New Courses in 2026/27

AN232K: Cultures of Sound and Song (Fall 2026)

Mondays and Wednesdays 11:30 a.m. -12:50 p.m.
Assistant Professor Christina Woolner (PhD)

Have you ever stopped to really listen to the world around you? Or considered how sounds – from traffic noise and birdsong to your favourite Spotify playlist – shape your experiences, what you know, how you feel, and how you relate to others?

In AN232K (Cultures of Sound and Song), we will explore what sound is and what sound does in diverse cultural contexts – from Laurier’s campus to the Bosavi rainforest, from British prisons and wartime Iraq to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. Through lectures, ethnographic case studies, and experiential sound-based activities (including a soundwalk and basic audio recording/editing practice) we will examine how sound systems as cultural systems shape our understanding of the world and reflect on what we may learn and know by more intentionally and critically attending to the sounds that surround us.

AN232L: Cultures of Desire: Reading Love in Changing Times (Winter 2027)

Tuesdays 10 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Assistant Professor Christina Woolner (PhD)

This course will introduce students to the ethnographic study of romantic love, with a focus on the ways that ideas and practices of love in diverse cultural settings shift alongside broader social and technological change. Inspired by the ‘slow reading’ movement, a key feature of this course will be deep engagement with select ethnographic texts about love.