Museums collect, preserve, categorize, and exhibit objects, and through these practices, produce and circulate knowledge. This course takes "the museum" as an object of ethnographic inquiry, focusing especially on Indigenous peoples and their ways of knowing, being, and doing things. How might museums acknowledge the confronting truths of colonization, and the intergenerational and ongoing trauma endured by Indigenous peoples? How might this often-intercultural work offer possibilities for healing?

This course focuses on advanced ecological theory applied to conservation. Class will combine lectures and discussions of primary scientific literature. Because Conservation Biology is an applied discipline, we will explore the nuances of management effects in different situations as well as the role of humans in the decline of biodiversity. This year this course will not have a separate lab section or count as a lab course, but the course will still include a large final project that can be collaborative and community-based.

This seminar focuses on the anthropological study of the legal field. The class will begin with a survey of some classical texts that underpin the legal thought in the modern era. We will then see how anthropologists contributed to the study of law by conceptualizing it as part of larger socio-political processes and as a field that includes social relations, processes, and practices.

In this course we will examine the role of molecular genetic analysis in the study of phenomena such as human disease (e.g., cancer), animal development, and gene regulation. We will also discuss new techniques for genomic analysis, including the science as well as the health, legal, ethical and moral issues involved. There will be group discussions of original research articles and review articles.

Deep brain stimulation, genome sequencing, regenerative medicine...Exploring practices of 'participatory governance' of emerging technologies, we will examine the formal and informal involvement of citizens, patients, health professionals, scientists and policy makers. What initiatives exist at local, national and transnational levels to foster science literacy? How do lived experiences of nationality, ability, class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality become visible and/or disappear within constructed frameworks of participatory governance?

This course is an in-depth examination of DNA and RNA structures and how these structures support their respective functions during replication, transcription, and translation of the genetic material. Emphasis is on the detailed mechanisms associated with each step of gene expression. Discussions incorporate many recent advances brought about by recombinant DNA technology.

This course focuses on the biological and cultural components of reproduction. From the evolution of the pelvis, to how nutrition, growth and development, health, trauma and cultural can affect successful childbirth, we explore the birth process in the ancient world, through historical trends, as well as recent dialogues surrounding the technocratic model of birth to understand the shift of birth from a female centered experience to a medically managed condition. Indigenous birthing customs and beliefs from a number of different cultural contexts are also explored.