2020-2021 University Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2020-2021 University Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions


 

Africana and Latin American Studies

  
  • ALST 201 - Africa


    An introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Africa and to the African Studies major and minor at Colgate. The goal is to introduce students to a major world area with which many, even highly educated, Westerners are unfamiliar. Africa is the original home of the human species, and the intellectual contributions of the continent and its people to the concept of a common humanity are tremendous, including agricultural and industrial technologies, artistic and aesthetic principles, and religious and philosophical ideas. Due to early patterns of globalization and European colonization in the western hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade, and ultimately colonialism on the continent itself, Africa was configured as “the Dark Continent” in European discourses of the nineteenth century.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: CORE 189C  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 202 - Introduction to African American Studies


    An introductory course to the field of African American studies. It is interdisciplinary and utilizes materials drawn from the fields of history, sociology, literature, social psychology, and political science. The course seeks to acquaint students with the cutting-edge work in this area and gives students a broad understanding of the place and contributions that African Americans have made to society in the United States.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 203 - The Caribbean


    An interdisciplinary course that introduces students to the field of Caribbean Studies. It uses literature, film, and the music of the region to explore the historical, societal, cultural, political, and economic development of the Caribbean. It also explores gender issues in the region. It is one of the required courses for students who seek to participate in the West Indies Study Group.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: CORE 163C  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 204 - Performing Bolivian Music


    Learn to play Andean music, focusing primarily on flute and panpipe genres from the indigenous Aymara regions of Bolivia. Students will also learn about the performance contexts in which these traditions are produced. Conducted bilingually in English and Spanish. However, no prior experience is required in music or in the Spanish language. Students are encouraged to take the course for the experience of immersion in musical and Spanish language practices. Students will work towards a public performance of this music during the Bolivian musicians’ residency. Additionally, students who have existing musical skills may choose to learn other Bolivian genres that utilize European-based instruments.

    Credits: 0.5
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 211E - Cuba: History, Culture and Life (Extended Study)


    A three-week immersion extended study offered in Havana, Cuba. Students will expand their knowledge of the history, geography, film, music, literature, identity, Cuban revolution and current events previously studied in Core Cuba, while also gaining a new perspective on individual research projects. Cuban scholars and specialists will enhance topical discussions and lead excursions. Other features of the course include a film screening(s), live performances, and walking explorations of the varied cultural landscapes of Havana and two colonial cities.

    Credits: 0.50
    Prerequisites: CORE 198C    Two semesters of college-level Spanish.
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 212 - The Politics of Race and Ethnicity


    Examines the political dynamics of race in American society, focusing primarily on the experience of blacks as a socio-political group and to a lesser degree on that of other racial and ethnic minorities. The overriding theme is how race has influenced American politics and, conversely, how certain political phenomena have shaped the development of race. The specific topics around which the course is organized include the following: the most enduring and predominant racial issue - racial inequality; competing explanations for the origins and continuance of racial inequality; leadership approaches and ideologies for redressing the race problem; mass political strategies for dealing with the problem; majority attitudes and opinions regarding racial issues (including racial inequality); and the comparative experience of non-black minorities. These topics, individually and collectively, represent the essence of racial politics.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: POSC 212  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 220 - The Black Diaspora: Africans at Home and Abroad


    Focuses on the African presence in the Americas. It examines the responses of Africans and their descendants to the experiences of enslavement, racism, colonialism, and imperialism from the fifteenth century to the present; and analyzes the impact of the African presence on western “civilization.” It also explores the evolution of an African identity, particularly, an identification with the destiny of the African continent among African descendants in the Diaspora.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


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  • ALST 225 - Jamaica: From Colony to Independence (Study Group)


    Surveys the history of Jamaica from 1655, when the British took possession of the island, through political independence in 1962, to the present. Examines the growth of Jamaica to become Britain’s most prosperous colony during the 18th century based on an export sugar-based, slave-driven economy; the social the political consequences of its dependence on slavery; the economic effects of slave abolition and free trade during the 19th century; social and political developments after emancipation; the growth of black nationalism and decolonization; and post/neo-colonial developments.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: HIST 225  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 230 - Introduction to Latin American Studies


    An introduction to the development of Latin America’s diverse and distinctive cultural heritage and to its contemporary institutions and civilization. The study of pre-Columbian and New World cultures of Spanish and Portuguese America focuses on the interactions of Indian, European, and African cultures and the complexities of what is known as Latin American culture. The course, though not a historical survey, examines the historical origins of contemporary social, cultural, economic, and political issues in Latin America, and in those parts of the world that have been affected by significant numbers of Latin American immigrants. The approach is broadly multidisciplinary, reflecting various perspectives and materials.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 242 - Religions of Resistance: Gender, Sexuality and Performance in the Caribbean


    Studies African-derived religions and practices in the Caribbean, particularly the ways in which they constitute anticolonial and decolonial perspectives and practices. By exploring texts drawn from cultural studies, religious studies, literature, theatre and anthropology, students will develop an analytical framework through which to examine concepts such as syncretism and hybridity, ritual and bodily performance, and the construction of gender and sexuality. Key concerns in this course are the empowerment of women and people of diverse gender and sexual identities in religious contexts, black identity in the Caribbean and beyond, and the creation of new spaces for marginalized voices to be heard.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: LGBT 242
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


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  • ALST 250 - Representations of Africa


    Critique the ways in which “Africa” has been constructed as an object of Western knowledge. The course interrogates how Africa and Africans have been portrayed to outside audiences historically and contemporarily, as well as the socio-political ramifications of such portrayals. Drawing on key texts from the social sciences, the humanities as well as the creative arts, the course explores specific depictions of Africa and Africans. It examines African self-representations alongside representations that focus on Africa as a site of difference or ‘othering’.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 273 - Contemporary African American Drama


    A study of the dramatization of African American experiences and perspectives, examined through close readings, viewings, and informed discussion of works by current contemporary black American playwrights, scholars, and drama critics.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: THEA 273
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 281 - Slavery and the Salve Trade in Africa


    Slavery and the slave trade are global phenomena with historical roots in the earliest civilizations. The course examines the long history of slavery and the slave trade in African societies, exploring the role that slavery played in African economic, political, and social life, as well as how the export of human beings as slaves transformed African societies. The course also considers how slaveholders and slaves shaped early African societies, the logic and consequences of African participation in the Atlantic slave trade, the aftermath of abolition in 20th-century colonial Africa, and how coercive forms of labor control have persisted into the 21st century.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: HIST 281  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 282 - The Making of Modern Africa


    Surveys the history of Africa from 1880s to the contemporary period. Major themes will include: the imperial scramble and partition of Africa; African resistances; colonial rule in Africa; independence and problems of independence; socio-economic developments in independent Africa; ethnic conflicts; crises and contemporary issues.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: HIST 106  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior, No Junior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 284 - Decolonization in Africa


