Current/Upcoming Courses
Course Descriptions
Spring 2010
Download the Spring 2010 Course Description Booklet (PDF)
102 ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor Ripan Malhi Office: 209F Davenport Hall PH: 265-0721
Professor Astrid Runggaldier Office: 185H Davenport Hall
This class explores the fossil and archaeological evidence for human evolution and the evolution of culture. It examines the fossil and artifact record of the last several million years in order to develop an understanding of why we are interesting animals and a unique species. The first part of the course considers our biological heritage. We learn the biological bases of human life and carefully evaluate the human fossil record. The second part of the course introduces students to archaeology, the evolution of cultural behavior, and world prehistory.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 ANTHROPOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD (3 hrs.)
Professor Gilberto Rosas Office: 389 Davenport Hall PH: 244-4117
This course gives students an introduction to the perspectives, methods, and theoretical tools used by cultural anthropology. Anthropology explores the ways that culture and social organization shape human behavior. Exploring diverse social practices and beliefs in a global context, we will examine the power of symbols, norms, and categories to shape everyday lives. We will critically examine basic categories such as the self, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality, in a context of global movements, transnational cultural flows, and world-linking technological innovations.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, WESTERN AND NON-WESTERN GEN. ED. REQ.
103 ANTHROPOLOGY IN A CHANGING WORLD (3 hrs.) (HONORS)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall PH: 244-3515
- When did coffee become yuppified, and what does that say about class in America?
- Why do we wear watches, and what happens when we don’t?
- What can anthropology teach us about drug culture in inner cities?
- Why do so many girls (still) want to look like Barbie?
- How do people in the Ukraine understand contamination after Chernobyl?
This course introduces an anthropological perspective on life.
As we will discover, there's nothing anthropologists can't study as long as humans have something to do with it, from environmental degradation to Mickey Mouse. Taking a series of compelling readings about places from New York to Bali, this course will teach students "how to think like an anthropologist." Along the way, we’ll see unexpected connections between the local and the remote. If most of the clothes we wear and the foods we eat are, in one way or another, produced halfway around the world, can we afford not to understand the daily practices of people whose lives inextricably link to ours?
In this special honors section of ANTH 103 (intended for students enrolled in our Campus Honors Program), a small seminar format will allow an individualized and project-based approach to understanding the human condition in all its joys and complications.
**This course for Chancellor's Scholars only: Others may only enroll with the consent of the instructor and the Chancellor's Honors Program.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, WESTERN AND NON-WESTERN GEN. ED. REQ.
105 WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY (3 HRS)
Professor Astrid Runggaldier Office: 185 Davenport Hall
This course will be a fun and informative survey of some of the most famous archaeological sites and greatest discoveries over time and across space. We will span the globe from the Near East to South America, look at the mummies of King Tut and the Iceman, and investigate the builders of the pyramids and of Stonehenge, among other topics. You will learn what archaeology is, how archaeologists learn about the past, what makes a great discovery, and why archaeology fascinates the public and pervades popular culture. The discipline of archaeology began with antiquarian curiosity about the past and a desire to collect its material remnants. Today it is a scientific profession that systematically studies the human past through the archaeological record. We will incorporate historical moments of adventure and discovery, famous characters in the history of the discipline, development of methods and techniques of investigation, and the origins of popular myths, so that you will be able to understand the news of the next “great discovery.”
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE GEN.ED.REQ.
165 LANGUAGE & CULTURE NATIVE NORTH aMERICA (3hrs)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall
Develops an understanding of the rich diversity of languages and cultures found among Indigenous North American nations from the perspectives of socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology. We ask, "Why is a language so important to the people that use it?" and "How can the study of languages help us to understand cultural worlds that are radically different from our own?" The American Indian is a powerful and complex symbol in North American culture and so we first reflect upon what we already know, or think we know, about this subject. How much of our (mis)understanding is based on stereotypes and misconceptions? To understand this historically, we look briefly at the invention of the "Indian" by their European colonizers, investigate the construction and representation of the "Indian" in popular culture, and, most importantly, listen to what American Indians themselves have to say about all this. The class includes Native American guest speakers, and visits to Native American events on campus.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURE GEN ED. REQ.
182 LATIN AMERICAN CULTURES (4HRS)
Professor Jennifer Shoaff Office 384 Davenport Hall
This course introduces students to the diversity of contemporary Latin America from the perspective of anthropological thought and practice. Using the historical legacies of colonialism as our starting point we will examine the enduring themes that position Latin America as a social and geopolitical region wherein a complex set of identities and relations develop. The cultural production of difference intersects in diverse ways with political and economic processes to inform the lived, daily experiences of peoples in different places and at different times. Foreign interventions and global dynamics are strategically negotiated “on the ground”, yielding a dynamic array of national, religious, and sociocultural movements. In our critical examination of these issues we will conceptually travel from the Caribbean to Mexico, from the Andes to Brazil, and from the Central American states to the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing important connections as we go. Key theoretical and ethnographic topics to be covered include nation-building, dictatorship and revolution, Afro-Latin American and indigenous identities, representation, race, gender, and class formations, violence, immigration, democracy, neoliberalism, and human rights. The class is designed to promote discussion and critical dialogue through a combination of analytical frameworks, ethnographic research, film, literary and visual “texts”, and student reflective and interpretive written exercises.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES AND UIUC SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED. REQ.
224 TOURIST CITIES AND SITES (3 HRS) HONORS
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall PH: 333-1315
This course is a critical examination of the social, political, economic, and physical aspects of tourism over time and across the world. The approach taken is interdisciplinary, drawing on perspectives from anthropology, archictecture, landscape architecture, art, advertising, geography, history, cultural studies, literature, and cultural theory, among others. Graded coursework includes in-class discussion, written assignments, and creative presentations (there are no exams). Students will learn about: colonialism; imperialism; globalization; the production of cultural identity; sense of place/locality; the manufacture and consumption of heritage in the postmodern world; and concepts such as authenticity, representation, theming, gaze, appropriation, and simulacra. Students should bring to class: a sense of adventure and curiosity, willingness to read, and openess about sharing ideas in discussion with classmates and the professor. The following books are required for the course: (1) Tourists and Tourism. A Reader, edited by Sharon Bohn Gmelch.Waveland Press, new edition 2010. (2) Deconstructing Travel, by Arthur Asa Berger. AltaMira, 2004. (3) A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid. Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1988. (4) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Vintage Books, 2003. (5) Paradise News, by David Lodge. Penguin Books, 1991. Enrollment in this course is open only to students enrolled in the Campus Honors Program, unless the course does not fill its cap of 18 students. Non CHP students may put their names on a wait list by going over the CHP House on campus.
**This course for Chancellor's Scholars only: Others may only enroll with the consent of the instructor and the Chancellor's Honors Program.
