Graduate Courses
| Course Number (credits) | Course Title | Course Description |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH-5000 (3) | Quantitative Methods in Anthropology | Surveys ways of deriving meaning from anthropological data by numerical means, including but not confined to basic statistical procedures. |
| ANTH-5020 (3) | Explorations in Anthropology | Special topics in cultural and physical anthropology, as well as archaeology. Check with the department for semester offerings. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours |
| ANTH-5045 (3) | Introduction to Museum Anthropology | This course traces the development of Anthropology and museums in America from late 19th century to present day. Students are encouraged to: explore museum theory and practice; think critically about the history of relations among Native Americans, Anthropology, and museums; consider the legacy of collecting and challenges of representing others; and, examine the interplay of Anthropology, material culture, and colonialism. ANTH 4045, ANTH 5045, and MUSM 5045 are the same course. |
| ANTH-5060 (3) | Nutrition and Anthropology | Overview of the evolution of human diet and ecological and cultural factors shaping modern diets. Introduces fundamentals of nutrition and analysis of nutritional status. Analyzes ecological, social, and cultural factors leading to hunger and undernutrition, as well as biological and behavioral consequences of undernutrition. |
| ANTH-5070 (3) | Methods in Biological Anthropology | Provides laboratory-based research experience in selected areas of biological anthropology. Research designs, methods and applications will be used to develop research skills. Students will read original research papers and carry out a research project of their own design. Area of emphasis within biological anthropology will depend on instructor. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-5110 (3) | Human Evolutionary Biology | Detailed consideration of the fossil evidence for human evolution. Covers the discovery of important fossils and interpretations; descriptive information about the fossils; and data and theory from Pleistocene studies relating to ecology, ecological and behavioral data on modern apes, and molecular studies that have bearing on the study of human evolution. |
| ANTH-5120 (3) | Advanced Physical Anthropology | Selected topics in physical anthropology emphasizing faculty specialties. Topics may include population genetics and its application to understanding modern human diversity, human population biology, and primate ecology and evolution. Check with department for semester offerings. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-5129 (3) | Aegean Art and Archaeology | A detailed study of the cultures of prehistoric Greece, the Cycladic Islands, and Crete, their art and archaeology, and their history within the broader context of the eastern Mediterranean, from earliest human settlement to the collapse of the Bronze Age at about 1100 B.C.E. Emphasis is on palace states. Same as ARTH/CLAS 4129 |
| ANTH-5130 (3) | Advanced Osteology | Ìý |
| ANTH-5150 (3) | Human Ecology: Biological Aspects | Discusses role of human populations in local ecosystems, factors affecting population growth, and human adaptability to environmental stress. Detailed consideration of case studies of small-scale societies in different ecosystems. |
| ANTH-5170 (3) | Primate Evolutionary Biology | Focuses on the fossil record of nonhominoid primates. Special emphasis placed on delineating the origins of the order Primates, the origins of the primate semiorders Strepsirhini and Haplorhini, and the adaptations of extinct primates in light of our understanding of the modern primate adaptive radiations. |
| ANTH-5210 (3) | Southwestern Archaeology | Explores the prehistory of the American Southwest from the earliest entry of humans into the area to the Spanish entrada. Focuses on important themes in cultural development: the adoption of agricultural strategies, sedentism, population aggregation, population movement, and social complexity. |
| ANTH-5220 (3) | From Olmec to Aztec: The Archaeology of Mexico | Examines the archaeology of Mexico from the initial peopling of the Americas to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. Studies origins of complex societies; ancient Mexican cities, states, and empires; religion and politics; trade and interaction; ecology and economy; and social organization. |
| ANTH-5224 (3) | Archaeology of the Maya and Their Neighbors | Begins with the environment and describes the earliest inhabitants and the Olmec civilization, then shifts to the earliest Maya and the emergence and collapse of classic Maya civilization. |
| ANTH-5240 (3) | Geoarchaeology | Applies geological principles and instruments to help solve archaeological problems. The focus is on site formation processes, soils, stratigraphy, environments, dating, remote sensing, and geophysical exploration. Environmental and ethical considerations are included. |
| ANTH-5270 (3) | Plains Archaeology | Archaeological evidence for Native American ways of life on the North American Great Plains from the initial peopling of the region into the 19th century. |
| ANTH-5330 (3) | Human Ecology: Archaeological Aspects | Surveys archaeological approaches to ecology, economy, and landscape: glaciation, geomorphology, and other physical processes creating and affecting sites and regions; environmental reconstruction; theories of human-environment interaction; landscape formation by forager, agricultural, and complex societies; and ideologically structured landscapes. |
