Anthropology and Theater each explore human behavior through close observation. A primary meeting point for these two disciplines is ritual. Both disciplines distinguish daily behavior from extra-daily behavior and both are concerned with their relationship. Theater people must observe the world to produce a credible and compelling performance of a reality not their own. Anthropologists must observe the world to produce a credible and compelling description of a reality not their own.

From diamonds and bananas to coca and coal, natural wealth as commodities have shaped the way we think of global connections from early colonial encounters to the present. They are signs of the legacies of colonial exploitation as well as the seemingly infinite reach of global capital.

Considering a natural world radically remade by industrialization, this course explores the shifting relationship between humans and their environment. How do different social groups imagine, identify, and experience environmental change? Why does this matter for our collective environmental futures?

Through the comparative study of culture and society, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be and become human. Based on deep engagements with specific groups, communities, and settings, anthropology examines the practices, structures, and meanings that shape lived experience. This course introduces students to the basic concepts and methods of sociocultural anthropology.

Spring semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing.

A one-semester project—either a shorter essay or some other form of independent interdisciplinary research and production. The capstone project serves as the grounds for a comprehensive evaluation of each student's achievement in the major.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing.

Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing.

Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: independent research, critical analysis, close reading, and extended writing.

(Offered as AMST 368, BLST 368 and ENGL 368) History has long valorized passive, obedient, and long-suffering African American women alongside assertive male protagonists and savants. This course provides an alternative narrative to this representation by exploring the ways in which African American female characters, writers, and artists have challenged ideals of stoicism and submission. Using an interdisciplinary focus, we will critically examine transgression across time and space in diverse twentieth- and early twenty-first century literary, sonic, and visual texts.

(Offered as EDST 352, HIST 352 [US/TC/TR/TS], AMST 352 and SOCI 352) Focusing on the United States, this course introduces students to foundational questions and texts central to Education Studies. We will explore the competing goals and priorities Americans have held for primary, secondary and post-secondary education and ask how and why these visions have influenced—or failed to influence—classrooms, schools, and educational policy.