Additional course details include enrollment limits, requirements or approaches met, and meeting times will be available on the TriCo catalog around April 1st.
This course examines performance in Latin America, addressing performances that range from the everyday to the staged. Topics include: self-presentation and gender; food and sports; political ceremonies, personalities, and protest; religion, ritual, and rites of passage; literature, music, theatre, dance, and performance art. In particular, students will attend to the situation of local practices within a global context, and to the relationship between culture, politics, and aesthetics. Prerequisite: ANTH B102 or permission of the instructor.
This course explores the family and marriage as basic social institutions in cultures around the world. We will consider various topics including: kinship systems in social organization; dating and courtship; parenting and childhood; cohabitation and changing family formations; family planning and reproductive technologies; and gender and the division of household labor. In addition to thinking about individuals in families, we will consider the relationship between society, the state, and marriage and family. Prerequisite: ANTH B102 or permission of instructor.
This course will examine change among individuals and groups in various cultural contexts, with a focus on heritage and tourism, and the tensions between preservation and evolution in the survival of cultural phenomena and practice. Readings will address topics including: identity construction; public celebrations such as festivals, parades, and processions; religious belief and ritual practices; transformations in food, music, dance, and performance; the commodification of "ethnic" arts and crafts and "untouched" landscapes; debates over public space and historic preservation; and economic and cultural arguments surrounding tourism and heritage programs. Special attention will be directed towards the impact of migration, colonialism, nationalism, and global capitalism upon cultural change. Prerequisite: ANTH B102, or permission of instructor.
Highlighting aesthetic, political, social and spiritual powers of dance as it travels, transforms, and is accorded meaning both domestically and transnationally, especially in situations of war and social and political upheaval, this course investigates the re-creation of heritage and the production of new traditions in refugee camps and in diaspora. Prerequisites: a Dance lecture/seminar course or a course in a relevant discipline such as anthropology, sociology, or Peace and Conflict Studies, or permission of the instructor.
Cities can be considered ecosystems whose functions are highly influenced by human activity. This course will address many of the living and non-living components of urban ecosystems, as well as their unique processes. Using an approach focused on case studies, the course will explore the ecological and environmental problems that arise from urbanization, and also examine solutions that have been attempted.
This course prepares advanced readers of Chinese for the practice of reading and using primary source texts in early-modern and modern Chinese literature. Students will engage in critical reading and analysis of Chinese texts in class discussion and writing assignments. Part of each class meeting will be dedicated to reading and translating from the text to discuss issues of translation and grammar. This class is conducted in English, and all readings and screenings are in the original language. The course assumes advanced reading knowledge of Chinese and requires successful completion of 3rd year Chinese as a prerequisite. Majors are strongly encouraged to take this course. Prerequisites: Successful completion of 3rd-year Chinese or equivalent.
Queer of color critique (QoCC) is a mode of criticism with roots in women of color feminism, post-structuralism, critical race theory, and queer studies. QoCC focuses on “intersectional” analyses. That is, QoCC seeks to integrate studies of race, sexuality, gender, class, and nationalism, and to show how these categories are co-constitutive. In so doing, QoCC contends that a focus on gay rights or reliance on academic discourse is too narrow. QoCC therefore addresses a wide set of issues from beauty standards to terrorism and questions the very idea of “normal.” This course introduces students to the ideas of QoCC through key literary and film texts.
At first sight, hygiene and eugenics have nothing in common: the former is usually conceived as a good management of our everyday conditions of life, whereas the later are commonly reviled for having inspired discriminatory practices (in Nazi Germany, but also in the US, Sweden, and Switzerland). Our inquiry will explore how, in the context of the French Enlightenment, a subdiscipline of Medicine (namely Hygiene) was redefined, expanded its scope, and eventually became hegemonic both in the medical field and in the civil society. We will also explore how and why a philanthropic ideal led to the quest for the improvement of the human species. We will compare the French situation with that of other countries (mainly UK and the USA). Prerequisite: FREN 102 for French Majors. Instructor's approval for non-majors. Part of Protecting the Public Health 360, is accepting non 360 students.
