Course Atlas Spring 2010 | Department of Anthropology
Undergraduate Courses – Spring 2010
For undergraduate Anthropology course listings, please visit the Emory College Course Atlas.
Graduate Courses – Spring 2010
ANT 503-00P: Evolutionary Processes
Thur. 11:00-2:00 MAX: 15 Kingston
Content: TBA
Readings: TBA
Particulars: TBA
ANT 512R-00P: Special Topics in Discourse and Communication: Media [LING 585]
W 11:50-2:50 MAX: 10 [ANT 512] | 8 [LING 585] Spitulnik
Content: This semester focuses on media. During the semester we will explore four intertwined topics: (a) theories of media power and media reception, (b) theory and practice of media ethnography, (c) critical media literacy, and (d) media discourse analysis. Students will learn theories and methods in anthropology, linguistics, and media studies through close readings of both classic works and more recent studies. Media to be considered include: television, film, radio, newspapers, and new media. We will develop an analytical framework for understanding mediated communication and media forms in terms of the ‘moments’ of production, reception, circulation, textuality, technology, and context. Students will explore issues in their own research within a seminar/workshop format. ANT512R is repeatable (R) from semester to semester if the topic is different.
Readings may include:
Abu-Lughod, L. 2005. Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt.
Baron, N. 2008. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World.
Du Gay, Paul, et al.1997. Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman.
Ginsburg, F. D., Abu-Lughod, L., & Larkin, B, eds. 2002. Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain.
Hearn G., Tacchi, J., Foth, M., and J. Lennie. 2009. Action Research and New Media.
Knobel M. and C. Lankshear, eds. 2009. A New Literacies Sampler.
Kosnick, K. 2007. Migrant Media: Turkish Broadcasting and Multicultural Politics in Berlin.
Larkin, B. 2008. Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria.
McQuail, D. 2005. McQuail's Mass Communication Theory.
McQuail, D. 2002. McQuail's Reader in Mass Communication Theory.
Morley, D. 1980. The ‘Nationwide’ Audience.
Peterson, M. A. 2003. Anthropology & Mass Communication: Media and Myth in the New Millennium.
Tolson, A. 2006. Media Talk: Spoken Discourse on TV and Radio.
Wood, N. 2006. Describing Discourse: A Practical Guide to Discourse Analysis.
Particulars: Grades are based on participation, short reading responses, discussion leadership, and a term paper.
ANT 555-00P: Research Seminar in Biological Anthropology
Thur. 4:30-5:30
MAX: 30 Kingston
Content: TBA
Readings: TBA
Particulars: TBA
ANT 585-01P: Themes and Approaches in Latin American History: New Paradigms, Old Trends [HIST 561R/ILA 790]
Tu 1:00-4:00 MAX: 3 J. Lesser
Content: This course will examine the manufacturing of racial, ethnic and national identities in 19th and 20th century Latin America in comparison with other national experiences in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. We will analyze the history of racial and ethnic discourses and their sociopolitical uses in the formation of modern nations and empires. We will examine postcolonial societies and their constant tension with the legacies of colonialism, slavery and immigration. This, in turn, will suggest the connections with class and gender in the region. This comparative approach will help us to identify general trends in the social construction of race and ethnicity, and provide grounds to establish the importance of the regional and national context. The course will focus on how concepts of race and ethnicity were constructed in moments of national flux and how racial/ethnic discourses shaped popular and elite cultures. An important goal of the course is to examine questions, themes and methods which in turn can be linked to each student’s own research project.
Readings may include:
Christina Civantos, Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine Orientalism, Arab Immigrants, and the Writing of Identity
Sarah Gualtieri, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora
Samuel L. Baily, Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York, 1870-1914.
John M. MacKenzie, The Scots in South Africa: Ethnicity, Identity, Gender and Race, 1772-1914
Jürgen Buchenau, Tools of progress: a German merchant family in Mexico City, 1865-present
Ruben Oliven, Tradition Matters: Modern Gaucho Identity in Brazil
Micol Seigel, Uneven Encounters: Making Race and Nation in Brazil and the United States.
Robert Stam, Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture
Ruth Barton (ed),Screening Irish-America: Representing Irish-America in Film and Television
Jerry Davila, Diploma of Whiteness Race and Social Policy in Brazil, 1917-1945
Anna Pegler-Gordon, In Sight of America: Photography and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy.
