ANT 102 | INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to cultural anthropology, the study of contemporary human cultures from a comparative perspective. Students learn anthropological methods and theoretical approaches for understanding the diversity of human cultural behavior and the social and cultural systems that humans create.
ANT 103 | INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to archaeology, the study of past human behavior through material remains. Students learn how archaeologists reconstruct and interpret the lifeways of past peoples by analyzing the physical traces they left behind.
ANT 104 | INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to biological anthropology, the study of humans from the perspective of evolutionary biology. Students learn about the biology and behavior of non-human primates, the evolution of the human species, and modern human biological variation. The course includes labs.
ANT 105 | ANTHROPOLOGY THROUGH FILM | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course uses film to introduce the principles of cultural anthropology, the study of contemporary human cultures. Students learn an anthropological perspective on human cultural behavior and systems through the analysis of ethnographic and documentary films.
ANT 106 | INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology, the study of languages within their social and cultural context. Students explore how language structures thought and reality, shapes communication, and informs social identity and group memberships.
ANT 107 | THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF BUSINESS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course asks what role culture plays in business. Students explore the ways in which culture influences areas such as consumer behavior and marketing strategies, the relationship between workers and their employers, and corporate identity and ethics. (Formerly The Culture of Business)
ANT 109 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD AND FOODWAYS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the interrelation of food and culture. Students use an anthropological perspective to study how the practices of eating, cooking, and sharing food are culturally constructed and differ across contemporary societies. (Formerly Food and Culture)
ANT 120 | SCIENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course focuses on the application of science in archaeology, the study of human behavior in the past through material remains. Students learn how to develop and test research questions; collect, analyze, and interpret data; and present scientific ideas and findings effectively. The course includes labs.
ANT 130 | SCIENCE AND PSEUDOSCIENCE IN ARCHAEOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course critically evaluates archaeological frauds, myths, controversies, and other mysteries perpetuated by pseudoarchaeology. Students investigate the origins of these myths and mysteries, break down the controversies, and learn to recognize frauds. In doing so, they learn what constitutes solid archaeological research and how scientific methods help uncover the past.
ANT 199 | FOUR FIELD ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an overview of the discipline of anthropology, the comparative study of what it means to be human from our origin as a species through the present day. Students learn the fundamentals of the four main subfields: cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
ANT 201 | ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS AND PRACTICE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Examining data-collection techniques used by researchers in the social sciences, in this course students will design and implement a collaborative research project. Techniques may include observation, interviewing, and network analysis. Methodological theory, ethics, and reflexivity are also addressed. This course prepares students for future research in additional coursework, graduate school, or in their future professional lives. (Formerly Ethnographic Research Methods)
ANT 202 | ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODS AND PRACTICE | 6 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course is designed to provide students with a background in a selection of basic, though essential, methods employed in archaeological practice. Readings and discussions address key topics that inform both archaeological practice and how we view and interpret the past thorough fieldwork and the examination of material culture. Students will gain experience that may be applied to future archaeological research, education, and potential employment. (Formerly Archaeological Methods)
ANT 203 | ANTHROPOLOGICAL ETHICS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
In this course, students will explore the ethical structure of the discipline of anthropology. Using case studies and exploring ethical codes of conduct outlined by professional anthropological organizations, this class is devoted to the debates and discussions surrounding ethical issues that confront and challenge anthropologists in the field.
ANT 204 | ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an overview of major theoretical approaches in anthropology. Students learn how these theories inform anthropological research across the four main subfields of cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
ANT 206 | WORLD PREHISTORY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the trajectory of human culture beginning ~3 million years ago to select cultures and civilizations of the more recent past. Features examined include development and collapse, economy, power, social structure, symbolic and spiritual practice. Students will learn about, and grapple with, the complex cultural roots that gave rise to contemporary human society.
ANT 215 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF AFRICAN DIASPORAS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Africans have been on the move since the dawn of humanity. Anthropology is one discipline that can inform us about the presence and influence of Africans throughout the world. Topics include: the history of anthropology and its role in the construction of race and modernity; patterns of migration and displacement of African peoples across the world and their socio-cultural implications; and the evolution of the Black anthropological tradition.