230 SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Jennifer Shoaff Office 384 Davenport Hall
This course is an advanced introduction to sociocultural anthropology for anthropology majors and non-majors. The class is designed with a focus on discussion and critical dialogue of the many ways anthropologists produce knowledge through concepts such as culture, structure, power, representation, political economy, identity, and agency. Placing foundational and contemporary debates “in conversation” with compelling ethnographic texts, students can think about the possibilities and limitations of anthropological thought and practice. How can we think about the relevance of “culture” in an increasingly globalized world? Can sociocultural anthropology provide novel insights into the study of history? Can it help our understandings of and engagement with some of the most pressing and controversial issues of our time? Can the decolonization of anthropology promote a more publicly engaged role for anthropologists? Through reflective exercises and position papers, students are encouraged to develop a critical and interpretive perspective to the ethnographic study of contemporary realities and how they relate to the development of their own identities and daily lived experiences. Key texts include: Renato Rosaldo’s Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis (1993); Faye Harrison’s The Outsider Within: Reworking Anthropology in the Global Age (2007). Gina Ulysse’s Downtown Ladies: Informal Commercial Importers, a Haitian Anthropologist, and Self-Making in Jamaica (2008) and Nicholas DeGenova’s Working the Boundaries: Race, Space, and Place in Mexican Chicago (2005).
240 BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. (3 hrs.)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall PH: 244-3513
This course covers the theoretical and empirical basis of modern biological anthropology. Topics include basic evolutionary biology, population genetics, basic anatomy, the natural history and phylogeny of primates, the fossil evidence for origins of the earliest primates to modern humans and human genetic variation. This course will furnish students with the basic skills to take advanced courses in biological anthropology and evolutionary biology.
243 SOCIALITY OF THE GREAT APES (3 hrs)
Professor Rebecca Stumpf Office: 189 Davenport Hall PH: 333-8072
rstumpf@illinois.edu
This course examines the biology and behavior of our closest living relatives, the great apes. Beginning with an overview of the taxonomic relationship between the great apes and humans, we will then cover the locomotion, feeding ecology, social organization, mating patterns, and behavior of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. Lecture material focuses on topics such as social cooperation, mating strategies, inter-and intrasexual social interactions, infanticide, tool use, diet, food sharing, reproductive behavior, cognition and conservation. We will evaluate the appropriateness of the great apes as models for understanding human behavior and evolution.
249 EVOLUTION AND HUMAN DISEASE (3 hrs)
Professor Kate Clancy Office: 187 Davenport Hall PH: 244-1509
In this course we will examine health issues facing humans in our modern environment. We will learn some basic human physiology in the context of biological and cross-cultural variability. Many evolutionary medicine scholars think that many of our modern health problems are a result of a mismatch between our bodies and our current environments; while that is true to some extent we will complicate that with a global perspective on health and an increased appreciation of lifestyle determinants of variation. Pertinent topics include how our reduction in incidence of infectious disease has increased our incidence of autoimmune disease, what constitutes a “normal” menstrual cycle, and how obesity may impact reproductive maturation and childhood socialization. Students must have taken either ANTH 143 or ANTH 240 (or an equivalent course) to take 249.
259 LATINA/O CULTURES (3 hrs)
Instructor TBA Please check online during registration
In this class, we will examine the cultures of U.S. Latinas and Latinos. We will focus on recent ethnographic studies about AND by Latinos and Latinos. Topics to be discussed include: ethnic and racial identity, language, racial discourse, gender inequality, sexuality, power, class hierarchies, cultural citizenship, and popular culture--all from an anthropological perspective. In the process, we will critically examine the imagined, the intended, and the invented communities constituting the Latina/o population of this country. In particular, we will explore (though not exclusively) the experiences of Mexican Americans, Chicanas/os, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Dominicans in the United States.
270 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 HRS) (meets w/ Anth 271)
271 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (ADVANCED COMP. II) (3HRS)
Professor Adrienne Lo Office: 383 Davenport Hall
This course introduces students to the field of linguistic anthropology. We will discuss major theories of language and culture, and look at language change; language and gender; and language and identity. Readings will include both ethnographic studies of interaction as well as theoretical pieces on approaches to understanding how language and society are linked.
Prerequisites : None, but ANTH 104 recommended.
**270 satisfies the COMP I REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES
**271 satisfies the COMP II REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES
275 THE WORLD OF JEWISH SEPHARAD (3 hrs) (same as RLST275/Hist 267)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3502
This is a course on the society and culture of the Sephardim, a large sector of World Jewry who were expelled by royal decree from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and settled in various parts of the world. They became a conduit between Christianity and Islam. Focusing on the communities the Sephardim established in the Mediterranean countries and later in America, the course will cover the flourishing cultural life they created in their new lands, their Judeo-Spanish language, literature, music, participation in the economy and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the political movements of the emerging nations.
THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HIST & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE, NON-WESTERN CULTURES AND WESTERN COMPARTIVE CULTURE GEN. ED. REQ.
358 PEOPLE OF THE ICE AGE (3 HRS)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
This course explores a vast period of human prehistory in the Old and New Worlds, some 4 million to 10,000 years ago, before people domesticated plants and animals and first cities arose. Archaeological, paleoanthropological, and ethnographic data will be used to understand past lifeways in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. The course emphasizes an integration of both theory and data for understanding specific lifeways as well as for understanding changes in cultures during the Pleistocene.
Prerequisite : Anth. 102 or equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Text: The Human Career, 3rd edition. By Richard G. Klein, University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Other assigned readings will be available through the Compass web site.
399AO CAPITALISM, CULTURE AND THE WORLD OF BUSINESS (3 HRS)
Professor Andrew Orta Office: 382 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-7108
In this course, we will take an anthropological look at business through an ethnographic examination of contemporary business practices, and through a reading of influential theories of capitalism from the 18th century writings of Adam Smith to the current publications of the Harvard Business School. We will pay particular attention to international business practices and to the ways understandings of social and cultural difference have shaped and been shaped by capitalism
399MM ANTHROPOLOGY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (3 HRS)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3500
Science is a cultural system. As such, it is subject to anthropological investigation. This course showcases the various vantage points that anthropology provides in the analysis and understanding of science and technology as a body of knowledge, as a set of historically situated cultural practices, and as a collection of ethical and moral dilemmas. This course locates science knowledge and practices within enduring anthropological questions around rationality and truth, meaning, personhood, sociality, power inequalities, social transformation, and social justice. This course will be conducted through a blend of instructional techniques including online discussions, examinations, readings, written exercises, discussions, and lectures.
399SF EXHIBIT PRACTICUM (MUSE 389 (3 HRS)
Professor Susan Frankenberg Office: 309A Davenport Hall; PH: 244-1984
The Exhibit Practicum is an applied theory course within the Museum Studies curriculum (to be offered in future semesters as MUSE 389). It focuses on interpretive planning and content development of museum exhibits, including both exploration of the current literature on museum exhibit theory, and practice in interpretive planning and small exhibit development. Students will be introduced to methods of content development, concepts of functional design, traditional and innovative display modes, research on display effectiveness, and factors influencing the appropriateness of various exhibition techniques. The course begins with a series of lectures and discussions, continues into critical review and evaluation of extant exhibits, and ends with a series of workshops in which students develop and produce small exhibits to be displayed on campus. There is no required textbook and all readings are available on e-reserve. Students will incur materials expenses ($25.00 or less) for their final projects. Students should also expect to spend time outside of class in team meetings and on project work.
