Anthropology 697MT - ST-Anthropological Theory/Mind

In this course, we will explore new frontiers in psychological anthropology to ask questions about the foundations of human experience. We will ask: What are the boundaries between the universal and the constructed, nature and culture, the ordinary and the extraordinary? In what ways is our thinking along such lines conditioned, as scholars and as social actors more generally? And are there means to break habituated ways of knowing to arrive at fresh insight into our own ways of being and that of others? These questions, among others, will be examined through richly contextualized ethnographic writings, as well as science fiction and literary accounts, film, and cross-disciplinary work from physicists and cognitive scientists. Topics will include new work on local theory of mind, notions of the self, karma and nonlinear time, the so-called ontological turn, feminist ethics of care, and varying modes of spiritual experience. Together we will explore the political and practical ramifications of our research questions and the theoretical lenses we deploy in answering them.