| ANTH-5345 (3) | Archaeological Theory | Provides an advanced historical introduction to archaeological theory and methods. Designed to help students understand why certain issues have been and are important to the development of archaeology, especially American archaeology. Explores issues within the context of the history of anthropology and American society as a whole. |
| ANTH-5350 (2-6) | Archaeological Field and Laboratory Research | Students participate in archaeological field research or conduct laboratory analysis of archaeological materials and data. Students work with faculty on archaeological research projects with a field or lab focus, depending on the project undertaken. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-5380 (3) | Lithic Analysis and Replication | Uses diversity of approaches to the analysis of ancient stone tools, including fracture mechanics, lithic technology, materials, heat treatment, and functional analysis. Percussion and pressure-flaking experiments are performed. |
| ANTH-5390 (3) | Research Methods in Archaeology 1 | Method and theory of archaeology, emphasizing the interpretation of materials and data and the relationship of archaeology to other disciplines. |
| ANTH-5400 (3) | Research Methods in Archaeology 2 | Focuses on the design of research including constructing empirical arguments and testing them, data gathering, site formation processes, field strategies (archival resources, mapping, field survey, surface collecting/recording, excavation and preliminary analysis) and artifact analysis as it relates to research design. |
| ANTH-5460 (3) | Archaeology and Contemporary Society | Explores the intellectual climate in which archaeology is practiced and how it influences archaeological research and reconstruction, laws, regulations, and ethical issues. Explores public use of and engagement with archaeology. |
| ANTH-5500 (3) | Cross-Cultural Aspects of Socioeconomic Development | Examines goals of international agencies that support development in underdeveloped countries. Anthropological perspective is provided for such issues as urban planning, health care and delivery, population control, rural development, and land reform. |
| ANTH-5520 (3) | Symbolic Anthropology | Explores anthropological approaches to the study of symbolic systems, including cosmology, myth, religion, ritual, and art, as well as everyday patterns of metaphor and the presentation of self. Theoretical issues include semiotics, psychoanalysis, structuralism, liminality, and critical theory. |
ANTH-5530 (3) | Theoretical Foundations of Sociocultural Anthropology | Explores hunter-gatherer ways of life and the ways in which anthropologists have thought about those ways of life, using lectures, discussion, the professional literature, and film. Topics covered include the history of hunter-gatherer research, relations between this research and archaeological studies of the human past, critiques of classic hunter-gatherer studies, and the current status of hunting and gathering peoples. Ìý |
| ANTH-5600 (3) | Human Ecology: Cultural Aspects | Reviews and critically examines the major theoretical perspectives for understanding the relationship between human social behavior and the environment developed in the social sciences, especially anthropology, over the last 100 years. |
| ANTH-5610 (3) | Medical Anthropology | Cultural factors determine states of health and illness in both Western and non-Western societies. The transition from traditional to modern status creates new problems including population growth, aging, changing patterns of morbidity, mortality and health care, and new socioeconomic consequences. |
| ANTH-5630 (3) | Nomadic Peoples of East Africa | Examines the issues of current concern in the study of East African pastoral peoples. The first half of the course is devoted to historical perspectives and the second half explores the transition from subsistence to market oriented economies. |
| ANTH-5730 (3) | Latin American Politics and Culture through Film and Text | Introduces students to the political cultures and societies of Latin America. Through historical and ethnographic text, and documentary and non-documentary cinema, this course will explore class relations, ideology, and resistance from the conquest to the present. |
| ANTH-5750 (3) | Culture and Society in South Asia | Thematically surveys theoretical and ethnographic issues that have been important in understanding Brazil. Read and write critically about textual and visual representations of Brazil presented in the course. |
| ANTH-5760 (3) | Ethnography of Southeast Asia and Indonesia | Introduces the historical, political, and cultural dimensions of Southeast Asia, focusing primarily on Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia, with some coverage of mainland Southeast Asia. |
| ANTH-5780 (3) | Core Course-Cultural Anthropology | Provides an intense, graduate-level introduction to the discipline of cultural anthropology, with an emphasis upon critically assessing those methods, theories, and works that have shaped the field from the 19th century to the present time |
| ANTH-5785 (3) | Advanced Seminar in Cultural Anthropology | Details the history of theory and practice in contemporary cultural anthropology, considering the development of major theoretical schools of thought and the integration of general social theory within anthropology. Required of masters students in cultural anthropology. |
