Anthropology

The course offers an introduction to syntax, the fundamental theories of syntactic analysis, and the methodologies to apply theories. Students utilize these methodologies in authentic case studies.

The course introduces students to pivotal and methodological issues in the field of cultural anthropology. Topics change on a yearly basis. The Spring 2023 topic was: The Gift in the Greek and Roman World: Economy, Society, and Religion. The course includes a series of guest lectures. The course is graded pass/no pass only.

The course examines how different religions adapt to a world of consumer capitalism, mass migrations and new technologies. Religious participation has gained new speed in recent years, but not in ways we associate with traditional institutions like temples, pilgrimages and rituals. In today's world, religions spread through transnational migration, social media and consumer practices. Focusing on ethnographies conducted mainly (but not exclusively) in Asia, the course explores how these emerging practices shape contemporary religion.

This course examines the meaning and role of critique in the social sciences. It focuses on various theoretical conceptions of critique and the application of critique in different fields of research across the social sciences. Through a combination of lectures and discussions, the course develops the skill of criticizing social problems or pathologies and uses this skill in research across disciplines in investigations of the social world. 

This course explores how British food has evolved across the centuries. It studies a few of the current food-related issues that are relevant today in the United Kingdom through various analyses of texts, film extracts, menus, maps, and statistics. The course provides the opportunity to reconsider stereotypes to gain a better understanding of British food.

This course examines how South Korea has been enmeshed in transnational flows of peoples and cultures since the 1980s. It turns an ethnographic lens on global processes to analyze some of their meanings and implications for people's everyday lives and, in particular, explore Korea's specific experience of globalization. Topics include promises and pitfalls of in- and out-migration; national and transnational consumption; intersections of love and profit in marriage migration and in entertainment work; migrant labor; nationalism and transnationalism of Korean sports; politics of race, identity and multiculturalism in Korea itself and toward Koreans internationally; transnational adoption; and “Korean wave.” 

After an introduction to the anthropological approach, this course focuses on three themes: deviance, madness, and risk. It discusses the norms of a moral society, the distinction between normal and pathological, and the representations of suicide and "risky" conduct. The course studies the logic behind reproduction and anomie, and questions forms of domination and games of dissent.

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of ethnographic fieldwork. At the heart of this course is collaborative project in which students learn about qualitative methods by putting them to the test in practical group work. Their collective ethnographies require them to write extensive field notes, which are assessed, and which function as an extended period of learning to write effectively in an academic manner. 

This course studies how art and culture exist in France. It examines the various aspects, institutions, and movements that make up art and culture from an anthropological and sociological point of view.

This course examines the psychology of experiencing cultural difference and investigates the cultural differences between Japan and other countries. Culture affects us at the level of the unconscious mind and understanding cultural difference requires the process of deep culture learning. The class has two parts, 1) the psychology of deep culture, and 2) analyzing cultural difference. The goal of this course is to gain a deeper understanding of how culture shapes our minds as well as a deeper understanding of Japan and other cultural communities.