Spring 2006
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
102
ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor Stan Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3504
Professor Varsha Pilbrow Office: 285 Davenport Hall PH: 265-6490
This class explores the fossil and archaeological
evidence for human biological and cultural evolution. We examine 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 somewhat 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. Final grades will be based
on two examinations, discussion section assignments, and two 3-5 page article
reviews.
Texts:
Turnbaugh, William, et al. (2002) Understanding
Physical Anthropology and Archaeology. Eighth Edition. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Lewin, R. (2005) Human Evolution: An Illustrated
Introduction. Fifth Edition. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Boston.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4
hrs.)
Instructor Hairong Yan Office:
393 Davenport Hall PH:
244-4117
In what is often called a globalized world today, culture
seems to inhabit our everyday speech and experiences, but it is also a
taken-for-granted and thus under-examined concept. We have heard people
sometimes pronounce, all culture, which is meant to summarily explain or even
settle whatever problem at hand that involves differences or conflicts. This provokes two questions: What is culture? How do we comprehend social differences
through culture? In this introductory
course we will examine what we know as well as how we know that which is called
cultural differences. The course guides
students through some key anthropological approaches to the problem of culture
and tries to help students develop a critical sense of this concept. The readings present a wide range of topics on
social practices in other times and places. The purpose is not only to open ourselves to
experiences of diversity, but also to challenge us to develop a sensibility and
capability to re-examine our assumptions about how social life is organized in
contemporary capitalism.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, WESTERN AND NON-WESTERN GEN. ED. REQ.
106 HIST ARCH
AMERICAS (3HRS)
Professor Chris Fennell Office: 296 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7309
cfennell@uiuc.edu
This course will explore recent theoretical,
methodological, and thematic developments in the archaeology of the recent
past. The temporal and geographic coverage will span the historic period of
North America and the Caribbean, from 1500 AD through 1900 AD. This course will
concentrate on examining how historical archaeologists use artifactual,
documentary, and oral history evidence in interpreting the past, and how
historical archaeology can contribute to our understanding of the ways by which
material culture has influenced the negotiation and construction of race,
class, gender, and ethnic identities. Course requirements include two
examinations and exercises in analyzing material culture.
*This course will fulfill a gen ed.req. for:
Cultural Studies, U.S. Minority Culture(s) &; HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL.
157 THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS ( 3HRS)
Professor Tim Pauketat Office: 123 Davenport Hall PH: 244-8818
pauketat@uiuc.edu
The state of Illinois has the richest pre-Columbian
and colonial archaeological heritage of any place in North America. This course reviews in chronological order the
major native American places, people, and historic events of the ancient and
not-so-ancient landscape of Illinois. In
lectures, guest presentations, and readings, we focus on how archaeologists
have come to understand ancient climatic shifts, early sedentism, Hopewellian
community-building, Late Woodland agricultural intensification, the rise of
Cahokia and a Mississippian political-religious cult, migration and collapse,
and the colonization of the state by the French and earliest Euro-American
settlers. Requirements include in-class
exams, short essays, and a museum project.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE WESTERN CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
160
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL ISSUES (3
HRS)
Professor Sasha Newell Office: 309S Davenport Hall PH: 244-0464
newell@uiuc.edu
This course explores how anthropological theories and methods and can
be applied in order to better understand contemporary social issues, both in
our own society and around the world. Focusing
our attention on issues that have caught significant media attention recently
(such as American poverty, gay marriage, globalization, terror, and
immigration) the course will explore and challenge cultural understandings of
class, race, gender, sexuality, and global inequality. Course materials will include ethnography,
journalism, film, and newspapers, as well as social and critical theory.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES ANDUS MINORITY CULTURES GEN
ED. REQ.
185 THE GLOBAL PACIFIC (3HRS)
Professor Janet Dixon Keller Office: 395 Davenport Hall PH: 333-3529
jdkeller@uiuc.edu
This class will explore
Pacific islander lifeways in contemporary and historical perspectives. We will
touch on many of the 20,000 island communities that dot the Pacific from Hawaii
to Papua New Guinea where we take up issues of island ecologies and local
practices, historical influences and contemporary directions of culture change,
reactions against colonial legacies and goals of the present nation states. We
will consider development and gender issues, sports, dance and music, language
diversity and diasporic movements throughout the Pacific and the continental
rim. Our attention is focused on the dynamics of social life and adjustments to
globalization.
