GRADUATE COURSES
Courses offered by the department are intended for matriculated graduate students in anthropology. They are also open to graduate students enrolled in other university programs and to undergraduate students, with departmental permission. Students who have not applied for and been admitted to our graduate program can take graduate courses, if space is available, with the permission of the department. Taking courses on a non-matriculated basis can be attractive if an application for graduate admission is pending but not completed, or if the student wishes to take a course or two for personal interest, or to decide if graduate study in anthropology is feasible.
Unless otherwise indicated, all courses are offered for either 1 or 4 credits. ANTH 501, 504 and courses taken in fulfillment of the sub-fields requirement may not be taken for one credit. A full-time load for students who have completed fewer than 24 credits is 12 credits (typically, three 4-credit courses), while other students who have not yet completed all required courses for the degree are considered full-time with an enrollment of 9 credits (two 4-credit and one 1-credit courses). Students who have completed all course requirements, including those specified by their principal adviser, will be considered full-time with an enrollment of just one credit (usually in ANTH 599 for masters degree candidates, ANTH 698 for doctoral students, and ANTH 699 for doctoral degree candidates).
| ANTH 501 HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHT |
| Thematic treatment of the development of anthropological thought, emphasizing a holistic approach to anthropology, with limited separation of the subdisciplines. (Every Fall semester) | |
ANTH 504 CURRENT ISSUES AND DEBATES IN ANTHROPOLOGY |
Critical examination of problems, definitions and methods in contemporary anthropology. Thematic foci include political economy, critical anthropology and ecological and biobehavioral anthropology. (Every Spring semester) |
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| Sociocultural And General Anthropology |
| ANTH 510 SOCIOCULTURAL THEORY |
| Current theoretical approaches in sociocultural anthropology, insights and errors of functionalism, structuralism, historical paradigms leading toward a theory of structured social practice (institutions, classes, etc.) situated in space-time. | |
| ANTH 511 THE GLOBAL AND LOCAL IN ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Critically examines the different meanings of globalization and the impact of this process in anthropological thinking. Course also discusses other related concepts also currently employed in anthropological research (e.g. transnationalism, locality, deterritorialization, hyperreality, postcoloniality, hybridity). Because globalization is a spatial category, we will pay particular attention to the way the thinking about space is making anthropologists redefine themselves. | |
| ANTH 512 POLITICAL ECOLOGY |
| A critical examination of the development of environmentalism in the late 20th century and the new millennium. Concerned with the politics of ecology under capitalism; also focuses on cultural representations of nature and the current environmental crisis. Discussions address current debates on scarcity, population growth, sustainability, the privatization of nature, global warming, bioreligionalism, biopower, nature/capital, ecological movements, cities and nature, and environmental planning. Readings cover issues related to both the "green" and "brown" agendas and draw from various theoretical traditions in the social and human sciences. |
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| ANTH 513 CONSUMPTION, CULTURE, AND MODERNITY |
| Examines how and why consumption has become a central concern in social theory. Why have we shifted our focus from production to consumption? What is the relationship between the cultural turn and the interest in consumption? How is consumption related to current concerns with the individual, self and identity? How is the analysis of consumption linked to debates on modernity and post-modernity? Looks at the contributions from political, economic and cultural approaches to the examination of consumption. Discusses current debates on the meanings of the market, commodities, things and gifts. | |
| ANTH 514 SEXUALITY STUDIES IN ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Focuses on the study of sexuality in varied sociocultural and historical contexts and from varied theoretical perspectives. We begin with an examination of the histories of sexuality studies, including the emergence of feminist sexuality studies and queer anthropology, and then turn our focus for the body of our seminar to engaging specific ethnographies and historical works in sexuality studies. Across our readings, we will give particular attention to the ways sexuality articulates through and is articulated by differences of race, class, gender, nation, and colonial experience, and thus with social power and relations of privilege and subordination. While this seminar does not explicitly focus on queer anthropology, we will substantively engage with the growing body of LGBTQ work in anthropology, including its relationships to feminist anthropology. | |
