Anthropology

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  • CAS AN 573: The Ethnography of China and Taiwan (area)
    Reading of major ethnographies and modern histories as a basis for examining changing Taiwanese and Chinese culture and society. Attention to ethnography as a genre, as well as to the dramatic changes of the past century. (Counts towards the East Asian Studies minor.) Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 585: Advanced Readings in African Ethnography (area)
    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
  • CAS AN 589: The Anthropology of Development Theory & Practice
    Explores the uncomfortable relationship between anthropology and international development. Examines anthropology's sustained and multidimensional critiques of the development enterprise; also considers whether, amidst these critiques, anthropology can imagine an alternative discourse and practice of betterment for historically disenfranchised peoples.
  • CAS AN 590: Theory, Method, and Techniques in Fieldwork
    Traditional and modern methods of ethnographic field research: data collection, research design, and analyses.
  • CAS AN 593: Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology (Fall)
    Selected issues and debates in current anthropology. Two topics are offered Fall 2020. Section A1: Migration, (Im)mobilities & Precarity. Addresses the regulation of human mobility and practices of inclusive exclusion in a globalized era, with an ethnographic focus on undocumented migrants. Explores the interconnections between legal status, economic precarity, cultural marginalization and political mobilization as well as their impact on differentiated citizenship and belonging. Section A2: Desiring Memorials: Afterlives of Mass Violence and the Pursuit of Justice. An exploration of key debates in anthropology on mass violence, genocide, memory, history and justice. Discussion examines the ways that memory and memorials are being mobilized to make human rights arguments. Engagement with works by political and legal theorists, historians, anthropologists and novelists in order to survey and examine the human condition at stake in a course on mass violence and the pursuit of justice.
  • CAS AN 594: Seminar: Topics in Cultural Anthropology
    Selected issues and debates in current anthropology.
  • CAS AN 595: Methods in Biological Anthropology
    An exploration of field and laboratory methods used in biological anthropology, with students participating in hands-on exercises. Topics include health assessment, body composition, diet, energetics, morphological adaptations, reproductive status, habitat composition, spatial movements, and conservation. Professional skills are also developed. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Scientific Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 596: Anthropology and History
    Examines the use of ethnographic materials and models of alternative social or economic organization to interpret historical materials as well as the use of history to provide dynamic models of change in anthropological analysis.
  • CAS AN 597: Special Topics in Biological Anthropology (Fall)
    Special issues and debates in current biological anthropology. Past topics have included human growth and development; primate and human sexuality; evolution of the human family; project design and statistics in biological anthropology; and evolutionary endocrinology.
  • CAS AN 598: Special Issues in Biological Anthropology (Spring)
    Special issues and debates in current biological anthropology. Past topics have included human growth and development; primate and human sexuality; evolution of the human family; project design and statistics in biological anthropology; and evolutionary endocrinology.
  • GRS AN 701: Anthropology Across Sub-Disciplines
    An examination of current and historical perspectives across sub-disciplines of Anthropology: Social Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, and Archaeology. Explores how methodologies, theories and interpretations have changed as disciplines have developed.
  • GRS AN 703: Anthropological Theory: History and Practice
    An intensive introduction to the foundations of the discipline focusing on classic works from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. A critical analysis of the development of the discipline of anthropology, its literature, history, and contemporary research problems.
  • GRS AN 704: Sociocultural Theory: Contemporary Currents
    Examination of major theoretical trends and debates in anthropological theory from the 1970s to present.
  • GRS AN 705: Theory in Evolutionary Anthropology: the Biological and Historical Past
    Examination of major contributions and debates in biological anthropology focusing on humanity's place in the natural world. Topics include evolutionary theory, fossil and living primates, human evolution, historical demography, human life histories, and the relationship between biology and culture.
  • GRS AN 707: 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.
  • GRS AN 708: Food in Place(s): Identity, Location, and Cultures of Taste
    Explores culinary cultures, histories, diet and food ecology with special attention to Asian societies and Boston's food culture. Examines the use of food and its places as a focus for identity production, national development, and social change. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • GRS AN 709: 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.
  • GRS AN 710: Studies in North American Ethnography
    A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, an analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation.
  • GRS AN 715: Being Indian in Latin America
    The Indian image in literature and historical accounts; conquerors and Latinos in Indian ritual and mythology. Indian communities and the reality of being an Indian in present-day Latin America: exploitation, discrimination, and class. Indian rebellions and pressure groups. Colonization and lowland Indians.
  • GRS AN 718: 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. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy

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