ANT 250 | MATERIAL CULTURE OF MODERN AMERICA | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course combines historical archaeology and material culture studies to examine how material goods both shape and reflect American identity. Beginning in the 17th century, the course continues to the 21st century centering on the relationship between material culture, American identity, and conceptions of modernity.
ANT 252 | MATERIAL CULTURE AND DOMESTIC LIFE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the social, and economic dynamics of households through material culture. Specifically, this course looks at how material goods structure domestic life, reflect values surrounding family and kinship, and mediate the relationship between individual households and broader levels of social organization such as community, society, and culture.
ANT 256 | MUSEUMS AND MATERIAL CULTURE | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Museums and material culture includes explorations of collecting, object biography; consumption; materials and materiality; provenance; exhibition and display; museums as civic institutions; object-based research techniques; and the relationship between anthropology, ethnographic practice, and museums.
ANT 270 | HUMAN EVOLUTION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Principles of evolutionary theory and genetics will first be presented to provide a framework for the study of human evolutionary biology. Beginning with the earliest fossil evidence, the course will trace human evolution. Particular attention will be given to the forces of environment and sexual selection at work at various points in time. Data from nonhuman primate ecology will be used to help reconstruct prehistoric lives.
ANT 272 | INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the interrelationship between culture and human health to understand the origins of disease, variety in treatment systems, and how global inequalities shape disease patterns and access to health care resources. We investigate how anthropological methods can both shift and deepen understanding of how social structures and historical contexts shape perceptions, experiences, and the development of treatments for illness, healing, and healthcare services worldwide.
ANT 274 | FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an overview of forensic anthropology, the examination of skeletonized human remains in medicolegal contexts. Students learn methods for forensic recovery, identification of unknown human remains, and the interpretation of skeletal trauma. They also consider the role of forensic anthropologists in the investigation of murders, missing military personnel, human rights abuses, and mass disasters.
ANT 280 | ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course introduces students to archaeological field and laboratory methods via participation in a field-school setting. Students are trained in field methods including excavation, survey, mapping, record keeping, and laboratory techniques. Emphasis is placed on data collection, and the relationship between archaeological data and key research questions. This course provides essential field training in archaeology required for both applied work in cultural resource management and continued graduate education in archaeology.
ANT 290 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN REGIONAL ETHNOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course compares patterns of socio-cultural life in various societies within a particular geographic region to gain a general understanding of cultural themes, trends, and historical developments. Specific content varies based on the instructor and topic. A course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 291 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEATH, BEREAVEMENT AND COMMEMORATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the many facets of how humans observe death both within and between populations. Content focuses on how we observe, process, and mark death from potential perspectives including the treatment of the dead in the ancient past, and how historical or contemporary cultures and communities observe death. Specific content varies based on the instructor and topic. Course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 291A | ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEATH BEREAVEMENT AND COMMEMORATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the many facets of how humans observe death both within and between populations. Content focuses on how we observe, process, and mark death from potential perspectives including the treatment of the dead in the ancient past, and how historical or contemporary cultures and communities observe death. Course numbers that include an A (291A) have archaeological content and will be counted towards archaeology requirements in major and minor programs.
ANT 291B | ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEATH BEREAVEMENT AND COMMEMORATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the many facets of how humans observe death both within and between populations. Content focuses on how we observe, process, and mark death from potential perspectives including the treatment of the dead in the ancient past, and how historical or contemporary cultures and communities observe death. Course numbers that include a B (291B) have biological anthropology content and will be counted towards biological anthropology requirements in major and minor programs.
