Course Offerings

Anthropology Course Offerings 2019/20

AN100: Cultures Today

An introduction to the study of world cultures, focusing on the exploration of ethnographic case studies and the development of inter-cultural competencies through a problem-based approach, including participation in the Community Action Project developed by the Center for a Public Anthropology.

AN120: Greatest Party in the World

Introduces students to Brazilian popular culture by exploring the social relevance of things such as carnival, soccer and prime-time soap operas in national identity formation. At the same time, the course addresses the contested character of these social practices by looking at their potentially subversive use in the context of cultural resistance to dominant ideas. It fosters understanding of people's uses of cultural practices in the negotiation of power imbalances and alternative values.

AN200: Theories of Culture

This course introduces concepts and theories used by anthropologists for understanding sociocultural practices in all their diverse forms. It will address concepts such as ideology, hegemony, discourse, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationalism, globalization and neoliberalism.

AN210: Intercultural Competencies

Examines perceptions of cultural differences and miscommunication across social, cultural, ethnic, economic and historic barriers. Students explore the various approaches used to mitigate cultural differences including intercultural competency, diversity, anti-oppression, and anti-racism training. Using Canada as its context, students examine the historical outcomes and future opportunities for growing diversity at work, in the classroom, and in society.

AN237: Cross-Cultural Study of Change

A study of such world questions as food, population, health care and the environment: the impact of technological change in rural and urban areas. Social, political, economic and technological development will be examined from a number of theoretical perspectives. The roles of business, government and non-government organizations in developing contexts are explored.

AN241: City Life and Urban Space

This course considers major anthropological perspectives on the city as well as ethnographic investigations of urbanism, or city life. It focuses attention on how the contemporary city has variously become divided, contested, globalized, modern and postmodern, in ways that feature the changing role of cities as well as the shifting attitudes towards them.

AN300: Ethnographic Methods

A survey of the methods of cultural anthropological inquiry including such issues as the relationship between theory and research, research design and problem formulation, participant observation, genealogical research, sampling procedures, interviewing, life history documentation, archival research, data organization and analysis, and the ethics of conducting anthropological research.

AN316: Art, Anthropology and Material Culture

This course addresses questions of artistic creation and commodity production. It begins with early anthropological approaches to tribal art and artefacts. The bulk of the course will focus on the social lives of architecture, consumer goods, artworks, and souvenirs in local contexts, transnational art worlds, and global marketplaces.

AN322: Religion, Ritual and Magic

The study of ritual performances which relate society to the divine, with a focus on the collective production of meaning. Topics may include: rites of passage, spirit possession, magical beliefs, and the social and epistemological dimensions of religious systems.

AN341: Kinship, Marriage and Gender

An introduction to the anthropological study of kinship, marriage and gender, and patterns of social organization.

AN349: Environments, Environmentalisms and Nature/Culture

This course will explore anthropological and related approaches to the study of humans and their material surroundings. Topics such as cultural ecology, political ecology, cultural politics of nature, landscape, human-animal relations and environmental imaginaries are discussed.

AN350: Violence and Terrorism

This course examines a wide range of anthropological perspectives on violence and terrorism. Topics explored include everyday violence, genocide and ethnic war, state violence and terrorism, and gendered violence in diverse western and nonwestern contexts.

AN355/GS355: Indigenous Peoples in Global Context

A selective introduction to the nations, cultures, and histories of Indigenous peoples today. Students learn about the ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples and the contemporary relevance of Indigeneity in a globalizing world, engaging with important concepts, including settler colonialism, extractive capitalism, territorialisation, and environmentalism. The course also discusses the ways in which Indigenous communities respond, resist, and adapt to the forces around them.

AN400: Doing Fieldwork

Students develop and carry out their own ethnographic research projects under the supervision of the course director. Using a combination of skills acquired in AN300 - Ethnographic Methods, students write a proposal, develop analytical questions and undertake participant-observation in a fieldwork context chosen among options provided. The end product will document the research process and seek to answer questions formulated in the proposal stage.

AN450: Current Topics in Anthropology

An examination of current debates and topics in sociocultural anthropology. Students will apply the anthropological tool kit in analyzing a set of contemporary agenda-setting works. They will also carry out in-depth library-based research in their selected field of choice in order to assemble a literature review.

Anthropology-Approved Courses

As part of their anthropology degree, students can take up to 1.0 credit worth of Anthropology-approved courses in other programs in the Faculty of Arts. See LORIS Browse Classes (formerly Dynamic Schedule) for current course offerings.

Archaeology and Heritage Studies

AR203: Introduction to Community Engagement

Community Engagement

CMEG300: Introduction to Community Engagement
CMEG301: Social Inclusion, Local Democracy and Community Enterprise
CMEG305*: Semester in Community Engagement

Communication Studies

CS202: Nonverbal Communication

Applied Digital Program

DH200: Digital Narratives
DH300: Digital Editing and Publishing

English

EN220: Reading Culture: Strategies and Approaches
EN330: Human Rights in Contemporary Cultural Forms

Environmental Studies

ES295: Ecotourism and the Environment

Global Studies

GS201: Theories in Global Studies
GS220: Being Human: Cultural Analysis in a Global Age
GS221: Globalization and Cultures: The Cosmopolitan Village?
GS355: Indigenous Peoples in Global Context
GS361: Disasters and Development

History

HI389/MU310: Music, Sound and Environment

Mediterranean Studies

MI201: Mediterranean Culture and Civilization I
MI202: Mediterranean Culture and Civilization II

Religion and Culture

RE211: Indigenous Religions
RE216: Christianity and Modern Culture
RE285: Religion and Culture of the African Diaspora
RE308: Conducting Fieldwork
RE333: Food and Religion

Languages and Literatures

SP220: Topics in Spanish Culture

Sociology

SY321: Sociology of Medicine
SY332: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
SY338: Women and Development

Women and Gender Studies

WS212: Food and Feminism