    Surveys the history of the growth of anti-colonial nationalism, the end of colonial rule, and post-independence Africa to the contemporary period. It focuses on the comparative analysis of the winning of independence from French, British, Italian, Portuguese, and Belgian colonization. Major themes include African responses to colonial rule, wind of change, independence and problems of independence, pan-African movement, socio-economic developments, cold war, colonial legacies, political systems, and contemporary issues.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: HIST 284  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 290 - Model African Union


    The Model African Union is an annual national student simulation of the workings of a large multilateral organization, the African Union. Composed of 55 member states, the African Union was constituted in 2000 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU). Its objectives are to achieve continental integration, similar to that of the European Union, in balance with recognizing the national sovereignty of its member states. The Model African Union is in session for four days in late February, hosted by Howard University in Washington D.C., and students from more than 30 colleges and universities around the country participate. The on-campus portion of the course meets weekly for the five weeks prior to the trip and one week after, for debriefing. Students are assigned to specific country delegations and committees, research and prepare position papers, draft resolutions, debate and vote on action items, and generally take on the roles of African diplomats. The trip includes a visit to the embassy of the country each delegation is representing. May be taken more than once, with different country and committee assignments each year.

    Credits: 0.50
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 291 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 309 - Latin America: Critical Landscapes of Development


    Explores the development experience of Latin America through examination of pressing environmental, economic, political, and social issues that currently face the region as a whole and play out differently across the region. The focus is guided by a critical reading of development theory, paying particular attention to Latin American theorizations and empirical experiences, and concern for the subjects, places, and scales that have been excluded from the presumed benefits of development. Mindful that Latin America’s development experience is historically embedded, students examine the transformation of Latin American societies and environments through legacies of conquest and colonialism, processes of globalization and neo-liberalization, dynamics of rural and urban change, changes in gender and race relations, and transformations of political and civil society dynamics. These issues are grounded in case studies drawn from Central America, the Caribbean, and Andean countries, and Southern Cone, and Brazil. The course’s point of entry is contemporary environmental crises and the role of natural and human resources in shaping the development experience of the region.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: GEOG 309  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 321 - Black Communities


    Uses a social scientific approach to examine the circumstances and dynamics characterizing black communities in the contemporary United States. Key areas of inquiry include the operation of major social institutions shaping community life, social class divisions, health and housing prospects, and the ways that the intersections of racial/ethnic identity, class, and gender shape the experiences of community members.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: SOCI 321  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ALST 202  or (SOCI 201  or SOAN 204) or (SOCI 250  or SOAN 210)
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 321


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  • ALST 326 - Jamaican Culture (Study Group)


    Examines the historical growth and fluorescence of Jamaican culture from the English conquest to the present. This culture is drawn from indigenous Taino, European, African, Jewish, Lebanese, Indian, and Chinese heritages, leading to the emergence of a unique Jamaican creole culture. The process of creolization over historical time forms the central and uniting theme of the course. In that context, various aspects of Jamaica’s culture as well as the social forces that helped to shape it are explored. The examination of Jamaican culture includes religion and belief systems; marriage and family; art, music, and dance; literature; folkways; festivals; language; material cultures (food, dress, architecture, etc.); and sport.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted:   
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Restrictions: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 330 - Race and Crime


    Uses a social scientific approach to examine the relationship between race and crime in the contemporary United States, with a particular emphasis on the African American experience. Key areas of inquiry include the nature of mass incarceration, urban crime, the politics of the new law and order regime, the relationship between punitiveness and prejudice, racial profiling, the community-level impacts of mass incarceration, the legitimacy crisis facing the criminal justice system, media depictions of race and crime, and racial stereotyping.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: SOCI 330  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: (SOCI 201  or SOAN 204) or (SOCI 250  or SOAN 210) or ALST 202  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Sociology & Anthropology, Sociology, Africana & Latin Amer Studies Majors and Minors
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 331 - The Sexual Politics of Hip-Hop


    For more than 30, years Hip Hop has been one of the most significant cultural identifiers for youth in the United States. Hip Hop may be one of the largest cultural movements the world has ever experienced – a cultural movement that has influenced everything from the music to which we listen, the clothes with which we adorn ourselves and to, the cars that we drive, the food that we eat and the words we speak. However, Hip Hop culture is more than the music, the fashion and the style that is popular today. It transcends the commercialized products sold to mainstream U.S. America and the around globe. How so?  Why did Hip Hop emerge? What does mainstream Hip Hop today represent? How do women fit into this narrative? Through a close examination of critical feminist and queer theory, this course explores the cultural and political implications of hip hop music and culture – specifically its impact on Black sexual politics and gender performance.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 340 - Art and Culture in Contemporary Jamaica (Study Group)


    Introduces students to ways of reading and interpreting Jamaican culture using a broad interdisciplinary approach. In keeping with a cultural studies framework, students examine literature, theatre, music, dance, and film as expressions of Jamaican subjectivities and identities. The contexts and conversations out of which these artistic representations have emerged are considered through historical, sociological, and political texts that help to map the larger cultural matrix. Textual explorations are accompanied by field trips and guest lectures (from experts in the various disciplines) with the understanding that Jamaican culture is not fixed but evolving and dynamic, multifarious, and heterogeneous.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 351 - Medicine, Health and Healing in Africa


    Designed as a reading seminar, students will be introduced to major themes and the ways in which scholars approach them. Students will read and discuss several recent books of history and anthropology on varied topics relevant to medicine, health and healing in Africa. These range from historical forms of healing to training African medical students to the history of malaria to the complexity of pharmacological discoveries and patenting to psychiatry and decolonization.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 354 - Introduction to the Study of French Literature IV: the Francophone World


    Offers an overview of various bodies of literature written in French outside of France, focusing on five main geographical areas that historically constituted the French empire: the Caribbean, North Africa, West and Central Africa, Asia, and North America. Full texts as well as excerpts from a variety of genres are studied in the context of the history and geography of those regions. Through the exploration of key literary texts, particular attention is given to the effects of colonialism on language, identity, and artistic creation.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: FREN 354  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: At least four years of secondary-school French or FREN 202  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ALST 355 - Rwanda since the 1994 Genocide


    Assess the Rwandan experience of post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation in context and from the perspective of Rwandans themselves to ask, how sustainable is the country’s post-genocide recovery? This course is concerned with understanding how to do field research in post-genocide Rwanda. Using the ‘do no harm’ framework of doing research with individuals who have lived through mass violence, this course equips students to undertake research in foreign field settings. In particular, students learn to design a ‘human subjects’ research proposal, rooted in The Belmont Report of ethical research and guidelines for research involving human subjects. The Report identified three core principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Using Rwanda since the 1994 genocide as a case study, these principles will be studied to highlight their shortcomings in the context of research in post-conflict societies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: PCON 355  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: PCON 111  or PCON 218  or SOAN 218 or PCON 225  or ALST 201  or CORE 189C  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 357 - Indigenous Politics of Latin America