ANT 292 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF INEQUALITY, PRIVILEGE AND POWER | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines manifestations of social hierarchy in human cultures and communities. Specific content varies based on the instructor and topic. Course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 293 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF IDENTITIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course explores the dynamics of various social identities through an anthropological lens. Specific content varies based on the instructor and topic. Course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 294 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF SYMBOLISM AND SPIRITUALITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course investigates the nature of symbolic behavior (art, symbolic and ritual practice, personal ornamentation, etc.) and how it may relate to associated spiritual practices in context of particular groups in a contemporary world or in the ancient past. Specific content varies based on the instructor and topic. Course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 314 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course exposes students to a variety of topics that addresses gender across cultures, at the intersection of who we are, and what we do and believe to be our truth. We shall explore the cultural processes that shape the lives of people across time and space. Our classroom discussions, reading and writing assignments, as well as firsthand observations in and around Chicago will help us to situate gender identities in different societies and at different times. We will discuss key concepts relevant to the role of feminism in anthropology, queer inquiries, feminist research approaches and the gender analysis of the human experience. Our primary topics in this course are gender analysis through the lens of labor experiences and identity. Themes related to gender and work include the ways in which binary and non-binary identities are experienced and shaped by local cultures and global political economies. Using the methods and knowledge of anthropology, feminists and other disciplinary perspectives, this course offers a deeper understanding of the political, economic and cultural forces underlying gender experiences. Organization of the course and assignments This course is structured around seminar-style class discussions, original research collected by the students themselves, reading, writing and oral presentation assignments. Participation in an interview project focused on labor issues is required for this course. Class participation, primary source research, and feedback on the reading assignments are designed to help students develop critical reading, writing and thinking skills. Students will conduct original research by compiling working-life narratives of three women, men or transgender people. Interviewees from full-time workers to retirees will be selected by the students themselves. There will be a number of oral presentations during the quarter. To get the most out of the course, and the presentations in particular, students should spend as much time on preparing for the presentations as they would for a well-researched and carefully edited written paper. The oral presentations, reading and writing assignments are designed to help students develop critical thinking, writing and effective communication skills. They are also intended to help organize and explore their own academic interests. The objective of the oral presentation assignments is to expose them to the different mediums in which ideas can be articulated. The oral presentations and writing assignments are designed with improving effective communication skills in mind. The main objective of the course assignments is to transpose the lessons learned from one into the other.
ANT 317 | LANGUAGE, POWER AND IDENTITY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores how communication patterns vary cross-culturally. Examines how the language people speak shapes their worldview and their ways of interacting with each other. Students learn basic techniques of analyzing conversations.
ANT 320 | HUMAN VARIATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Explores the interrelationships between culture, biology, and the environment in the shaping of social life, including human evolution, sexual differences, skin color, "race," body shape, and other aspects of human variation.
ANT 322 | COMMUNITY-BASED APPLIED PRACTICE | 6 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This laboratory course in the applied anthropology sequence introduces students to the range of anthropological practice in the public and not-for-profit sector. Students will learn about the ways that anthropology has been and can be applied to initiate practical change in communities. In addition to learning the professional and ethical responsibilities of practicing anthropologists, students will also gain a practical experience working on an applied project. Human Subjects Research certification and an ethnographic methods is required for this class.
ANT 203 and senior standing are a prerequisite for this class.
ANT 342 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD MOVEMENTS AND PRACTICES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The meaning we attach to the foods we eat changes with the shifts in markets, governmental regulation and commitments to particular diets. This course provides ethnographic observational field studies of these changing movements and practices, leading the student to insights into cultural processes generally, and dietary practices in particular. The field site varies with the instructor and campus.
ANT 358 | ARCHEOLOGY OF CITIES | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This class provides a general overview of the archaeology of urban settlements. We will begin by asking the question "What is a city?" and look at the different theories that address the nature and origins of early urban settlements. To further examine this question we will focus on Cahokia, the largest prehistoric settlement in North America north of Mexico, and the city of Chicago, a well established urban, industrial center. The second portion of the class will take an even broader comparative approach towards the archeology of cities by applying the theories and insights gained in the first portion of the course to different world areas. Through these comparisons students will gain a deeper understanding of the diversity of urban forms across time and space, and consider the possibilities of cross-cultural similarities among prehistoric and early historic urban populations.
ANT 360 | ISSUES IN GLOBAL HEALTH | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course focuses on a specific health issue or set of issues in our world. The interrelationships between culture and health in this issue are examined.
