Revised 12/14/07
Sociocultural Anthropology
ANTH V1002y The Interpretation of Culture 3 pts. The anthropological approach to the study of culture and human society. Case studies from ethnography are used in exploring the universality of cultural categories (social organization, economy, law, belief system, art, etc.) and the range of variation among human societies. Discussion Section Required.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V1002 |
|
ANTH
1002 |
12947
001 |
TuTh 2:40p - 3:55p
717 Hamilton Hall |
E. Povinelli |
|
|
|
ANTH
1002 |
00435
002 |
MW 2:40p - 3:55p
TBA |
P. West |
|
|
ANTH V2005y The Ethnographic Imagination 3 pts. This course introduces students to the theory and practice of "ethnography" - the intensive study of people's lives as shaped by social relations, cultural images, and historical forces. Ethnography as a term has a double meaning - both the fieldwork through which knowledge is drawn, and the written works through which that knowledge is represented. Through the critical reading of various kinds of texts - classic ethnographies, histories, journalism, novels, films - we will consider the ways in which understanding, interpreting, and representing the lived worlds of people - at home or abroad, in one place or transnationally, in the past or the present - can be accomplished. Discussion Section Required.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
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| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V2005 |
|
ANTH
2005 |
81099
001 |
MW 1:10p - 2:25p
TBA |
R. Morris |
|
|
ANTH V2009y Culture through Film and Media 3 pts. Culture through Film & Media explores how cultures have been represented through visual media, from feature and documentary film to television and the internet. It also considers the ways in which communities have embraced mass media, independent and new media technologies to shape or revision portrayal. This course takes an anthropological approach to investigating media and its fundamental role in the contemporary world.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
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| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V2009 |
|
ANTH
2009 |
28459
001 |
Th 7:00p - 10:00p
614 Schermerhorn Hall |
M. Vail |
|
|
ANTH V2020y Chinese Strategies 3 pts. This course will examine major elements of Chinese culture historically and in the present-day. We will begin with a study of Chinese society in the late-imperial period (1368-1843), addressing key features of economic organization, kinship systems, popular religion and state administration. From this foundation, we will examine changes and (apparent) continuities in cultural practices over the course of China 's Nationalist, Maoist and post-socialist revolutions, with particular attention to the present-day. Through the study of several recent ethnographies of conditions in rural and urban China , we will explore the ways in which the cultural conventions of the past have informed the strategies Chinese have devised in their negotiations with the global commercial economy and with an often predatory state.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
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| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V2020 |
|
ANTH
2020 |
26540
001 |
TuTh 2:40p - 3:55p
TBA |
D. Hopkins |
|
|
ANTH V2140y Imagining Native America 3 pts. This course will examine the ways in which contemporary indigenous North Americans represent the complexity of their identities, communities, and nations. The course will examine four themes: "Colonial Imaginings," "De-constructing Identity in Art, Literature and Film," "Self-Determination and Nationhood," and "The Problem of Discourse." We will engage the writings of Native American and Canadian literary and film critics, as well as a selection of writings from cultural studies and anthropological critique. In addition to the readings, we will host two outside Native American speakers.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V2140 |
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ANTH
2140 |
71198
001 |
MW 10:35a - 11:50a
TBA |
J. Grey |
|
|
ANTH V3041y Anthropological Theory II 3 pts. The second of a two semester sequence intended to introduce departmental majors to key readings in social theory that have been constitutive of the rise and contemporary practice of modern anthropology. The goal is to understand historical and current intellectual debates within the discipline. To be taken in conjunction with ANTH 3040, preferably in sequence. This course replaces ANTH V 3041 y, "Theories of Culture: Past and Present." Required of all Barnard Anthro. majors; Limited to 40, open to other students with instructor's permission only.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
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|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3041 |
|
ANTH
3041 |
01775
001 |
TuTh 10:35a - 11:50a
TBA |
N. Abu-El-Haj |
|
|
ANTH V3044y Symbolic Anthropology 3 pts. Explores how various anthropologists have constructed "culture" as being constituted of a set of conventional "symbols" and the consequences of such a construal. Authors include anthropologists, Daniel, Douglas, Geertz, Levi-Strauss, Ortner, Schneider, Trawick, and Victor Turner; the social theorists Dukheim, Marx, and Weber; the semeioticians de Saussure and Peirce; and psychoanalysts Freud and Lacan.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3044 |
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ANTH
3044 |
91299
001 |
TuTh 9:10a - 10:25a
TBA |
E. Daniel |
|
|
ANTH V3525y Introduction to South Asian History and Culture 3 pts. Examines four major aspects of contemporary South Asian societies: nationalism, religious reform, gender, and caste. Provides a critical survey of the history of and continuing debates over these critical themes of society, politics and culture in South Asia . Readings consist of primary texts that were part of the original debates and secondary sources that represent the current scholarly assessment on these subjects. Major Cultures Requirement: South Asian Civilization List A.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3525 |
|
ANTH
3525 |
92601
001 |
TuTh 1:10p - 2:25p
TBA |
S. Jassal |
|
|
ANTH BC3871y Senior Seminar: Problems In Anthropological Research. 4 pts. Please note: this course is intended for--and required of-- Barnard seniors. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a senior essay accompanies research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual senior essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and the adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department.