    At the end of the 20th century, different indigenous or native peoples’ voices seemed to become more prominent in Latin American social movements. These movements included an uprising to stop the advances of globalization, struggles to control resources, demands for dignity and recognition, and struggles against corporate environmental degradation. The apparent resurgence of Latin American indigenous politics is connected, in part, to global initiatives, like the work on what would become the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous politics in Latin America ultimately pose questions about customary, national, and international legal frameworks. This course works at the intersection of local and global understandings of what it means to be indigenous in different Latin American contexts. The course is taught through the disciplinary lens of anthropology, and readings are selected from case studies in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ANTH 357  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 360 - ALST Interdisciplinary Research Design


    A methods seminar designed to prepare students to complete interdisciplinary research in Africana and Latin American Studies. Besides gaining a familiarity with key readings within these interdisciplinary fields, students become familiar with how one designs and conducts research in the humanities and social sciences, learning different research methods that can be applied in multiple areas of inquiry.

    Credits: 1
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 365 - Andean Lives


    While the Andes region may evoke quaint images often seen in tourism advertisements, a focus on the people living in this region reflects globally interconnected dynamics. The course engages with diverse authors who write about the Andes: as a place steeped in highland indigenous traditions; as the place of the Inca Empire; as a place of rural communities in which collective action can take priority over individual interest; as the original source of the coca leaf that has ritual significance through the region and contested political significance in the international sphere; as the birthplace of a Maoist guerrilla movement in the last gasp of the Cold War; and as the place where social movements have challenged global economic systems and brought an indigenous president to power. Through details about the lives of those who reside in the Andes, this course brings together anthropological and historical views of this region with cases primarily from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ANTH 365  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 367 - Jamaica in the Literary Imagination (Study Group)


    An introduction to Jamaican literature from the plantation to the diaspora, spanning a period from 1930 to the present. While this historical framing is central to the organization of the course, the study is not strictly a historical survey, but rather an attempt to read Jamaican literature produced at different historical moments, in rural and urban, global and local spaces, and across perspectives mediated by differences and convergences of race, gender, sexuality, and location. Writers may include Claude McKay, Roger Mais, Erna Brodber, Curdella Forbes, Margaret Cezair-Thompson, among others. Students examine how the historical forces of colonialism, nation building, migration, and the information age have helped to shape how the selected writers from different spaces and identities imagine Jamaica’s culture, cultural products, and geopolitical relations in the global world.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ENGL 367  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 377 - History of Culture in the Caribbean


    Examines the historical development of diverse creole cultures in the Caribbean, based on a core of neo-African traditions and Amerindian influences, and shaped by the impact of almost five centuries of European cultural imperialism. It explores the cultures of various ethnic groups that co-habited the Caribbean in the wake of European colonization, their separate struggles for cultural autonomy and self-determination, and the emergence of creole cultures to which all contributed. Specific aspects of Caribbean culture are studied to comprehend the process of creolization. (GL)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: HIST 377  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 380 - Movements for Social Justice in South Africa (Extended Study)


    Considers social movements in the specific context of South Africa, a country which has been transformed by and continues to experience large-scale civil society mobilizations. South Africa’s unusual heritage of settler colonialism, enforced racial segregation, and explosive economic growth fueled by resources like gold and diamonds combine to make the country a perfect setting in which to investigate the efforts of diverse groups of citizens to achieve a more just and equitable society. Theoretical models drawn from sociology and anthropology expose how social movements originate, succeed, fail, and transform. These models are then applied to the specific history of South Africa, including the early development of non-violent protests, multi-racial labor movements, and the rise of the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid groups. In addition, the ongoing struggles for social justice since the democratic transition in 1994 are addressed, focusing particularly on movements for environmental justice, the rights of indigenous peoples, and access to adequate health care and schooling. New social media, art forms, and networking technologies that have transformed the ability of civil society groups to mobilize are also considered. The on-campus portion of the course is followed by a three-week extended study trip to two South African cities. As a final project, students use their experience to write a proposal for advanced research on a particular social movement.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: CORE 190C  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 480 - Issues and Trends in Africana and Latin American Studies


    Serves as the senior capstone when UNST 410  is not offered. Exposes majors and minors in Africana and Latin American Studies to research in all areas through the theme of the course, through their individual projects, and through the faculty who visit the class to talk about research issues and trends in each of four program emphases: African Studies, African American Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Latin American Studies. It requires students to make broad connections between the four areas and challenges them to reflect deeply on theoretical ideas and developments in each individual area. The content of the seminars is interdisciplinary, theoretical issues that have significantly shaped the fields of Africana and Latin American studies are emphasized, and students complete major research projects demonstrating familiarity with relevant theory and methodology.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ALST 499 - Honors Studies


    Students pursuing honors research enroll in this course.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



Anthropology

  
  • ANTH 102 - Culture, Diversity, and Inequality


    Provides an introduction to cultural anthropology and is intended to help students come to a better understanding of human cultures and societies through the analysis and comparison of specific cases. Students study diverse societies from a wide range of geographic areas and examine topics such as kinship and marriage, economic organization, religion, gender, and social change. Students learn about some of the major theories and theorists in cultural anthropology and examine the way cultural anthropologists collect and interpret data, particularly in the course of fieldwork.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 102


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 103 - Introduction to Archaeology


    Introduces students to the basic concepts and issues of archaeology today through an examination of both method and theory. Topics include data analysis and interpretation, culture history, prehistoric technology and settlements, and cultural resources management.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
    Formerly: SOAN 103


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 205 - Archaeology of Warfare


    Considers the development of warfare across the ancient civilizations across the globe. Utilizing a massive body of data, archaeology is in a unique position to study how warfare evolved alongside the emergence of civilizations. Students focus on several civilizations, such as Mesoamerica, the Mediterranean, and the Andes to compare and contrast various models of warfare in the ancient world. In some cases, warfare results in the utter annihilation of millions of people. In other cases, warfare is limited to a ceremonial gathering of armies that result in few to no deaths. By understanding the different models of human warfare, students engage with universal questions such as, how and why warfare happens. Is warfare an innate part of humanity? What is and is not warfare?