The class explores the relationships between health, national associations, and the federal government is they relate to the creation and implementation of laws and policies as well as the perception of what is healthy. The class focuses on health in the U.S. The course will include a look at tobacco use through U.S. history as a case study for how the federal government acts and reacts to protect the public. Then, in turn, to evaluate how the public reacts to pressures from the government and other national associations. From there, students will be asked to examine current trends in nutrition and cardiovascular health in order to draw parallels between the previous function of government in the protection of the populace and the current efforts in these two areas. Part of Protecting the Public Health 360, is accepting non 360 students.
Lectures and readings will examine major movements in contemporary art, including Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Performance, Postmodernism, and Installation Art. We will examine the dialogue between visual works and critical texts by Roland Barthes, Claire Bishop, Frederic Jameson, Adrian Piper, and Kobena Mercer, among others.
How have feminist artists and theorists challenged the conventions of art history? This course begins with the feminist art world activism that arose in the 1970s in the context of the women’s liberation movement and continues through current issues in global feminism. In the 1970s, feminist activist artists sought to establish new forms of art education, venues for exhibition, theoretical writing, and creative working methods to provide alternatives to traditional art institutions and art criticism. We will examine how current artists, building on this recent history, continue to develop feminist aesthetics and politics in a variety of contemporary practices, including installation art, multi-media art, and performance.
How does the collection and display of artwork create meanings beyond the individual art object? In recent decades, enormous shifts have occurred in exhibition design as artwork projected from the walls of the museum, moved outdoors to the space of the street, and eventually went online. We will study an array of contemporary exhibition practices and sites in their social and historical contexts, including the temporary exhibition, “the white cube,” the “black box,” museum installations, international biennials, and websites. During the seminar, we will examine how issues such as patronage, avant-gardism, globalization, and identity politics have progressively brought museums and other exhibition spaces into question.
The city of Naples emerged during the Later Middle Ages as the capital of a Kingdom and one of the most influential cities in the Mediterranean region. What led to the city’s rise, and what effect did the city as a cultural, political, and economic force have on the rest of the region and beyond? This course will familiarize students with the art, architecture, culture, and institutions that made the city one of the most influential in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Late Middle Ages. Topics include court painters in service to the crown, female monastic spaces and patronage, and the revival of dynastic tomb sculpture.
In the 20th Century, China’s rise has been one of the most distinctive political affairs changing the landscape of regional and world politics. Especially, China’s breathtaking growth has challenged the foundations and limits of the market economy and political liberalization theoretically and empirically. This course examines the Chinese economic and political development and its implications for other Asian countries and the world. This course has three aims: 1) to facilitate an in-depth understanding of the Chinese Economic development model in comparison to other development models, 2) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of political and socio-economic exchanges of China and its relations with other major countries in East Asia, and 3) to construct a thorough understanding of challenges and opportunities for China from its extraordinary economic growth.
This laboratory course will offer experience in designing and conducting research in social psychology, statistical analysis of research results, and research reporting in the style of a journal article in psychology. Each student will participate in two research projects. Prerequisites: Introductory Psychology (PSYC B105 or equivalent), Statistics (PSYC B205 or equivalent)
This writing-intensive seminar (maximum enrollment = 16 students) deals with critical analysis of how various forms of psychopathology are depicted in films. The primary focus of the seminar will be evaluating the degree of correspondence between the cinematic presentation and current research knowledge about the disorder, taking into account the historical period in which the film was made. For example, we will discuss how accurately the symptoms of the disorder are presented and how representative the protagonist is of people who typically manifest this disorder based on current research. We will also address the theory of etiology of the disorder depicted in the film, including discussion of the relevant intellectual history in the period when the film was made and the prevailing accounts of psychopathology in that period. Another focus will be how the film portrays the course of the disorder and how it depicts treatment for the disorder. This cinematic presentation will be evaluated with respect to current research on treatment for the disorder as well as the historical context of prevailing treatment for the disorder at the time the film was made. Prerequisite: PSYC B209.