| ANTH 516 EUROPEANIZATION & EU INTEGRATION |
| Examines the processes of Europeanization and European integration from anthropological perspectives. Reviews major themes in the historical, contemporary and comparative anthropology and ethnology of Europe, in order to develop a critical view on what role anthropologists might play in the analysis and understanding of transnationalism, globalization and supranationalism in Europe . Themes include migration and diaspora, regionalism, nationalism, ethnic conflict, popular culture, citizenship, sovereignty, heritage and tradition, and borderlands of identity and territory. | |
| ANTH 518 ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS |
| Works of diverse ethnographers seen through perspective of sociology of knowledge. In-depth and individualized analysis of intellectual and social, historical, and other non-intellectual forces that shape ethnographic research. | |
| ANTH 519 ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOHISTORICAL METHODS |
| Relationship between ethnohistory and anthropology. Sources, methods, conceptual issues. | |
| ANTH 520 POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY |
| A critical examination of the development of environmentalism in the late 20th century and the new millennium. Concerned with the politics of ecology under capitalism; also focuses on cultural representations of nature and the current environmental crisis. Discussions address current debates on scarcity, population growth, sustainability, the privatization of nature, global warming, bioreligionalism, biopower, nature/capital, ecological movements, cities and nature, and environmental planning. | |
| ANTH 521 ON VALUE |
| A look at how people imbue objects with value—through the judgments they make, through the meanings and prestige that are accrued as objects circulate within particular economic and symbolic economies, through the institutional processes by which hierarchies of value are produced, through the legal instrument of copyright, and so on. Examine the ways in which people accrue value through their relationships with objects—as they admire them, own them, produce them, and define their expertise through them. Consider various anthropological approaches to the question of value, not abstractly, but with particular reference to art, to the field that has been so insistent in its claim that its object, the artwork, is the bearer of essential value, and that those who recognize this value are blessed with inherently good taste. | |
| ANTH 522 CULTURES OF COLLECTING |
| Collections are sites of appropriation and categorization whereby objects are called upon to tell particular stories about the world, and about the collector. We will examine these narratives historically, looking at both institutional and private practices of collecting, and the imperatives that underpin them. We will address questions of cultural stewardship, while also looking at issues of possession and desire. | |
| ANTH 527 ANTHROPOLOGY OF ART AND MUSEUMS |
| This course frames the anthropology of art in an historical perspective while focusing on contemporary configurations of the field and its relationship to central preoccupations in socio-cultural anthropology. It covers such topics as the analysis of art practices within local ethnographic settings; the politics of art, representation, and display; art, aesthetics and the culture industry; the circulation of art objects, and the production of meaning and value within artworld institutions; patronage; museums and collecting. | |
| ANTH 528 CRITICAL THEORY AND POSTMODERNISM |
| Ethnographic interpretation of the "Other" informed by postmarxist, post-structuralist, postmodernist literatures in Anthropology. Limits of challenges to Enlightenment rationality theorizing about the other and the self. "Decentered self" and the authority to represent (descriptively). | |
| ANTH 530 STRATEGIES IN SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY I: FIELD METHODS |
| Field research, including ethics, politics, and interpersonal relations; interviewing, survey, and observational procedures; quantitative methods. | |
| ANTH 531 STRATEGIES IN SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY II: RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS |
| Design of field research projects, including problems of operationalization and validity as well as methods of quantitative and non-quantitative data collection and analysis. Pragmatic outcome: writing research grant proposals. Prerequisite: ANTH 530. | |
| ANTH 534 NATIONALISM, FEMINISM & WOMEN |
| Examines the variety of feminisms developed by Third World feminists and the politics of Third World feminisms, particularly as these have taken (and take) shape in relation to nationalism, anti-colonial struggle, and post-coloniality. Problematics we will pursue include: critical interrogation of the categories “women,” “Third World,” and “feminism”; the legacies of colonialism and import of imperialism and racisms for Third World feminist projects at their interfaces with nationalism, anti-colonial struggle, and postcolonial state-building; the varying relationships between theory, experience, and identity in Third World feminisms and their politics; and knowledge production about and the politics of representing Third World women/feminisms/nationalism. | |
