Global Arc

Despite intricate training and judging rituals, sport is often cast as an uncivilized realm of unconscious bodily action in opposition to "serious" cultural pursuits of the mind. What do sporting practices reveal about cultural values? This course introduces the study of sport in comparative social and historical context. We investigate classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to leisure, games, and play. We will discuss how sport reconfigures the meanings of social categories such as race, class, and gender. This course encourages students to consider what an anthropological take on sport can provide.

This course explores anthropology's engagement with environmental questions, beyond binaries of "nature" and "culture." How do anthropologists' engagement with environment force rethinking of both the given terms of environmental politics and the anthropocentrism of "anthropology"? We explore, across international and global contexts, how anthropological work challenges contemporary environmental thinking, all while exploring new formulations of environment and politics. Topics include climate, materiality, cosmologies, more-than-human ethnography, and environmental justice.

Human adaptation focuses on human anatomy and behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Lectures and weekly laboratory sessions focus on the evolution of the human brain, dentition, and skeleton to provide students with a practical understanding of the anatomy and function of the human body and its evolution, as well as some of its biological limitations. No science background required. Two 90-minute lectures, one three-hour laboratory.

In this course students are introduced to ethnographic, theoretical, and critical texts to ask questions such as: Why do people engage with religion? What is the force of religious worldviews in shaping people's ideas about how to live? Is justice possible within the framework of religion today? How does technology mediate religious experience? How does globalization impact religious forms, experiences, and identities? When offered, this course is taught by different members of the department and visiting faculty on various topics at the intersection of anthropology and religion. Enrollment may be repeated for different topics.

The seminar examines illness experiences and therapeutic practices as they are related to religious traditions worldwide. We will specifically look at the mind-body interface amid suffering and investigate how new medical technologies intermingle with belief systems and local forms of care. We will also consider how the themes of sacrifice and salvation are actualized in humanitarian and global health interventions and theorize emerging notions of wellbeing and human agency. Students will learn to analyze representations of religious experience and to conduct ethnographic interviews.

What is the relationship between "catastrophe" and human beings, and how has "catastrophe" influenced the way we live in the world now? This course investigates various types of catastrophes/disasters around the world by mobilizing a variety of theoretical frameworks and case studies in the social sciences. The course uses an anthropological perspective as its principal lens to comparatively observe often forgotten historical calamities throughout the world. The course is designed to explore the intersection between catastrophe and culture and how catastrophic events can be a window through which to critically analyze society and vice versa.

The global economy is now characterized by an almost instantaneous flow and exchange of information, capital, and cultural communication. This course explores the structures of power and situated cultural processes that come with globalization. The global is not a given--it is made through intense and often contradictory, violent, and unequal encounters and negotiations. The course draws from political economy, media, and ethnography and familiarizes students with critical debates on globalization and local responses to globalizing processes. We want to bring our empirical insights to bear on theories of social justice and human agency.

This class aims to explore transnational issues in policing. Drawing heavily upon anthropological methods and theory, we aim neither to vindicate nor contest the police's right to use force (whether a particular instance was a violation of law), but instead, to contribute to the understanding of force (its forms, justifications, interpretations). The innovative transnational approach to policing developed during the semester will allow for a cross-cultural comparative analysis that explores larger rubrics of policing in a comprehensive social scientific framework. We hope that you are ready to explore these exciting and urgent issues with us.

Average credit card debt of Americans is $16,000; average college loan debt $30,000. How and why do people go into debt? Why is debt negatively linked to "usury" in some cultures while in others not having debt is a mark of being "underleveraged"? How can "debt" sometimes be an instrument of social solidarity and other times be a source of social discord? In this course we will draw on history, political theory, economics, and anthropology to look at debates about "debt" in different places and times as diverse as 4th century Greece, 18th century England, 19th century Egypt, and the 2008 Financial Crisis and its aftermath around the world.

According to the UN, by 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities. Urban life -- whether or not that means living in close proximity to each other, interacting with infrastructure, or new experimentations with the built environment -- has an impact upon how we experience the world and our sense of place. In this class, we will discuss theory on urbanism, infrastructure, and urban anthropology, and we will conduct observations about the built environment in and around campus. This class should be of interest to those interested in urban theory, anthropology, or architecture.