This course examines the social, economic and political dynamics underlying globalization. Through an analysis of global capitalism, the inter-state system, and transnational social movements, we will trace the local-global connections at the basis of contemporary issues like natural resource extraction, human rights violations, and labor insecurity.
This is a half-semester focus course. Conducted in Spanish, this focus course further develops the audio-lingual skills that the students have acquired in their early Spanish language training. This course, designed to enhance students' fluency and pronunciation in Spanish, combines a content-based language instruction with an interactive task-based approach. Students increase their aural/oral fluency through the use of theater exercises and short theatrical works, and through their participation in a variety of communicative activities such as poetry readings, dialogues, debates, group discussions, and presentations on a wide range of topics. Diverse readings, audio recordings and video screenings constitute the course materials.
What do we gain by reading a Latin American or a US novel as "American" in the continental sense? What do we learn by comparing novels from “this” America to classics of the “other” Americas? Can we find through this Panamericanist perspective common aesthetics, interests, conflicts? In this course we will explore these questions by connecting and comparing major US novels with Latin American classics of the 20th and 21st century. We will read these works in clusters to illuminate aesthetic, political and cultural resonances and affinities.
This course examines the impact of non-print media such as films, television, sound recordings, radio, cell phones, the internet and social media on contemporary life from an anthropological perspective. The course will focus on the constitutive power of media at two interlinked levels: first, in the construction of subjectivity, senses of self, and the production of affect; and second, in collective social and political projects, such as building national identity, resisting state power, or giving voice to indigenous claims. Prerequisite: ANTH B102 or ANTH H103, or permission of instructor.
This course examines Argentine tango in anthropological perspective, from its origins among disenfranchised populations in late 19th century Río de la Plata society, its journey to the dance salons of Europe and New York, and ultimate transformation into local/ national symbol. Topics include: the performance of gender roles in tango lyrics, movement vocabulary, advertising images, stage performances, and films; the impact of globalization, fusion, and improvisation upon the development of tango music and dance; debates surrounding authenticity and cultural ownership; the commodification of memory and nostalgia in Argentine government, tourism, and industry promotional campaigns. Students will be introduced to basic tango dance vocabulary and etiquette in class, as well as through participant observation at Argentine tango events in the Philadelphia area. Prerequisites: ANTH B102, or permission of the instructor.
This course explores the differences between ethnographic and other forms of writing, focusing on what makes ethnography unique, the forms it may take, and the features that make it most effective. Students will analyze different forms of argumentation and writing (quantitative vs. ethnographic, inductive vs. deductive, interpretive vs. casual), explore their varying degree of efficacy, and produce one final research paper. Although the end goal of this course is a mini-ethnography, the structure of the course is writing intensive with regular short writing exercises and assignments, review sessions, and drafts that build up to the final paper. Prerequisites: ANTH B102, or permission of instructor.
In this seminar we will examine various aspects of the human life history pattern, highly unusual among mammals, from a comparative evolutionary perspective. First, we will survey the fundamentals of life history theory, with an emphasis on primate life histories and socioecological pressures that influence them. Secondly, we will focus on unique aspects of human life history, including secondary altriciality of human infants, the inclusion of childhood and pubertal life stages in our pattern of growth and development, and the presence of a post-reproductive life span. Finally, we will examine fossil evidence from the hominin lineage used in reconstructing the evolution of the modern human life history pattern. Prerequisite: ANTH B101 or permission of instructor.
The goals of this course are to introduce 1) fieldwork as a research method; and 2) ethnography as a text produced through specific research methods, a form of knowledge and a process of in-depth learning process of urban forms and lives. Two sets of activities are arranged in this half-a-semester course: 1) in-depth reading of an ethnography; and 2) writing mini-ethnographies under supervised field research on assigned sites. Prerequisites: Students should have taken at least one CITYs course or Social Science course.