Requirements for the course include two examinations (midterm and final) each
counting for 1/3 of the course grade. Exams will be a mix of mapping, essay,
short answer and multiple choice/ true-false. The remaining 1/3 of the grade
will be based on participation in course discussions and brief written and oral
assignments on special topics involving internet research, museum visits, and
critical reflections on tourism!
The course satisfies the General Education requirements for Social Sciences in
the Social & Behavioral Sciences rubric and the requirement in Nonwestern
Cultures.
Hope you will join us.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED. REQ.
209 FOOD, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY (3 HRS)
Professor Martin
Manalansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
As American as apple pie!
Let’s have a coffee break.
I can’t eat any more – I have to fit into a bikini
this summer.
A Thanksgiving dinner without turkey – impossible!
You have not eaten French haute cuisine? Oh you poor
thing!
You can’t be friends with them – they eat dogs!
Food is part of our daily
life. More importantly, food goes beyond
providing nutrition and biological sustenance it establishes relationships,
meanings and practices that revolve around family, kinship, religion, gender,
class, ethnic, national and other collective identities. It marks routine, important life events and
special holidays. Food influences how we
see ourselves against others. It is a
medium for creating intimacy and for discriminating against people.
The course introduces students
to the anthropological and sociological study of food in order to better
understand how food practices, culinary cultures and dietary rules are embedded
in our individual and collective memories, desires, and struggles. Some of the themes to be explored in this
class include: cookbooks and cooking shows; diet and gender; ethnic foods;
haute cuisine and class inequalities; religion and food taboos; cannibalism,
fast-foods and nationalism; McDonaldization and globalization; and world
hunger.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED REQ.
221 MATERIALS
AND CIVILIZATION (HONORS) (3 HRS)
Professor Sarah
Wisseman Office: 78 Bevier Hall-Basement PH:
333-6629
wisarc@uicu.edu
"Materials and Civilization..." is an
introduction to archaeometry, the interface between archaeology,art history,
and the natural and physical sciences. This interdisciplinary field requires close
collaboration between different specialists who employ modern instrumental
techniques (e.g. carbon-14 dating and neutron activation analysis) to study
aspects of ancient materials. Applications
range from archaeological fieldwork to conservation of museum objects and
historic monuments, including such topics as ancient nutrition and diet, early
tool use, sourcing of ceramics, prospection and geoarchaeology, dating, and art
forgery. The class will be enlivened by
guest lectures, classroom debates on topics such as the Shroud of Turin and the
First Americans, and field trips to campus museums and laboratories. Evaluation will be based both on written work
and oral participation.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED. REQ.
230
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Nancy Abelmann Office: 396B Davenport Hall PH: 244-7733
nabelman@uiuc.edu
This course is an advanced introduction to sociocultural anthropology. Through the study of human diversity (and
similarity), sociocultural anthropologists study fundamental dimensions of the
human condition. We will discuss the
basic concepts and analytic approaches of the field through case studies
focused on specific societies. We will
also discuss the research methods of sociocultural anthropology and engage in
some ethnographic exercises of our own. For those students interested in pursuing
further work in sociocultural anthropology, this course will provide the key
terms, and concepts necessary to continue work in the field. For all students, the course will present a
glimpse of a range of human societies and the contemporary challenges they
confront.
240
INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. (3 hrs.)
Professor Varsha Pilbrow Office: 285
Davenport Hall PH: 265-6490
This course
provides an in-depth review of fields of study in biological anthropology. Key issues and topics in contemporary
biological anthropology are examined.
Course topics include genetics and adaptation in human populations,
humans in a biological and comparative context, and the fossil evidence for human
evolution. Students should develop an
appreciation of problems in this field, and should be prepared to enter
300-level courses in the subject.
Evaluation is based on discussion and examinations (midterm and final).
Texts: Relethford, J (2003) The Human Species. McGraw Hill.
