AN285 Coping with Crisis in Contemporary Africa (area)
Explores the ways ordinary Africans are coping with problems of security, environmental degradation, forced migration, economic decline, and disease. Readings and lectures contrast outsiders ‘ interpretations of these “crises” with the way they are experienced by those they affect. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I
AN307: Turkey & Middle East Perspective (area)
Explores the social and cultural diversity of the modern Middle East with particular attention to Turkey. Focus on state power, minority governance, gender, and the interplay of sociopolitical change and different articulations of tradition and modernity.
AN309: Boston: An Ethnographic Approach (area)
Using the tools of ethnographic practice, explores Boston’s multiple identities. Boston’s patterns of immigration and demographic change are mapped through fieldwork and historical documentation. On site observations will help students understand local meanings of place and community.
AN310: Studies in North American Ethnography (area)
A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
AN312: Peoples and Cultures of Africa (area)
Explores the ethnolinguistic diversity of Africa, traditions of the Akan, Joola, Wolof, Yoruba, and other African ethnolinguistic groups, the coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims in Africa, and the historical events and figures that have shaped the continent.
AN316: Exploring Europe through Ethnography (area)
Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) Using recent ethnographies about Western and Eastern Europe, explores some of the critical issues confronting European societies today, including the legacy of the Holocaust, religious pluralism, migration, rising nationalism, and capitalist expansion. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive course.
AN317: Power and Society in the Middle East (area)
Considers how power and authority are expressed and reproduced in the Middle East. Provides an overview of underlying principles and tensions in Middle Eastern history and social organization; shows how these principles and tensions are expressed in religious, communal, gender, and political relationships. [Counts towards MENA Major]
AN318: Southeast Asia: Tradition and Modernity (area)
Provides an in-depth introduction to the culture, politics, religions, and gender realities of modern Southeast Asia. Using both literature and film media, pays particular attention to the forces that have made Southeast Asia the dynamic and deeply plural region it is today. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
AN319: Anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Politics (area)
Examines Muslim societies’ ongoing struggle over the forms and meanings of Muslim culture and politics, as well as its implications for religious authority, gender ideals, and new notions of citizenship, civil society, and democracy. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
AN320: Women in the Muslim World (area)
A cross-cultural approach to the diversity and complexity of women’s lives in the Muslim world, including the United States. Looks at issues such as gender equality, civil society and democracy, sex segregation and sexual politics, kinship and marriage, and veiling. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
AN323: East Africa: Order and Change (area)
Explores East Africa and its people’s ways of understanding time, space, and social order. Topics include issues such as settlement order, birth order, inter-generational relations, ritual and ceremony—as challenged, upheld, and reformed—and questions of power, authority, belief, and ethics involved. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
AN327: Islam in Africa (area)
Examines the Islamization of Africa and the processes of adaptation of Islam in the continent. Course explores the religious beliefs, cultures, and histories of Muslim communities in Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Senegal, and the Sudan, among others. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
AN344: Culture and Social Change in Japan (area)
Contemporary Japanese society examined through social institutions such as family, school and workplace. Looking at social and historical change through critical moments in Japan’s modern history, we examine the experiences of individuals through social class, gender, and the impact of globalization. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing Intensive Course. (Counts towards the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies minor.)
AN347: Afghanistan (area)
Ethnographic and historical examination of Afghanistan’s traditional social and political organization, ecology and economy, and relationship among ethnic groups. Also addresses civil wars and foreign interventions over the last thirty years, the current situation in Afghanistan, and prospects for the country’s future.
AN350: Asians in America (area)
Survey of the cultural history of Asian immigrants in the United States from the 1850s to the present. Focus on family structure, gender, generational differences, religion, and education. Examines implications of the Asian experience for understanding American culture and Asian-American cultural forms. [Counts towards Asian Studies Minor].
AN365: Deep Histories of Conquest: Aztec Mexico and New Spain (area)
An overview of the Spanish invasion and colonization of Mexico with emphases on comparative social and historical developments in Iberia and Mesoamerica prior to the encounter and the transformation of indigenous and Spanish lifeways in early New Spain. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
Prereq: enrollment in the Madrid Internship Program or the Madrid Spanish Studies Program.
AN367: Migrations and Cultural Diversity in Spain (area)
Analysis of Migratory flows and their implications for Spain and the European Union from an anthropological perspective. Study of conceptual and theoretical frameworks through which to examine diversity and complexity of migrations and their impact on Spanish society and culture. Conducted in Spanish.
AN368: Introduction to Australia (area)
Focuses on Australia’s global and national development as a multicultural nation with European roots, traditional western alliances and an imagined future in the Asia-Pacific region. Themes of continuity and change in relation to the Aboriginal population explored in some detail. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
AN375: Culture, Society, and Religion in South Asia (area)
Ethnographic and historical introduction to the Indian subcontinent with a focus on the impact of religion on cultural practices and social institutions. [cross-listed as CAS RN375].
AN379: China: Tradition and Transformation (area)
Examines daily life in China and Taiwan, tracing how opposed economic and political paths transformed a common tradition. Topics include capitalism and socialism; politics and social control; dissidence; gender relations; religion, arts, and literature; and pollution. fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy.