In “Introduction to Chinese Literature,” students will study a wide range of texts from the beginnings through the Qing (1644-1911) dynasty. The course focuses on the genres of poetry, prose, fiction and drama, and considers how both the forms and their content overlap and interact. We will spend this semester studying representative masterworks from Chinese literature, considering their formal qualities and their place in the literary tradition. All texts in English.
This course will attend to students’ distinctive ways of seeing and being in the world, in the context of communitarian questions of identity, access, and power. How can we re-imagine ecological literacy more deeply and fruitfully with and for diverse students and communities? Part of Ecological Literary 360.
This course will focus on the range, limits and possibilities of representation, asking what might be imagined that has not yet been experienced, and enabling students to create their own multi-modal representations of the spaces they occupy. Part of Ecological Literary 360.
How is architecture used to shape our understanding of past and current identities? This course looks at the ways in which architecture has been understood to represent, and used to shape regional, national, ethnic, and gender identities in Italy from the Renaissance to the present. The class focuses on Italy’s classical traditions, and looks at the ways in which architects and theorists have accepted or rejected the peninsula’s classical roots. Subjects studied include Baroque Architecture, the Risorgimento, Futurism, Fascism, and colonialism. Course readings include Vitruvius, Leon Battista Alberti, Giorgio Vasari, Jacob Burckhardt, and Alois Riegl, among others.
How do we explain the variations of political and economic systems in the world? What is the relationship between the state and the market? To what extent does the timing of industrialization affect the viability of certain developmental strategies? This seminar introduces the intellectual history of comparative political economy and development studies with readings on both comparative political economy and international political economy. First, we will examine the debates on the dynamics of the state and the market in the development and globalization process. Second, we will explore specific case studies to discuss: 1) how the political and economic processes have changed in response to the interaction of the domestic and international arenas, 2) whether and how the late developers learned from the experiences of early developers, 3) how the international economy and international financial crisis shaped domestic development strategies. Lastly, we will analyze the developmental concerns at the sub-national level with financial liberalization.
China’s extraordinary growth for the past 30 years has confirmed the power of free markets, while simultaneously challenging our thoughts on the foundations and limits of the market economy. Moreover, China’s ever-increasing economic freedom and prosperity have been accompanied by only limited steps toward greater political freedom and political liberalization, running counter to one of the most consistent patterns of political economic development in recent history. This course examines China’s unique economic and political development path, and the opportunities and challenges it accompanies. This course has three aims: 1) to facilitate an in-depth understanding of the political and economic development with Chinese characteristics, 2) to conduct a comprehensive analysis of three dimensions of Chinese economic, political and cultural power, and 3) to construct a thorough understanding of challenges and opportunities for China from its extraordinary developmental path.
This seminar addresses one of the most complex and pervasive problems in the modern world --- the problem of strained racial--ethnic relations within national societies. It begins by examining major theoretical perspectives on racial ethnic relations. Comparing the United States, Brazil, Great Britain, Malaysia, South Africa, and Rwanda, it focuses on the historical backgrounds, current developments (including levels of poverty, education, political representation, social integration, and intermarriage), and government policies, with the objective of identifying the social conditions that have conduced to the worst and the most successful ethnic- racial relations --- in terms of social equality and human rights. Prerequisites: Open to juniors and seniors who have completed at least two courses in Sociology, Political Science, or Anthropology.
This course examines the structure and dynamics of the "non-system" of higher education in the US in historical and comparative perspective. Focusing on patterns of access, graduation, and allocation into the labor market, the course examines changes over time and how these vary at different types of institutions and cross-nationally. Issues of culture, diversity (especially with respect to class, race/ethnic, and gender), and programming will be examined. The main theoretical debates revolve around the relationship between higher education and the society (does it reproduce or transform social structure) in which it is embedded.