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 MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • GRS AH 891: Seminar: Photography
    Historical, archival, and theoretical examinations of photography, with emphasis on its role both as document and as art. Topic for Fall 2021: The Photographic Book. Examines the photographic book from 1839 to present. Concentrates on the book as a unique form for the medium. Study image/text relationships, narrative structures, cultural constructions of message, serial quality of grouped images, and differences/similarities between literary and photographic languages.
  • GRS AH 893: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Architecture
    Fall 2022 topic: "Government Architecture." The state is a place. What can we learn from its architecture? What can we hope from it, and how can it fail us? Focus on the United States. A joint seminar of MIT (Political Science) and BU (Architectural History).
  • GRS AH 895: Seminar: Twentieth-Century Art
    Topic for Fall 2023: "Paris 1900-1940." This interdisciplinary seminar will explore the representation of Paris in a variety of media, from the Exposition Universelle in 1900 to the beginning of World War II. We will examine literature, universal expositions, painting, photography, and film.
  • GRS AM 735: Studies in American Culture
    Introduction to handling of primary materials from a number of disciplines in order to develop an American Studies perspective. Required of all American Studies PhD students.
  • GRS AM 736: The Literature of American Studies
    Introduction to classic problems in the interpretation of American society and culture. Required of all American Studies PhD students.
  • GRS AM 775: Independent Research Project Colloquium
    Restricted to students in their final semester of the Preservation Studies Master's Program. Provides for the research and writing of an independent, rigorous, and original capstone project in the preservation field, with guidance from faculty.
  • GRS AM 867: Material Culture
    Introduction to the theory and practice of the interdisciplinary study of material culture, which includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Explore contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines. Also offered as GRS AH 867.
  • GRS AM 899: Professional Development Seminar
    A seminar offering advanced AMNESP PhD students the opportunity to present and discuss works-in-progress and structured guidance for the tasks involved in job applications. Open to PhD students after completing required coursework. Does not fulfill PhD course requirements.
  • 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 716: Contemporary European Ethnography
    Approaches Europe and European societies through an exploration of significant social shifts: the creation of the European Union, the decline of the national welfare state, the rise of regionalist movements, and the socio-political transformation of post-socialist states.
  • GRS AN 717: Power and Society in the Middle East
    Peoples and cultures of the Middle East from Afghanistan to Morocco and from the Caucasus to Yemen. Focuses on social organization, family structure, the relationship between the sexes, and the development and maintenance of authority
  • 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
  • GRS AN 719: Anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Politics (Area)
    Explores Muslim societies' ongoing struggle 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. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • GRS AN 720: Women in the Muslim World
    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
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Research and Information Literacy

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