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Course Description for Spring 2009
ANTHRO Anthropology 390-0: Topics In Anthropology

Please scroll down to see all descriptions for this course.

Anthropology
390-0-21: Topics In Anthropology : Latino Social Movements

Instructor: Ana Aparicio
Office address: 515 Clark St. Room #201 Ev Campus
Phone: 847/491-5132
E-mail: a-aparicio@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Latino/a Social Movements:

This course offers a review of theory and research on Latino/a social movements and of their social and political impact in the U.S. Operating with the understanding that social movements are ways in which people organize collectively to affect social change, this course emphasizes key movements, moments, and figures of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Students will engage in a critical review of movements and the context within which they were birthed; such movements include the United Farm Workers struggles, Chicano rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Puerto Rican radicalism from the 1960s through the present, and contemporary manifestations of these struggles. This course will also call attention to emerging forms of inter-group or multi-ethnic/racial collaborative efforts of which Latinos/as are a part. While examining the ideologies, goals, and outcome of particular movements, we will also discuss the relationship between Latino/a social movements and the politics of cultural production.

READING: Readings are drawn from a variety of scholarly fields and popular genres and are complemented by guest lectures, films, and student participation in and research on contemporary Latino/a movements.

RESTRICTIONS: Freshman need permission of the instructor.

NOTE: No P/N allowed.

Anthropology
390-0-22: Topics In Anthropology : Contemp. Immigr. to the U.S.

Instructor: Ana Aparicio
Office address: 515 Clark St. Room #201 Ev Campus
Phone: 847/491-5132
E-mail: a-aparicio@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will address the processes of immigration and immigrant “community-building” in the
U.S. We will begin with an overview of immigration policy and recent waves of migration. The
emphasis of the course, however, will be on the ways in which contemporary immigrants (and their
children) navigate numerous racialized economic, social, and political spheres in the U.S. We will
go through this course with the following questions in mind: how do recent immigrants attempt to
create a sense of community and belonging? What barriers exist? How do issues of identity play
into the ways immigrants participate in local (racial, cultural, electoral) politics? We will
examine specific cases and histories of immigration drawn from South and Southeast Asia, the
Caribbean and Latin America.

RESTRICTIONS: Freshman need permission of the instructor.
No P/N allowed.

Anthropology
390-0-23: Topics In Anthropology : Food & Society

Instructor: Antonio Curet
Office address: Associate Curator Department Of Anthropology The Field Museum 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive Rm #3912-A Chicago Il 60605-2496
Phone: 312/665-7191
E-mail: acuret@fieldmuseum.org
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 15

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The Archaeology of Food (Food & Society).

Food constitutes a fundamental aspect of all human societies; it is not only highly differentiated in cultural and social terms, but often have long and complicated histories. Anthropologists and archaeologists have long given attention to food – but up until quite recently, they have done so in an unsystematic, haphazard fashion. Originally concerned with nutrition (health) and later with economics, archaeologists now recognize that research into the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs has the potential to reveal much about the ideology and structure of past societies. This course introduces a broad range of issues and analytical perspectives concerning the archaeology of food in theoretical ways and its practice and applications in archaeology. Thus the course emphasizes theoretical approaches, case studies, and methods.

RESTRICTIONS: No P/N allowed.

NOTE: Bus transportation will be provided to/from the Field Museum. Pick up will be in front of 1810 Hinman Ave. at 12:15.

Anthropology
390-0-24: Topics In Anthropology : Ethnography of Muslim Societies

Instructor: Stefan Henning
Office address: 1812 Chicago Ave. Rm 208 Ev Campus
Phone: 847-491-7044
E-mail: stefan-henning@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Anthropology of Muslim Societies:

This reading-intensive course will focus on class discussion. We will read six ethnographies and one cultural history written by a political scientist. The ethnographies will introduce you to the collective lives of Muslims in Egypt, Yemen, China, Palestine, Germany, and finally the United States. We will explore themes of Islam and modernity, migration and diaspora, women and Islam, poetry and oral literature, and Muslims as minority populations in Western and non-Western contexts. We will also contrast one cultural history to the ethnographies to consider the interdisciplinary entanglements of formerly distinct genres of scholarly writing.