241 HUMAN VARIATION AND RACE (3 hrs)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall PH: 244-3513
croseman@uiuc.edu
This course is an introduction to population genetics,
the branch of evolutionary biology that examines the 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, two exams, and a final project
that will require students to analyze data or work with a body of theory (no
review papers will be accepted). A basic
understanding of algebra, Mendelian genetics, and probability theory is
required for successful participation in the course.
249 EVOLUTION
AND HUMAN DISEASE (3 HRS)
Professor Tom Gillespie Office: 187 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3836
trg@uiuc.edu
From plagues of prehistory to pandemics of disease
emergence today, pathogens have played a central role in our existence. This course will provide insights into why we
get sick and how we heal. This course
will introduce students to the evolutionary perspective of human disease using
the principles of natural selection, adaptation, and co-evolution to answer
such questions as: How do diseases
originate? What factors lead to
epidemics? What capacity doesthe human
body have to respond to infection? What
can medicine and technology offer to mitigate the affects of disease?
259 LATINA/O
CULTURES (3HRS)
Professor Arlene Torres Office: 510 E. Chalmers PH: 265-0370
atorres2@uiuc.edu
SORRY, NO DESCRIPTION
AVAILABLE, PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR
265
ETHNICITY IN THE U.S.A.: HISTORICAL AND
ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES (3HRS)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
This course will focus upon changing ethnicities in the
United States. It will emphasize historical,
ethnohistorical, and ethnographic approaches to the subject
matter. Throughout the course, we will address the
controversy surrounding multiculturalism: the struggle for
recognizing the worth of distinctive cultural traditions in
the academy, in policy making, and in everyday life. The
conquests of Native North America and the Mexican American
southwest, the cultural construction of U.S.
nationalism, "race" and racism, the changing circumstances
of immigrants and immigration, the relationship of ethnicity
to gender and class analysis, and contemporary identity
politics will be examined through ethnography and
historical texts.
266 AFRICAN FILM AND SOCIETY (3 HRS)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
A
course on recent feature films produced in African countries. These films are used to provide an
introduction to contemporary Africa.
Some of these films have received prestigious international awards. The films shown in the class are treated as
entertainment, as art, and as documents revealing social issues in contemporary
Africa. The course will include readings
on Africa, on the countries where the films were made, and on the topics that
they deal with. After the first two introductory weeks the students will
watch one film per week. Attendance of
these screenings and of the period of lecture and discussion is
obligatory. There will be exams and
weekly writing assignments.
Texts:
I. Bakari & M. Cham, African Experiences of Cinema
M. Diawara, African Cinema, Politics & Culture
N. Thiong’o, Decolonizing the Mind
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN ED. REQ.
267/AFST 267 MEMOIRS OF AFRICA (HONORS) (3 hrs.)
Professor Alma
Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
If you've read
little or nothing about the continent that is the cradle of humanity, this
course will offer you a user-friendly introduction to Africa, which is so often
(mis-) represented in stereotypic terms in Western mass media. The texts are a set of beautifully written
memoirs written by African men and women (about their experiences growing up
and living in various regions of Africa--and in some cases, as adults in
Europe), sometimes written in conjunction with a Western visitor to the
continent. In looking back at their
engagements with Africa, the authors of these books weave individual, society
and history in complex tapestries, affording multiple windows into what might
appear as distant historical eras and cultural settings, making the exotic
approachable while still retaining a sense of the extraordinary. In encountering these works, the class offers
you approaches into the lives of individuals whose political leaders may make
newspaper headlines but whose own daily struggles and joys alike are largely
invisible to the wider world.
Readings:
We'll read a few
essays and articles as well as the following books:
• Camara Laye, Dark Child
• Bernard Dadié, The City Where No One
Dies
• Buchi Emecheta, Head above Water: An
Autobiography
• Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and
Words of a Kung Woman
• Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy: The True
Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
Hans Lans, ed., The Story of My Life:
South Africa Seen through the Eyes of Its Children
Assignments:
No quizzes or tests
will be given. Instead, through your
writings you'll be challenged to think through the material and, in so doing,
to confront previous stereotypical images that you may have held, and that
popular Western media images regularly reproduce, about Africa. Assigned work will include several genres,
including media drop files and commentaries; a final media poster; and three
short essays. If possible, we will also
organize a class trip to the Field Museum and an African restaurant in Chicago.