    Credits: 1
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 211 - Investigating Contemporary Cultures (RI)


    Introduces students to the research methods that anthropologists use to study human beings in all their complexity: the range of qualitative, in-depth, and participatory techniques that comprise ethnography. Through a series of hands-on active research projects, students will learn how to investigate the complex social world we live in, and analyze what they find. The course covers the research process from asking compelling questions, to collecting qualitative data and critically analyzing it, to choosing how to present it. The course also addresses the ethical implications and responsibilities that accompany learning about human beings by interacting with them, and then representing them to others. The readings, lectures, and discussions will explore how anthropological knowledge is generated and anthropology’s relationship to political-economic power, historical experience, and personal identity. Students will also gain valuable research methods skills for career choices.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites:
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 211


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 218 - Practices of Peace and Conflict - War in Lived Experience


    Introduces students to a range of approaches and problems in the descriptive analysis of peace and conflict. Juxtaposes core theoretical texts on war and violence from the social and human sciences with detailed ethnographic case studies. Practices of contemporary conflict are paired with the interpretive paradigms whose aim is to understand and resolve them. For example, case studies in terror are paired with the field of trauma studies; specific regional conflicts with theories of global networks; and contemporary mass violence with analysis of genocide perpetration. Introduces students to important methodological paradigms from the social sciences, chiefly from anthropology, sociology, and geography, as well as humanities-based approaches from comparative religion, literature, and language studies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: PCON 218  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
    Formerly: SOAN 218


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 221 - Kinship and Marriage (RI)


    What is family? What is kinship? What is marriage? These are questions that have been central to anthropology since its inception in the 19th century. This course examines the culture and political economy of family life, kinship, and marriage in a broad range of human societies, ranging from small-scale communities to highly industrialized states. In addition to looking at the theories, methods, and data that are relevant to the study of kinship in anthropology and related disciplines, the class analyzes and compares different systems of descent and inheritance; various types of households, marriage patterns, and networks of exchange; and the myriad ways in which systems of kinship and marriage are informed by ideologies of gender and vice versa. The class also evaluates some of the recent classics on kinship in America as well as selected aspects of contemporary theoretical debates bearing on kinship and class, lesbian and gay kinship, and the new reproductive technologies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 226 - Critical Global Health


    In contemporary American society, Western medicine-or biomedicine-is seen as offering quick, effective, and technologically advanced solutions to pain and suffering. Biomedicine is a medical system that privileges the physiological and biological causes of disease. As a clinical science, biomedicine is usually seen as culture-less, as universally effective on all bodies. But what happens when Western medicine goes “global,” that is, when it encounters cultural values or beliefs that conceptualize illness, healing, or the body in different ways? Is medicine itself “cultural,” and if so, how? This course examines how people experience, use, and critique global health interventions across the globe, and why sociological and anthropological approaches to global health are critical to improving these interventions.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 228 - Women and Gender in Prehistory


    Takes a feminist perspective to the study of gender and identity in prehistoric societies and ancient civilizations. By looking at the variation of gender roles and relations throughout history and cross-culturally, students help to deconstruct many modem-day assumptions about gender and gender roles in the present. The course will provide an overview of how material remains are used for understanding social identities in the past. It will review feminist critiques of archaeology and how feminism has impacted the discipline of archaeology. Students examine archaeological resources for gendering the past (burials, art, artifacts) and explore gender in a range of prehistoric cultural contexts (hunter-gatherers, farmers, states, and empires) using archaeological case studies as examples. Students additionally look at the ways in which historical archaeology has helped to better understand gender relations in historical contexts. Students critically examine how gender and identity have been represented in academic research, museums, and popular media, in order to deconstruct modern-day assumptions about gender. Case studies derive from the earliest human origins, ancient complex civilizations, and recent colonial America. This course is designed for students with little or no background in archaeology or anthropology.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 240 - World Archaeology, Material Culture, and Identity


    From Neolithic settlements to the great cities of the ancient world, such as Uruk, Mohenjo Daro, Pompeii, Copan, and Teotihuacan, and encompassing Native American remains in our local central New York environment, this interdisciplinary course offers a global study of archaeology and focuses on the role of material culture in shaping human identity. The course entertains questions such as, how did the world’s first great cities come to be? Where did writing come from? Why did ancient people all over the world revere their dead? What ends did human sacrifice serve? What are the lessons of archaeology regarding the human transformation of the environment? Perspectives on these issues are offered by faculty who specialize in a wide range of facets of the study of archaeology in different cultures of the world.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: CLAS 240   
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ANTH 242 - The Archaeology of Race and Ethnicity in America


    Explores the history of different ethnic groups in America through the study of their material remains: living quarters, burials, food remains, tools, toys, etc. Students consider how these material remains are used for understanding social identities in the past, specifically race and ethnicity in the United States, as well as the lasting impact of past events on the present day. Students also critically examine how race and ethnicity have been portrayed and ignored in museum displays and popular media. Some of the key questions students seek to address include: What is ethnicity and where does it come from? How has archaeology been used as a social weapon? What was the experience of ethnic and racial minorities in the United States and how can archaeology contribute to that history? How can archaeologists more effectively collaborate with descendant communities and work with museums to create a more inclusive history? (MC, GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 244 - Who Owns Culture?


    Who owns a song? Who owns the tango dance? Who owns knowledge about medicinal plants? Key anthropological questions about culture and property intersect in each of these questions. Native and indigenous societies, whose views on cultural property and heritage have long been marginalized, bring their own perspectives to these questions. With reference to critical anthropological literature, this course uses specific case studies to examine local and global intellectual property and cultural heritage regimes. The topics in this course intersect with the fields of legal anthropology, cultural studies, Native American studies, museum studies, and indigenous studies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 245 - Nature, Culture, and Politics


    The words “nature” and “the environment” conjure up visions of wild animals and open landscapes, but are people part of nature, too? This course shows how nature and human culture are intertwined, both in terms of how we shape our environment as well as how it shapes us. Through a series of case studies, students explore this relationship, focusing especially on the way that nature and culture are “political”: inequalities, social problems and movements, and power relations all flow from the way that we interact with our environment. The course takes a global, comparative, and historical view of this process, and includes the following special topics: the rise of environmental awareness and environmental social movements; globalization and environmental values; consumption and the environment; environmental inequalities and justice; risk, technology, and environmental politics; and public policy and the environment. (MC)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: SOCI 245  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 248 - African Art


    A study of the principal art styles of sub-Saharan Africa, this course gives attention to both the formal and cultural aspects of indigenous art. The manufacture and usage of art objects is examined within the contexts of local religious, social, and political systems, as well as within the larger framework of language and cultural areas. Traditional art styles are analyzed as products of both collective aesthetics and individual innovation. Attention is given to transmission of art forms from culture to culture and to the persistence of traditional art in the face of social change. (MC, GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ARTS 248  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 249 - Art and Architecture of the Ancient Americas


    Examines the principal art styles of the pre-Columbian cultures of South and Middle America, while also considering their impact on the art of indigenous cultures of North America. Relying on archaeological and art historical sources, students discover the usefulness of art and architecture in reconstructing the cultures of the pre-Columbian past. The course also considers the relationship of art and architecture to the environment; the effects of migration, trade, warfare, and technological innovation on the development of art styles; and the use of art in maintaining social hierarchies, political institutions, and religious systems. (MC, GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ARTS 249  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 250 - Native Art of North America


