Department of AnthropologyCourses for Spring 2025
| Title | Instructor | Location | Time | All taxonomy terms | Description | Section Description | Cross Listings | Fulfills | Registration Notes | Syllabus | Syllabus URL | Course Syllabus URL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANTH 0002-401 | The City in South Asia | Kimberly M Noronha | MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This interdisciplinary social science course examines key topics, themes, and analytic methods in the study of South Asia by focusing on significant South Asian cities. With one-fifth of the worlds population,South Asia and its urban centers are playing an increasingly important role in recent global economic transformations, resulting in fundamental changes within both the subcontinent and the larger world. Drawing primarily on ethnographic studies of South Asia in the context of rapid historical change, the course also incorporates research drawn from urban studies, architecture, political science, and history, as well as fiction and film. Topics include globalization and new economic dynamics in South Asia; the formation of a new urban middle class; consumption and consumer culture; urban political formations, democratic institutions, and practices; criminality & the underworld; population growth, changes in the built environment, and demographic shifts; everyday life in South Asia and ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities, differences, and violence in South Asia's urban environments. This is an introductory level course appropriate for students with no background in South Asia or for those seeking to better understand South Asia's urban environments in the context of recent globalization and rapid historical changes. | SAST0002401, URBS0002401 | Society sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 0020-601 | Anthropology, Race, and the Making of the Modern World | Aliyah M Bixby-Driesen | T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | Anthropology as a field is the study of human beings - past, present, and future. It asks questions about what it means to be human, and whether there are universal aspects to human existence. What do we share and how do we differ? What is "natural" and what is "cultural"? What is the relationship between the past and the present? This course is designed to investigate the ways anthropology, as a discipline, emerged in conjunction with European (and later, American) imperialism, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the will to know and categorize difference across the world. We will probe the relationships between anthropology and modern race-making by investigating how anthropologists have studied key institutions and systems that structure human life: family and kinship, inequality and hierarchy, race and ethnicity, ritual and symbolic systems, gender and sexuality, reciprocity and exchange, and globalization and social change. The course fundamentally probes how the material and ideological constellations of any given moment shape the questions we ask and the knowledge we produce about human | Society sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| ANTH 0030-601 | Human Origins, Evolution and Diversity | Clare E Super | TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM | How did humans evolve? When did humans start to walk on two legs? How are humans related to non-human primates? This course focuses on the scientific study of human evolution describing the emergence, development, and diversification of our species, Homo sapiens. As a starting point, we discuss the conceptual framework of evolutionary theory as well as basic genetics and heredity as they relate to human morphological, physiological, and genetic variation. We then examine what studies of nonhuman primates (monkeys and apes) can reveal about our own evolutionary past, reviewing the behavioral and ecological diversity seen among living primates. We conclude the course examining the "hard" evidence of human evolution - the fossil and material culture record of human history from our earliest primate ancestors to the emergence of modern Homo sapiens - and also explore the new insights into modern human origins and dispersal provided by genetic studies. We will further examine the nature of human biological variation and discuss the history of scientific racism in physical anthropology. As part of this course, you will have the opportunity, during recitations, to conduct hands-on exercises collecting and analyzing behavioral, morphological, and genetic data on both humans and nonhuman primates and work with the Department of Anthropology's extensive collection of fossil casts. | Living World Sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| ANTH 0040-001 | The Modern World and Its Cultural Background | Gregory P Urban | MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM | An introduction to the diversity of cultures in the world. This course is divided into two parts. The first briefly examines different models of understanding human diversity: ethnicities, religions, languages, political forms, economic structures, cultures, and "civilizations". Students will learn to think about the world as an interconnected whole, and know the significance of culture on a global scale. The second part is an introduction to area studies, in which we undertake a survey of the different regions of the world. We conduct the survey paying attention to the different aspects of human diversities, which we examine in the first part of this course. Students will acquire a greater appreciation and understanding of cultural differences in the more comprehensive social context. | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | |||||||||
| ANTH 0050-001 | Great Transformations | Deborah I Olszewski | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course explores the history and archaeology of the last 20,000 years from the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution. Why did people across the world abandon foraging for farming? How and why did cities and states develop? Why did societies succeed or fail? How have humans transformed themselves and the natural world, including the landscape and the climate? We will explore the methods that archaeologists use to consider these questions and analyze evidence for social and economic change from the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. In addition, students will have a chance to conduct hands-on exercises with artifacts from the Penn Museum during practicums. | History & Tradition Sector (all classes) | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH0050001 | ||||||||