| ANTH 537 SEMINAR: POLITICS OF ETHNICITY |
| Political implications of ethnic groups and boundaries; social processes which maintain ethnic units, exchange of values within and between ethnic units; recruitment and loss of personnel. May be repeated for credit as topic varies. | |
| ANTH 538 KINSHIP, GENDER & SEXUALITY |
| Examines theories of power and difference through a focus on kinship, gender, and sexuality. Organizing questions include: how kinship works to bind people to social structures, how the powerful bonds of kinship, with their signifying ties to gender and sexuality, are made available for larger social projects (community-building, nationalism, social policy, etc.), and produce exclusions as meanings grounded in everyday practices are redeployed to larger arenas; how kinship mediates relationships between nature and culture, and through that works to “naturalize” social differences (gender, race, sexuality, class) and systems of inequality. We ground our studies of kinship, gender, and sexuality in readings on their places and uses in, for example, colonialism, decolonization, prostitution, queer subcultures, nation-building, “race” and racism, and new reproductive technologies. | |
| ANTH 539 THE BODY |
| Emphasizes anthropological and feminist scholarship on “the body” that has worked to denaturalize the body by interrogating how bodies are produced as socially meaningful, how bodies are ‘read,' and in what embodiment consists. Course readings use the body to examine: social theories of identity and difference and processes of subjectification, including shifts in their formation within conditions of post/modernity, postcoloniality, and late capitalism; current approaches to gender and sexedness, sexuality and heteronormativity, racialization and racisms, and class; large-scale processes interpolated through specific bodies, such as colonialism, nationalism, and neoliberalism and, more broadly, structures of inequality and the operations of power; cultural differences in understandings of the body and enactments of embodiment, helping us to explore comparative questions about materiality and performativity and about bodies as cultural artifacts. | |
| ANTH 562 ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Empirically informed critical analyses of conceptualizations of "the economy" in historical and ethnographic descriptions. | |
| ANTH 563 DEVELOPMENT ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Critical analyses of nature of development and underdevelopment at the approach of the 21st century, emphasizing interrelationships among economic growth, environmental sustainability, human rights, and cultural pluralism. Contributions of anthropology to development planning and praxis. | |
| ANTH 571 SEMINAR IN SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY |
| A. Religion and symbolic systems B. Politics and Law C. Cultures of Capitalism D. The Individual in Society E. Sociocultural Contexts of Anthropology R. Religion and the State Extensive reading and discussion. May be repeated for credit as topic varies. |
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| ANTH 575 ETHNOGRAPHIC AREA STUDIES |
Reading and discussion of ethnography, research on problems in ethnology of a specified geographic area.
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| ANTH 579 SEMINAR IN FEMINIST ANTHROPOLOGY |
Extensive reading and discussion of selected literature within feminist anthropology.
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| ANTH 584 PRACTICUM IN ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD RESEARCH |
| Small-scale field research projects carried out locally. Prerequisites: ANTH 530 and consent of instructor. | |
| Archaeology |
| ANTH 529 SPACE, TIME, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT |
| Critical examination of space and time as constructs that are constituted in social actions and that produce and reproduce culture. Focus on material culture, the built environment, and cultural landscapes. | |
| ANTH 551 STRATEGIES OF ARCHAEOLOGY |
| Archaeological methods in general context. Research design, use of ethnographic and ethnohistoric data in model-building, planning and organization of field work, sampling, data control, laboratory methods. | |
| ANTH 552 HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE |
| Changing archaeological field techniques, laboratory techniques, typological concepts, interpretive concepts; changing understanding of neolithic and urban revolutions. | |
| ANTH 554 ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF CULTURAL SYSTEMS |
Theoretical approaches to archaeological problems.
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| ANTH 576 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA STUDIES |
Extensive reading and discussion.
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| ANTH 583 PRACTICA IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODS |
In-depth experience in specific analytical tasks common to day-to-day work of archaeology. Particular themes and topics announced in advance.