421 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall , PH; 244-3502
This course deals with fundamental issues of social structure. It is organized loosely chronologically, moving from classical British Social Anthropology to French Structuralism and then to the recent theoretical developments in the study of society. The emphasis, however, is on basic ideas and their applications rather than the history of the field. The core of each class session consists of discussion about the assigned reading. The course grade is based upon three short take-home examination papers. The texts will be photocopied articles and excerpts.
425 ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATION (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Adrienne Lo Office: 383 Davenport Hall
This course considers how sociocultural anthropology has approached the study of education. We will read ethnographies of schooling in countries around the world and works which consider how schooling is implicated in discourses of colonialism, modernist projects of social improvement, and the politics of cultural pluralism in nation states.
431 HISTORY OF BIOANTHROPOLOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Steven Leigh Office: 109B Davenport Hall , PH; 333-3616
The course surveys histories of ideas in biological anthropology, with a focus on the development of the field in the US. We examine the foundations of contemporary theory, placing these ideas into historical and societal context. Our primary goal is to understand key ideas that define the discipline of biological anthropology
437 PRIMATE BEHAVIOR ENDOCRINILOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Kate Clancy Office: 187 Davenport Hall , PH; 244-1509
In this course we will consider the ways in which hormones and behavior influence each other in humans and non-human primates. We will first learn sexual differentiation and basic male and female endocrinology. Next we will examine a few key, well-studied examples of the interaction between hormones and behavior, including the impact of oxytocin on bonding and generousness, the trade-offs between health and mating effort and their impact on variability in testosterone, and the impact of the stress axis on behavior. Students will do extensive literature review projects and so, in addition to having taken ANTH 143 or 240, they should already be familiar with doing library and internet research for peer-reviewed articles.
440 HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor John Polk Office: 188 Davenport Hall , PH; 333-3676
The course explores the evolution of the human lineage through a detailed investigation of the fossil record. The course introduces basic evolutionary and systematic theory, discussion of new discoveries, and explanations for major evolutionary changes. Other topics to be covered include skeletal anatomy, biomechanics, genetics, primatology, and geochronometry
441 HUMAN GENETICS (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall , PH; 244-3513
This course is an introduction to population genetics, the branch of evolutionary biology that examines the causes of changes in genetic variation through time. Population genetics is foundational to the study of evolution as changes in genetic variation through time underlie all evolutionary phenomena. The course consists of a number of modules dealing with topics such ranging from non-random mating and random genetic drift to basic molecular evolution and evolutionary quantitative genetics. Empirical examples are drawn from the literature on humans and other primates to illustrate theoretical and methodological points. Student progress will be evaluated on the basis of homework assignments and three exams. A basic understanding of algebra, calculus, evolution, molecular biology, Mendelian genetics, and probability theory is required for successful participation in the course.
448 PREHISTORY OF AFRICA. (3 hrs.)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
Africa is the cradle of humanity, the sole source of evidence for the first six million years of hominid evolution and cultural development, and the place where many of the most significant advances in cultural evolution and innovations in technology and society occurred. For the most recent periods the archaeological record is a major source of evidence for the precolonial history of modern African populations. This course surveys the fossil and archaeological evidence for the evolution of human behavioral patterns from the earliest hominids to modern humans in Africa. Topics will include African environments, ecology and climate change, models of hominid origins, alternative models for the development of intellectual, cultural, economic, linguistic and technical abilities of early hominids, a survey of regional cultural sequences, the diversification and specialization of cultural traditions in later prehistory, and the processes and events resulting in the present distribution of hunter-gatherer, pastoral and agricultural adaptations. Ecological and evolutionary approaches to understanding the processes of hominid evolution and culture change will be stressed.
Requirements include one mid-term exam, a final exam, and a term paper.
Prerequisite: Anthropology 102 and 220, or equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Text: The First Africans, by Lawrence Barham and Peter Mitchell, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2008).
Additional required and supplementary articles and book chapters will be available on the Compass web site.
449 NORTH AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY 3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Timothy Pauketat Office: 123 Davenport Hall PH: 244-8818
This course presents a contemporary understanding of the pre-Columbian and historic-era cultural histories and social landscapes north of Mesoamerica. Lectures, films, class discussions, and readings review the entire contingent from early Paleo-Indian time to later periods of sedentary, warring, and agricultural peoples. Particular regions and time periods contribute differentially to an understanding of theoretical issues surrounding food production, trans-regional exchange, the development of hierarchy, and contact, presenting us with whole chapters of the human experience unavailable but through archaeology. Course grade is based on (1) participation in the discussion sessions featuring three books and a series of short articles, and (2) on book notes, two essays, a presentation, and a final exam.
456 HUMAN OSTEOLOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor John Polk Office: 188 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3676
Comprehensive knowledge of the human skeleton is central to reconstructing the anatomy, demography, health and evolution of past populations because most of our evidence is derived from preserved skeletal and dental remains. The primary goal of this course is the identification of isolated and fragmentary skeletal remains given that this is a prerequisite to all subsequent analysis. In addition to identifying the bones and landmarks of the human skeleton, students will learn about the structure and function of bone, understand the growth and development of the human skeleton and be introduced to analytical techniques used in human osteology including paleopathology,
462 MUSEUM THEORY AND PRACTICE (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall PH: 355-1315
Museums have a fascinating history dating back hundreds of years and today they are premier cultural, educational, and recreational venues. In this course we examine the development of museums over time through their enormous popularity at present. The coverage is international, ranging from Europe to Asia, Africa, Latin America and the United States. Among the topics covered are: collecting, cabinets of curiosity, Renaissance schemes of knowledge, museums and revolutions, colonialism, nationalism, memory, kinds of museums (art, history, science, natural history, indigenous, presidential, etc.), world’s fairs, political controversies in museums, museums under conditions of war, museums as entertainment. Several movies are shown. Students create a museum exhibition proposal. Visits to local museums are required. Grading is on the basis of written work and participation in class. There are no exams. There are three required books (as follows) plus various articles and book chapters on e-reserve: (1) Museum Studies. An Anthology of Contexts, edited by Bettina Messias Carbonell. Blackwell, 2004. (2) Cannibal Tours and Glass Boxes. The Anthropology of Museums, by Michael M. Ames. UBC Press, 1992. (3) Museums and Source Communities: A Routledge Reader, edited by Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown. Routledge, 2003.
NOTE: This course is required for undergraduates pursuing the minor in Museum Studies. It is also open as an elective to all other upper division undergraduates and to graduate students. But note: graduate students pursuing the Museum Studies minor should NOT take this course; instead, they must take MUSE 500 in Fall 2010. Anth 462 is, however, is an acceptable elective for graduate students in the Heritage Studies minor.
467 CULTURES OF AFRICA ( 3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
“I thought kinship theory was dead.”
Surprise—kinship is alive and well in Africa!
“Not that boring lineage stuff…?”