    Relying on archaeological, art historical, and ethnographic sources, this course examines the principal art styles of the indigenous cultures of North America. The course explores such issues as the usefulness of art objects in reconstructing cultures of the past and as historical documents for living peoples; gender roles in art production; the relationship between art, technology, and utility; the use of art as educational tools, memory aids, and religious devices; the relative importance of tradition and innovation; and the role of contemporary art in Native North American life today. (MC, GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ARTS 250  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 252 - Muslim Societies in Motion


    How have contemporary global markets, media, and mobility fueled a worldwide Islamic revival? Has expanded access to public schooling and digital media among ordinary Muslims challenged state power and authority—or enhanced it? If pious Muslims rejected Islam’s mystical (Sufi) traditions in the twentieth century, why are many embracing these traditions today? This course poses and answers such questions by exploring Muslim-majority societies across time and place, emphasizing the changing technologies, institutions, practices, and identities that bind them. Major historical topics addressed in the course include Islam’s foundational texts and interpretive traditions, colonial modernity and market capitalism, the rise of nation-states and national identities, and contemporary globalization. Major social-cultural topics include changing media technologies and usage, current Islamic revivalism and Islamic feminist movements, gender and sexuality, knowledge and power, and secularism and non-Muslim religious minorities. 

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: MIST 252  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ANTH 253 - Field Methods and Interpretation in Archaeology (RI)


    Provides students with hands-on experience in procedures archaeologists employ in collecting, processing, and reporting data. The course revolves around two basic premises: learning about archaeology includes doing archaeology, and doing archaeology involves more than just digging. Training in archaeological fieldwork and data processing is based upon an ongoing research project in Central New York. Each student has the opportunity to participate in various aspects of this research from excavation and field recording to cataloguing and analysis. The culmination of the course is a detailed report based upon research conducted during the semester. (MC, GR, FR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 353


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 291 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 300 - Museum Studies in Native American Cultures (RI)


    Provides an introduction to museum studies with a special emphasis on the interpretation and representation of Native American cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Through readings, lectures, discussions, visits to regional museums, and design of a virtual exhibition, students are introduced to the theory and practice of museology; the care, conservation, and interpretation of material culture collections; and the use of material culture in research and public education. In addition, the course examines 1) the origins and evolution of the ongoing debate concerning representation of Native Americans in museums, 2) the changing relationship between native people and national cultural institutions, and 3) the future of museums on the highly contested multicultural stage of the 21st century. (MC, GR, FR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
    Formerly: SOAN 300


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 305 - Science and Society (RI)


    Critically examines techno-science as a transnational social-cultural phenomenon. Using the tools of anthropology, this course explores how science is embedded in social, cultural, political and economic systems and processes. Case studies drawn from the Global North and South show how the context in which science is produced and consumed matters. They also demonstrate how techno-science is a transnational phenomenon, in which ideas, objects, methods and practices change as they travel. Critical examination of different sciences and scientists teaches us as much about the social world as it does about the natural one, and challenges the divide between the two. (MC)

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 315 - Gender and Culture


    Focuses on gender as a culturally constructed, historically variable, and politically contested category rather than an immutable biological “given.” Students have two major objectives: first, to develop a cross-cultural understanding of femininity, masculinity, androgyny, and gendered phenomena generally by examining and comparing gender relations and gender ideologies in a wide variety of human societies, ranging from small bands of hunters and gatherers to post-industrial states; and second, to develop a critical understanding of the types of theories, methods, and data that are relevant to the study of gender and sexuality - including heteronormativity, same-sex relations, transgender practices and identities, “third sexes,” and “third genders” - in anthropology and related disciplines.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ANTH 316 - Religion, Culture, and Media


    Explores the media practices through which people create and negotiate religious value and meaning. It takes as its starting premise the idea that all religious activity is mediated as well as sensual and that, through anthropological theories of religion, culture, and media, one can gain insight into religions’ growing political power today. The course involves active participant observation of ritual performances and media as well as substantial engagement with theoretical questions anthropologists have posed about religion, ritual, and media over the last century.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 316


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 322 - Medical Anthropology


    Introduces students to medical anthropology—the study of the relationships among cultures, social systems, the environment, and disease and healing. Interpretations of health and illness, and the experience of one’s body are often taken for granted. Yet our ideas about and experiences of health, disease, and medicine are profoundly shaped by culture; by transnational flow of people, ideas, and resources; by histories of colonialism and structural inequalities; and by the development of new technologies. This course introduces students to approaches used by medical anthropologists to study the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of the human experience of the body, health, illness, and healing. Topics covered include cultural interpretations of sickness and healing, cultural ideas about the body, social and environmental causes of illness, the effects of poverty on health, the roles of doctors and healers in society, cultural clashes and ethical issues in health care delivery, anthropological critiques of Western biomedicine, and the place of medical anthropology in the study of public health.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 330 - Deep Time: Representing the Human Past in Contemporary South Africa (Extended Study)


    Focuses on how the “deep African past” has been imagined and represented by authoritative knowledge-producing institutions including academic disciplines like Anthropology and Archaeology, museums, and site-specific public education projects. The course also considers how authoritative interpretations of “the past” reflect contemporary political and nationalist interests, biases, and knowledge-producing projects. The course asks how some indigenous peoples become enshrined as exemplars of the generalized human past, and how their representation shifts with changing views of human nature. The three-week extended study component in South Africa will visit museums, archaeological sites, and historical monuments to more recent events in the history of that country.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 337 - Globalization and Culture


    What does “globalization” mean, and what does it mean for societies and people facing the onslaught of global corporations? This course examines the phenomenon of globalization from a variety of theoretical perspectives, ranging from neo-liberal economics to cultural anthropology. It analyzes how each of these works defines the causes of globalization and its effects on traditional cultures, community relationships, economic wealth and justice, and political institutions. To put these theoretical works in perspective, interspersed with them will be actual case studies of real people and real communities, ranging from Costa Rican farmers to Thai factory workers, interacting with the forces of globalization. These case studies will allow students to test the abstract analyses and see which theories fit reality.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: SOCI 337  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 339 - Corporations and Power (RI)


    Business corporations are among the most influential institutions on the earth today. This course examines the place of corporations in the contemporary world, focusing on their roles critically in global political-economic and social systems, and in our own lives. It considers how studying business corporations can help to better understand capitalism, globalization, work, consumerism, law, inequality, cultural change and personhood. The course delves into case studies that follow transnational corporations from Silicon Valley, to Papua New Guinea, and back again. In addition, the course includes a research component in which students will conduct and analyze original interviews.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 340 - Contemporary Issues in Native American Art