ANTH V3906y Functional Linguistics and Labor Typology. 4 pts. This course introduces students to functional linguistics and language typology. Functional linguistics involves describing, classifying and explaining the relation between linguistic form (e.g. various grammatical patterns embodied in phonology, morphology, and syntax) and linguistic function (e.g. the ends communicative utterances serve and the meanings grammatical categories encode). Language typology involves describing and comparing the forms and functions of the world's languages in order to uncover, classify and explain cross-linguistic patterns.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3906 |
|
ANTH
3906 |
04556
001 |
W 11:00a - 12:50p
TBA |
P. Kockelman |
|
|
ANTH V3908y Global Economy In Anthropological Perspective 4 pts. This seminar examines contemporary anthropological approaches to theorizing the range of transnational processes that are associated with "globalization." We will consider transnational migrations, new communications technologies and media, as well as the internationalization of capital through a critical reading of the ethnographic literature. How has the transnational circulation of media and cultural forms shaped the ways in which people imagine their identity, citizenship and attachments to place? How have cross-border movements of capital restructured the division of labor, the labor process and the cultural significance of work? How have global flows of media, people and commodities reconstituted urban spatial forms and relations? What are the modalities of politics and identity that are contesting economic globalization? This seminar will involve students in individual and collaborative ethnographic fieldwork projects in the city as a means of understanding the changing relationship between culture, identity, urban space and the labor process
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
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| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3908 |
|
ANTH
3908 |
88787
001 |
Tu 2:10p - 4:00p
TBA |
S. Gregory |
|
|
ANTH V3924y Anthropology and Disaster 4 pts. This course examines various approaches to the study and representation of natural and humanly caused disasters. Course readings include eyewitness accounts of calamities, personal memoirs of genocide, and ethnographic reports of the aftermath of floods, earthquakes, political violence, and nuclear reactor explosions. The course also considers conventional patterns of disaster response, as well as shifting notions of disaster preparedness that have emerged since 9/11. It concludes with an examination of post-disaster reconstruction, looking at the ways social divisions, economic conditions and political interests invariably affect the cultural, public health, and psychological repercussions of disasters. Enrollment limit to 20 plus instructor's permission required.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3924 |
|
ANTH
3924 |
78450
001 |
M 2:10p - 4:00p
TBA |
K. Seeley |
|
|
ANTH V3926y Rewriting Modernity: Transculturation and the Postcolonial Intellectual 4 pts. This course is an examination of how postcolonial intellectuals have participated in the creation and contesting of alternative/multiple/'fugitive' modernities. Enrollment limit 30.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
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| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3926 |
|
ANTH
3926 |
63786
001 |
Th 2:10p - 4:00p
TBA |
H. Mokoena |
|
|
ANTH V3927y Myth and Mythologies 4 pts. Examines myth (as a metaphorical act) and its discourses (mythologies, as local systems of myths, and mythologies as metadiscourses on local systems of myths). Not a survey of myths and mythologies but a reading of particular texts that present myths within the epistemological aporias of anthropology as a discipline, and specific myths in cross-cultural context. Bonnefoy, Doniger, Levi-Strauss, Eliade, Lincoln, Freud, Goux, Radin. Enrollment limit to 25 plus instructor's permission required.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3927 |
|
ANTH
3927 |
88348
001 |
M 11:00a - 12:50p
TBA |
N. Panourgia |
|
|
ANTH V3928y Religious Mediation. 4 pts. This class analyzes the role of mediation in religious practice. Religions
depend upon processes of mediation outside of which no religion would
be able to manifest itself and make revelations communicable to its
adherents. Reading theories of media and of
religion we will examine how transformations in media technology shift
the ways in which religion is encoded into semiotic forms, how these
forms are realized in performative contexts and how these affect the
constitution of religious subjects and religious authority. Topics include word, print, image, and sound in relation to Islam, Pentecostalism, Buddhism and animist religions.