| ANTH 0184-001 | Food and Culture |
Michael Durkin Katherine M Moore |
MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course is designed to survey the complex ways that food and food-related activities are woven into human behavior. We will examine foodways from an anthropological perspective by examining the biological, cultural, and historic contexts of our food production, preparation, presentation, and consumption. We will consider aspects of "food and culture" at several critical junctions of human history and address contemporary issues related to food, health, identity, and society. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 0330-001 | Language, Society, and the Human Experience | Andrew M. Carruthers | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human across space and time. In this introductory course, we explore how language is at the heart of what it means to be human, examining the constituting role of language in the human experience in societies across the globe. We address a number of questions: How is being a speaker being a member of a society? How do ways of speaking about the world shape ways of experiencing the world? What is linguistic diversity and why is it important? How does one's identity emerge through one's way of speaking? How are large-scale forces like globalization shaping languages and fashions of speaking around the world? Throughout, we explore how language reflects and shapes the ways in which human beings navigate the flux of everyday life. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 1020-401 | Iraq: Ancient Cities and Empires | Richard L Zettler | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Iraq: Ancient Cities and Empires is a chronological survey of the ancient civilization that existed in the drainage basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from the early settled village farming communities of the 7th millennium BCE to the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon and much of the Middle East. Though organized period by period, NELC 241 explores various social, political, economic, and ideological topics, exposing students to various strands of evidence, including settlement survey data, excavated architectural remains, artifacts, and documentary sources, as well as an eclectic mix of theoretical perspectives. The course aims to provide students with a strong foundation for the further study of the ancient and pre-modern Middle East. | MELC1000401, MELC6020401, URBS1020401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 1230-301 | Communication & Culture | Asif Agha | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | The course looks at varieties of human expression -- such as art, film, language and song -- as communicative practices that connect persons together to form a common culture. Discussion is centered around particular case studies and ethnographic examples. Examination of communicative practices in terms of the types of expressive signs they employ, their capacity to formulate and transmit cultural beliefs and ideals (such as conceptions of politics, nature, and self), and to define the size and characteristics of groups and communities sharing such ideals. Discussion of the role of media, social institutions, and technologies of communication (print, electronic). Emphasis on contemporary communicative practices and the forms of culture that emerge in the modern world. | Society sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| ANTH 1303-401 | The Material Past in a Digital World | Jason Herrmann | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | The material remains of the human past -objects and spaces- provide tangible evidence of past people's lives. Today's information technologies improve our ability to document, study, and present these materials. But what does it mean to deal with material evidence in a virtual context? In this class, students will learn basic digital methods for studying the past while working with objects, including those in the collections of the Penn Museum. This class will teach relational database design and 3D object modeling. As we learn about acquiring and managing data, we will gain valuable experience in the evaluation and use of digital tools. The digital humanities are a platform both for learning the basic digital literacy students need to succeed in today's world and for discussing the human consequences of these new technologies and data. We will discuss information technology's impact on the study and presentation of the past, including topics such as public participation in archaeological projects, educational technologies in museum galleries, and the issues raised by digitizing and disseminating historic texts and objects. Finally, we will touch on technology's role in the preservation of the past in today's turbulent world. No prior technical experience is required, but we hope students will share an enthusiasm for the past. | ARTH0127401, CLST1303401, HIST0871401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 1310-401 | Small Business Anthropology | Gregory P Urban | R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | With a focus on minority-owned small businesses in the City of Philadelphia, this class will introduce students to the work of anthropologists who have made their careers in the business world using the tools they acquired through training in anthropology. By bringing anthropological perspectives into the workplace, business anthropologists seek to promote well-being for employees and owners, as well as consumers and the communities in which businesses operate. The class will also introduce students to Philadelphia from the point of view of minority owned small businesses. One of the two class days each week will focus on business anthropology as a profession and include readings on organizational culture, design anthropology, and the role of anthropologists in marketing and advertising, as well as in globalization processes and entrepreneurship. The second of the two days each week will focus on the city of Philadelphia and the role of small businesses within it. We will study the spatial layout of the city, the kinds of small businesses that are operative within the city and where they are located, the relationship of business to ethnicity, gentrification and its impact on small business, and the role of government and community groups in relationship to small businesses and their owners and employees. As part of the class, students will engage in guided research on specific small businesses, with the aim of developing an ethnographic understanding of the experiences of