| ANTH-5795 (3) | Proseminar in Anthropology | Introduces incoming first-year graduate students to the history and current state of scholarship in anthropology from across the subdisciplines, through introduction to the research of individual faculty in the department. Required of all incoming graduate students |
| ANTH-5840 (1-6) | Guided Study | Directed individual research based on a specific area of specialization. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-5930 (1-6) | Anthropology Internship | Provides academically supervised opportunities for junior and senior anthropology majors and graduate students to work in public and private sectors on projects related to students' career goals. Relates classroom theory to practice. Requires at least 48 hours on the job per credit hour and evidence (paper, employer evaluation, work journal) of significant learning. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-6150 (3) | Critical and Theoretical Issues in Museums | Investigates key problems facing museum institutions and studies the staging and representation of historical knowledge, the ethics of collecting and display, the changing nature and uses of historical evidence, and relations between curatorial practice, collecting, and field work. Critically examines different approaches to museums and museology in various disciplines, both past and present. Prereq., MUSM 5011 or instructor consent. Same as MUSM 6150, HIST 6150, and ARTH 6150 |
| ANTH-6320 (3) | Linguistic Anthropology | Serves as an advanced introduction to the empirical and theoretical foundations of contemporary linguistic anthropology, with special emphasis on the ways in which culture and society emerge semiotically through language and discourse. Same as LING 6320. |
| ANTH-6950 (1-6) | Master's Thesis | Ìý |
| ANTH-7000 (3) | Seminar: Space, Place, & Capitalism | As several scholars have argued, the origins of capitalism stem from the appropriation of land, a process Karl Marx referred to as primitive accumulation. Later thinkers such as Rosa Luxemburg and David Harvey noted that the appropriation of space by capital is on ongoing process called accumulation by dispossession. In this seminar, we will explore theories that link space, place, and capital to better understand how space is socially produced and what kinds of outcomes this has on various societies and their environments. The first part of the course will focus on these theories, while the second part of the course will be to read ethnographies that examine this critical juncture. We will also read literature that looks at the intersection of place, ontology, and indigenous knowledge. |
| ANTH-7010 (3) | Seminar: Contemporary Theory in Cultural Anthropology | Addresses current theoretical perspectives in cultural anthropology and controversies surrounding them. Discusses science, history, interpretation, and postmodernism. Includes the relationship between theory and method as well as the production of ethnography. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-7020 (3) | Seminar: Physical Anthropology | In-depth discussion of selected topics in physical anthropology with emphasis on recent research. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-7030 (3) | Seminar: Archaeology | Intensive examination of selected theoretical or methodological topics in archaeology. Topics vary with current research emphasis. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Fall 2015: Nothing is more basic to archaeology than the issue of finding human meaning in the debris left by human action. The problem of constructing effective bridges between things and people--of understanding how to get real-world answers to the kinds of questions archaeologists ask--is just unavoidable. We will look at some basic issues in creating evidence-based arguments in general, but we will devote most of the semester to working on specific problems that seminar participants are interested in. At minimum, we will emphasize how to frame archaeological questions, how to identify evidence relevant to answering those questions, where and how theoretical issues enter into our arguments, and what role actualistic (that is, experimental and ethoarchaeological) studies play in those arguments, all in the context of students' specific research projects. |
| ANTH-7140 (3) | Seminar: Archaeology of Selected Areas | Considers archaeology of a specified area, either geographical or topical. Areas selected in accordance with current research interests. May be repeated upto 9 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-7300 (3) | Seminar: Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology | May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-7620 (3) | Seminar: Ethnography and Cultural Theory | Explores how ethnographic writing has evolved over the past century to incorporate different forms of cross-cultural representation and to accommodate new theoretical paradigms. Includes ethnographic authority and reflexivity, as well as embedded theories and blurred genres of cultural research. |
| ANTH-7840 (1-6) | Independent Research | Research aimed at developing a solution to an originally conceived research problem. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. |
| ANTH-8990 (1-10) | Doctoral Dissertation | All doctoral students must register for no fewer than 30 hours of dissertation credit as part of the requirements for the degree. For a detailed discussion of doctoral dissertation credit, refer to the graduate school section. |