Instructor: Alma Gottlieb is a cultural anthropologist who has
lived for long periods of time in Ivory Coast (West Africa), mostly with the
Beng, a minority ethnic group. She has
written an ethnography of Beng religion and society (Under the Kapok Tree:
Identity and Difference in Beng Thought); has co-authored (with Philip
Graham) an award-winning memoir of her stay among the Beng (Parallel Worlds:
An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa); and has co-authored (with
M. Lynne Murphy) a Beng-English Dictionary. She has also co-edited two collections of
essays: with Thomas Buckley, the award-winning volume, Blood Magic: The
Anthropology of Menstruation, and with Judy DeLoache, A World of Babies:
Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies. Her latest book is The Afterlife is Where
We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa. Her main interests are in Africa; indigenous
religious traditions; gender roles and ideologies; cultural constructions of
the body; ethical aspects of field research; ethnographic writing as a genre;
and the experiences of children cross-culturally. Gottlieb has appeared many times on the
"Incomplete List of Excellent Teachers" and has won the Graduate
Mentor Award from the Graduate College at UIUC.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE "CULTURAL STUDIES/NON-WESTERN" GEN. ED. REQUIREMENT
270 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 HRS)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
This course provides an in_depth introduction to the sub_field of
linguistic anthropology, and examines the dynamic intersections between
language, self, culture and society. We
explore language and identity; language and mind; language and culture; and
discourse, power and performance in social interaction. Students will be introduced to a variety of
theoretical approaches; learn basic analytical procedures, and have opportunities
to apply these to problems. This course
can be taken as a standard offering or for COMP II credit.
Prerequisites: None, but ANTH 104
recommended.
286 SOUTHEAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS (3 HRS) Asian Studies 286, History 225
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall PH: 244-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
This course provides a broad
perspective on the development of civilizations in Southeast Asia over the past
2,000 years, from the earliest Indianised states to the present independent
nations. Emphasis will be placed upon
the role of commerce, the development of complex forms of political and
social organization, the place of the
great religions — Hinduism, Theravåda Buddhism, Islam and Christianity — in the
growth of cultures of the region, and the impact of European colonialism and
the world economy.
289
CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIA
(3HRS)
Professor Laura Bellows Office: 386A Davenport Hall PH: 244-7459
lbellows@uiuc.edu
This introductory course will
acquaint students with recent ethnographies from across the nations that make
up mainland and island Southeast Asia.
The course will begin with an historical overview of the entire region
before embarking on ethnographic forays into specific places. Issues we will address through these
ethnographies may include—the lingering effects of colonialism, global commerce
and forms of late capitalism in the Southeast Asian context, the historic
spread of Islam in the region and its recent fundamentalist turn, ethnic
conflict, religious pilgrimage, and tensions between traditional cultural forms
and recent innovations and transformations.
Students may expect to do
in-class written assignments, exams, and short essay assignments. In class students will be encouraged to ask
questions and engaged in focused class discussion in addition to instructor
lecture.
290 JEWISH
CULTURES OF THE WORLD (3HRS)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall PH: 265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
This course is an introduction to the approaches of
cultural anthropology as applied to the great diversity of Jewish experience
across space and time, with a special emphasis on the non-Western world. We
will pay particular attention to geographical diversity, exploring how Jews in
different parts of the world and at different times have negotiated the
cultures they have encountered. In this framework, Jewish identities will
emerge as the products of specific interactions between Judaism's overarching
cultural system and local cultural formations. In particular, we will study
such issues as the persistence of Jewish cultural specificity, the social
effects of cultural displacement, the interaction of Judaism and other
religious systems, the place of memory in Judaism, the intersection of racial,
ethnic, and gendered identities, and the place of Jews in the global system.
358 PEOPLE OF
THE ICE AGE (3HRS)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
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.
Texts:
1. Bogucki, P. 1999. The Origins of
Human Society. Blackwell Publishers, Malden, Mass.
2. Additional readings to be announced.
421 SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
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.