Particulars: In addition to short weekly writing, the major project for the class will be a grant proposal based on the student’s own research interests.
ANT 585-00P: Muslim Cultures and Politics in Anthropological Perspective [MESAS 570R]
TTH 2:30-3:45 MAX: 8 [ANT 585] | 4 [MESAS 570R] Peletz
Content: How have anthropologists approached the study of Muslim cultures and politics and what have we learned -- about ritual and religion (particularly “everyday Islam”); gender, sexuality, and subjectivity; law, discipline, and disorder; secularity, modernity, and governmentality; and the politics and poetics of “writing culture” -- from their scholarship? This seminar will explore questions such as these through an examination of the anthropological literature on Islam and a critical evaluation of the various theoretical traditions, methodologies, rhetorical devices, and narrative strategies that scholars in anthropology (and related fields) have drawn upon since the 1960s in their efforts to describe and interpret cultures and politics in the Muslim world.
Particulars: Evaluations will be based on classroom participation, a series of short “response” papers, and a term paper due at the end of the semester.
ANT 585-01P: Development, Change, and Sustainability
TH 4:00-7:00 MAX: 15 Little
‘Development’ is a highly contested field that has attracted considerable scholarly and applied interest in anthropology and other social sciences. This course examines anthropological and social science contributions to understandings of development and underdevelopment and addresses the different theories, critiques, and "schools" of development studies; social science research on selected themes of development; and the institutional actors (international development agencies, non-government organizations, and governments) that shape the discourse and activities of development. The course is intended to cover both the theoretical and policy aspects of development anthropology and to challenge the student to think critically about development problems and the narratives that inform policy and development processes.
Readings may include:
Collier, Paul. 2007. The Bottom Billion. Oxford University Press.
Edelman, Marc and Angelique Haugerud. 2004. The Anthropology of Development and Globalization: From Classical Political Economy to Contemporary Neoliberalism. Blackwell Publishers.
Hammond, Laura. 2004. This Place Will Become Home: Refugee Repatriation To Ethiopia. Cornell University Press.
Li, Tanya. 2007. The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Duke University Press.
Little, Peter D. 2003. Somalia: Economy without state. Indiana University Press.
Mosse, David. 2004. Cultivating Development: An Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. London: Pluto Press.
Novo, Carmen M. 2005. Who defines Indigenous: Development, Intellectuals, and the State in Northern Mexico. Rutgers University Press.
West, Paige. 2006. Conservation Is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea. Duke University Press.
Smith, James Howard. 2008. Bewitching Development: Witchcraft and the reinvention of Development in Neo-liberal Kenya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
ANT 585-02P: Anthropology and Global Health
MW 5:00-7:00 MAX: 15 Brown
Content: This medical anthropology course explores the theoretical, methodological, and programmatic applications of Anthropology in global public health. The course uses both critical anthropological approaches and practical applied anthropology in relation to the basic issues and initiatives in contemporary global public health. This course has a seminar session (on Mondays) and a lecture/case study session (on Wednesdays in conjunction with GH 557). Seminars will usually cover a different ethnography each week. Areas covered include: history of international/global health; concepts in critical medical anthropology; concepts in applied medical anthropology; global mental health; anthropology of infectious disease; community and bureaucratic organizations; gender, sexuality and reproductive health; over and undernutrition; and analysis of the cultural assumptions and policies, practices in public health programs The underlying purpose of the course is to develop students’ awareness of the political, socioeconomic, and cultural complexity of health problems and the consequent challenges of developing and implementing effective long-term solutions.
Readings:
Readings include about ten of the following books (pre-enrolled students will help with selection in December); lecture section has readings on Blackboard:
Abraham, Laurie (1994) Mama Might Be Better Off Dead. Chicago UP (U.S.)
