Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • CAS AN 568: Symbol, Myth, and Rite
    Historical overview of ritual behavior, the role of symbolism in the study of culture, and the narrative quality of worldview and belief. Emphasis on verbal performance and public display events in specific cultural contexts.
  • CAS AN 571: Anthropology of Emotion
    Advanced seminar on the study of emotion as culturally and historically specific experience, cognition and symbolic system. Focus on specific emotions including shame, anger, melancholy, hope, hate and love. Special attention to affect and the politics of emotion. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • 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 575: 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.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 588: Project Design and Statistics in Biological Anthropology
    This seminar teaches students project design and statistics using R and Rstudio. Students will become competent in coding, version control, data reports and commenting code, and implement both basic and advanced statistics to be used in student research projects. Effective Fall 2021, 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 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. Three topics are offered Fall 2021. Section A1: Decolonizing Museums: Race, Indigeneity, and Sovereignty. Explores recent and current struggles to reconceptualize science, cultural history, and art museums in light of gendered, race-conscious, and postcolonial critiques. Through readings and field visits we examine strategies for respectful community partnerships in collections, repatriation, and exhibition design. Section B1: Anthropology of the "New" Middle Class: Youth, Aspiration, and the Anxieties of Globalization. Explores the emergence, expansion, and social dynamics of the "new" middle classes within the context of globalization. Often aspirational and expressed via lifestyle and consumption, class allegiance is linked to gender, fashion, media, affect, volunteerism and neoliberal self- making. Section C1: Readings in the Anthropology of Islam. Examines key theoretical currents in the contemporary anthropology of Islam. Readings focus on questions of secularism and modernity; ethics and law; sexuality and subjectivity; and migration, citizenship, and social belonging in Muslim communities around the world, including the West.
  • CAS AN 594: Seminar: Topics in Cultural Anthropology
    Selected issues and debates in current anthropology. Topic for Spring 2022: Anthropology of Empires. Covers the political, economic, and social structures of empires in Eurasia and North Africa from an anthropological perspective. Examines how they became and remained the world's largest polities for 2500 years only to all vanish in the early 20th century.
  • 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.
  • CAS AR 500: Public Archaeology in the United States
    Introduction to the practice of public archaeology in the United States: historical and legal background; federal, state, and local programs; archaeology and Native Americans; contract archaeology; survey, evaluation, and mitigation projects; professional employment in U.S. cultural resource management. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course entitled "U.S. Archaeological Heritage Management" that was previously numbered GRS AR 805.
  • CAS AR 503: Archaeological Field Methods: Survey and Excavation
    Archaeology field school intense archaeological techniques and procedures. Direct involvement in field excavation, data recording, description and inventory of artifacts and specimens. Field, lab and lecture involvement; seven hours a day, five days a week. Locations around the world. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AR 505: Digital Archaeology
    Lecture/laboratory course that introduces students to a broad range of digital techniques for collecting, visualizing, and analyzing objects, spaces, and landscapes. In addition to technical lab instruction, the course presents a series of research questions and case studies that explore how digital techniques can be used to investigate the material dimensions of social life. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AR 506: Regional Archaeology and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
    Use of advanced computer (GIS) techniques to address regional archaeological problems.This applied course examines digital encoding and manipulation of archaeological and environmental data, and methods for testing hypotheses, analyzing, and modeling the archaeological record. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AR 507: Low Impact Field Methods in Archaeology
    Hands-on introduction to "low-impact" analytical methodologies employed in archaeology. Integrates field learning with conceptual and case-study readings, classroom instruction, and computer‐based data manipulation and analyses. Introductions to GIS, field survey, UAV-based aerial photogrammetry, aerial imagery, subsurface prospection methods, dendroarchaeological sampling.
  • CAS AR 510: Proposal Writing for Social Science Research
    The purpose of this course is to turn students' intellectual interests into answerable, field-based research questions. The goal is the production of a project proposal for future research. Also offered as CAS AN 510.
  • CAS AR 516: Paleoethnobotany
    Introduces the theory and method of the study of archaeological plant remains and basic botanical and ecological concepts. Highlights relationships between people and environments and the roles of plants in past societies. Laboratory sessions concentrate on quantitative analysis. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning II, Critical Thinking.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS AR 518: Zooarchaeology
    Introduction to the study of archaeological animal bones. Provides theoretical background and methodological skills necessary for interpreting past human- animal interactions, subsistence, and paleoecology. Laboratory sections focus on skeletal identification. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I.
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Social Inquiry II

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