criminological context in which disappearances occur.  Research is done in coordination with Mexico's National Commission for the Search of the Disappeared.  Alongside the practical, real-world, objective, this Practicum is designed to perfect research skills in the social sciences.
NOTE:  Majors & MAs students preferred; Juniors & Seniors preferred over Freshmen & Sophomores. The permission of the instructor is required. 

Anthropology GU4202x ISLAMIC LAW. 3 pts.  Instructor:  Brinkley Messick.  An introductory survey of the history and contents of the Shari'a, combined with a critical review of Orientalist and contemporary scholarship on Islamic law. In addition to models for the ritual life, we will examine a number of social, economic, and political constructs contained in Shari`a doctrine, including the concept of an Islamic state, and we also will consider the structure of litigation in courts. Seminar paper.

Anthropology GU4653x ART BEYOND AESTHETICS: DECOLONIZING APPROACHES TO REPRESENTATION.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Elizabeth Povinelli.  This course is a combination of lectures, seminar participation, and group practicums which probes the possibility of a decolonial art research practice. This course introduces students to western approaches to politics and art through a sustained engagement with critical Indigenous and anticolonial theories of human relations to the more-than-human world. It is a mixture of lectures, class discussion, and individual practicums which lead to final projects that combine image and text.  The permission of the instructor is required.  ENROLLMENT PRIORITIES: Majors preferred.
 

COURSES IN ARCHAEOLOGY:

Anthropology UN1007x THE ORIGINS OF HUMAN SOCIETY.  3pts. Instructor:  Camilla Sturm.  An archaeological perspective on the evolution of human social life from the first bipedal step of our ape ancestors to the establishment of large sedentary villages. While traversing six million years and six continents, our explorations will lead us to consider such major issues as the development of human sexuality, the origin of language, the birth of “art” and religion, the domestication of plants and animals, and the foundations of social inequality. Designed for anyone who happens to be human.  Recitation section required.  Please refer to the Directory of Classes.  Recitation section required.  Day/time will be announced a few weeks before the start of term. Please refer to the Directory of Classes http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/

Anthropology UN2031x CORPSE LIFE: ANTHROPOLOGICAL HISTORIES OF THE DEAD.  3pts.  Instructor:  Zoe Crossland.  This class fulfils the Global Core requirement. The awareness of mortality seems to be a peculiarly human affliction, and its study has been a key theme of 20th century philosophy. This class will address the question of human finitude from outside of the western philosophical tradition. Anthropologists have shown that humans deal with the challenge of death in diverse ways, which nevertheless share some common themes. During the semester we’ll look at case studies from across the world and over time and also explore the ethics and politics of disturbing the dead. The evidence of past human mortuary assemblages will provide some of our key primary texts. We’ll analyze famous burials such as those of Tutankhamun, the Lord of Sipan, and Emperor Qin’s mausoleum, containing the celebrated terracotta warriors, but we’ll also consider less well-known mortuary contexts. We will also critically examine the dead body as a privileged and sometimes contentious site for anthropological research, situating its study within the broader purview of anthropological theories of the body's production and constitution.

Anthropology UN3007x HOLY LANDS, UNHOLY HISTORIES: ARCHAEOLOGY BEFORE THE BIBLE. 3 pts.  Instructor:  Brian Boyd. Note that this is not a class on “biblical archaeology”. It is a course about the politics of archaeology in the context of Israel/Palestine, and the wider southwest Asia region. This course provides a critical overview of prehistoric archaeology in southwest Asia (or the Levant - the geographical area from Lebanon in the north to the Sinai in the south, and from the middle Euphrates in Syria to southern Jordan). It has been designed to appeal to anthropologists, historians, and students interested in the Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Studies. The course is divided into two parts. First, a social and political history of archaeology, emphasizing how the nature of current theoretical and practical knowledge has been shaped and defined by previous research traditions and, second, how the current political situation in the region impinges upon archaeological practice. Themes include: the dominance of "biblical archaeology" and the implications for Palestinian archaeology, Islamic archaeology, the impact of European contact from the Crusades onwards, and the development of prehistory.   

Anthropology UN3151x LIVING WITH ANIMALS: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES.  4 pts.  Instructor:  Hannah Chazin.  This course examines how humans and animals shape each other’s lives. We will explore the astounding diversity of human-animal relationships in time and space, tracing the ways animals have made their impact on human societies (and vice-versa). Using contemporary ethnographic, historical, and archaeological examples from a variety of geographical regions and chronological periods, this class will consider how humans and animals live and make things, and the ways in which humans have found animals “good to think with”.  In this course, we will also discuss how knowledge about human-animal relationships in the past might change contemporary and future approaches to living with animals. Instructor’s permission is required. Registration priority: Anthropology majors/concentrators, 4th year students.

Anthropology UN3663x THE ANCIENT TABLE: ARCHAEOLOGY OF COOKING.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Camilla Sturm. Prerequisites: None Humans don’t just eat to live. The ways we prepare, eat, and share our food is a complex reflection of our histories, environments, and ideologies. Whether we prefer coffee or tea, cornbread or challah, chicken breast or chicken feet, our tastes are expressive of social ties and social boundaries, and are linked to ideas of family and of foreignness. How did eating become such a profoundly cultural experience? This seminar takes an archaeological approach to two broad issues central to eating: First, what drives human food choices both today and in the past? Second, how have social forces shaped practices of food acquisition, preparation, and consumption (and how, in turn, has food shaped society)? We will explore these questions from various evolutionary, physiological, and cultural viewpoints, highlighted by information from the best archaeological and historic case studies. Topics that will be covered include the nature of the first cooking, beer-brewing and feasting, writing of the early recipes, gender roles and ‘domestic’ life, and how a national cuisine takes shape. Through the course of the semester we will explore food practices from Pleistocene Spain to historic Monticello, with particular emphasis on the earliest cuisines of China, Mesoamerica, and the Mediterranean. The permission of the instructor is required.  Notes: Non-Anthro Majors need instructor's permission. No First-years.

ANTH UN3823x ARCHAEOLOGY ENGAGED. 4 pts.  Instructor:  Terence D’Altroy.  This course provides a panoramic, but intensive, inquiry into the ways that archaeology and its methods for understanding the world have been marshaled for debate in issues of public interest. It is designed to examine claims to knowledge of the past through the lenses of alternative epistemologies and a series of case-based problems that range from the academic to the political, legal, cultural, romantic, and fraudulent. 

ANHS GU4001x THE ANCIENT EMPIRES.  3 pts.  Instructor:  Terence D’Altroy.   The principal goal of this course is to examine the nature and histories of a range of early empires in a comparative context. In the process, we will examine influential theories that have been proposed to account for the emergence and trajectories of those empires. Among the theories are the core-periphery, world-systems, territorial-hegemonic, tributary-capitalist, network, and IEMP approaches. Five regions of the world have been chosen, from the many that could provide candidates: Rome (the classic empire), New Kingdom Egypt, Qin China, Aztec Mesoamerica, and Inka South America. These empires have been chosen because they represent a cross-section of polities ranging from relatively simple and early expansionist societies to the grand empires of the Classical World, and the most powerful states of the indigenous Americas. There are no prerequisites for this course, although students who have no background in Anthropology, Archaeology, History, or Classics may find the course material somewhat more challenging than students with some knowledge of the study of early societies. There will be two lectures per week, given by the professor.