It’s not so boring when people fight life-and-death struggles over it.
- Who gets to decide where to bury a man’s corpse: his urban widow or his country brother?
- What would personhood look like when viewed from the womb?
- How do “HIV orphans” survive on the streets of Kampala, Abidjan, Johannesburg?
- How is the family more relevant than ever in the postcolony?
These are some of the daily questions facing families that now claim people’s attention in Africa. In this class, we’ll look at these issues wherever they take us—from small villages in West Africa, to townships in South Africa, to new African diasporic communities in Europe and the U.S.
Grad students: this course is primarily aimed at students in cultural anthropology and African Studies. Others welcome if you have an interest in the subject—especially if you’ve taken at least one previous course in cultural anthropology. For grad. students in cultural anth.: this course meets the requirement for a regional course inside or outside your fieldwork area; and it counts as a course in the “Body, Gender, and Sexuality” cluster.
Undergrads: you’ll get the most out of this course if you’ve already taken at least one 300-level course in cultural anthropology. For anth. majors specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology: this course fulfills the “Ethnographic Places” requirement.
499MM ANTHROPOLOGY OF INFORMATICS (4 HRS.)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3500
This course examines the internet and other applications of information technology through ethnography or Netography. Netography is the ethnographic study of the various intensive observation, description and analysis of cultural meanings, social interactions, and ritualized behaviors in various web sites including but not limited to the creation of virtual communities, dissemination of ideas and images such as Youtube, email, and the visual representation of complex phenomena. This course will be conducted as a seminar with intensive readings, discussions, and a required research project. Knowledge of basic anthropological concepts and theories recommended.
515BS biological and cultural perspectives on sex and sexuality (2 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall
Professor Rebecca Stumpf Office: 189 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-8072
This course is a simultaneous exploration of human sexuality from a biological and cultural perspective. In regard to the former, the focus will be on evolutionary and biosocial approaches; with the latter, the emphasis will be on historical and cultural dimensions. Numerous substantive issues will be covered, including the physiological, ecological, and social aspects of human sexuality from embryology to puberty and from adulthood to old age. Other topics include variation in male and female reproductive strategies, cognitive and behavioral differences between the sexes, and cross-cultural differences in life history. We will also explore the historical and cultural foundations for such phenomena as the social traffic in women, the emergence of hetero- and homosexuality, and the various formations of transexuality. With all of these topics, the biological and cultural perspectives will be presented as different empirical and analytic approaches to the study of human sexuality. At times, they will appear as complementary; at others, we will probe their possible incompatibility. In this sense, the course also serves as an introduction to some of the central issues of interdisciplinary scholarship, particularly the possibility of collaboration between the humanities and sciences.
515DM SOCIAL THEORY/ETHNOGRAPHY II (2 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Virginia Dominguez Office: 193 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-9495
Professor Ellen Moodie Office: 391 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-7849
This graduate seminar, the second of a two-semester sequence, continues to provide training in the theories that shape sociocultural anthropology as an academic discipline. Our emphasis is on ideas and debates, focusing on the historical and philosophical foundations of particular orientations within the discipline and on their significance for the social sciences in general. We will continue to take seriously the intellectual genealogies out of which, or against which, contemporary thought has emerged. We will also carefully attend to relationships between situated modes of knowledge and power. By the end of this semester, students should be able to understand, invoke, employ, and critique dominant (often North Atlantic) ideas about humans, cultures, economies, societies, politics, and knowledge; critically read ethnography in relation to theory; become adept at understanding and using specialized concepts and terminologies; and present their own intellectual projects in the contexts of enduring questions in anthropology
515IA ILLINOIS ANTHROPOLOGY (1/2 unit or 2 hrs)
Professor Virginia Dominguez Office: 193 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-9495
Professor Ellen Moodie Office: 391 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-7849
This course meets once a week to introduce first-year graduate students to the anthropology faculty at the University of Illinois. Students will be required to prepare for the meetings by reading selections of faculty members’ work.
515JD PERFORMANCE STUDIES (2 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Jane Desmond Office: 385 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-4470
This course will introduce students to the emerging field of performance studies and will provide a framework for thinking about the ways in which cultural meanings are embodied through public actions. Drawing on the disciplines of anthropology, literary theory, critical race theories, film studies, dance and theater studies, and Marxist, feminist, postcolonial and poststructural modes of analysis, performance studies takes as its purvue embodied events such as popular entertainments, festivals, public rituals, tourist productions, sports, religious ritual, the activities of daily life, dance, theater, music and so on.
This seminar will introduce students to a wide variety of writings in this area and provide an opportunity to reflect on the current issues, methodologies, and theoretical challenges animating this emerging field. Although a majority of the readings will focus on the U.S., students are encouraged to work widely in a diverse set of historical periods and geographical locations on their own final projects. This course is widely interdisciplinary and is recommended for students in anthropology, women’s and gender studies, cultural geography, cultural studies, social history, the arts, ethnic studies, communication studies, ethnomusicology, and tourism and heritage studies.
We will discuss events as different as presidential debates, beauty pageants, the celebration of national holidays, mass media representation of the Iraq war, political protests, the performance of citizenship, the death of Michael Jackson, the interactions of service workers at McDonald’s, and nineteenth century minstrel shows.
515MP THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RACE/THE RACE OF ANTHROPOLOGY (2 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Marc Perry Office: 393 Davenport Hall, PH: 265-6491
The goals of this graduate seminar are three-fold. The first pertains to a critical examination of the ways in which “race” has been historically theorized in anthropological discourse. Here the work of Franz Boas and his followers among others will be explored with regard to the relational configurings of “race” and “culture” so foundational to the discipline of anthropology. Secondly, this seminar will examine the limitations and problematics of such framings as well those of latter formulations predicated on a “race/culture” tension such as more recent “culture of poverty” theses, “color-blind” discourses, and anthropologically-sanctioned “no-race” postures. This seminar will then explore a series of contemporary ethnographies and other disciplinary treatments of race and racial theorization. In recognizing how these discussions transcend the boundaries of the academy, we will explore how these issues resonate within broader fields of public discourse.
518 DISCOURSE CENTERED APPROACHES (4 HRS)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall, PH: 244-9226
As ethnographers, we collect, translate and interpret “discourses” of all kinds. We engage in conversations with our informants/consultants, shift to an internal dialogue when trying to analyze what it all means, talk with teachers/colleagues in the discipline and engage in writing texts. Discourse centered approaches to anthropology consider language-in-use to be the primary means by which social action, cultural knowledge and social institutions are achieved, maintained and enacted. “Culture” thus becomes a dynamic, emergent, dialogical process arising from the embodied interaction of agents in social and cultural spaces. In this course, we explore a number of theories and methods from linguistic anthropology for analyzing discursive practices in some detail. We connect these with Foucault’s use of the term “discourse” and “discursive formations” as they apply to language and power. Students will be encouraged to apply the theories and methods of transcription and analysis learned in the course to their own research interests.