AN505: Women and Social Change in Asia (area)
Examines how women have affected and been affected by economic and cultural changes in China, Japan, and India. Particular attention paid to women’s education, health, child rearing, and labor force participation.(Counts towards the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies minor and East Asian Studies minor.)
AN520: Nilotic Peoples: African Culture in Depth (area)
Explores classic and contemporary studies of Nilotic- and Bantu-speaking cultures of the middle and upper Nile (Nuer, Dinka, Shilluk, Luo, and others) and through them, the British African tradition of ethnography and theory central to anthropology. [Counts towards African Studies Minor]
AN524: Seminar: Language and Culture Contacts in Contemporary Africa (area)
Focuses on language variation and change in Africa. Provides students with a foundation in the scholarship on contact linguistics, language variation and change, and the relationships between language variation and gender, ethnicity, religion, and youth culture.
AN532: Literacy and Islam in Africa (area)
Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. Examines the Islamization of Africa and literary traditions. Students learn about African texts written in the Arabic script (Ajami) and the spread of Islam and its Africanization throughout the continent. Texts written by enslaved Africans in the Americas are examined.
AN538: Human Ecology of Modern Africa (area)
Explores four themes of twentieth-century change in Africa: demographic growth, the redistribution of population through migration and urbanization, the intensification of resource use, and disasters and recoveries. Classic theories of these processes are related to African data.
AN547: Topics in Muslim Societies and Islamic Civilizations (area)
Current issues and debates in anthropology focusing on contemporary Muslim societies and Islamic civilizations.
AN548: Muslim Societies: An Interdisciplinary History (area)
An introduction to the main themes, states, empires, faiths, and ideologies of the Muslim world.
AN573: The Ethnography of China & Taiwan (area)
Prereq: Junior standing or consent of instructor. This course is focused on the reading of major ethnographies and modern histories on Taiwan and China as a basis for examining changing Taiwanese and Chinese culture and society. Course lectures and discussion will also attend to a consideration of ethnography as a genre. SS 4 cr. [Counts towards Asian Studies Minor]
AN575: The Cosmopolitan Past: Material Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean
Using archaeology to understand the cosmopolitan world of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East, from Alexander through the Romans. We travel to cities and sanctuaries, estates and farmsteads, to learn how people at all levels of society displayed their affiliations, ideals, and personas. Through the prism of personal identity we track cultural capital: what that meant, how it changed, and how people used it in order to assert who they were and how they mattered. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
Prereq: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120).
AN585: Advanced Reading in African Ethnography (area)
This course explores ecological adaptation, kinship, social organization, religious thought and practice, and creative expression. Special focus is placed on the history of theory, method, and narrative style in the construction of African ethnographies. SS 4 cr.
AN707: Turkey & Middle East in Comparative Perspective (area)
Explores the social and cultural diversity of the modern Middle East with particular attention to Turkey. Focus on state power, minority governance, gender, and the interplay of sociopolitical change and different articulations of tradition and modernity.
AN709: Boston: An Ethnographic Approach (area)
An anthropological introduction to Boston using the city as a site of recovery and discovery as students develop ethnographic skills and an understanding of the interplay between geography, history, and demography in the social mapping of urban spaces.
AN710: Studies in North American Ethnography (area)
A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation.
AN716: Exploring Europe through Ethnography (area)
Using recent ethnographies about Western and Eastern Europe, explores some of the critical issues confronting European societies today, including the legacy of the Holocaust, religious pluralism, migration, rising nationalism, and capitalist expansion.
AN717: Power and Society in the Middle East (area)
Considers how power and authority are expressed and reproduced in the Middle East. Provides an overview of underlying principles and tensions in Middle Eastern history and social organization; shows how these principles and tensions are expressed in religious, communal, gender, and political relationships.
AN718: Southeast Asia: Tradition and Modernity (area)
Provides an in-depth introduction to the culture, politics, religions, and gender realities of modern Southeast Asia. Using both literature and film media, pays particular attention to the forces that have made Southeast Asia the dynamic and deeply plural region it is today.
AN719: Anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Politics (area)
Explores Muslim societies’ ongoing struggles over the forms and meanings of Muslim culture and politics. Examines the implications of these struggles for religious authority, gender ideals, citizenship, civil society, and democracy.
AN744: Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace (area)
Approaches diversity and change in contemporary Japanese society through a focus on the life course, family, school, and workplace. Also explores popular and material culture, and the social history of urban life.
AN747: Afghanistan (area)
Ethnographic and historical examination of Afghanistan’s traditional social and political organization, ecology and economy, and relationship among ethnic groups. Also addresses civil wars and foreign interventions over the last thirty years, the current situation in Afghanistan and prospects for the country’s future.
AN750: Asians in America (area)
Survey of the cultural history of Asian immigrants in the United States from the 1850s to the present. Focus on family structure, gender, generational differences, religion, and education. Examines implications of the Asian experience for understanding American culture and Asian-American cultural forms.
AN775: Culture, Society, and Religion in South Asia (area)
Ethnographic and historical introduction to the Indian subcontinent with a focus on the impact of religion on cultural practices and social institutions.