Arole, Mabelle and Rajanikant, (1994) Jamkhed: A Comprehensive Rural Health Project (India)
Briggs, Charles (2004) Stories in the Time of Cholera: Racial Profiling during a Medical Nightmare. California (Venezuela)
Campbell, Catherine. 2003. Letting Them Die: Why HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes Fail. Indiana (Africa)
Castro, A & Merrill Singer (eds.), 2004, Unhealthy Health Policy: A Critical Anthropological Examination. Altamira Press.(global)
Closser, Svea (2010) Chasing Polio in Pakistan: Why the Global Polio Eradication Initiative May Fail. Vanderbilt. (Pakistan)
de Waal, Alex. (1997). Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa. Indiana. (Central Africa)
Dettwyler, K. A. (1994). Dancing Skeletons: Life and death in West Africa. Waveland.(Africa)DeWaal, Alex (2006) AIDS and Power: why there is no political crisis – yet. Palgrave. (South Africa)
Easterly, William (2006) The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good . Penguin. (global, Africa)
Fadiman, Anne (1998) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Farrar. (U.S., Hmong)
Farmer, Paul. (1999). Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. California . (global, Haiti)
Gregg J. (2002) Virtually Virgins: Sexual Strategies and Cervical Cancer in Recife, Brazil. Stanford . (Brazil)
Hahn, R. and M.C. Inhorn (eds)(2008) Anthropology and Public Health: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society . Oxford. (global, U.S.)
Inhorn, M.C. (1996) Infertility and Patriarchy: the cultural politics of gender and family life in Egypt. Pennsylvania. (Egypt)
Johnson, Steven (2006) The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Penguin. (U.K., history)
Justice, J (1986) Policies, Plans, and People: culture and health development in Nepal. California. (Nepal)
Kidder, Tracy (2005) Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, Random House. (Haiti)
Kim, Jim (ed) (2000). Dying for Growth: Global Inequality and the Health of the Poor. Common Courage Press, (global)
Nichter, Mark (2008) Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter . Arizona UP. (South Asia, global)Collier, Paul (2008) The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Oxford. (global)
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. (1993). Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Brazil)
Smilie, Ian (2009) Freedom from Want, The Remarkable Success Story of BRAC, the Global Grassroots Organization That's Winning the Fight Against Poverty. Kumarian Press. (Bangldesh)
Steinberg, Jonny (2008) Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey through Africa's AIDS Epidemic. Simon Shuster (South Africa)
Trostle, James (2005) Epidemiology and Culture. Cambridge. (methods) Whyte, S.R., S. van der Geest & A. Hardon (2003) Social Lives of Medicine . Cambridge. (global)
Recommended:
Birn, E., Y. Pillay, T. Holtz (2009) Textbook of International Health: Global Health in a Dynamic World. Oxford U.P.
Whiteside, Alan (2008) HIV/AIDS: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford.
Particulars: Research paper; class discussion and leadership; bi-weekly summary or reaction papers; Blackboard postings; other homework assignments.
ANT 585-03P: Methods and Research Proposal Presentation
Tu. 4:00-6:00 MAX: 15 Hadley
Content: This is a hands-on course designed to introduce students to anthropological methods in data collection and analysis. The course emphasizes practical applications and the effective integration of ethnographic, experimental and analytical tools. Data collection topics will include ethnographic interviewing, cultural domain analysis, social network elicitation, structured and less structured data collection techniques, survey design, and time allocation. Analytical techniques will include some basic statistics, content analysis, social network, cultural consensus, and related methods. A second theme of the course is proposal preparation. We will work as a community of scholars to assist one another in the design and preparation of NSF–style proposals that might be submitted to the National Science Foundation’s cultural anthropology section. Class focus will alternate between proposal preparation and the study and practice of methods.
Readings: TBA
Particulars: TBA
ANT 585-04P: Making Ethnographic Documentary [ILA 790]
Wed. 4:00-7:00 MAX: 6 [ANT 585] Grimshaw
Content: This course offers students an opportunity to explore the creative possibilities of video filmmaking as an integral part of intellectual inquiry. Drawing on examples of practice (including the students’ own), we will assess the different ways that the camera might be used in ethnographic research. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a number of small-scale video projects as a means for developing the technical, methodological and conceptual skills required in visual scholarship.
Readings:
Sarah Pink Doing Visual Ethnography (2001, Sage)
David MacDougall The Corporeal Image (2006, Princeton University Press)
Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Taylor Handbook in Cross-Cultural Filmmaking (1997, University of California Press)
Anna Grimshaw and Amanda Ravetz Observational Cinema (2009, Indiana University Press)
Particulars: Permission only. Assessment: the production of a final film (max. length 30 minutes).
Anthropology 797R: Directed Readings
By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
Anthropology 798R: Advanced Research
By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
Anthropology 799R: Dissertation Research
By permission only, and for students admitted to Doctoral Candidacy. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.