Anthropology

This course re-presents indigenous South and North American voices in a global ecological debate by discussing specific study cases of these groups' negotiations with environmental entities in light of key cosmological, ecological, political, and social categories prevalent among these groups. Using insights drawn from anthropological research, the course deconstructs Western commonplaces pervading the ecological debate, such as collective ownership and co-existence with Nature in non-modern societies, and problematizes the Nature/Culture dichotomy that stands at the core of our environmental imagination. Considering these groups’ economic situation and development aspirations, the course discusses the equation of cultural preservation with ecological conservation. The course questions the possibility and implications of granting indigenous ecological knowledge scientific validity and, taking into account the colonialist reverberations of a global ecological perspective, considers if it can be embraced without violating indigenous sovereignty and rights to territorial integrity and self-determination.

Objects can be viewed from many different perspectives to reveal multiple, and sometimes contested, meanings. Students may start with object-focused questions such as: What is it made of? How was it made? Where is it from? When was it made? How was it used? Answers to these questions open up further research areas about how objects connect people and express knowledge and cultural values. Using UCL’s unique collections, which include the Grant Museum of Zoology, the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, and Art Collections, students build their own virtual exhibition. By using objects as the primary focus, the course draws on interdisciplinary approaches to their study from fields as diverse as zoology, art history, anthropology, and medical science. 

This course examines the relationships between the field of anthropology and contemporary art. Topics include: art, modernity, and creativity; primitive art and the art-culture system; the agency of works of art; globalization of art.

This course delves into 20th- and 21st-century nationalism, trans-national exchanges, and identity formation in the Mediterranean, examining the unique foodways of Florence, Syracuse, and Istanbul. Exploring the roots of 19th-century nation-state formation and the subsequent emergence of nationalist propaganda and authoritarian ideologies in 20th-century Italy and Turkey, the course analyzes post-WWII economic development and the societal impacts of agricultural modernization and food industrialization. It critically evaluates the role of Neoliberalism in reshaping ethnic and national identities. The course explores the central role of food, food practices, and public food policies in nation-building projects. Additionally, the course investigates the rescaling of national economies and identities in the Mediterranean region. Through a critical lens, the course examines the intersections between the
local/national and the global, exploring the new relations, tensions, and conflicts that emerge. Topics of inquiry encompass contemporary ethnic politics, migration, the rise of new forms of racism and religious tensions, 20th-century modernization, evolving habits of mass consumption, and the effects of globalization on food systems. Special attention is given to the intricate dynamics of internal and international migration flows in the Mediterranean, particularly from Africa and the Middle East.

This course surveys the diverse meanings and functions of money, debt, finance, and corporations as intrinsic parts of social life. Students study ethnographic works that document people’s lived experiences in contemporary capitalism from across the world and discuss why people create different currencies, what social networks form in the finance world, and what role corporations play in contemporary societies. The course reflects on class inequality, challenge common beliefs about debt and morality, and explore alternative economic imaginations. Students learn how to think critically about contemporary capitalism—its heterogeneity, current transformations, and alternatives.