557 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE (4 HRS)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1315
The course is a consideration of anthropological, archaeological, and related disciplinary perspectives on space, place, landscape, the built environment, and architecture. Coursework encompasses critical review of major theoretical literature and case studies of ancient and modern societies. The premise is that human society exists in a spatial context. We tangibly and cognitively construct space: physical space, social space, sacred space, economic space, political space, cyber space, and so on. In turn, the space we have thought and/or erected into existence affects our daily lives in multiple ways. We study how well particular scholars have applied spatial ideas to their research. We discuss how spatial approaches can be applied to the students’ research problems. In addition to the professor’s participation, students are expected to come to class prepared to lead discussions of the required readings. Grading is based on reading notes, class participation, and a term paper.
Required Books
(1) The Anthropology of Space and Place, edited by Setha Low and Denise Lawrence-Zuñiga. Wiley-Blackwell, 2003. (2) The Power of Maps, by Denis Wood. Guilford Press, 1992. (3) Space and Place. The Perspective of Experience, by Yi-Fu Tuan. University of Minnesota Press, eighth printing in 2001. (4) The Production of Space, by Henri Lefebvre. Blackwell, 2000. Senses of Place, edited by Steven Feld and Keith H. Basso.
SAR Press, 1996. (5) The Visual Elements of Landscape, by John A. Jakle. University of Massachusetts Press, 1987. (6) Rethinking Architecture, edited by Neil Leach. Routledge, second edition, 2010. (7) The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard. Beacon Press,1969. Plus articles and books chapters on e-reserve.
MUSE 420 COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT (3 hrs UG, 4 hrs G)
Christa Deacy-Quinn Office: 16 Spurlock Museum PH: 244-5944
c-deacy@illnois.edu T 1:30-2:50 and R 1:30-2:50 or 3:00-4:30
Collections Management is designed to introduce you to the preservation, documentation, and maintenance of the physical integrity of museum collections. This course begins with agents that deteriorate and how to mitigate their damage to collections. Students will be introduced to chemical and physical properties of inorganic, organic, composite, and textile materials. The course then turns to the study of collections packing, shipping, and storage methods as well as collections hazards, safety and emergency planning. The course includes practical museum experience and standard practices of collection care and decision-making as they apply at the Spurlock Museum. Students must enroll in a combined lecture and laboratory section. The lecture sections meet concurrently; the two laboratory sections meet separately. Students, especially graduate students, should anticipate using additional open laboratory times to complete assigned projects. Open laboratory times, generally between 9:00am and 5:00 pm Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays or Fridays, will be posted at the beginning of the semester.
Fall 2009
Download the Fall 2009 Course Description Booklet (PDF)
102 Anthropology: Human Origins and Culture (4 hrs) M/W/F 1:00
Dr. Laura Shackelford
Office: 309C Davenport Hall
Phone: 265-6741
llshacke@illinois.edu
Dr. Stanley Ambrose
Office: 381 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3504
ambrose@illinois.edu
This class explores the fossil and archaeological evidence for human evolution and the evolution of culture. It examines the fossil and artifact record of the last several million years in order to develop an understanding of why we are interesting animals and a unique species. The first part of the course considers our biological heritage. We learn the biological bases of human life and carefully evaluate the human fossil record. The second part of the course introduces students to archaeology, the evolution of cultural behavior, and world prehistory. Recommended, though not required, to be taken with ANTH 103 as a survey of the field of anthropology.
APPROVED FOR SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN ED REQUIREMENT.
103 Anthropology In A Changing World (3 hrs) Tu/Th 9:30-11:00
Professor Andrew Orta
Office: 382 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-7108
andyorta@illinois.edu
Cultural anthropologists are interested in the social organization of human communities, the social organization of meaning within these communities, and the ways this organization varies across communities. Through the systematic study of other societies, we aim to see the world through the eyes of others. The aim of this course is to present an overview of cultural anthropology focusing on the discipline's central concept: culture. Readings, lectures, written assignments, and exams will expose students to a broad range of societies around the world. Beyond pursuing enduring questions of how people in different places and times find meaning in their lives and in their communities, cultural anthropology provides a uniquely informed perspective on a set of very pressing topics, including globalization, multiculturalism, racial and ethnic conflict, gender relations, and patriotism. For students interested in pursuing further work in cultural anthropology or other social sciences, this course will provide an introduction to terms and concepts useful for continuing work in these fields. For all students the course will present a glimpse of a range of human societies and the contemporary challenges they confront, and encourage a comparative and critical awareness of other societies, of our own, and of the complex connections and histories that link us together.
ANTH 103 meets General Education criteria for a UIUC Social Sciences, Non-Western Cultures and Western Comparative Cultures course.
104 Talking Culture (3 hrs) M/W 11:00
Instructor TBA
This course provides an introduction to linguistic anthropology, focusing on language as a means to understand self and society; demonstrating the role of language in the development of a person’s concept of self and in the creation and maintenance of society and culture; emphasizing language use within community as key to the analysis of cultural practices. We examine how talk and gestures actually work in different cultural contexts, look at problems of cross-cultural communication, and explore difficulties among people who speak the same language, especially when differences of class, age, gender, sexual orientation, and/or ethnicity are involved.
105 World Archaeology (3 hrs) M/W/F 9:00
Dr. Tim Pauketat
Office: 123 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-8818
pauketat@illinois.edu
This class reviews a world of archaeological discovery in the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Near East, touching on archaeologys basic philosophy, methods, and theories as it reviews epochs and place following with the earliest settlements to the later cities. We focus on specific problems, people, and places—King Tuts tomb, Stonehenge worshipers, warring Vikings, Cahokias dead, and lowly slaves. The course is planned for non-Anthropology majors, and is meant to appeal to students who have always had an interest in archaeology but who may or may not know much about the deep past. Assignments, exams and quizzes focus on understanding the processes of human history.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HUMANITIES AND ARTS GEN. ED. REQ.
143 Biological Bases Of Human Behavior (3 hrs) Tu/Th 1:00-2:20
Dr. Kathryn Clancy
Office: 187 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-1509
kclancy@illinois.edu
This course is about the ways that our biology – that is, our genes and our environment – impact our behavior. This means that there are lots of things out there that help define who we are as humans – our bodies with our big, wobbly heads and two legs, our genetic similarities and differences, the ways we are raised, the climates we grow up in, and the culture we feel most at home in. In this course, we critically consider current controversies and ideas on the origin and development of human behavior, and the extent to which human behavior is influenced by nature versus nurture. We investigate the bases of human behavior by drawing on evidence from traditional forager populations, psychological studies and our primate relatives. Specific topics include natural and sexual selection, hormones and reproduction, mating, parenting, aggression, and gendered vs. sex-based behavior. The main objective of this course are to teach you the critical thinking skills that will make it possible for you to evaluate all these different variables, so that you can understand how biology does and does not affect our daily interactions as humans. The course should be of interest to students in a wide variety of disciplines including biological and social sciences, the humanities, as well as anyone interested in the study of human behavior.
143(Honors) Biological Bases Of Human Behavior (3 hrs) Tu 2:30
Dr. Kathryn Clancy
Office: 187 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-1509
kclancy@illinois.edu
This is the honors section accompaniment to Anth 143, where we will delve more deeply into the topics described in lecture.