430 THE HISTORY
OF ANTHROPOLOGY (4 HRS)
Professor Andrew Orta Office: 382 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7108
andyorta@uiuc.edu
SORRY, NO DESCRIPTION
AVAILABLE, PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTRUCTOR
441 HUMAN
GENETICS (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall PH; 244-3513
croseman@uiuc.edu
This course reviews human genetic and phenotypic
diversity. It synthesizes genetic and
evolutionary approaches to understanding the causes of observed distributions
of human differences at scales ranging from individual variation to global
patterns of diversity. The core of the
course consists of a review of variation in a range of traits such as blood
groups, DNA polymorphisms, skeletal morphology, and cognitive test scores.
Basic microevolutionary theory and critical discussion of the effects of
environment and heredity on human variation are also central to the course. It provides a review of the history of the
ways in which biological variation in humans has been conceptualized and a
critical review of race based and non- race based means of describing human
variation.
449 NORTH
AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Tim Pauketat Office: 123 Davenport Hall PH: 244-8818
pauketat@uiuc.edu
This course presents a contemporary understanding of the pre-Columbian and
historic-era cultural histories and social landscapes north of
Mesoamerica. Lectures, activities, discussions, and readings review all
portions of the continent from early Paleoindians to later 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
political hierarchy, and native-European contact, presenting us with whole
chapters of the human experience unavailable but through archaeology. Site
and artifacts are reviewed in class to give the student a material sense of
the past. A museum visit is required, and a background review, in-class
presentation, and interview with a living North American archaeologist are
required for the final paper.
450 PREHISTORY
OF EUROPE (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This is a comprehensive course covering
about a million years of European prehistory from initial colonization to the
successful spread of farming communities across Europe. It focuses on cultural history and on
questions about cultural integration and culture change. The class will be run as a seminar where
lectures on general issues will be combined with weekly student presentations
on the specific regional archaeological records of their chosen area.
Prerequisites: Anth. 102, 103, and 220 - or equivalents. or
permission of the instructor.
Texts:
1.Gamble, C. l999 THE PALEOLITHIC
SOCIETIES OF EUROPE, Cambridge University Press
2. Milisauskas, S. ed.
2002 EUROPEAN PREHISTORY. Kluwer Academic/Plenum
3. Additional readings to be announced.
453 LANDSCAPE
ARCHAEOLOGY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Chris Fennell Office: 296 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7309
cfennell@uiuc.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.
470 MIND, CULTURE AND
SOCIETY (3 OR 4 HRS) Linguistics
470, Communications 470
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall PH: 244-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
The course explores the
interface of culture and mind by analyzing the relations between public events
and statements and private knowledge, intention and meaning. We shall investigate the dynamic relations
between structural descriptions of systems and actual behavior and
practices. The application of ideas in
performance and the reciprocal construction of knowledge and experience are
central to this course. The interplay between continuity of tradition and
innovation in practice and in thought is also a major theme. The relevance of linguistic and ethnographic
methods for documenting practice and inferring
conceptual principles will be made clear. Material artifacts will also be considered as
a data source and a part of practice itself.
We shall examine the complementarity of linguistic and visual reasoning
and other modes of mental representation for accounts of culture. General issues such as the
universality/relativity debate, the private as against the public foundations
of culture, and the connection between individual cognition and cultural models
will be taken up in detail throughout this course.
471 ETHNOGRAPHY THROUGH LANGUAGE (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Ellen Moodie Office: 391 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7849
emoodie@uiuc.edu
This is a course in
ethnography focusing on how cultural processes are revealed in language and
speech. We will review a number of
ethnographic works that use linguistic data (each in a different way) to
illustrate sociocultural processes and advance theoretical frameworks. Although the class focuses on language, the
intent is not to privilege this aspect of human symbolic capacities but rather
to illustrate its potential as a resource for anthropologists studying matters
well beyond the strict domain of linguistics.
Language is increasingly used as a tool by ethnographers to investigate
the concepts, practices and textured nuances of "culture." What this does is place theory and methods,
once the hallmark of linguistic anthropology, in a wider arena. This class emphasizes this wider arena by
exploring topics such as translation, orthography, literacy, language and
power, language ideologies, multilingualism, gendered speech, dialect or
language and (national/community/personal) identities, literal and symbolic
dimensions of meaning, language and memory, language and place, the arts of
speaking, childhood socialization, the integration of gesture, writing and
words, and expressions of emotion.