ANT 361 | GLOBAL ISSUES IN WOMEN'S HEALTH | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course provides an overview of several critical issues in international women's health that illustrate the tension between biological/cultural and environmental explanations. We begin the semester by asking the question, "What does it mean to think anthropologically about women's health?" The course has an emphasis on how women themselves define, confront, manage and develop capacity to organize for better health in the face of societal pressures, structural violence and unequal access to resources. Students are also introduced to basic knowledge of epidemiological transitions, evolutionary medicine and situate Western medicine within the medical systems that have formed in the broader story of human history.
ANT 362 | GLOBAL HISTORY OF HEALTH | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course investigates the impact of infectious disease on human societies from the Paleolithic through the present day. Using the framework of the three epidemiological transitions, it examines the changes in human health associated with the origins of agriculture, the development of industrialization, and the processes of globalization. Throughout this vast sweep of human history, emphasis is placed on the influence of both biological and social factors on the manifestations of human disease.
ANT 374 | ANTHROPOLOGY AND MUSEUMS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The course examines the evolving relationships between anthropology and museums. From functional, historical, material and aesthetic perspectives, the relationships between the cultural contexts of objects and museums will be explored. Case studies, guest lectures and site visits (virtual and real) will be used to demonstrate evolving theory, practice, law and ethical implications of collecting objects. Many of the logistical aspects of the museum including the laws and mission statements will also be examined.
ANT 378 | MUSEUM EDUCATION | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The specialized role of museum education is integral to developing and strengthening the museum's purpose as a public institution. This course explores the role of education in museums, emphasizing theory and practice. The class will examine concepts such as; the history and development of museum education, current issues, learning theories, techniques, creation of didactic materials, types of outreach, management policy, working with volunteers, and program evaluation.
ANT 380 | INTERNSHIP IN ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course affords credit toward graduation for students involved in department approved internships.
ANT 382 | HERITAGE DISPLAYS AND MUSEUMS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course examines the production and display of "culture" and "heritage" in public places worldwide, including tourist destinations, museums, and historic and commemorative sites. We will focus on the social and political implications of these processes and their relationship to anthropology. Museums were an early locus of anthropology and continue to be key sites for its public expression. In this course we will investigate "culture" on the loose and consider what studying the museum, tourism, and heritage industries can teach us about anthropology. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the concept of culture in anthropology. We will divide our time between reading, field trips to local museums and historic sites, and a hands-on class project.
ANT 384 | ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
The course is an introduction to the analysis of archaeological data, the interplay between the knowledge people have of the world and the remains and traces of their actions in it. We review the relevant culture theory needed to draw distinctions between analytical stances. We examine how the rhetoric of the research report changes as different analytical stances are selected.
ANT 386 | CULTURAL ANALYSIS | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Introduction to cultural analysis, the interplay between the knowledge people have of the world and their actions in it; explores the rudiments of culture theory needed to draw distinctions between analytical stances; examines how the rhetoric of the research report changes as different analytical stances are selected.
ANT 388 | PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH TUTORIAL | 2-4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
This course helps anthropology majors prepare for professional presentations at conferences, research exposition, publications and theses. It uses data collected in another class. The student focuses on developing the communication techniques necessary to meet a professional standard. Honors program students complete the honors program in anthropology with this course. The course is registered using the independent study procedure on Campus Connect. The course is taken normally for 2 credits. Students writing an honors program thesis can take the course for 4 credits.
ANT 390 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Variable topics in anthropology intended for advanced students. Explores special aspects or areas of anthropology based on particular interests and expertise of the instructor; course content and title will vary with the instructor. Check current schedule of courses for specific topic. Course may be repeated for credit when title and content change.
ANT 396 | SENIOR CAPSTONE SEMINAR | 4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
A course for senior anthropology majors, which satisfies the Senior Year Capstone requirement of the Liberal Studies Program. Objectives of the course are: to afford students the opportunity to reflect on the influences in their lives (both in and outside of academics) that directed them toward anthropology as a field of study; to formulate ideas regarding the affect anthropology has on their way of viewing themselves in the world around them; and to pursue research on an anthropologist or anthropological topic.
ANT 397 | TRAVEL/STUDY | 2-4.5 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Foreign study tours with lectures and research by special arrangement with sponsoring programs. May be taken for multiple credit when courses are not duplicated.
ANT 399 | INDEPENDENT STUDY | 2-4 quarter hours
(Undergraduate)
Independent Study.