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Anthropology

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  • CAS AN 402: Honors Research in Anthropology 2
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of an Honors Committee. - Directed studies for seniors doing honors thesis work.
  • CAS AN 461: Ethnography and Anthropological Theory 1
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing in the major. Required of majors. - Examines foundational social scientific and anthropological theories and methods from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Discussion focuses on precursors to contemporary anthropological thought, including historical materialist, evolutionist, functionalist, structuralist, symbolic, and culture-and-personality theories and approaches. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • CAS AN 462: Ethnography and Anthropological Theory 2
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN461) and First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Required of majors. Examines current anthropological theory and method. Discussion focuses on recent ethnographies and the anthropological debates they have provoked. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Writing-Intensive Course.
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 491: Directed Study in Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior status in major, consent of instructor, and approval of the CAS Academic Advising Center. - Individual instruction and directed research in anthropology.
  • CAS AN 492: Directed Study in Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior status in major, consent of instructor, and approval of the CAS Academic Advising Center. - Individual instruction and directed research in anthropology.
  • CAS AN 505: Women and Social Change in Asia (area)
    Examines how women have affected andbeen 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 the Asian Studies minor.)
  • CAS AN 506: Regional Archaeology and Geographical Information Systems
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: one archaeology course or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: one archaeology course or consent of instructor. - 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 2023, 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
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS AN 508: Landscape Archaeology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or 120) - A seminar-style introduction to "landscape archaeology," a theoretical and methodological approach that explores how past and present communities create (and are in turn affected by) "cultural landscapes" formed through the interplay of sociocultural values and the natural environment. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 510: Proposal Writing for Social Science Research
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: graduate student standing in the social sciences or humanities. - Workshop-based course designed to turn students' intellectual interests into answerable, field-based research questions. Goal is the production of a doctoral level research project proposal and/or dissertation prospectus.
  • CAS AN 518: Zooarchaeology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAR101) - 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 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Social Inquiry II.
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS AN 519: Theory and Method in Environmental Archaeology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAR307) - Problem-based course where students apply quantitative methods across archaeological datasets to address complex problems of human-environmental relationships rooted in deep time. Through teamwork-based research projects students develop marketable skills in research design, theory integration, and data analysis and visualization. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning II, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 521: Sociolinguistics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN351 OR CASLX250) or consent of instructor. - Introduction to language in its social context. Methodological and theoretical approaches to sociolinguistics. Linguistic variation in relation to situation, gender, socioeconomic class, context, and ethnicity. Integrating micro- and macro-analysis from conversation to societal language planning.
  • CAS AN 524: Seminar: Language and Culture Contact in Africa
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Focuses on language and culture contact in Africa. Provides students with a foundation in the research on contact linguistics, language and culture change, and the relationship between language variation and gender, ethnicity, religion, and youth culture.
  • CAS AN 530: Global Intimacies: Sex, Gender, and Contemporary Sexualities
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor. - Explores theoretical and ethnographic approaches to gender, sex, and sexuality as linked to globalizing discourses and transnational mobilities. Readings and discussion emphasize intersections of sex, gender, labor, love, and marriage in a globalized world.
  • CAS AN 531: Anthropology of the New Middle Class
    Explores the emergence, expansion, and social dynamics of new middle classes across the developed and developing world. Situates the phenomenon within the context of widespread globalization and against the backdrop of varied on-the-ground “conditions of possibility.”
    • Social Inquiry I
  • CAS AN 532: Literacy and Islam in Africa
    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. Effective Fall 2024 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AN 533: Exploring Ethnographic Genres: The Poetics and Politics of Writing Culture
    This course offers close readings of classic and recent ethnographic texts to ask: what distinguishes ethnography from other disciplinary traditions of writing about culture and human behavior? How do we see changes in anthropology's theoretical interests reflected (or not) in ethnographic writing? What are the different structural conventions, rhetorical tropes, allegorical patterns, and stylistic strategies used by authors considered to be master ethnographers? Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Social Inquiry II.
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS AN 550: Human Osteology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASAN331) or consent of instructor. - Function, development, variation, and pathologies of the human musculoskeletal system, emphasizing issues of human evolution. Basic processes of bone biology and how they are affected by use, age, sex, diet, and disease. Meetings are predominantly lab oriented. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Scientific Inquiry I. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Scientific Inquiry I.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Scientific Inquiry I
  • CAS AN 552: Primate Evolution and Anatomy
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN331 OR CASAN332 OR CASBI302) or consent of instructor. - The evolutionary history of the primate radiation- particularly that of non-human primates -is examined through investigation of the musculoskeletal anatomy of living primates and their fossil relatives. Comparative and biomechanical approaches are used to reconstruct the behavior of extinct species. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Critical Thinking
    • Scientific Inquiry I
  • CAS AN 555: Evolutionary Medicine
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASBI107) or equivalent, and one additional biological anthropology course; or c onsent of instructor. - Why do we get sick? Evolutionary medicine seeks to answer this question by applying modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease among contemporary human populations. Topics include chronic and infectious disease, mental illness, allergies, autoimmunity, and drug addiction. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Scientific Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration

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