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