The aim of the
course is to provide students with an intellectual tool kit for research, and,
as part of the Ethnography of the University (EOTU) program, to offer them an
opportunity to begin experimenting with this tool kit through language-oriented
ethnographic research projects on campus. These projects could include classroom ethnographies;
ethnographies of sports commentaries in the mass media; ethnographic research
into dialogic interactions in public meetings. In general research could include ethnographic
studies into conversational interactions in a variety of student events,
whether dormitory cafeteria discussions or meetings of student organizations. The focus is on issues important to linguistic
and conversational analysis, whether the establishment of authority, the
entextualization of statements and assumptions from other contexts, or the
continuing production of regional, “racial” or class differences, all in the
context of the institution of the University of Illinois.
472 BORDER LATINA/LATINO
CULTURES (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
This course explores and examines the production of
U.S. Latina/Latino identities as instances of
international, cultural, and historical border
crossings. In both regional and global contexts, we will
analyze the ways in which Mexican American, Cuban American
and Puerto Rican identities, as well as other Latino
identities, have been shaped by colonial relations vis-a-vis
Spain and by postcolonial conditions vis-a-vis the
United States.
478 ADV METHODS IN
ARCHAEOLOGY (4 HRS)
Professor R. Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall 244-3501
blewis@uiuc.edu
This course is designed for
archaeology students who wish to master a selection of the most common advanced
methods for the analysis of archaeological data. The tentative topic list includes: database
design; how to make CAD drawings from field sketches; seriation &
correspondence analysis; cluster analysis; stratigraphy by the Harris method;
calibration and interpretation of radiocarbon dates. Problem sets that apply the course materials
to archaeological data will be assigned throughout the semester. There will be two take-home exams.
499F American IndianS IN SPACE: Identity/Representation/Performance
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
Professor LeAnne Howe Office: 261 English Bldg. PH:
333-4135
lhowe1@aol.com
LeAnne
Howe (Creative Writing Program/ American Indian Studies)
Brenda
Farnell (Socio-cultural Anthropology/ American Indian Studies)
This course examines indigenous approaches to theater,
narrative arts, film, and multimedia, and the anthropology of performance (body
movement/space/time). Of particular
interest will be "Image" and 'Image production" about American
Indians in various genres, including film and theater. We will examine issues of indigenous identity
and popular (mis)reprentations of Native peoples through the work of
contemporary American Indian artists and scholars. Students will be applying theoretical
understandings to their own creative work in the form of a theater production
and/ or multimedia performances. Classes
will include both lecture/seminar discussions and workshops.
499L
Managing the Past: Culture, memory, and reconciliation after mass trauma
Professor Erica Lehrer Office: IPRH, 805 W. Pennsylvania Ave.
elehrer1@uiuc.edu
This seminar will focus on the emerging body of
theoretical and empirical work about practices, structures, and experiences of
reconciliation in transforming societies around the world (we will draw from
among cases as diverse as post-apartheid South Africa; post-Holocaust and
post-Socialist Europe; post-terror Latin America; post-war Japan, the United
States and slavery, Japanese-American internment, and Native American physical
and cultural property claims). While explicitly political and practical
aspects and structures of reconciliation will be addressed (i.e. transitional
justice, restitution, reparations), particular attention will be paid to the
social, cultural, and moral dimensions of reconciliation such as meanings,
identities, emotions, and relationships, as well as artistic and communal
efforts at narrative reconciliation, such as documentary film, museum, and
memorial projects, as well as embodied forms like pilgrimage and dialogue among
conflicted parties.