184 Asian American Cultures (3 hrs) M/W/F 3:00
Instructor TBA
This course introduces the ethnographic literature on Asian American communities and experiences. By giving students a solid background on the history, demography, and politics of Asian Americans, this course will provide students with the critical skills necessary to understand and appreciate the cultures and social dynamics of the various groups.
185 The Global Pacific (3 hrs) Tu/Th 12:30-2:00
Dr. Janet Keller
Office: 395 Davenport Hall
Phone: 333-3529
jdkeller@illinois.edu
This course situates Pacific Islanders within their geographical region of origin, their histories, and their current diasporic distributions around the world. From this foundation we explore socio-cultural and political-economic processes with an emphasis on the flow of ideas, material culture, technology, and peoples to and from Oceania, the Pacific Rim and throughout the world.
One focus this semester will be the arts. Pacific Islanders have traditionally used artistic production as a means of social organization and political commentary. These practices continue as islanders today contribute to cultural and political transformations in their home countries through constantly changing, globally influenced artistic media.
The course will take advantage of an exhibit opening at the Spurlock Museum entitled The Transforming Arts of Papua New Guinea to explore societal change. A visit by an internationally renowned PNG performing artist will provide an opportunity for the class to attend a performance and engage in conversations with one individual who has taken a leadership role in promoting the arts in contemporary political and economic arenas. His work challenges ideas of isolationism often associated with islands and offers a platform for rethinking the Pacific in global perspective.
Our readings will explore the emergence of indigenous nations and their global ties, language diversity, racialized and gendered identities, cultural/eco tourism and transforming traditions, sexuality, the arts, education, and the struggles Oceanic peoples face exemplified by health crises, environmental degradation, and marginalization.
199PG Human Sociality & Cooperation From An Evolutionary Perspective (3 hrs) Tu/Th 9-10:20
Dr. Paul Garber
Office: 309K Davenport Hall
Phone: 333-0075
p-garber@illinois.edu
This course examines fundamental questions of human nature, and the evolution of social group living in human and nonhuman primates. Lectures examine the benefits that individuals receive as members of a functioning, stable, and affiliative social group. Many of the benefits of social group living result from the fact that individuals have the opportunity to develop predictable and reciprocal bonds and alliances with others. In addition, social primates commonly encounter situations in which the collective actions of several individuals provide each with benefits. Developmental, neuroendocrine, experiential, social, and cultural mechanisms and practices that promote cooperative behavior in human and nonhuman primates are discussed.
199SF Introduction To Museums (3 hrs) Tu/Th 1:30-3:00
Dr. Susan Frankenberg
Office: 309A Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-1984
sfranken@illinois.edu
This course provides a broad introduction to the museum world, focusing on what a museum is, what differentiates various types of museums, and how museums function. It examines museums in terms of their educational, curatorial, exhibition, public relations and research missions; their organizational and administrative structures; their ethical, moral and legal obligations; and their sources of funding. This survey of museums and museum work also stresses the roles of museums in creating knowledge, sharing information and participating in communities. The class is taught in a combined lecture-discussion format, includes readings from both a required textbook and literature on e-reserve, and requires two to three visits to a local museum outside class time.
210 Families In Global Perspective (3hrs) Tu/Th 11:00-12:20
Dr. Nancy Abelmann
Office: 396B Davenport Hall
PH: 244-7733
nabelman@illinois.edu
Anthropologists having been thinking about kinship and family for a long time. We know that who counts as “family” or “kin” varies widely across place and time; and we also know that many contemporary ideas about family are quite new in a world historical sense. And, to add to the complexity there is much happening in our world that is changing how family and kinship work: new cultures of sexuality, new technologies of reproduction, new cultures of “adoption,” and extraordinary levels of family dispersion and migration throughout the world among other things. In this course we will examine some of the debates in anthropology and kindred disciplines about family, paying most attention to how anthropologists (and novelists and film makers) have taken on the challenge of portraying “family” and family life. Students will try their own hand at family ethnography through film, fiction, and autobiographical essays. Key readings for the class include Karen Fog Olwig’s Caribbean Journeys : an ethnography of migration and home in three family networks (2007); David M. Schneider’s American Kinship: A Cultural Account (1968); Carol Stack’s Call to Home: African Americans Reclaim the South (1996) and Banana.Yoshimoto’s Kitchen (1994).
220 Introduction To Archaeology (3 hrs) M/W 10:00
Dr. Christopher Fennell
Office: 296 Davenport Hall
cfennell@illinois.edu
This course provides an introduction to theory and methods in archaeological research, data collection, and analysis. The objective is to familiarize the student with the strategies that are employed in the investigation of archaeological remains and how these strategies further the aims of an anthropological archaeology. Grades will be based on two in-class exams, two section quizzes, and weekly assignments.
225 Women In Prehistory (3 hrs) Tu/Th 4:00-5:20
TBA
Gender is both a metaphor for power relations and a critical social, political, and cultural category. This course considers the varied roles of gender in prehistory. It reviews a select sample from the rapidly growing research linking archaeology with gender studies and with feminist theory. We will examine inferences about gendered practices and identities from the archaeological record, both as a set of general theoretical, methodological, and interpretive issues, and through specific topics such as gender issues in early human evolution, gendered divisions of labor, Mother Goddesses and their critiques, women in ancient states, gender and landscape studies, the relation between an archaeology of gender and an archaeology of childhood, and identity construction as linked to third wave feminist perspectives. In turn, we will consider the impact of gender studies and feminist theories on how archaeology has been and is currently conducted.
230 Sociocultural Anthropology (3 hrs) M/W 9:00
Dr. Marc Perry
Office: 393 Davenport Hall
PH: 265-64914
mdp@illinois.edu
This course is an advanced introduction to the subfield of sociocultural anthropology for majors in anthology. The course examines the ways sociocultural anthropologists produce knowledge about the social world through ethnographic methodologies, as well as cultural analyses and critiques of social power and organization. The course moves from the development of anthropology as an academic discipline with a focus on the notion of “culture” towards more contemporary ethnographic texts that are illustrative of key anthropological concepts and analyses of the world in which we live. Particular attention will be paid to the ways social forms of power shape societies and individual lives, and the differing ways such power is “negotiated” in a modern, increasingly globalized world.
242 History Of Human Evolution (3 hrs) M/W 8:30-10:00
Dr. Charles Roseman
Office: 209G Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3513
croseman@illinois.edu
Please contact the instructor for description
246 Forensic Science (3 hrs) M/W/F 2:00
Dr. Ripan Malhi
Office: 209F Davenport Hall
PH: 265-0721
malhi@illinois.edu
Forensic science is the application of science to the law and encompasses a wide variety of scientific disciplines. This course reviews the history and theory underlying methods used in forensic science. Topics to be discussed include the courtroom, the units of a crime laboratory, methods of securing and investigating a crime scene and the analysis of evidence collected from a crime scene such as blood, fibers, hair, documents, drugs and fingerprints. Case studies, such as the Unabomber, OJ Simpson and Pablo Escobar, are integrated into the course material.