    Examines the responses of Native American artists and critics to issues that face Native American and First Nations peoples of the United States and Canada today. The course first considers the political, social, and economic milieu in which modern and contemporary indigenous art developed. It evaluates terms such as “traditional” and “contemporary” in discussing indigenous art. The course then focuses on Native artists of the last twenty-five years and the issues addressed in their work.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ARTS 340  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: NAST 340


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 350 - Theorizing Contemporary Cultures


    Anthropologists are philosophers of the social. With firm roots in classical social theory, anthropologists have always questioned the relationship of materiality and imagination in human culture, the dialectic of individual and social, the structures of power and authority, the pull of kinship and cosmology, and the cultural patterning of time, space, gender, and story. Anthropology trains our attention on big questions of comparative and global import, but seeks answers in concrete things that people do, say, and make. Anthropological theory thus rests on the empiricism of ethnography, archaeology, and material studies, and provides the questions that drive research. This course links contemporary theoretical work in the discipline with essential forerunner texts and projects. It also considers influential texts from theorists outside the discipline proper, recognizing that anthropology takes insights from many theoretical quarters, and in turn informs theoretical endeavors across the social sciences and humanities.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ANTH 102  or SOAN 102
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 355 - Ancient Aztec Civilization


    Debate key issues surrounding the Aztecs of Central Mexico using archaeological and written evidence to understand ancient Aztec culture. This course explores the great technological achievements of Aztec civilization, its complex rituals and beliefs, bustling marketplaces and cities, and the everyday lives of ordinary people. Questions addressed include: Who were the Aztecs? Why did the Aztecs practice human sacrifice and cannibalism? How did the Aztecs become the largest empire in ancient Mesoamerica? Did the Aztec Empire promote the well-being of its commoners? Was religion used as a tool of domination? What was the role of women in Aztec society? Why did the Aztec Empire fall to the Spanish? What happened to people following the fall of the Aztec Empire? Students will integrate primary sources, archaeological research, and ethnohistory to uncover the Aztec past.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 356 - Ethical Issues in Native American Archaeology


    Examines a range of significant ethical issues relating to the archaeology of Native Americans in North America primarily, but also to some extent in Central and South America. Students not only read about and discuss conflicting perspectives leading to ethical dilemmas, but also propose solutions and evaluate existing policies to combat such problems. Some of the key topics covered in the course include the conservation ethic and stewardship; excavation and repatriation of Native American skeletal remains and sacred objects; looting, collecting, and commodification of Native American archaeological sites and artifacts; and public and postgraduate education. In short, the class actively engages in the critical ethical, theoretical, and legal debates surrounding Native American archaeology that have emerged over the past 30 years. (MC, GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 357 - Indigenous Politics of Latin America


    At the end of the 20th century, different indigenous or native peoples’ voices seemed to become more prominent in Latin American social movements. These movements included an uprising to stop the advances of globalization, struggles to control resources, demands for dignity and recognition, and struggles against corporate environmental degradation. The apparent resurgence of Latin American indigenous politics is connected, in part, to global initiatives, like the work on what would become the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous politics in Latin America ultimately pose questions about customary, national, and international legal frameworks. This course works at the intersection of local and global understandings of what it means to be indigenous in different Latin American contexts. The course is taught through the disciplinary lens of anthropology, and readings are selected from case studies in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. (GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ALST 357  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 358 - Native American Cultures


    Focuses on the comparative and historical study of Native American cultures and societies throughout the Americas. Through the reading of several ethnographies, students compare and contrast Native American social, religious, political, and economic institutions and practices from the time of European contact to the present day. (GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None
    Formerly: SOAN 358


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 359 - Archaeology and Ethnology of Southwestern Indians (Study Group)


    Highlight the deep time depth and diversity of the traditional cultures of the Southwest. Topics will include environments and traditional technologies that underlie the transition from Paleoindian big game hunters to Puebloan farmers over the past 10,000 plus years. Review the dramatic changes of the past 400 years of cultural contact and conflict during the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods in the Northern Southwest.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 360 - Comparative Cosmologies


    Concentrates on the description and analysis of cosmological models and world views, primarily as revealed through myth, developed by a variety of ancient and contemporary societies. One goal in formulating a contrast between Western and non-Western aspects of world view is determining which concepts and ideas might emerge as common to all cultures as opposed to being unique in American society: Do all societies believe in a beginning and an end to their universe? To what extent are cosmological ideas reflected in urban planning and particularly in the design of sacred space? In what specific ways do developed world views depend upon cycles of social interaction? (MC)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 361 - Ancient Environments and Human Legacies


    Many, if not most of today’s geopolitical problems can be traced to how people interact with the environment. Warfare, globalization, market economies, food production, ethnic conflicts, and disease are all contingent on the relationship between human beings and their environments. This course focuses on the complexity and nuance of those relationships through both space and time by utilizing an archaeological perspective. While many academic fields now focus on topics relating to environments, archaeology works with a dataset that spans the entirety of human history. Such a dataset allows archaeological researchers to ask powerful and fundamental questions, such as: How do human societies respond to environmental change? Have human beings ever successfully found a balance between themselves and their natural world? What events created today’s environmental challenges? What leads to the downfall of a society? This course will consider questions like these through various case-studies across the globe that deal with the diversity of human societies and the specific environments from which they emerged. (MC)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


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  • ANTH 365 - Andean Lives


    While the Andes region may evoke quaint images often seen in tourism advertisements, a focus on the people living in this region reflects globally interconnected dynamics. The course engages with diverse authors who write about the Andes: as a place steeped in highland indigenous traditions; as the place of the Inca Empire; as a place of rural communities in which collective action can take priority over individual interest; as the original source of the coca leaf that has ritual significance through the region and contested political significance in the international sphere; as the birthplace of a Maoist guerrilla movement in the last gasp of the Cold War; and as the place where social movements have challenged global economic systems and brought an indigenous president to power. Through details about the lives of those who reside in the Andes, this course brings together anthropological and historical views of this region with cases primarily from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. (GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: ALST 365  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


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  • ANTH 371 - Gender and Society in Africa


    Examines traditional notions about men, women, and reproduction from a number of African societies. Focuses on the impact of European colonialism and other foreign political and economic institutions on women and men. Finally, students study the role of gender in present-day African states, including participation in national life under democratic, socialist, and military regimes, and the challenges and options presented by the future. (GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


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  • ANTH 372 - Anthropological Theory and Archaeological Praxis