499TP1 (X-listed as REEC 496/596)Ethnographic Perspectives on
the Expanding European Union (4
HRS)
Professor Tim Pilbrow Office: 112 Intl. Studies Bldg PH: 244-6440
tpilbrow@uiuc.edu
This seminar explores the
European Union as a social and cultural space by examining its presence as a
factor in the construction of selves and identities in Europe. The recent
and ongoing process of expansion of the EU to include countries of former
Eastern and Central Europe (and, potentially, Western Asia, should Turkeys bid
for membership be realized) signals shifts in the way the EU and Europe are
conceptualized and experienced. Both within the core EU countries, and
among those living in countries that are moving towards or desirous of
membership in the EU, Europe and the EU figure prominently as contested
symbolic resources and concrete presences in the imagination of selves. The ethnographies that form the core of
readings for the course will range from studies focusing on the EU as a set of
institutions with its own cultural practices, to studies in which the EU is
more obliquely present as a symbolic and institutional space within and against
which identities grounded in specific localities are negotiated (with
particular attention to Eastern and Central Europe). A subtheme of the course will be the critical
assessment of theoretical and methodological approaches for the analysis of
state and supra-state forms of social collectivity, with a particular focus on
contributions from the theory and methods of socio-cultural anthropology. i
508 FEMINISM, GENDER AND SEXUALITY (4 HRS)
Professor Karen Kelsky Office: 2090 FLB PH: 244-1432
kelsky@uiuc.edu
The Anthropology of Gender will survey
poststructuralist theories of gender with a particular attention to queer
theory and the anthropology of non-normative sexualities. We will combine theoretical work with
ethnographies, and will also consider methodological issues involved in
gender-related fieldwork.
511 RESEARCH PROPOSAL SEMINAR (4 HRS)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
Designing
a doctoral research project and writing a grant proposal to secure funds that
will enable you to carry out that project can be an exhilarating/terrifying
experience. This workshop helps you
through this rite-of-passage stage in your graduate training by providing you
with written guides to the process and helpful feedback from your peers.
Defining
and sharpening the conceptual focus of your project . . . covering relevant
bodies of scholarly literature (ethnographic, historical, theoretical, and
methodological alike) . . .
communicating your ideas effectively – these are all skills that we will
work to develop. Toward the end of the
semester we will also start thinking about professionalization issues—life beyond fieldwork--by having you
envision future publications that might result from your eventual doctoral
research.
To
get a sense of how well-planned projects are conceived, organized, and
described, we will read a selection of successful doctoral grant proposals
covering a wide variety of topics and approaches. During our class time, we will
"workshop" grant proposals produced by each student. All seminar participants will work to hone
their own rhetorical skills in suggesting productively challenging but gently
offered feedback to the students whose proposals we have read
before
class.
You
should expect to consult closely with your advisor throughout the semester
about issues and strategies raised in the class concerning your own research
project.
Writing: This is a
writing-intensive workshop, and you’ll be working on your own proposal
throughout the semester. You should
expect to produce:
-an
abstract of your proposal
-a
statement concerning ethical issues that you anticipate might arise during
research
-at
least two versions of your proposal intended for two different funding agencies
(e.g., NSF, SSRC, Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, NIH, UIUC Grad. College, UIUC
Dept. of Anthropology summer fund, etc.).
-a list
of journals to which future dissertation chapters might be submitted
-a list
of book publishers to which your future dissertation might be submitted.
Text: L. Locke, et
al., Proposals that Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant
Proposals. We’ll also read a number
of successful grant proposals from former UIUC students.
Prerequisites: This seminar
is primarily intended for graduate students in cultural anthropology who are
beyond their first year of graduate study.
Interested graduate students from other subdisciplines within
anthropology, or from other departments, are encouraged to discuss their
background with the instructor before enrolling. All students should consult with their
advisors in making the decision to take the workshop.
515A ARCHAEOMETRY
(4 HRS)
Professor Stan
Ambrose Office: 381
Davenport Halll PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.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 basic understanding of physics and chemistry.
TEXTS:
Pollard, Mark and Carl Heron
(1996) Archaeological Chemistry.
Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge.
375 pp.
Taylor,
R.E., and Martin J. Aitken (1997) Chronometric
Dating in Archaeology. Plenum Press,
New York. 395 pp.
OPTIONAL TEXT
Ciliberto, Enrico and
Giuseppe Spoto (2000) Modern Analytical Methods in Art and
Archaeology. Wiley Interscience, New
York. 755 pp.
