Summer 2021 Undergraduate Course List

SUMMER 2021 UNDERGRADUATE COURSE LIST

Courses in Sociocultural Anthropology:

Subterm A: 

WMST UN331 Feminist Theory.  Summer A-Term. Course description to be announced.   Method of Instruction:  TBA.

ANTH UN3880 Listening: An Ethnography of Sound 4 pts.  John Pemberton.  This course explores the possibilities of an ethnography of sound by attending to a range of listening encounters: in urban soundscapes of the city and in natural soundscapes of acoustic ecology; from histories of audible pasts and resonances of auditory cultural spaces; through repeated listenings in the age of electronic reproduction and at the limits of listening with experimental music. Sound, noise, voice, reverberation, and silence, from von Helmholtz to John Cage and beyond: the course turns away from the screen and dominant epistemologies of the visual, for an extended moment, in pursuit of sonorous objects and cultural sonorities.  Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.   Method of Instruction:  TBA

ANTH UN3912 Ethnographic China 4 pts. M. Cohen.  Reading of selected ethnographies of China from among the many published since 1990. In the context of rapid social and economic change in China during this period, the seminar will critically consider how each ethnography represents the observations, interpretations, and field techniques of the anthropologist who is its author. Also discussed will be the shared themes and contesting perspectives emerging from a comparison of these works, as well as the overall contribution of this ethnographic research to our understanding of China as an emerging world power.   Method of Instruction:  TBA

ANTH UN3976 Anthropology and Science 4 pts.  Gina Jae.   Course Description to be announced.  Method of Instruction:  TBA

ANTH UN3989 Introduction to Urban Anthropology 4 pts. Steven Gregory.   This seminar is an introduction to the theory and methods that have been developed by anthropologists to study contemporary cities and urban cultures. Although anthropology has historically focused on the study of non-Western and largely rural societies, since the 1960s, anthropologists have increasingly directed attention to cities and urban cultures. During the course of the semester, we will examine such topics as: the politics of urban planning, development and land use; race, class, gender and urban inequality; urban migration and transnational communities; the symbolic economies of urban space; and street life. Readings will include the works of Jane Jacobs, Sharon Zukin, and Henri Lefebvre.  Method of Instruction:  TBA

ANTH GU4282 Islamic Law.  3 pts. 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.  Method of Instruction:  TBA

Subterm B:

ANTHBC UN2011 Field Methods in Landscape Archaeology (New Mexico) 3 pts.  Severin Fowles.  Course Description to be announced. Method of Instruction:  TBA

ANTH UN3035 Religion in Chinese Society 3 pts. Myron Cohen.  Chinese popular religion and ritual during the late traditional period and in modern times. Popular beliefs and practices concerning the cosmos, the gods, and the ancestors; the role in popular religion of Buddhism, Taoism, and the Imperial State Cult; popular religion, social change, and the modern assault on "superstition."   Method of Instruction:  TBA