NOTE: No P/N allowed.

Anthropology
390-0-25: Topics In Anthropology : Blood Bonds: Med & Ev Views of Knshp & Hlth

Instructor: Robin G Nelson
Office address: 1812 Hinman Ave. Room #301
Phone: 847/467-2780
E-mail: robin-nelson@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 20

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Blood Bonds: Medical & Evolutionary Views of Kinship and Health:

This course presents a theoretical and methodological overview of medical and evolutionary perspectives on interactions between kinship and health. We will explore cross-cultural variability in the ways that humans identify and signify kin based relationships, and the ways that these relationships both impact and are impacted by issues of disease and illness.



EVALUATION METHOD: The students will be required to take turns presenting course readings and leading weekly discussion. Students will be evaluated using in-class presentations, written assignments, and a final take-home exam.

READING: The primary course materials will include journal articles and ethnographies.

NOTE: Robin Nelson is a visiting lecturer and post-doctoral fellow with the Laboratory of Human Biology Research in the Department of Anthropology. Her research centers on the impact of kin and social relationships on health outcomes in the Caribbean.

Anthropology
390-0-26: Topics In Anthropology : Public Anthro

Instructor: Helen B. Schwartzman
Office address: 1810 Hinman Ave Rm #202 Ev Campus 1310
Phone: 847/491-4824
E-mail: hsjsls@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

Expected Enrollment: 15

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Now that Barack Obama is President of the United States we have a leader who appears to bring an anthropological perspective to his view of issues and events in the US and the world at large. This is not surprising because his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was an anthropologist (Ph.D. 1992, University of Hawai’i) and he has lived abroad and traveled extensively. This course starts with the premise that anthropologists are in a unique position to make recommendations to our “anthropological” President. To this end each student in this course will become an expert on the anthropological literature related to a particular issue on the national or international agenda (e.g., health care, immigration, energy, education, entitlement programs, HIV/AIDS policy, trade and labor practices, military force, development policy, monetary policy, etc.). Students will prepare briefing papers and one extensive policy paper about their issue with the ultimate goal of making a series of recommendations to President Obama based on the anthropological research in their specific area. The intellectual and ethical issues that public anthropologists who seek to use anthropological knowledge to speak to national and international issues constantly confront will be an ongoing theme for discussion in this course.

TEACHING METHOD: Lectures, class discussion and debate.

EVALUATION METHOD: Two “briefing” checkpoint papers, one in-class presentation and a final 20 page paper proposing a series of specific recommendations and the rationale for these recommendations.

READING: REQUIRED READING:

A course packet of selected readings will be available at Quartet Copies 847-328-0720.

RESTRICTIONS: Juniors/Seniors Only.

Anthropology
390-0-27: Topics In Anthropology : The Music & Dance of Africa

Instructor: Stephen C Hill
Office address: Assoc. Dir/Office Of Fellowships 1940 Sheridan Rd Ev Campus
Phone: 847.491.2617
E-mail: s-hill@northwestern.edu
Office Hours:

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this class we will investigate some of the musical and dance cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa. We will approach the subject by first examining a few general principles of African culture, dance, and music, then exploring several specific music cultures from the four major regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. This music and dance will come from both rural village and urban popular contexts. It is my hope that the students will begin to appreciate the richness and diversity of physical artistic expression in Africa. They should also deepen their understanding of the roles music and dance play in the culture, history, politics, social relations, rituals, and religious practices of all African peoples.

RESTRICTIONS: No P/N.

[Course Descriptions for Spring 2009] [Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences] [ANTHRO Anthropology]