515E ANTHROPOLOGY OF CENTRAL AMERICA (4 HRS)
Professor Ellen
Moodie Office: 391 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7849
emoodie@uiuc.edu
In this course we will
explore recent work in the anthropology and history of Central America and
Southern Mexico. Despite this regional
demarcation, we will not consider this
narrowing, volcanic isthmus between North and South to be a physical
site as much as an idea, or set of ideas, emergent and imagined in dialogues
and interactions. Those ideas change
over time: one of the ongoing discussions of this course will follow the
contours of the intense U.S. and Central
American debates about how to accomplish social change in the 1970s and 1980s,
and then to debate the later transformations of revolutionary consciousness as
a response to pan-hemispheric indigenous movements and global neoliberalism
through the Zapatista movement. Under a
unifying framework of circulation, we will thus interrogate related themes
of globalization, neoliberalism and the
state; nationalism, transnationalism and migration; ethnic/“race,” class and
gender consciousness; capital, labor, power relations and violence.
This class has been organized
as a seminar. Although I will offer some
orienting talks, I expect everyone to contribute curiosity, questions and ideas
to an ongoing dialogue. Each week you
will share one- to two-page commentaries with questions and points for
discussion. You will also offer a
presentation on one of the major readings, orienting the class conversation by
placing the work in an intellectual and political
515L ARCHAEOLOGY OF WAR (4HRS)
Professor R.
Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall PH: 244-3501
blewis@uiuc.edu
This
seminar examines archaeological perspectives on war and draws on a wide range
of case studies from prehistoric village raids to the Little Big Horn, the
Battle of the Somme, and the recent invasion of Iraq. We will consider the contributions and
objectives of conflict archaeology, battlefield archaeology, and forensic
archaeology, and evaluate archaeology’s potential contributions to the
understanding and interpretation of human conflicts that transcend the level of
individual violence. Final grades will
be based on a term paper, in-class presentations, and active informed
participation in seminar discussions.
515M SEX, LOVE AND GLOBALIZATION (4HRS)
Professor Martin
Manlansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
“What’s love got to do
with it (I mean globalization)?”
Escalating global flows of
people, ideas and technology unravel banal notions such as sex and love as
these movements defy the paradoxical juxtaposition of the “intimate and the
proximate.” To think sex and love in the
21st century demands an understanding of globalization.
In this course, we will
examine how discourses on love and sex travel. That is, how they encounter, confront and
negotiate the logics of the capitalist market, the discrepant narratives of
modernity, and the gripping reality of desire.
We will be concerned with the various ways the cultural artifacts of
intimacy are rendered, fetishized and reified in various geographical and
virtual sites. Utilizing multiple genres
– including theoretical works from Plato to Kipnis and recent ethnographies, we
will navigate the treacherous relationship between sex and emotions
–specifically love, and their articulations in global realities such as
emerging internet cultures, sex work, development programs, migration,
political/social movements, pornography, and debates around marriage.
Course requirements: weekly
reading notes, 15-20 page research paper, seminar participation and
presentation.
Tentative reading list:
Anthony Giddens. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality,
Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies.
Denise
Brennan. What’s Love got to do with it? Transnational Desires and Sex
Tourism in the Dominican Republic.
Elizabeth Bernstein and Lauri
Schaffner. Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity.
L.A. Rebhun. The Heart is Unknown Country: Love in the
Changing Economy of Northeast Brazil.
Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper
and Francesca Polletta. Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements
Ara Wilson. The Intimate
Economies of Bangkok: Tomboys, Tycoons and Avon Ladies in the Global City
Laura Ahearn. Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love
Letters, and Social Change in Nepal
Nicole Constable. Romance on a Global Stage: Pen Pals, Virtual
Ethnography, and “Mail Order” Marriages.
Mark
D. Jordan. Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the
Confusions of Christian Marriage.
C.D.C. Reeve. Love’s Confusions.
Laura Kipnis. Against Love: A Polemic
Arlie Hochschild. The Commercialization of Intimate Life:
Notes from Home and Work
Ulrick Beck and Elisabeth
Beck-Gernsheim. The Normal Chaos of
Love.
515P THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RACE, THE RACE OF
ANTHROPOLOGY (4HRS)
Professor Marc
Perry Office: 393 Davenport Hall PH: 244-6491
mdp@uiuc.edu
The goals of this graduate
seminar are two-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
later 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 both critically
excavate anthropological conceptualizations of race and provide race-centered
critiques of the discipline of anthropology.
In recognizing how these discussions transcend the disciplinary
boundaries of anthropology, we will explore how these issues resonate within
broader fields public discourse.