Home

Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. 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.

View courses in

  • CAS AN 558: The Evolutionary Biology of Human Sex Differences
    Are sex and gender instantiated in the body' This seminar explores evolutionary approaches to investigating sex differences in human behavior and physiology from phylogenetic, mechanistic, and developmental perspectives. Topics include gender expression, non-binary sex/gender, aggression, mate choice, cognition, and more. Effective Spring 2024, 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, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS AN 559: Evolutionary Endocrinology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102) or equivalent. - Focuses on current research in the field of evolutionary endocrinology. Examines how hormones act as mediators of a variety of fundamental evolutionary phenomena from circadian rhythms to sexuality. Explores how and why natural selection shaped the "inputs" and "outputs" of the endocrine system. Effective Fall 2021, 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
  • CAS AN 562: The Origins of War
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent) - Did humans evolve to have war' Is war in human nature' We explore the foundations of war through reviewing studies of non-human animals and hunter- gatherers. Focus is on understanding how and why war evolved. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry II.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 563: Religion and Politics across Cultures
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing; or consent of instructor. - Explores the role of religion, religious movements, and secularism in modern politics, citizenship, gender politics, and public life. Case studies draw from Muslim-majority lands, Africa and Latin America, East-Southeast Asia, and the modern West. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS AN 565: Memory in 3-D: Memorials, Then and Now
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior standing. - Memorials and the spaces around them are charged zones, time portals where past and present co-exist. In this course we focus on the development of memorial culture in America, along with a comparative examination of the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. The distance afforded by stepping outside our own time and place provides perspectives on aspects of form and message, as well as on how the meanings of memorial can change. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Digital/Multimedia Expression
    • Historical Consciousness
  • 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.
    • Creativity/Innovation
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Social Inquiry II
  • CAS AN 573: The Ethnography of China and Taiwan (area)
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor; First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR100 or WR120). - 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 588: Project Design and Statistics in Biological Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASBI107 OR CASBI108 OR CASAR101) or consent of instructor. - 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.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 590: Theory, Method, and Techniques in Fieldwork
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. - Hands-on experimentation with and theoretical implications of a variety of methods for anthropological ethnographic field research, including posing research questions, research design and ethics, data collection, analysis, and initial write-up.
  • CAS AN 593: Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing or consent of instructor. - Selected issues and debates in current anthropology. Topic for Fall 2023, Section A1: Migration, (Im)mobilities and Precarity. Addresses the regulation of human mobility and practices of inclusive exclusion in a globalized era and given the immediacy of climate displacement. Explores the interconnections between differentiated citizenship, economic precarity, cultural marginalization and political mobilization.
  • CAS AN 594: Seminar: Topics in Cultural Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing of consent of instructor. - Selected issues and debates in current anthropology.
  • CAS AN 595: Methods in Biological Anthropology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASBI107 OR CASBI108) or consent of instructor. - 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.
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 598: Special Issues in Biological Anthropology (Spring)
    Prerequisites: CASAN 102 or CASBI 107 or consent of instructor. - Topic for Spring 2025: Students research the roots causes of threats to primates and their habitats using project-based learning. They learn about community-based conservation and apply inter-disciplinary and innovative approaches to create solutions and create conservation media.
  • CAS AN 640: Shadow Empires
    Examines the political, economic and social structures of empires in Eurasia and North Africa from an anthropological perspective and explains how they became and remained the world’s largest polities for 2500 years only to collapse worldwide in the 20th century.
  • CAS AN 701: Anthropology Across Sub-Disciplines
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor. - 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.
  • CAS 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.
  • CAS AN 704: Sociocultural Theory: Contemporary Currents
    Graduate Prerequisites: Required of first-year graduate students and open to students in relat ed disciplines with the consent of the instructor. - Examination of major theoretical trends and debates in anthropological theory from the 1970s to present.
  • CAS AN 705: Theory in Evolutionary Anthropology: The Biological and Historical Past
    Examination of major contributions and debates in biological anthropology focusing on human evolution and biology. Topics include evolutionary theory, fossil and living primates, human and primate evolution, life histories, behavioral ecology, physiology and the relationship between biology and culture.
  • CAS 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, sociopolitical change and different articulations of tradition and modernity.
  • CAS AN 716: Contemporary European Ethnography
    What and where is Europe? Who is European? As authoritarianism rises, this class asks what is happening to belonging across Europe? Are old forms of racism and xenophobia returning? Or are new modes of exclusion appearing?

Related Bulletin Pages

Beyond the Bulletin