owners and employees, the opportunities they have seized upon and the problems they have confronted. We hope in the course of the semester to provide an ethnographic profile of a sampling of small businesses from different industries, which can in turn contribute to understanding larger social and cultural patterns within Philadelphia. Through a class blog or other means, we hope as well to contribute to the ability of minority small business owners to voice their experiences, as well as their fears and hopes for the future, to members of the University community and beyond. | URBS1310401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 1430-001 | Explorations in Human Biology | Mallika Sarma | MW 1:45 PM-2:44 PM | This course is an exploration of human biology from a biocultural and evolutionary perspective. The class will provide you with a better understanding of what it means to be human, how humans came to exhibit such a wide range variation, and what biological anthropology can contribute to your understanding of the world. In this class students will learn to integrate the theory and methods used in human biology research through lectures, assignments, and lab sessions. This course will explore topics including human genetics, growth and development, nutrition, disease, and reproduction. We will also use the course as an opportunity to introduce you to the important contributions of biological anthropologists to the study of race, inequality, sex and gender, and health among others. | Nat Sci & Math Sector (new curriculum only) | |||||||||
| ANTH 1490-301 | Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies | Tina P Fragoso | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course offers a broad introduction to evolving scholarship in the combined fields of Native American Studies and Indigenous Studies worldwide. Students will examine the various ways that Indigenous peoples and academic researchers are currently engaging with Indigenous knowledges, while also exploring the lingering impacts of settler colonialism and the influence of decolonizing methodologies. Students will gain foundational understandings of the cross-disciplinary nature of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS), by studying theoretical interpretations of Indigenous peoples in academic and historical contexts, and by examining practical approaches to Indigenous research in diverse worldwide settings. Students will approach topics from a variety of disciplinary traditions, utilizing historical texts, ethnological studies, oral literature, material culture, and modern media, including websites and databases produced by and for Indigenous communities. Readings will include the work of researchers who bridge the disciplines of anthropology, history, folklore, art, law, science, etc. Students will watch a selection of films by Indigenous filmmakers, and attend lectures by a selection of Indigenous guest speakers. NAIS faculty advisors from various schools at Penn (e.g., School of Arts and Sciences, Education, Law, Nursing) will also present several guest lectures to highlight their unique experiences and research projects with Indigenous communities. Special case studies will focus on: new directions in collaborative research; issues in museum representation and repatriation; heritage site protection and Indigenous archaeology; legal interventions and protections for Indigenous rights; and innovative projects in language restoration and cultural recovery. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 1500-401 | World Musics and Cultures |
Shivanand Boddapati Jiwon Kwon Carol Ann Muller Echezonachukwu Chinedu Nduka Kingsley Kwadwo Okyere |
TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. | AFRC1500401, MUSC1500401 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 1500-402 | World Musics and Cultures | Laurie Lee | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. | AFRC1500402, MUSC1500402 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 1500-403 | World Musics and Cultures | Ryan L Tomski | CANCELED | This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. | AFRC1500403, MUSC1500400 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 1500-404 | World Musics and Cultures | James Sykes | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. | AFRC1500404, MUSC1500404 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 1500-405 | World Musics and Cultures | Ryan L Tomski | TR 8:30 AM-9:59 AM | This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement. | AFRC1500405, MUSC1500403 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| ANTH 1530-001 | Gifts, Commodities, and the Market: The Anthropology of the Economy | Kevin M Burke | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | What is the difference between a farmer's market in West Philadelphia and a bazaar in Cairo? What is the meaning of a gift between friends? What about gifts between enemies? What are the origins, meaning, and purpose of money? What is the relationship between politics and the economy? This course will begin to answer these questions by introducing the field of economic anthropology. The economy is not an isolated phenomenon: it is interconnected with socio-cultural and political factors, thus challenging our conception of what is truly considered to be economic. By highlighting the cultural diversity of economic systems across time and space, including our own contemporary, global economy, students will learn what can be considered natural about the economy, and what is contingent on historical factors of culture, society, or politics. Prior economic coursework is not required, nor will this course entail much quantitative analysis. This is not a course in traditional economics or finance. Instead, we will examine socio-cultural, historical, and biological aspects of different economic arrangements, and discuss how anthropological approaches to the economy draw from larger theoretical perspectives (e.g. Smithian, Marxian, Polanyian, Austrian, etc) Case studies will vary widely and include topics such as gift-giving economies of the South Pacific, power and redistribution of the European Bronze Age, social relationships among 21st century Wall-Street traders, and many others that highlight the diversity of economic practices among human societies. Students will be evaluated on short written responses to readings, a midterm and non-cumulative final exam, and a research paper. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 1710-301 | The Social Life of Climate Change | Nikhil Anand | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | Three decades after climate change was established as a scientific fact in the halls of the US Congress and the United Nations, governments around the world are still refusing to substantively respond to the climate emergency. As a result, the events of climate catastrophe are no longer anticipated future phenomena. The intersecting crises of catastrophic hurricanes, wildfires, and flood events are now part of everyday life. Their effects are particularly consequential for Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. How is climate change affecting social worlds and imaginaries for the future around the world? And what kinds of work are citizens, scientists, activists and policy makers doing to address its most pernicious effects? The course capped at 15 students will run as an in- person seminar discussion organized around four books that we will read carefully through the term, along with supporting texts, films and projects. The course begins by investigating the scientific consensus around climate change, paying particular attention to the practices through which scientific facts are established. Next, it examines the social and political antecedents of the climate crisis borne out of European colonization. We examine nineteenth century colonizations of the environment Third, the course explores why the promises of climate action have been deferred despite it being a scientific fact for over three decades, by dwelling in the relationship between power and ignorance. How and why are planners, businesses and administrators able to act as if nothing has changed? Finally, we explore how citizens, particularly those that are structurally marginalized, responding to the different climate crises that are unmaking their lives, livelihoods and polities? The course ends by critically engaging with social movements, projects and programs that are working to address these crises through climate justice frameworks. | Society sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| ANTH 1905-401 | GIS for the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences | Emily L Hammer | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course introduces students to theory and methodology of the geospatial humanities and social sciences, understood broadly as the application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the study of social and cultural patterns in the past and present. By engaging with spatial theory, spatial analysis case studies, and technical methodologies, students will develop an understanding of the questions driving, and tools available for, humanistic and social science research projects that explore change over space and time. We will use ESRI's ArcGIS software to visualize, analyze, and integrate historical, anthropological, and environmental data. Techniques will be introduced through the discussion of case studies and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory sessions, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student. | AAMW6460401, MELC1905401, MELC6900401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH1905401 | ||||||||
| ANTH 1905-402 | GIS for the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences | Emily L Hammer | CANCELED | This course introduces students to theory and methodology of the geospatial humanities and social sciences, understood broadly as the application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis techniques to the study of social and cultural patterns in the past and present. By engaging with spatial theory, spatial analysis case studies, and technical methodologies, students will develop an understanding of the questions driving, and tools available for, humanistic and social science research projects that explore change over space and time. We will use ESRI's ArcGIS software to visualize, analyze, and integrate historical, anthropological, and environmental data. Techniques will be introduced through the discussion of case studies and through demonstration of software skills. During supervised laboratory sessions, the various techniques and analyses covered will be applied to sample data and also to data from a region/topic chosen by the student. | AAMW6460402, MELC1905402, MELC6900402 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH1905402 | ||||||||
| ANTH 1925-401 | Who Owns the Past? Archaeology and Politics in the Middle East | Emily L Hammer | W 12:00 PM-2:59 PM | This course explores the role of cultural heritage and archaeological discoveries in the politics of the Middle East from the nineteenth century to the recent aftermath of the Arab Spring. We will explore how modern Middle East populations relate to their pasts and how archaeology and cultural heritage have been employed to support particular political and social agendas, including colonialism, nationalism, imperialism, and the construction of ethnic-religious identities. Although it was first introduced to the Middle East as a colonial enterprise by European powers, archaeology became a pivotal tool for local populations of the Middle East to construct new histories and identities during the post-World War I period of intensive nation-building after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. To understand this process, we will first look at the nineteenth-century establishment of archaeology by institutions like the Penn Museum. Then we will move on to individual case studies in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Iran, and the republics of former Soviet Transcaucasia to look at the role of archaeology and cultural heritage in the formation of these countries as modern nation-states with a shared identity among citizens. We will conclude with an examination of the recent impact of the Islamic State on material heritage in Syria and Iraq, the changing attitudes of Middle Eastern countries toward foreign museums, and the role of UNESCO in defining Middle Eastern sites of world heritage. The course will also include field trips to the Penn Museum. | MELC2900401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH1925401 | ||||||||