266 African Film And Society (3 hrs) M/W 2:30-4:30
Dr. Mahir Saul
Office: 309J Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3502
m-saul@illinois.edu
Feature movies produced in African countries is the subject matter of this course. Many of these have won awards in international festivals and competitions. One movie will be screened every week to discuss contemporary issues in Africa, film topics, the
current art and literature climate in Africa. Readings will be assigned on Africa, the countries where the films were made, and the themes they deal with. Attendance is extremely important. Weekly quizzes, midterm and final.
278 Climate Change And Civilization Tu/Th 9:00-10:20
Dr. Lisa Lucero
Office: 191 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-7896
ljlucero@illinois.edu
This course examines how climate change impacts society at various levels, from communities to political systems, past and present. With the increasing need to understand how climate change and society intersect at present, it increasingly is becoming important that we address critical questions about how lessons from the past can-or cannot-inform on present needs. To accomplish this, case studies from around the world are presented and discussed. The last part of the course focuses on current trends and solutions on how to deal with the consequences of climate change. What are the political and social roadblocks to addressing global climate change? We will, through technology or other means, over come the dramatic changes taking place (e.g., melting glaciers, rising sea levels, increasing drought/flooding, and so on)? Students will come away from this course better informed about the current state of climate change and what it portends for our future. Case studies from around the world will be discussed.
343 Behavior & Biology Of Women (3 hrs) TuTh 10:00-11:20
Dr. Rebecca Stumpf
Office: 189 Davenport Hall
PH: 333-8072
rstumpf@illinois.edu
In this course, we will explore female biology and behavior in a broad evolutionary context. We will explore current controversies and ideas on the ways in which womens development, physiology, neurobiology, reproduction, and behavior are informed by evolutionary theory. Topics include female development, pregnancy, birth and lactation, menopause, aging and senescence. We will also explore female life history strategies, cognitive and behavioral sex differences, and male and female reproductive strategies. Examples are drawn from traditional and modern human societies as well as field and experimental data from non-human primates.
402 Transnational Islam, Europe-US (3 or 4 hrs) M/W 10:00-11:20
Dr. Mahir Saul
Office: 309J Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3502
m-saul@illinois.edu
This course deals with communities of Islamic origin or converts to Islam in Europe and the USA. In the case of Europe these communities are the result of immigration and the course addresses how decolonization and changes in world economy shaped this movement and how Islam, either as faith or as perceived identity, now is influencing national identities and issues of citizenship. In the US the course deals with conversion among African-Americans, relations with Asian immigrants, race, religion, and the impact of recent geopolitical policies on domestic perception of Islam.
411 Methods Of Cultural Anthropology (3 hrs) Tu/Th 11:00-12:20
Dr. Alma Gottlieb
Office: 386C Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@illinois.edu
In this course we look at field research as a continuing process of mutual discovery on the part of the field worker and members of the host culture. We'll explore the following issues (among others):
- Are data gathered and/or created? In either case, what are the implications for conducting fieldwork?
- How do our own identities and roles as field workers/as individuals/as members of our own communities shape both the questions we ask and the answers we receive during fieldwork?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a "native" vs. "non-native" fieldworker?
- How might the classic anthropological research techniques developed for small, rural communities still be useful in the 21st century?
- Given the uniqueness of each fieldwork experience, what can be learned from others' experiences and mistakes?
We’ll engage these and related issues both through readings and your own fieldwork explorations. This is a "hands-on" course: all students will conduct local fieldwork projects of their own devising during the semester. Your project may be directly related to later research that you plan to undertake (honor's thesis, master’s or doctoral), but this isn't necessary. The course should help prepare you for whatever research you undertake in the future.
For undergraduate students, this course is required for majors specializing in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology.
For graduate students in cultural anthropology, this class meets the program requirement for a Pre-fieldwork Seminar.
Prerequisite
This course is intended primarily for two groups of students: graduate students in cultural anthropology, and undergraduate anthropology majors who've already taken ANTH 103 and/or ANTH 230, plus at least one other 200-level course in cultural anthropology.
All others: please contact the instructor before registering.
412 Quantitative Analysis In Anthropology (4 hrs) M/W 10:30-12:00
Dr. Charles Roseman
Office: 209G Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3513
croseman@illinois.edu
Please contact the instructor for description
453 Landscape Archaeology (3 or 4 hrs) Wed 3:00-6:00
Dr. Christopher Fennell
Office: 296 Davenport Hall
cfennell@illinois.edu
Landscape archeology addresses the complex issues of the ways that people have consciously and unconsciously shaped the land around them. Human populations have engaged in a variety of processes in organizing space or altering the landscape around them for a diversity of purposes, including subsistence, economic, social, political, and religious undertakings. People often perceive, protect, and shape the land in the course of symbolic processes engaging with their sense of place, memory, history, legends, and the boundaries of realms sacred and profane. Archaeology provides invaluable tools for examining such processes. Course requirements include participation in discussions, a short essay, a seminar paper, and related presentations.
476 Mayan And Aztec Archaeolgy (3 or 4 hrs) Tues 3:00-6:00
Dr. Lisa Lucero
Office: 191 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-7896
ljlucero@illinois.edu
This course explores the archaeology of Classic and Postclassic southern Mesoamerica (Maya) and Postclassic central Mexico (Aztec). Excavation data, iconography, and inscriptions recovered at sites in those areas are used to reconstruct political and social organization, ideology, subsistence activities, and inter-regional interactions. We will also explore similarities and differences between the Maya and Aztecs; both are Mesoamerican societies, yet are found in different places and rose to power in different time periods. The problems of historical preservation, cultural resource management, and national patrimony will be discussed throughout the course. We will also discuss the impact of the Spanish conquest and colonialism in the Maya and Aztec areas.
477 Pottery Analysis (3 or 4 hrs) Thurs 12:00-3:00
TBA
Pottery is often one of the most frequent artifacts recovered in the archaeological record and is the source of a diverse set of inquiries about the past. This course will examine pottery analysis topics that include classification and typology systems, seriation, style and cultural “boundaries”, production, exchange, function, use, and material science approaches (e.g. mineral, chemical analyses). This course will be problem-orientated (1) in examining pottery analysis methods through specific questions and controversies taken on archaeologists and (2) in a praxis approach where students will test their own ceramic-related questions through experimental studies.