ANTH V3947y Text, Magic, Performance 4 pts. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. An examination of text and performance, as informed by magic and related articulations of power. Topics explored include: prophetic writing, historical inscription; divine kingship, cosmology, divination; colonial fiction, nationalist figuration; spirit possession, ritual sacrifice; mask performance, music, shadow theater. The course draws principally on Southeast Asian sources. Key concerns are subjectivity and repetition.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3947 |
|
ANTH
3947 |
11297
001 |
Th 11:00a - 12:50p
TBA |
J. Pemberton |
|
|
ANTH V3967y US Cultural Formations of the 20th Century 4 pts. Considers themes in the cultural history of the late 19th and 20th centuries until the present. Interdisciplinary approach to the study of how ideas about race, class, and gender have shaped what has come to be known as American culture.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3967 |
|
ANTH
3967 |
96347
001 |
Tu 11:00a - 12:50p
TBA |
S. Shukla |
|
|
ANTHV3960y The Public Art and Display in NYC. 4 pts. A
field course and seminar considering the aesthetic, political, and
sociocultural aspects of selected city museums, public spaces, and window
displays. Instructor’s permission is a
must. Enrollment limited to 16.
Instructor’s permission required.
(please sign for this course in
the Anthropology office- 452 Sch. Ext.)
ANTH V3974y Lost Worlds, Secret Spaces: Modernity and the Child 4 pts. Instructor's Permission Required. Examines the figure of the child in modernity. Study of children and the delineation of a special time called childhood have been crucial to the modern imagination; for example, the child tended to be assimilated to the anthropological notion to the "primitive" (and vice versa), with repercussions ranging from psychoanalysis to painting, from philosophy to politics. Engages the centrality of the child through interdisciplinary readings in anthropology, history, children's literature, art criticism, educational theory, and psychology.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3974 |
|
ANTH
3974 |
98450
001 |
W 11:00a - 12:50p
TBA |
M. Ivy |
|
|
ANTH V3977y Trauma 4 pts. Enrollment limited to 20 students plus instructor's permission. Investing trauma from interdisciplinary perspectives, explores connections between the interpersonal, social, and political events that precipitate traumatic reactions and their individual and collective ramifications. After examining the consequences of political repression and violence, the spread of trauma within and across communities, the making of memories and flashbacks, and the role of public testimony and psychotherapy in alleviating traumatic reactions.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3977 |
|
ANTH
3977 |
87282
001 |
Tu 9:00a - 10:50a
TBA |
K. Seeley |
|
|
ANTH V3983y Ideas and Society in the Caribbean 4 pts. Focusing on the Anglo-Creole Caribbean, examines some aspects of popular culture, literary expression, political change, and intellectual movements over the past thirty years.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3983 |
|
ANTH
3983 |
28458
001 |
W 2:10p - 4:00p
TBA |
D. Scott |
|
|
ANTH V3995y Anthropology of the War Machine 3 pts. Can the war against terrorism avoid being terroristic? What is the difference between war and terrorism? How can an ordinary person be cool in a state of war fever and what new things do we learn about ourselves and society when in a state of war? These questions are addressed through memoirs, films, philosophy, and the anthropology of "primitive" warfare. Enrollment limit to 20 plus instructor's permission required.
Course
Number |
Call Number/
Section |
Days & Times/
Location |
Instructor |
|
|
| Spring 2008 :: ANTH V3995 |
|
ANTH
3995 |
14280
001 |
|