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| ANTH 585 CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: POLICY AND PROCEDURES 2 credits |
| Various cultural resources related to present management regulations and practices, legal and political obligations, present contracting practices of federal and state agencies. Management process, case studies to evaluate present state of the art in this application of anthropological science. | |
| ANTH 586 CONDUCT OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK 2 credits |
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| Biological Anthropology |
| ANTH 515 EVOLUTIONARY THEORY |
| Basic principles, general body of theory within evolution. Human population dynamics, modern genetic synthesis. Background for further studies in biological anthropology. | |
| ANTH 540 HUMAN SKELETAL BIOLOGY |
| Skeletal anatomy and related aspects of human skeletal biology. Comparative and evolutionary perspectives. Sex- and age-determination from bone, pathology, biometry; applications to paleodemographic population reconstruction. | |
ANTH 541 BIOLOGY OF PRIMATES |
| Biology and behavior of humankind's primate relatives. Classification, ecology, functional and comparative anatomy of living primates; evolution of the primate order. Monkey and ape social behavior; aspects of communication and intelligence. | |
| ANTH 542 HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT |
| Variation in human growth during the life cycle; biobehavioral aspects of growth; individual and population processes; genetic, environmental, and secular influences on growth processes. | |
| ANTH 543 HUMAN BIOLOGICAL VARIATION |
| Processes and origins of human biological variation and adaptation. Developmental, phenotypic, hereditary, gender, individual, population, evolutionary, ecological, and random sources of human variation. Human responses to adaptation and environment. | |
| ANTH 544 METHODS IN FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Combines literature reviews with intensive laboratory analyses of human skeletal remains for the purpose of personal identification. Methods of skeletal identification are practiced, including the estimation of age, sex, stature and ancestry. Diagnosis of pre-existing skeletal pathological conditions and anomalies is also an important identification tool. Emphasizes designing and implementing experimental research projects to address specific problems in forensic anthropology, such as the effects of burning and blunt trauma on bone, maceration techniques, commingling and the variability of decomposition rates. Other exercises include the search and recovery of human remains, autopsy observation (optional), gunshot and blunt-trauma analysis, comparative radiography and mock trial testimony. Utilizing statistical models and exclusionary principles, the reliability of skeletal identifications is assessed. Guest lectures from prominent scientists in forensic pathology and other disciplines provide additional insight and experience. | |
| ANTH 545 HUMAN ADAPTABILITY |
| Method and theory in biological patterns of adaptation of humans to environment. Problem orientation and research preparation in areas of health, nutrition, reproduction, climatic tolerance, growth, physical performance. Approaches to individual, population, and ecosystem levels. | |
| ANTH 546 HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY |
| Systematics and principles of classifying organisms. The evolution of Tertiary hominoid primates. Australopithecines and early members of the genus Homo. Homo erectus and human evolution in the Pleistocene. Independent work required. | |
| ANTH 547 ANTHROPOLOGICAL GENETICS |
| Problem-oriented study of theory and methods of population genetics of man. Mathematical analyses on consequences of mating practices, consanguinity, genetic drift, population isolation, and selection. | |
| ANTH 548 DEMOGRAPHIC ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Relationship between fertility and mortality; biological and sociocultural determinants. Topics include fertility limitation, "natural fertility," infant and child mortality, proximate determinants of fertility and mortality, relationship between culture and demography, population "problem." Demographic measures and techniques. | |
| ANTH 549 MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Health and disease in biocultural perspective; evolutionary, ecological and sociocultural contexts of health and disease. Interactions between evolutionary forces shaping the human body and social configurations affecting contemporary patterns of health and disease. Macro-level and micro-level approaches. | |
| ANTH 550 CO-EVOLUTION OF HUMANS AND PATHOGENS |
| The impact of both infectious and non-infectious diseases on human populations, from the earliest modern humans to today, is examined through the interpretation of skeletal lesions and the application of paleopathological theory, epidemiological models and paleodemographic principles. The evolution of infectious diseases in humans is studied as a complex interaction of cultural, biological and environmental changes in both pathogen and host. Although malaria is one of the best understood examples of biocultural co-evolution, we will also examine the origin, spread and current epidemiology of tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy and a number of mycotic diseases that impact agricultural and developing populations. The frequency of osteoarthritis, trauma and other non-infectious skeletal insults will also be examined in relation to cultural change over time. Emphasis will be placed on differential diagnosis of skeletal pathological conditions in laboratory sessions. | |
| ANTH 559 MOLECULAR ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Recent advances in evolutionary genetics have enabled an understanding of the human condition within the framework of molecular evolution. The basic principles of evolutionary genetics and phylogenetics are reviewed and human population histories are explored from this perspective through student presentations. Culminates in the design of molecular anthropology research proposals. | |
| ANTH 572 SEMINAR IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY |
Basic concepts and current literature related to method, theory and analysis.