| ANTH 2024-401 | Dress and Fashion in Africa | Ali B. Ali-Dinar | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | Throughout Africa, social and cultural identities of ethnicity, gender, generation, rank and status were conveyed in a range of personal ornamentation that reflects the variation of African cultures. The meaning of one particular item of clothing can transform completely when moved across time and space. As one of many forms of expressive culture, dress shape and give forms to social bodies. In the study of dress and fashion, we could note two distinct broad approaches, the historical and the anthropological. While the former focuses on fashion as a western system that shifted across time and space, and linked with capitalism and western modernity; the latter approach defines dress as an assemblage of modification the body. The Africanist proponents of this anthropological approach insisted that fashion is not a dress system specific to the west and not tied with the rise of capitalism. This course will focus on studying the history of African dress by discussing the forces that have impacted and influenced it overtime, such as socio-economic, colonialism, religion, aesthetics, politics, globalization, and popular culture. The course will also discuss the significance of the different contexts that impacted the choices of what constitute an appropriate attire for distinct situations. African dress in this context is not a fixed relic from the past, but a live cultural item that is influenced by the surrounding forces. | AFRC2324401, ARTH2094401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 2060-301 | Cultures of Science and Technology | Kevin M Burke | M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Science and technology figure centrally in the economic, political, and socio-cultural changes that impact our worlds. Happenings in the life sciences, including the discovery of new genes, pathways, and processes, are redrawing concepts of the body and human nature and refiguring social and political relations. The seminar starts from the premise that scientific facts are made, not things existing a priori in the world and that are merely picked up by researchers and consumed by lay audiences. Likewise, technologies are created through a process of intense negotiation between producers and their sophisticated users. Focusing on the biosciences, we explore the production of science and technology and how they 1)affect individuals, self-identities, subjectivity, kinship, and social relationships; 2)have interacted with or reinforced political programs, racial classifications, unequal access to knowledge, and patterns of social injustice; 3)inform contemporary institutional structures, strategies of governance, and practices of citizenship. We will combine methods and perspectives from social and cultural anthropology, and the social studies of science and technology, and will draw from historical case studies, contemporary ethnographies of science, scientific and medical journals, documentary films and media reports. | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | |||||||||
| ANTH 2070-401 | Primate Behavior and Ecology | Caroline E Jones | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course explores the behavior of wild primates and the ecological models that attempt to explain the evolution of these behaviors. The evolution and taxonomy of primates will be reviewed, followed by a brief history of wild primate studies. We will then explore primate behavior through theoretical frameworks ranging from socioecological theory to sexual selection. Topics discussed include, but are not limited to, socioecology, aggression, kinship, cooperation, reproductive strategies, cognition, and conservation. Those enrolled in the graduate section (ANTH 6070) will have additional responsibilities assigned. | ANTH6070401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 2267-401 | Living World in Archaeological Science |
Katherine M Moore Chantel E. White |
TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | By focusing on the scientific analysis of archaeological remains from organic materials, this course will explore life and death in the past. Plant and animal remains from the archaeological record are studied from a variety of scales from landscapes and individual objects. The course uses laboratories in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) at the Penn Museum. Each module will combine laboratory and classroom exercises to give students hands-on experience with archaeological materials. We will examine how organic materials provide key information about past environments, the domestication of plants and animals, and the evolution of human foods and their environmental impacts. We will integrate archaeological data through discussions of topics such as health and disease, inequality, and traditional ecological knowledge. We will also discuss current approaches in archaeological science, including molecular and genomic studies, to explore the complex ways in which humans have interacted with plants and animals over time. | ANTH5267401, CLST3303401, CLST5303401, MELC2950401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 2840-401 | World Heritage in Global Conflict | Lynn M. Meskell | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Heritage is always political. Such a statement might refer to the everyday politics of local stakeholder interests on one end of the spectrum, or the volatile politics of destruction and erasure of heritage during conflict, on the other. If heritage is always political then one might expect that the workings of World Heritage might be especially fraught given the international dimension. In particular, the intergovernmental system of UNESCO World Heritage must navigate the inherent tension between state sovereignty and nationalist interests and the wider concerns of a universal regime. The World Heritage List has almost 1200 properties has many such contentious examples, including sites in Iraq, Mali, Syria, Crimea, Palestine, Armenia and Cambodia. As an organization UNESCO was born of war with an explicit mission to end global conflict and help the world rebuild materially and morally yet has found its own history increasingly entwined with that of international politics and violence. | ANTH5840401, CLST3319401, HSPV5840401, MELC2920401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 3219-401 | Mining Archaeology | Vanessa Workman | F 8:30 AM-11:29 AM | In ancient times, materials such as stone and metals were used to produce artifacts including pigments, jewelry, tools, and weapons. This course is designed to introduce students to research on the early exploitation of mineral resources. Which techniques were used to access and process raw materials in antiquity? Which archaeological methods can be used to investigate these features and artifacts? The course will provide worldwide examples through time, ranging from Stone Age flint mining, Iron Age rock salt mining to Medieval silver mining. Ethnographic studies and hands-on activities will contribute to our understanding of mining in archaeology, and artifacts from the Museum's collections will undergo scientific analysis in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials. | ANTH5219401, CLST3314401, CLST5314401, MELC4950401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH3219401 | ||||||||
