Anthropology

Beyond the idea that revolutions are the driving forces of social and political transformation, this course examines revolutions in their historical time as well as across history from the perspective of political anthropology. It uses the concepts of liminality, social dramas, crowd behavior, imitation, tricksters, and meaning formation. These concepts disentangle the study of revolutions from structures and the search for causes and outcomes, as well as from ideology, culture, and agency, opening them to a comparative analysis at the level of process, form, and symbolism. After a theoretical introduction, the course turns its focus on historical experiences of the major socio-political revolutions of the modern era: the "big three" revolutions (French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions); the "third world" (Mexico, Cuba) to eastern Europe in 1989; from Iran (1978-1979) to the Arab Spring (2011). The course concludes by looking back at the main themes covered by the class and examining the prospect for revolutionary change in the contemporary world, thus considering whether the concept of revolution should be consigned, or not, to the "dustbin of history." Students are encouraged to develop comparisons across time and space.

In this course, students explore how anthropology contributes to understanding humanity beyond simply documenting ways of life in different societies. Students learn how anthropologists theorize, interpret, analyze, and explain different ways of life, make these ways of life understandable to outsiders, such as informing policy and development, and build a broader picture of the nature, capacity, and variation of humankind. Students also critically examine the limitations and assumptions of different anthropological approaches, helping them develop a nuanced understanding of the discipline’s methods and contributions.

What does it mean to study religion anthropologically? This course introduces students to anthropological approaches of studying religion. Students explore how anthropologists have struggled to define religion, and what debates and contestations about definition can tell us about the assumptions of classic anthropological understandings of religion, and how our thinking has changed since. Students explore multiple religious beliefs, meanings, experiences, expressions, and practices across diverse sociocultural environments. Through an engagement with anthropological works on ritual, self-cultivation, and joy, students learn how religion is understood, experienced, and expressed. 

This course explains and deepens discussion of issues surrounding historical research from a cultural anthropological perspective. Each class focuses on a specific topic, exploring possible approaches to that topic from the perspective, theory, and methodology of cultural anthropology, as well as the challenges that may arise. The material covered focuses on the Oceanian island world, an area in which the instructor has been involved in field research.

This course provides an overview of ethnography of communication, a theoretical and methodological approach to analyzing and understanding a wide range of communicative patterns and language uses as they occur within social and cultural contexts. Students also apply ethnographic insights and methodologies to fieldwork activities and projects in the local community, investigating the range of practices that constitute ethnographic research, aiming for an integrative and holistic understanding through discussion of class members' fieldwork activities.

"The essence of humanities is initiation, writes ER Curtius in The German Spirit in Crisis. The humanities provide cultural, social, and ideological segments for each stage of life—from birth, growth, adulthood, maturity, senility, and death—ultimately providing meaning to human existence. Humans do not simply become "babies" or "human beings" upon birth; rather, they acquire their existence only through the cultural segmentation they undergo at each stage.  This course explores the various "initiations" that humans experience when living in communities through guest lectures by researchers and practitioners from various fields.

This anthropology/history course taught in Spanish focuses on civilizations in America from the 18th to the 20th century. It focuses on the economic, technological, and political developments that led to the conquest of America by European civilizations, specifically from the point of view of the Spanish Empire.  

This course teaches the basic building blocks of radio and podcasting. Students learn how to use recording and editing equipment as well as creative approaches to interviewing and sound design. Though primarily practical, there is an emphasis on learning techniques for telling audio stories through listening and discussion of works produced by audio producers both here in the UK and around the world. Students are expected to pitch, record, and edit a seven-minute documentary. 

This course introduces students to important theoretical tools and conceptual frameworks developed in the social sciences. Students use these tools to uncover the economic, political, and other forces that shape the design process, explore how values and norms are built into technologies, track the effects of technologies on society, and use these insights to experiment with, and hopefully improve, design practices and outcomes. The goal is to enable social scientific reflection on and redirection of design practices at an early stage of technological production. The course focuses on important social scientific concepts, for example ‘network’ and ‘audience,’ each of which will be covered in two phases. First, students study and evaluate key social scientific ideas that explain the social dimensions of technological design through readings, class discussions, and written assignments. Second, students use those concepts to make experimental interventions, for example through archival research or fieldwork, video and image-based documentation, and creative experiments with design, in an effort to “design for a better world.”

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted world of Chinese tea, encompassing its rich history, culture, art, science, philosophy, and economics over 4,000 years. Students investigate the entire process of tea production, from cultivation to brewing and tasting, gaining insight into how it embodies tea art, ceremony, and Chinese philosophy. The course examines the global impact and influence of Chinese tea culture. Key topics include the historical significance of tea, its botanical and chemical properties, health benefits, cultural practices, and economic implications will be explored. This course highlights the critical economic role of tea, with China being the largest producer and exporter, while also incorporating a comparative view to other drinks to highlight the similarities and differences with tea, both in China and globally. Through a combination of lectures, tutorials, field trips, and hands-on workshops, students experience traditional Chinese tea ceremonies and the underlying philosophy, enriching their understanding of Chinese tea from various perspectives.