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  • 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 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 519: Theory and Method in Environmental Archaeology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AR 307.
    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.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 521: Sociolinguistics
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 351 or CAS LX 250; 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, linguistic 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 532: Literacy and Islam in Africa
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor.
    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.
  • 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: CAS AN 102 or CAS AN 331; 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.
    • Scientific Inquiry I
  • CAS AN 551: Anthropology and Human Heredity
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102 or CAS AN 233; and consent of instructor.
    What can our genes say about who we are? This course surveys the theory and methods of evolutionary genetics and genomics as applied to human diversity, and their intersection with social issues such as racism, bioethics, and eugenics.
  • CAS AN 552: Primate Evolution and Anatomy
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 331 or CAS AN 332 or CAS BI 302; 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.
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS AN 553: Human Uniqueness
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102; or consent of instructor.
    Language, labor, culture, self-awareness, symbolizing, and other traits have been called uniquely human. But if these things have no animal antecedents, how could they have evolved? Course participants examine this "continuity paradox" and its proposed solutions from Darwin onward. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Scientific Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS AN 555: Evolutionary Medicine
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102 or CAS BI 107; or equivalent, and one additional biological anthropology course; or consent 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.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • CAS AN 556: The Evolution of the Human Diet
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102 or CAS BI 107 or CAS BI 108; or consent of instructor.
    An investigation of human dietary evolution including primate and human dietary adaptations, nutritional requirements, optimal foraging, digestive physiology, maternal and infant nutrition, hunting and cooking in human evolution, and impacts of food processing and agriculture on modern diets and health. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Scientific Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • CAS AN 557: Anthropology of Mental Health
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 101 or CAS AN 210; or consent of instructor.
    Advanced seminar examining global and local challenges and connections that shape patterns of illness/health around the world, including international responses to mental health crises and moral quandaries through ethnographies of mental health care in different settings and treating different conditions. Effective Spring 2023 this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Ethical Reasoning.
    • Ethical Reasoning
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • CAS AN 558: The Evolutionary Biology of Human Sex Differences
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102; or (CASBI107 & CASBI119), or consent of instructor.
    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.
  • CAS AN 559: Evolutionary Endocrinology
    Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102; 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.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • 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 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.

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