| ANTH 3368-301 | Anthropology of Museums | Angelantonio Grossi | T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | This course examines museums as sites where issues of Indigenous identity, memory, place and power intersect. Museums have long been engaged in the selective preservation, representation, and contextualization of Indigenous objects, cultures, and histories. We will examine antiquarian impulses that inspired the collecting of curiosities, scientific studies that drove the collection of biological specimens, and nationalist ideals that shaped monuments to house imperialist memories. Museums are now sites for complex, often contentious discourse around Indigenous collections. Students will review histories of local and national collecting processes, with a particular focus on Native American collections and concerns. We will also consider how Indigenous curators and new kinds of museums have developed innovative displays and interpretations. | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH3368301 | |||||||||
| ANTH 3376-301 | Ethnographic Approaches to Urban Athletics and Human Movement | Gretchen E L Suess | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | Rooted in the rubric of public interest social science, the course focuses on bridging theory and practice motivated by a commitment to social justice through original ethnographic research. In particular, this course will focus on kinesiology and the anthropology of sports and well-being through intense analysis of the Young Quakers Community Athletics (YQCA) program, a collaboration between the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Penn Athletics. In guest lecturers from multiple disciplines will help to round out the course. The core learning objective is to bring a broad range of specialized expertise to foster a holistic examination of a complex institutional partnership intended to promote positive social transformation and improved human health and well-being. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 3447-401 | From Puberty to Parenting: The Evolutionary Context of Reproduction | Caroline E Jones | R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | This course explores the processes that influence reproduction in human populations. We adopt an evolutionary perspective to examine the factors that have shaped human reproductive physiology and contribute to variation in reproductive parameters between populations. To place human reproduction in a broad evolutionary context, we will consider similarities and differences between humans and other apes in how ecology shapes reproduction. The biology of puberty, pregnancy, hormonal changes across the lifespan, the cessation of reproduction, the impact of parenting behavior on the biology of offspring and parents themselves, and the influence of sex and gender diversity on reproduction will be discussed. Both the ecological and sociocultural factors that influence the steps in the reproductive process will be considered. | ANTH5447401, GSWS3447401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 3669-401 | Experimental Ethnography: Performance: Collective Rememory | T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Students will engage with performance as a creative ethnographic research practice, guided by a special visiting fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography who is a master of the craft. Sections differ in content and focus, and involve a production component as well as a final exhibit/showcase/screening. | ANTH6669401 | ||||||||||
| ANTH 3670-401 | Experimental Ethnography: Performance : Activism, Ecology, Dance : Embodying Liberation | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Students will engage with performance as a creative ethnographic research practice, guided by a special visiting fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography who is a master of the craft. Sections differ in content and focus, and involve a production component as well as a final exhibit/showcase/screening. | ANTH6670401 | ||||||||||
| ANTH 3766-401 | Cultures of Surveillance | Zehra Hashmi | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Developments in digital technology have generated urgent political discussions about the pervasive role of surveillance in our everyday life, from the mundane to the exceptional. But surveillance has a much longer history. In this course, students will learn to think and write critically about the historical, socio-cultural, and political dynamics that define surveillance today. This course asks: how can we historicize what we call surveillance to understand its political and social implications beyond what appears in the document caches of the NSA or on a Black Mirror episode? What role does identity and identification play in surveillance? How do surveillance and computational technologies produce racializing effects? Students will apply course concepts to technologies of daily use, such as self-tracking devices like fit bits or identity documents, and reflect on debates surrounding race, policing, imperialism, and privacy. Through primary source materials, films, podcasts, and key texts, we will engage in a cross-cultural exploration of the multi-faceted phenomena of surveillance technology. Through regular writing assignments, such as surveillancediaries, students will analyze and articulate how they understand surveillance to operate in various domains of everyday life. In this course, students will: (1) Apply course concepts to their lived experience, from securitized architecture to search engines, in order to understand how surveillance operates in everyday life; (2) Analyze how historical context has shaped the current configuration of securitization and surveillance on a global scale; (3) Use ethnographic approaches to study the interaction between individuals, their social relations, and technologies of surveillance. | STSC3766401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5087-401 | Race, Nation, Empire | Deborah A Thomas | M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | This graduate seminar examines the dynamic relationships among empires, nations and states; colonial and post-colonial policies; and anti-colonial strategies within a changing global context. Using the rubrics of anthropology, history, cultural studies, and social theory, we will explore the intimacies of subject formation within imperial contexts- past and present- especially in relation to ideas about race and belonging. We will focus