(Offered as ANTH 226 and BLST 216 [A].) This course explores the cultural meaning of indigenous African institutions and societies. Through the use of ethnographies, novels and films, we will investigate the topics of kinship, religion, social organization, colonialism, ethnicity, nationalism and neocolonialism. The principal objective is to give students an understanding of African society that will enable them better to comprehend current issues and problems confronting African peoples and nations.

Limited to 50 students. Spring semester.  Professor Goheen.

This course focuses on the theoretical foundations of archaeological research, the variety of methods available to analyze material culture, the interpretation of results, and ethical considerations of practicing archaeology in the United States and abroad.  Course provides students with a solid foundation for evaluating and contextualizing current methodological and theoretical trends within archaeology.  Case studies illustrate the diversity of archaeological thought, interdisciplinary approaches to studying material culture, and innovative directions in the field of anthropolog

Fall and spring semesters.

This course is designed to provide American Studies juniors (and others) with a methodological grounding in the discipline and an opportunity to write a research paper on a topic of their own choosing.  We will engage a wide range of materials and methodologies in this course in order to grasp the broad interdisciplinarity of the field of American Studies.  Through short written exercises addressing a variety of documents including manuscripts, journals, census records, images and printed books, students will gauge the utility of various methodological approaches to determine whic

Fall and spring semesters.

 The island of Puerto Rico is only 35 miles wide by 100 miles long. Despite its small size, the island is at the center of multiple histories. A Spanish colony for 400 years, the island became an unincorporated territory of the United States at the turn of the century (1898), a military prize strategically located in the Caribbean. Once valued for its agricultural production of sugar, coffee, and tobacco, since the 1950s the island has undergone intense industrialization.

Despite the dominant historical narrative of American “exceptionalism,” imperial practices are at the heart of United States history and the formation of an American colonial state. In this course, we survey the emergence of the United States as an empire in the Caribbean and Pacific at the turn of the century (1890s-1910s). First, we examine imperial transitions during the mid-nineteenth century, when the United States was emerging as an empire, the traditional Spanish Empire was contracting, and the British Empire was expanding.

What does immigration to the United States look like from the perspectives of migrants themselves?  How do hierarchies of race, citizenship, gender, class and sexuality shape immigrant inclusion and exclusion from the space of the nation-state?  How does attention to these differences reveal the boundaries of the United States as a “nation of immigrants”?  How do they open up avenues for conceptualizing the global, imperial dimensions of migration and the formation of the United States?  This course explores these questions by focusing on a series of primary

This course investigates the practice and ideal of community in America both on a national and a local level, asking students to engage in specific projects aimed at strengthening the public sphere and fostering community life. We will consider the nature and limits of democracy, the meaning of belonging, the experience of stigma and exclusion, the concepts of civic responsibility and public discourse, and the conflict and compromises inherent in political advocacy.