    Examines the interplay between theoretical trends in anthropology and the emergence of a reflexive practice of archaeology. Formal archaeology in the U.S. was a latecomer to anthropology, appearing during the era of Franz Boas. Somewhat later, the field became methodologically standardized as a result of the New Deal. After World War II, Americanist archaeology became a battle ground for competing perspectives in anthropology, fueled in part by the appearance of the National Science Foundation. Today, archaeology in the United States and Europe confronts and integrates numerous new critiques and theoretical perspectives, many of which arrive from recent trends in anthropology and various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Among the topics addressed are cultural evolutionary theory, geoarchaeology, postcolonial critiques, practice theory, embodiment theory, gender archaeology, critical theory, discourse analysis, and indigenous archaeologies. The overarching goal is to assess the state of the art in anthropological approaches to the production of knowledge in archaeology. (MC)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 374 - Anthropology of Media: Mass-Mediated Cultures


    Examines media in local, national, and global contexts. More specifically, it draws on media theory and on specific ethnographic cases to discern the social force of modern mass-mediated communication within and across contemporary cultures. Topics include the technologization of old media, language and performance; the emergence of mass-mediated “imagined” communities; and new social media networks.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: FMST 374  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 375 - Captured by the Lens: Photography in Anthropology and Archaeology


    Examines the role that photography has played in the emergence of anthropology and archaeology as disciplines. Beginning in the 1860s, advances in technology turned the camera into a standard piece of fieldwork equipment, and a range of image genres emerged as cameras were taken on-site and into the field. Part of the course is historical and archival in intention, and examines the emergence of these image genres, asking questions about the nature of the gaze, about forms of representation, and about the relationship between the visual imagination and more empirically imagined knowledge projects. Another part of the course examines contemporary photographic practices and the leaking of anthropological image genres like the ethnographic photograph into popular forms. Students take a case-study approach and look at individual sites, photographers, and bodies of work, alongside a close reading of contemporary theory. Students are encouraged to take their own photographs, and the course concludes with an exhibition of student work.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 378 - Social Theory of Everyday Life (RI)


    Since classical times, philosophers and historians have studied and recorded the details of everyday life with an eye to grasping the meaning of social practice. The past 50 years, however, have seen the bourgeoning of an exciting body of critical theory on the quotidian. Much of this work is concerned with profound questions about how the systems, structures, and practices of modernity shape basic human interactions with things, with places, and with other persons, and how these, in turn, reproduce social structures. This course presents sociological and anthropological texts concerned with everyday domesticity, cuisine, gesture, movement, activity, entertainment, talk, schooling, and bureaucracy, and explores the theoretical paradigms of knowledge, practice, and power to which these texts are ultimately addressed.

    Credits: 1.00
    Crosslisted: SOCI 378  
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No First-year
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 382 - Nations, Power, Islam: Muslim Identity and Community in the Global Age


    Muslims today belong at once to a global community of the faithful and to particular ethnic and national bodies. This course examines the social significance of these intersections of identity and community: What political, cultural, and religious conflicts and negotiations mark Muslim identity in the global age? Initial readings survey the colonial age, which forced the integration of Muslim communities into the global capitalist and state systems. With this foundation students then address specific conflicts and congruencies of contemporary Muslim identity in both the Muslim world and the West: between Islamic law and national-state laws; between local Islamic norms and transnational flows of media, persons, and products; between popular Islam and political power. How do these issues affect Muslims and their neighbors? How do they affect geopolitics? What is the present and future of the “global village”? (GR)

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 391 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 452 - Senior Seminar in Anthropology


    In this capstone seminar for the anthropology major students design original research projects grounded in recent anthropological theory and relevant literature on their topics and collect and analyze appropriate ethnographic or cultural data; and each student writes a significant thesis paper. Seminars also focus on intensive reading about select theoretical issues in contemporary anthropology; the specific focus of the seminar reading depends on the instructor.

    Credits: 1.00
    When Offered: Fall semester only

    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: (ANTH 102  or SOAN 102) or ANTH 103  or (ANTH 211  or SOAN 211) and ANTH 350  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: Only Senior
    Recommended: All anthropology majors should plan to take this course in fall term of their senior year.
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 491 - Independent Study


    Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.

    Credits: variable
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ANTH 495 - Independent Study for Honors and High Honors


    This independent study is for candidates for honors and high honors in anthropology.

    Credits: 1.00
    When Offered: Spring semester only

    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ANTH 452  or ANTH 454
    Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Sociology & Anthropology, Anthropology Majors
    Class Restriction: Only Senior
    Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to seniors with a GPA of 3.50 or higher in all departmental courses and an overall GPA of 3.30 or higher
    Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term



Art and Art History

Course classifications:

Studio Arts (SA)
Art History (AH)

  
  • ARTS 100 - Introduction to Studio Art (SA)


    Introduces creative thinking and problem solving, the challenges of visual representation and expression, and critical method. Students will become familiar with contemporary and historical artistic practices and theoretical frameworks, as they engage in a series of studio based investigations exploring a variety of mediums and materials. ARTS 100 lays important groundwork for students interested in continuing in studio art or concentrating in Art and Art History. In the spirit of the liberal arts, the visual thinking and creative processes central to the course are relevant to a range of other disciplines as well. Attendance at our regularly scheduled ARTS Lecture Series is required. Material cost is $50–$100. This course is a prerequisite for all 200 level studio courses.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 101 - Caves to Cathedrals: The Art of Europe and the Mediterranean to the 13th Century (AH)


    Focuses on key artworks from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Islamic world, and the European Middle Ages. It examines how visual languages developed to communicate ideological messages about various people’s relationships with their gods, their rulers, their subjects, their enemies, and each other. Also serves an introduction to the discipline of art history, training students for more advanced art history courses by teaching basic vocabulary and techniques of close looking and analytical thinking about visual material.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 105 - Introduction to Architecture in Cultural Context (AH)


    An introduction to the analysis of architecture and the understanding of it within its cultural frameworks. Students will develop tools for the analysis of spaces and structures and will become familiar with the vocabulary and the conceptual frameworks essential for understanding the built environment. Historical styles, significant individual structures or complexes, basic principles of urbanism, and the relationship between theory and practice are integrated through select case studies.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 107 - What is Modern Art? (AH)


    A survey of art from the turn of the 19th century to the present. Students learn how to analyze the visual strategies of a variety of artworks, and to pose critical questions about their context, especially in relation to political changes, exhibition practices, and modes of circulation. Also an introduction to the discipline of art history, training students for more advanced art history courses by teaching basic vocabulary and techniques of close looking and analytical thinking about visual material.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 110 - Global Contemporary Art (AH)


    Examines contemporary art’s shifting relationship to changes taking place in the world at large: the pressures and challenges, as well as the possibilities that come with globalization and decolonization. It addresses other spaces that emerge through processes of cultural encounter and movement, and the importance of addressing art, culture, and aesthetics on local, regional, and supra-national scales.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 120 - Making the Mummies Dance: Introduction to Museum Studies


    Introduces students to the rich interdisciplinary array of historical, theoretical, and practical topics that comprise this fast-growing field. Major themes include the history of museums from cabinets of curiosity to the Museum of Modern Art; the post-colonial critique of museums; and the practical aspects of museum management, education, and curating.