499AL Latina/O Ethnography (4 hrs) Tues 2:00-5:00
Dr. Alejandro Lugo
Office: 396C Davenport Hall
PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@illinois.edu
In this seminar we will examine the ethnographic literature on the U.S. Latino experience in order to better capture the many ways ethnographies on U.S. Latinos contribute to both socio-cultural anthropology and Latino Studies more broadly. More specifically, we will examine the many ways in which anthropologists have theorized and represented the everyday life of Latinas and Latinos in the United States as well as the formation and transformation of multiple Latina/o communities across the continental U.S.A, both historically and into the present. The ultimate goal of this seminar is to provide graduate and advanced undergraduate students with a foundation on the multiple ways Latino ethnographers and their interlocutors—-through their own ttheoretically informed ethnographic texts-- have contributed to theory and ethnography in the discipline of anthropology and beyond as well as to the interdisciplinary field of Latino Studies
499AT Race: The History Of African American Anthropology (4 hrs) Fri 9:00-12:00
Dr. Arlene Torres
Office: 383 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3511
atorres2@illinois.edu
Please contact the instructor for description
499LS Neandertals (4 hrs) M/W/F 11:00
Dr. Laura Shackelford
Office: 309C Davenport Hall
PH: 265-6741
llshacke@illinois.edu
This course provides a detailed investigation of the origin and evolution of the Neandertals and their contemporaries. We will evaluate the anatomy of the Neandertals, with particular emphasis on the relevance that this biology has for arguments and theories about the origins and evolution of modern humans.
499SA Archaeometry (4 hrs) Tu/Th 10:30-12:00
Dr. Stanley Ambrose
Office: 381 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-3504
ambrose@illinois.edu
Archaeometry is the application of instrumental methods from the physical, and natural sciences to address problems in archaeological research. This lecture/lab course will provide a basic introduction to advanced scientific methods used by archaeologists to analyze archaeological materials, including underlying principles of scientific methods and instruments, appropriate techniques for addressing archaeological problems, the strengths, potentials and limitations of techniques, properties of analytical materials, sampling strategies and sampling requirements. Topic covered include chronometric dating, tephrostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy, environmental and dietary reconstruction with elemental and isotopic analysis, determination of chemical and isotopic compositions of materials for provenience studies, analysis of material properties, biochemical methods of residue identification, bone chemistry and ancient DNA recovery and analysis.
Grading and evaluation of student performance will be based on participation in class discussions, midterm and final exams, and for graduate students, a term project involving laboratory analysis of archaeological or modern materials, including a term paper in the format of a report for an scientific/archaeological journal. Readings from required texts and on library reserve will be assigned on a weekly basis.
Prerequisites: Anth 220 or equivalent, and a very basic understanding of physics and chemistry.
502 Ethnicity and Nationalism (4 hrs) Mon 2:00-5:00
Dr. Andrew Orta
Office: 382 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-7108
andyorta@illinois.edu
This course will examine ethnic and national identities, focusing on their contemporary interactions and implications. Once thought to be on the wane in the context of increasingly translocal, transnational, and global frames of action and identity, ethnicity and nationalism remain relevant and even resurgent. Our readings on ethnicity and nationalism will build upon fundamental anthropological understandings of social groups, of symbols and categories, of culture as a shared system, and of the linkages of culture, agency, and the various forms of power in human social groupings. At the same time, the cases we will examine suggest the inadequacy of the concepts of ethnicity and nationalism and challenge us to develop a more subtle understanding of such identities in differing and shifting historical contexts. Our readings and discussions will move between detailed case studies from a range of world areas and more comparative and theoretical treatments of these topics.
515IA Illinois Anthropology (2 hrs) Tues 5:15-6:15
Dr. Virginia Dominguez
Office: 193 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-9495
vdomingu@illinois.edu
Dr. Ellen Moodie
Office: 391 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-7849
emoodie@illinois.edu
This course meets once a week to introduce first-year graduate students to the anthropology faculty at the University of Illinois. Students will be required to prepare for the meetings by reading selections of faculty members’ work.
515DM Social Theory/Ethnography (4 hrs) Wed 6:00-9:00
Dr. Virginia Dominguez
Office: 193 Davenport Hall
PH: 244-9495
vdomingu@illinois.edu
Dr. Ellen Moodie
Office: 391 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-7849
emoodie@illinois.edu
This graduate seminar, the first of a two-semester sequence, seeks to provide training in the theories that shape sociocultural anthropology as an academic discipline. Our emphasis will be on ideas and debates, focusing on the historical and philosophical foundations of particular orientations within the discipline and on their significance for the social sciences in general. We will take seriously the intellectual genealogies out of which, or against which, contemporary thought has emerged. We will also carefully attend to relationships between situated modes of knowledge and power. By the end of the term, students should be able to understand and critique dominant (often North Atlantic) ideas about humans, cultures and societies; critically read ethnography in relation to theory; become adept at understanding and using specialized concepts and terminologies; and begin thinking of their own intellectual projects in the contexts of enduring questions in anthropology
515RS Field Methods In Primatology (4 hrs) Tues 2:00-5:00
Dr. Rebecca Stumpf
Office: 189 Davenport Hall
Phone: 333-8072
rstumpf@illinois.edu
In this seminar, we will explore a range of methods used in field and laboratory studies of primate behavior and ecology. Topics covered include: observational methods, survey and census methods, feeding ecology, morphology, radio telemetry, endocrinology, and genetics, among others.
532 Dissertation Writing Seminar (4 hrs) Tu 1:00-4:00
Dr. Alma Gottlieb
Office: 386C Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3515
ajgottli@illinois.edu
About to start writing your dissertation and not sure how to begin? Stuck for inspiration in moving to the next chapter? Craving feedback on some chapters you’ve already drafted? Almost done writing your thesis, but afraid you might lose momentum? No matter what your stage in dissertation writing, this seminar should help move you along toward the finish line.
In the early weeks of the semester, you’ll complete short writing assignments that will feed into your dissertation; then we’ll circulate drafts of your dissertation chapters for discussion in class. To complement your writing, we’ll also make use of style handbooks as well as a few theoretical works on the nature of writing. During the last weeks of the semester, we’ll nudge you toward professionalization to start planning some scary but exhilarating ways to gear up to submit conference papers, journal articles, and, yes, a revised version of your dissertation to book publishers.
Our aims will be to urge each of you to hone your writing so that you are saying exactly what you wish to say in the clearest way possible; to consider the theoretical foundations and implications of your argument so as to deploy them most powerfully; to offer references to writings that might be useful for you to consider; and, if you are stuck for inspiration, to offer suggestions for ways that you might view your data from new angles.
Prerequisites
You should be in “ABD status”: completed all course requirements for the doctorate in anthropology and have a body of research data available to you (normally from your own field work) for writing your dissertation.
Students from all subfields in anthropology are welcome.
Advanced doctoral students in departments beyond anthropology should consult with the instructor before registering for the course.
Writing Expectations
Most students will produce at least two possible outlines of the dissertation as well as one theoretical chapter and one analytical chapter, as well as shorter texts that will feed into, and take you beyond, the dissertation.
563 Ritual, Power And Social Life (4 hrs) Thurs 5:00-8:00
Dr. Gilberto Rosas
Office: 389 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-4117
grosas2@illinois.edu
Drawing on often competing theories of culture, power and knowledge production, as well as regionally specific ethnographies, social histories, and other writings, this graduate seminar delves into tensions in Anthropology and related disciplinary and post- or anti-disciplinary formations about questions of power, agency, and subjection. Influential theories of political economy, “the state,” sovereignty, the politics of life and death, empire, and everyday life will be juxtaposed to ethnographically informed specificities, often involving interventions from axes of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as other counter-discourses.