on how belonging and participation have been defined in particular locales, as well as how these notions have been socialized through a variety of institutional contexts. Finally, we will consider the relationships between popular culture and state formation, examining these as dialectical struggles for hegemony. | AFRC5087401, GSWS5087401, LALS5087401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5211-401 | Petrography of Cultural Materials | Marie-Claude Boileau | W 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | Introduction to thin-section petrography of stone and ceramic archaeological materials. Using polarized light microscopy, the first half of this course will cover the basics of mineralogy and the petrography of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. The second half will focus on the petrographic description of ceramic materials, mainly pottery, with emphasis on the interpretation of provenance and technology. As part of this course, students will characterize and analyze archaeological samples from various collections. Prior knowledge of geology is not required. | AAMW5120401, CLST7311401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5219-401 | Mining Archaeology | Vanessa Workman | F 8:30 AM-11:29 AM | In ancient times, materials such as stone and metals were used to produce artifacts including pigments, jewelry, tools, and weapons. This course is designed to introduce students to research on the early exploitation of mineral resources. Which techniques were used to access and process raw materials in antiquity? Which archaeological methods can be used to investigate these features and artifacts? The course will provide worldwide examples through time, ranging from Stone Age flint mining, Iron Age rock salt mining to Medieval silver mining. Ethnographic studies and hands-on activities will contribute to our understanding of mining in archaeology, and artifacts from the Museum's collections will undergo scientific analysis in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials. | ANTH3219401, CLST3314401, CLST5314401, MELC4950401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=ANTH5219401 | ||||||||
| ANTH 5267-401 | Living World in Archaeological Science |
Katherine M Moore Chantel E. White |
TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | By focusing on the scientific analysis of archaeological remains from organic materials, this course will explore life and death in the past. Plant and animal remains from the archaeological record are studied from a variety of scales from landscapes and individual objects. The course uses laboratories in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) at the Penn Museum. Each module will combine laboratory and classroom exercises to give students hands-on experience with archaeological materials. We will examine how organic materials provide key information about past environments, the domestication of plants and animals, and the evolution of human foods and their environmental impacts. We will integrate archaeological data through discussions of topics such as health and disease, inequality, and traditional ecological knowledge. We will also discuss current approaches in archaeological science, including molecular and genomic studies, to explore the complex ways in which humans have interacted with plants and animals over time. | ANTH2267401, CLST3303401, CLST5303401, MELC2950401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5447-401 | From Puberty to Parenting: The Evolutionary Context of Reproduction | Caroline E Jones | R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | This course explores the processes that influence reproduction in human populations. We adopt an evolutionary perspective to examine the factors that have shaped human reproductive physiology and contribute to variation in reproductive parameters between populations. To place human reproduction in a broad evolutionary context, we will consider similarities and differences between humans and other apes in how ecology shapes reproduction. The biology of puberty, pregnancy, hormonal changes across the lifespan, the cessation of reproduction, the impact of parenting behavior on the biology of offspring and parents themselves, and the influence of sex and gender diversity on reproduction will be discussed. Both the ecological and sociocultural factors that influence the steps in the reproductive process will be considered. | ANTH3447401, GSWS3447401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5470-401 | Anthropology and Education |
Leigh Llewellyn Graham Paula Helene Rogers |
T 9:30 AM-11:29 AM | An introduction to the intent, approach, and contribution of anthropology to the study of socialization and schooling in cross-cultural perspective. Education is examined in traditional, colonial, and complex industrial societies. | EDUC5495401, URBS5470401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 5550-301 | Movement, Mobility, Migration | Andrew M. Carruthers | F 12:00 PM-2:59 PM | What counts as movement, mobility, and migration? This seminar explores how anthropologists have examined movement, mobility, and migration from various angles of vision. We attend to a wide range of interlocking issues across different contexts: proprioception and kinaesthesia; dance and the body; spatial orientation and deictic selectivity; market forces and transnational flows; cellular migration and membrane transport; migration infrastructures and cross-border channels; affect and social mobility; and much else besides. We will attempt to theorize the relation between movement, mobility, and migration - three phenomena that are sometimes unproductively conflated in the anthropological literature. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 5840-401 | World Heritage in Global Conflict | Lynn M. Meskell | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Heritage is always political. Such a statement might refer to the everyday politics of local stakeholder interests on one end of the spectrum, or the volatile politics of destruction and erasure of heritage during conflict, on the other. If heritage is always political then one might expect that the workings of World Heritage might be especially fraught given the international dimension. In particular, the intergovernmental system of UNESCO World Heritage must navigate the inherent tension between state sovereignty and nationalist interests and the wider concerns of a universal regime. The World Heritage List has over 1200 properties with many such contentious examples, including sites in Iraq, Mali, Syria, Crimea, Palestine, Armenia and Cambodia. As an organization UNESCO was born of war with an explicit mission to end global conflict and help the world rebuild materially and morally yet has found its own history increasingly entwined with that of international politics and violence. | ANTH2840401, CLST3319401, HSPV5840401, MELC2920401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 6010-301 | Contemporary Approaches to the Study of Culture and Society | Emily K Ng | R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | A critical examination of recent history and theory in cultural and social anthropology. Topics include structural-functionalism; symbolic anthropology; post-modern theory. Emphasis is on major schools and trends in America, Britain, and France. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 6020-301 | Evolutionary Anthropology | Mallika Sarma | T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | This course will explore various subfields of biological anthropology to better understand what it means to be human. Special attention will be paid to current issues and problems in these subfields, and the different ways in which researchers are attempting to understand and uncover the details of human evolution. Among the areas that are explored in this course are paleoanthropology, primatology, human biology, molecular anthropology, evolutionary medicine, epigenetics, and human life history. Specific issues to be explored include the primate roots of human behavior, brain and language evolution, new fossil hominins, the origins of anatomically modern humans, and modern human migration history. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 6070-401 | Primate Behavior and Ecology | Caroline E Jones | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course explores the behavior of wild primates and the ecological models that attempt to explain the evolution of these behaviors. The evolution and taxonomy of primates will be reviewed, followed by a brief history of wild primate studies. We will then explore primate behavior through theoretical frameworks ranging from socioecological theory to sexual selection. Topics discussed include, but are not limited to, socioecology, aggression, kinship, cooperation, reproductive strategies, cognition, and conservation. Those enrolled in the graduate section (ANTH 6070) will have additional responsibilities assigned. | ANTH2070401 | |||||||||
| ANTH 6550-301 | Methods and Grantwriting for Anthropological Research | Nikhil Anand | T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | This course is designed for third- and fourth-year graduate students in anthropology who are working on their dissertation research proposals and submitting grants. Graduate students from other departments who will be submitting grant proposals that include an ethnographic component are also welcome. Students will develop their proposals throughout the course of the semester, and will meet important fall submission deadlines. They will begin by working with various databases to search funding sources relevant to the research they plan to conduct. In class sessions, they will also work with the professor and their peers to refine their research questions, their methods, the relationship of any previous research to their dissertation fieldwork, and the broader theoretical and "real-world" significance of their proposed projects. Finally, students will also have the opportunity to have live "chats" with representatives from funding agencies, thereby gaining a better sense of what particular foundations are looking for in a proposal. | ||||||||||
| ANTH 6669-401 | Experimental Ethnography: Performance : Collective Rememory | T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Students will engage with performance as a creative ethnographic research practice, guided by a special visiting fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography who is a master of the craft. Sections differ in content and focus, and involve a production component as well as a final exhibit/showcase/screening. | ANTH3669401 | ||||||||||
| ANTH 6670-401 | Experimental Ethnography - Performance : Activism, Ecology, Dance: Embodying Liberation | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | Students will engage with performance as a creative ethnographic research practice , guided by a special visiting fellow at the Center for Experimental Ethnography who is a master of the craft. Sections differ in content and focus, and involve a production component as well as a final exhibit/showcase/screening. | ANTH3670401 | ||||||||||
| ANTH 7030-301 | Readings & Research In Linguistic Anthropology | Asif Agha | The course is designed for students and faculty interested in discussing current research and/or research topics in any area of linguistic or semiotic anthropology. The primary intent of the course is to familiarize students with the literature on selected research topics and to develop their own research agendas in the light of the literature. Students may enroll on an S/U basis for 0.5 CU per semester. The course may be repeated for credit up to 4 times. | |||||||||||
| ANTH 7030-302 | Readings & Research In Linguistic Anthropology | Asif Agha | The course is designed for students and faculty interested in discussing current research and/or research topics in any area of linguistic or semiotic anthropology. The primary intent of the course is to familiarize students with the literature on selected research topics and to develop their own research agendas in the light of the literature. Students may enroll on an S/U basis for 0.5 CU per semester. The course may be repeated for credit up to 4 times. | |||||||||||
| ANTH 7704-401 | State, Society, and Culture in South Asia | Lisa A Mitchell | R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | This interdisciplinary course introduces graduate students to both classic and more recent theoretical frameworks used in understanding and analyzing society, culture, and the state, with particular reference to South Asia. Topics include bureaucracy and the state; power and performance; hierarchy and individualism; caste, community, and domination; money and markets; credit and debt; globalization and consumption; economic liberalization and political transformations; local and trans-local contexts of meaning; the environment, politics, and urban and rural ecologies; and culture and the changing shape of politics. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ways in which recent ethnographic and historical monographs have positioned their interventions in relation to broader debates and scholarship, both within scholarship on South Asia and more generally. | SAST7704401 |