    Credits: 1
    Crosslisted: HIST 120
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 201 - Code, Recipes, Spells (SA)


    An introduction to digital art that covers select topics from a variety of digital art practices tied to the avant-garde, and rooted indeterminacy, concept, recipe, instruction, structure, algorithm, and procedure. Students make individual and collaborative artworks using instructions, recipes, code, and more. As a result of iteration, remixing, and collaboration, students reconsider the nature of authorship and artistry, and come to see art more as a process than a thing, more dynamic than static. Students are encouraged to explore concepts and programs beyond the basics; group and individual projects will require both rigorous concept development and proficiency in technology. The Little Hall Digital Studio is equipped with Macintosh computers and relevant software.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ARTS 100  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Recommended: Previous Macintosh experience is helpful but not necessary.
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 202 - Digital Studio: Distribution and Intervention (SA)


    An introduction to digital art that covers a selection of digital art practices, including reproducible art, networked and telematic art, kits, multiples, fabrication, DIY, and interventionist practices. Students work with digital tools such as vector and raster programs, html and css, and fabrication to produce and distribute art that can operate inside and outside the gallery. The internet, for instance, is considered as a distribution platform and as a potential exhibition space. In working with existing media and technology such as surveillance, students employ “creative misuse” to make playful, humorous, and poignant contemporary artworks. Students are encouraged to explore concepts and programs beyond the basics; group and individual projects will require both rigorous concept development and proficiency in technology. The Little Hall Digital Studio is equipped with Macintosh computers and relevant software.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ARTS 100  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Recommended: Previous programing experience is helpful but not necessary
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 207 - Roman Art (AH)


    Introduces students to some of the riches of Roman material culture, including painting, sculpture, architecture, coinage, and urbanism, from the 6th century B.C.E. to the 6th century C.E. Despite this broad time-frame, the aim is not exhaustive chronological coverage. Rather, the course focuses on the social and political contexts that generated the production of particular artworks in the Roman world. Students explore the question of how these works’ formal qualities met the needs of ancient patrons, and how they were reused or reinterpreted in subsequent generations.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 208 - Marble, Gold, Silk, and Glass: Art of the Middle Ages (AH)


    A study of art, architecture, and material culture in Europe and the Mediterranean world, from the end of the Roman Empire (marble), to the rise of Christianity and the development of new visual vocabularies to convey its message of salvation (gold), to the emergence of rich, widely circulating and highly influential artistic practices in the Islamic world (silk), and finally to the emergence of pilgrimage routes and prosperous cathedral cities by the 13th century (glass).

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 209 - Art and the Politics of Display in Northern Italy (Extended Study)


    An in-depth exploration of the history, politics, and ideology that have shaped the display of art in two major Italian cities. Time in Venice coincides with the world’s leading exhibition of contemporary art, the Venice Biennale. Students will also explore the magnificent mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica, the Baroque architectural masterpiece Santa Maria della Salute, and one of the earliest art museums in Europe, the Accademia galleries, as well as the nearby remains of the important ancient Roman city of Aquileia. In Milan, students will see a world-famous cathedral, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, and innovative contemporary art spaces such as the Prada Foundation and Pirelli Hangar Bicocca. A day trip will take students to the city of Brescia, with major Roman, medieval, and Fascist layers.

    Credits: 0.5
    Prerequisites: ARTS 101 or ARTS 207 or ARTS 239 or ARTS 280 or ARTS 348 or ARTS 370 or HIST 120 or MUSE 120 None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: None
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 210 - Contemporary Art and Politics in the Middle East


    Major developments in contemporary art movements of the Islamicate Middle East, from decolonization in the mid-twentieth century until the present are considered. Thematic areas include debates about cultural heritage, museum policies, and preservation, networks of digital exchange, censorship under authoritarian regimes, art as public diplomacy, and questions of representation amidst an environment of rising conservative Islamic activism. Students examine multi-media artistic production from Morocco to Afghanistan, chronologically contextualizing the politics of cultural production in the colonial period, during decolonization, and against the backdrop of critical global events, such as the Iranian Revolution and the 2011 Arab Spring.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 211 - Drawing (SA)


    An introduction to drawing through a series of studio projects, class discussions, and critiques. A variety of attitudes toward, and approaches to, drawing will be explored through viewing the works of historical and contemporary artists. The course will address fundamental drawing skills and introduce a variety of media. The careful development of images is an integral aspect of the course; observation, conceptualization, and expression will be central concerns. The student’s cost for materials is about $100.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: ARTS 100  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 216 - Nature’s Mirror: Renaissance Arts 1400-1550 (AH)


    Considers painting and sculpture of Europe ca. 1400–1550, examining major artists and regional practices within their social, political, and cultural settings. Themes include the development of linear perspective, the inheritance and interpretation of classical tradition, technologies of art, Renaissance “self-fashioning,” and narrative strategy as approached through visual analysis, primary source readings, and recent critical literature.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 219 - The Economics of Art (AH)


    The symbolic value of artworks has long been translated into monetary terms. This course will analyze the economics of art by examining the emergence of global art markets since the modern period into the contemporary. With an eye to geopolitics of the art world, students will address the commodification of the artwork, the rise of the celebrity artist, the development of art fairs, biennials, and auction houses, as well as the changing role of the museum to understand the gains and pitfalls of turning culture into a commodity.

    Credits: 1.00
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 220 - Early Modern European Architecture (AH)


    Explores European architectural history and theory from c.1400-1800. It is designed to give the student with little or no exposure to architectural history and thinking, or to the period in question, an understanding of issues ranging from the most fundamental to the more advanced, across a number of contexts and case studies. Engages with architectural history as it relates to the body, place, and site; draws heavily on primary source texts as well as foundational and recent scholarship.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: None
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Recommended: Recommended for students wishing to prepare for advanced studies in architecture.
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 221 - Video Art (SA)


    An introduction to the artistic practice of experimental video production. Students learn not only technical skills in camera, sound, lighting, and basic editing required for video production, but how to engage with the form critically and creatively as they develop their own personal artistic practice. Class time is divided between screenings, discussions, labs and critique of student work. Attendance at the weekly Alternative Cinema screening is a required and essential element of this course. Equipment is provided by the department.

    Credits: 1.00
    Corequisite: ARTS 221L  
    Prerequisites: ARTS 100  
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


  
  • ARTS 221L - Required Film Screening


    Required corequisite to ARTS 221.

    Credits: 0.00
    Corequisite: ARTS 221  
    Prerequisites: None
    Major/Minor Restrictions: None
    Class Restriction: None
    Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression
    Liberal Arts CORE: None


    Click here for Course Offerings by term


 

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