Courses
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CAS AH 380: Romanticism in Europe
In-depth exploration of art in the age of revolution, nationalism, colonial expansion, and religious revival. Development of new attitudes toward history, nature, and the imagination in the work of Friedrich, Goya, Delacroix, Gericault, Ingres, Turner, Constable, Blake, and others. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 386: Modern American Art
This class explores the diverse and contested field of modern art in the United States, examining the broad range of artists and art practices that laid claim to aesthetic modernism in the years between 1890 and 1945. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 391: Twentieth-Century Art to 1940
A study of the key tendencies in European art between the 1880s and World War II. The work of van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Dal?, and their contemporaries is examined in relation to major issues in European culture and politics. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AH 392: Twentieth Century Art from 1940 to 1980
Explores major currents in European and American art made between 1940 and 1980. Examines the following movements and media in relation to postwar culture and politics: abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism, conceptual art, earthworks, performance, and video. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 393: Contemporary Art: 1980 to Now
Explores the terms of debate, key figures, and primary sites for the production and reception of contemporary art on a global scale since 1980. Painting, installation art, new media, performance, art criticism, and curatorial practice are discussed. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AH 395: History of Photography
An introduction to the study of photographs. The history of the medium in Europe and America from its invention in 1839 to the present. After lectures on photographic theory and methodology, photographs are studied both as art objects and as historical artifacts. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AH 398: Twentieth-Century Architecture
This course provides an introduction to the major developments in architecture and urban planning from ca. 1900 to the present. It traces the proliferation of modernist thought through key projects but also to everyday buildings and landscapes. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS AM 202: What's Boston?
What's Boston? explores Boston's complex urban and natural world. University faculty share cutting-edge research, focusing on Boston as a PLACE and a guiding IDEA, introducing the perspectives of disparate scholarly disciplines. Discover where you stand and where you might go! This course carries humanities divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills one unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS AN 101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
An introduction to the basic concepts, principles, and problems of cultural anthropology, emphasizing the study of both traditional and complex societies. Special attention to the organization and meaning of religion, economic life, kinship and political order; and the problem of cultural variation in the contemporary world. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. 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. -
CAS AN 102: Human Biology, Behavior, and Evolution
Introduces basic principles of evolutionary biology, human origins, genetics, reproduction, socio-ecology, and the evolution of primate and human behavior and adaptions. Laboratory sections include examination of fossil and skeletal material, and hands-on projects involving human and primate behavior and biology. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AN 103: Anthropology Through Ethnography
Examines the diversity of human lifeways and cultures across a variety of societies and through time, as well as the social processes that shape individuals. Seminar-style introduction to social anthropology through reading of ethnography, with discussion and debate. (Equivalent to CAS AN 101.) Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Individual in Community, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AN 210: Introduction to Medical Anthropology
This lecture and discussion-driven course uses ethnographic case materials and active learning strategies to introduce students to socio-cultural anthropological modes of understanding and analyzing health-related experiences and institutions, including political and ethical dimensions of illness and suffering around the globe. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Ethical Reasoning, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS AN 211: Humans Among Animals
Examines how humans understand (other) animals and their thought, feeling, and communication, and ways we humans in varied cultures and societies use animals for interaction and self-understanding. The approach is interdisciplinary, considering language, aesthetics, ideology, practice, and regulation. This course fulfills units in the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, and Critical Thinking. -
CAS AN 233: The Evolutionary Biology of Human Variation
Addresses human biological variation. An introduction to the fundamentals of comparative biology, evolutionary theory, and genetics and considers how research in these fields informs some of our most culturally-engaged identities: race, sex, gender, sexuality, and body type. Carries natural sciences divisional credit (without lab) in CAS. Also offered as CAS WS 233. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AN 234: Evolutionary Psychology
Critical analysis of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Emphasis placed on viewing humans as products of biological evolution. Topics include evolution of language and intelligence, cultural evolution, sex and reproduction, kinship and family dynamics, cooperation, aggression, warfare, and status. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I. -
CAS AN 252: Ethnicity and Identity
Explores anthropological approaches to community, belonging, and difference using case studies from the South Pacific, Europe, North America, and Africa. Special attention paid to how contemporary economic and political changes impact the ways people think about and belong to communities. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS AN 263: The Behavioral Biology of Women
An exploration of female behavioral biology focusing on evolutionary, physiological, and biosocial aspects of women's lives from puberty through pregnancy, birth, lactation, menopause, and aging. Examples are drawn from traditional and industrialized societies, and data from nonhuman primates are considered. (Counts for Natural Science credit; as a Biology - Specialization in Behavioral Biology - elective; and towards the Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies minor.) Carries natural science divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking. -
CAS AN 285: Coping with Crisis in Contemporary Africa (area)
CAS AN 285 Coping with Crisis in Contemporary Africa (area) Prereq: consent of instructor 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. Staff. 4 cr. Either sem. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I. -
CAS AN 290: Children and Culture
Explores the way cultures shape the social development and caregiving of children. Topics include cultural concepts of childhood; the acquisition of culture; socialization and moral development; childhood cognition, emotion, and behavior; children's language and play; and the cultural shaping of gender and personality. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS AN 302: Transforming Life: Anthropology of New Medical Technologies
Seminar anthropologically compares the role of science and medicine in society and troubles what is natural and moral, e.g., about gender, personhood, kinship, and community, using case studies of new reproductive technologies in Asia, the Middle East, and North America. This course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- Intensive Course.