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| ANTH 573 LABORATORY METHODS IN BIOMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY |
| In depth experience in specific analytical and field or laboratory based tasks common to the conduct of research in biological anthropology. Special topics or themes to be announced in advance. May be re-peated for credit as topic varies. Laboratory Methods 1. Basic laboratory methods in biomedical anthropology including molecular genetic techniques. Recent, historic and ancient DNA studied by gel electrophoresis, nucleic acid isolation, puri-fication, sequencing, PCR and cell biology techniques. Cell culture and basic serology (Fall). Laboratory Methods 2. Advanced techniques in biomedical anthropology including molecular approaches such as cloning and sub-cloning, nucleic acid screening, restriction mapping, protein purification and se-quencing. Advanced serological methods. Prerequisite Anth 573A (Spring). |
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| Linguistics |
| ANTH 517 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Application of linguistic concepts, techniques, findings to wide range of anthropological topics. | |
| ANTH 523 COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Language, culture, cognition. Principles of ethnographic semantics. Native systems of classification. Folk theory, cultural knowledge systems. | |
| ANTH 524 SEMINAR IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY |
Extensive reading and discussion of selected topics.
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| ANTH 525 SEMIOTICS: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE |
| ANTH 526 LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY |
| Examines theoretical and ethnographic perspectives on the role of language ideologies and practices in shaping cultural dynamics of community, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, and nation; linkages between identity formation and everyday speech practices, including code-switching, crossing, register and accent; readings drawn from post-structuralist theory, cultural and linguistic anthropology. | |
| ANTH 568 LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPMENT |
| Role of language in development, with particular attention to impact of language decisions on identity of the state and society and on patterns of access to power, wealth and prestige. Comparison of policy and anthropological approaches to language and to relations between languages; examination of "pragmatic" and "expressive" roles of language in development, both at national and local levels. | |
| Independent Study, Teaching and Research |
| ANTH 580 ISSUES IN TEACHING COLLEGE ANTHROPOLOGY 2 credits |
| Philosophical issues in teaching anthropology in college settings. Practical issues involving curriculum and course design, methods and materials for presenting anthropology in the classroom, and evaluation and improvement of one's own teaching. | |
| ANTH 587 QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN ANTHROPOLOGY |
| Descriptive and inferential statistics and their use in anthropological problems. Computer applications in quantitative anthropological research. | |
| ANTH 590 WRITING SKILLS AND PUBLICATION |
| A practical course in writing for students working on theses or wishing to revise papers for publication. Writing as process. | |
| ANTH 591 PRACTICUM IN TEACHING COLLEGE ANTHROPOLOGY |
| S/U grading only. 1-4 credits | |
| ANTH 592 PROPOSAL WRITING 2 credits |
| Writing of research and grant proposals. | |
| ANTH 595 INTERNSHIP 1-4 credits | |
ANTH 597 INDEPENDENT STUDY 1-4 credits |
| Prerequisite: consent of instructor. | |
| ANTH 599 MASTERS THESIS 1-4 credits |
| Research for and preparation of a masters thesis or two papers in lieu of a thesis. | |
| ANTH 698 PREDISSERTATION RESEARCH 1-9 credits |
| Independent reading and or research in preparation for comprehensive examinations for admission to PhD candidacy, and or preparation of dissertation prospectus. S/U grading only. | |
| ANTH 699 DISSERTATION 1-12 credits |
| Research for and preparation of the dissertation. Prerequisite: previous or concurrent completion of all requirements for PhD candidacy, including submission of dissertation prospectus. | |
| ANTH 700 CONTINUOUS REGISTRATION 1 credit |
| Required for maintenance of matriculated status in graduate program. Prerequisite: approval of principal advisor, director of graduate studies, and vice-provost for graduate studies and teaching. Not applicable toward graduate degree requirements. | |
| ANTH 707 RESEARCH SKILLS 1-4 credits |
| Development of research skills required within graduate programs. May not be applied toward course credits for any graduate degree. Prerequisite: approval of relevant graduate program directors or department chairs. |
Departmental Chair:
Thomas Wilson
twilson@binghamton.edu
Departmental Administrative Assistant:
Robin Barron
rbarron@binghamton.edu
Director of
Undergraduate Studies:
Deborah Elliston
elliston@binghamton.edu
Director of Graduate Studies:
D. Andrew Merriwether
andym@binghamton.edu
Department Secretary:
Heidi Kenyon
hkenyon@binghamton.edu