Anthropology

This course examines gender, sex and sexuality across a range of cultural settings seeking, in the process, to question most of what we - including most theorists of sex/gender - take for granted about the gendered and sexed character of human identity and difference. Topics explored include: the saliency of the categories man and woman; the relationships between race and gender; the role of colonialism and neocolonialism in the representation of gender, sex and sexuality; the usefulness of the notion of oppression; the relationship between cultural conceptions of personhood and cultural conceptions of gender; and the ethnocentricity of the concepts of gender, sex and sexuality themselves. To assist these explorations we will make use of cross-cultural case studies in a number of areas including rape, prostitution, work and domesticity, the third sex and homosexuality.

This course explores the contemporary host culture through the lenses of intercultural studies. Students learn about current cultural, societal and political themes in the host city, compare ethnic and racial identities in the host country and the U.S., and explore the experiences of diverse populations within the host country. The course examines the complexity of host culture values, beliefs, and practices and learn to identify the cultural differences and similarities between the host culture and U.S. American cultures. Students study key intercultural communication theories, frameworks and leadership practices in order to deepen their cultural self-awareness, acquire new perspectives and effectively communicate and interact with culturally different others.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

People eat in order to survive. Eating patterns also tell a story of personal preferences, socio-economic status, and cultural or ethnic background. In this class, students will gain insight into the historical background of several culinary traditions in Germany, their role in modern-day multi-ethnic German society, and contemporary issues related to food consumption and sustainability in food supply. Topics such as obesity, eating disorders, food allergies, food regulation, and the rise of the "gluten-free" trend place the themes in a public health framework.

This course explores Germany’s rich diversity of culinary traditions from an anthropological context. Students gain insights into the cultural, historical, political, and ecological factors leading to the diverse landscape of regional dishes in contemporary German society. By analyzing the complex relationships between food, culture, and society, students analyze how food consumption and production changed historically, including in Germany's turbulent twentieth century, and evaluate Germany’s role in global efforts to develop sustainable and climate-friendly agricultural practices and food production. By exploring Berlin’s food scene and how it reflects the multiethnic traditions of its diverse population, students explore why food is such a powerful symbol of social and cultural identity in today’s contexts of migration and globalization.

We all prepare food, play cooperative games, romance each other etc. But how we do so depends on our cultural background–we are, by far, the world’s most ‘cultural animal’. So what was the “X-factor”, the magic ingredient of culture that took humans out of the general run of mammals and other highly social organisms? By emphasizing research in developmental psychology and integrating perspectives from comparative, social and evolutionary psychology this course explores contemporary answers to this question. We will be focusing on how an understanding of social and observational learning is critical to any answer, and to do so we will study the following populations: (a) typically developing infants and children; (b) children with autism; (c) adults; (d) non-human primates; and (e) other animals.

This course provides an opportunity to rediscover classics, to explore contemporary economic and business issues, and to consider and discuss different approaches to anthropological work in economy and business. It provides classic and new knowledge within economic and business anthropology, develops a curiosity, overview, and understanding of the field and related fields, allows and encourages use of economic and business anthropology in the analysis of student's own empirical data, planned fieldwork, theoretical debates, or current issues. Topics include markets, capitalism, exchange, money, debt, leadership, organization, design, and consumption, as well as additional concepts of interest to students.

Museum Studies, sometimes called Museology, deals with the birth, development, and operation of the public museum as one of the key institutions of the modern world. Starting in the eighteenth century, museums became one of the instruments whereby nation-states created and democratized national pasts using a repertoire of images and objects that were displayed in purpose-built or adapted architecture (such as the British Museum and the Louvre). Musealization involves removing artworks and other objects from the original context of manufacture or use and re-installing them in a new order according to criteria such as chronology, school, genre, or theme. Since the inception of the public museum, ideas and practices of the exhibition (as well as storage, preservation, classification, and public education) have undergone continuous transformation. The course examines several approaches to key players – director, curator, patron, architect – through case studies, site and/or virtual visits, analyses, review-writing, and a practical exercise in curating. Part I departs from the concept of museum script to consider the agency of curatorship. Part 2 considers forms of agency exercised by modern patrons in public museums. Students research an aspect of curatorship for their term paper.

This course covers logic and philosophy of qualitative methodology in anthropology and other social sciences. The process of research design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results and final write-up is elaborated with specific reference to research conducted in Egypt, the wider Arab and Middle Eastern worlds, and elsewhere. The course also discusses the politics and ethics of fieldwork, including protection of the rights of human participants in research projects.