Graduate Course Descriptions

The following directory lists the graduate courses which the University expects to offer, although the University in no way guarantees that all such courses will be offered in any given academic year, and reserves the right to alter the list if conditions warrant. Click on the links below for a list of courses in that subject area. You may then click “View Classes” to see scheduled classes for individual courses.

5306. Human Behavioral Ecology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Applies the theory of natural selection to the study of human behavior in an ecological setting, with particular focus on the adaptive features and biological design of human behavior.

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5308. Human Evolutionary Theory

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Evolutionary concepts applied to human body size and shape, diet, disease, group composition, and reproductive behavior.

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5311. History of Anthropological Theory

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Development of theory from the nineteenth century through the 1970s. Required for graduate students in Cultural and Historical Anthropology.

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5312. Seminar: Contemporary Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Selected current issues and debates in the discipline.

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5315. Gender and Culture

Also offered as: WGSS 5315

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Anthropological perspectives on the analysis of gender with special focus on dynamics of gender, culture, and power.

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5316. Globalization and Transnational Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Methods and theories in the study of cultural, social, political andeconomic phenomena spanning international frontiers; historical origins of transnational anthropology, theories of globalization, ethnographic case studies.

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5317. Environmental Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: Strong background in the one or more of the four fields of anthropology.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examines the theories and methods of environmental anthropology and its application to contemporary human-environmental problems including climate change, environmental degradation, and environmental injustice.

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5321. Ethnographic Methods I

1.00 - 3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theoretical foundations and basic tools used to conduct professional field studies in anthropology. Research design; moral and ethical dimensions of field work; designing and conducting informal, semi-structured and structured interviews (one-on-one and in groups); managing field notes, questionnaires, and data; computer data management; summary statistics and graphics; identifying and interpreting random variation; modeling and testing explanations.

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5322. Research Methods and Design

3.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 6 credits.

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Selected topics in ethnographic methods and research design.

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5325. Cultural Rights

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Instructor consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Politics of culture and cultural rights, minority rights, indigenous rights, multicultural policies, race, difference and law, cosmopolitanism, globalization and human rights.

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5326. Human Rights in a Diverse World

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Basic issues, methods and theories in the anthropological study of human rights; cultural relativism, the international human rights system, social movements, transnational activist networks, media and representation are studied in their relationship to rights claims, adjudication, and outcomes.

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5327. Propaganda, Disinformation, and Hate Speech

Also offered as: HRTS 5327

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Not open for credit to students who have passed ANTH/HRTS 3230 or ANTH 5305 when offered as Propaganda, Disinformation, and Hate Speech.

Grading Basis: Graded

Draws on current social science research and legal scholarship to understand the effects of disinformation and hate speech on individual moral decision-making, as well as on wider politics and culture. Evaluates various private and public initiatives to regulate speech.

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5331. Cognitive Science of Religion

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theoretical debates and methodological approaches to the cognitive and evolutionary study of religious thought and behavior. Key topics include religious transmission, theological incorrectness, magical thinking, and psychosocial functions of religion and ritual.

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5332. Cognitive Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Study of how the content of thought or knowledge, is created, organized, and distributed in human communities. Topics include cultural models of the mind, emotions, personality, and relationships.

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5333. Evolution and Cognition

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

An introduction to recent work in evolutionary psychology, exploring the variety of ways in which we can understand human cognition as a product of evolution.

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5334. Culture and Religion

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Theories and problems in the analysis of non-western religious systems.

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5341. Analysis of Rituals

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examines various theoretical contributions to the anthropological study of ritual. Controversies and ambiguities surrounding the social and symbolic significance of the ritual act for both men's and women's experiences and participation are addressed.

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5345. The Neanderthals

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Biological, cultural, technological, and behavioral evolution of Neanderthals as understood through the fields of genetics, physical anthropology, palaeolithic archaeology, human behavioral ecology, hunter-gatherer ethnography, palaeoclimatology, chronometric dating, and geology. Neanderthal-Modern Human interactions and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition are also considered.

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5352. Medical Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Overview of current theory and practice in medical anthropology.

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5353. Applied Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Overview of various applications of anthropology to solve human problems both internationally and within the United States. Emphasis upon history of applied anthropology, ethical considerations, and specific roles of anthropologists in development.

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5356. History of Archaeological Theory

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

A critical review of the development of archaeology, with particular emphasis on the theoretical innovations of the 1960s and 1970s.

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5363. Archaeological Site Formation Processes

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Creation of archaeological sites by human behavior and geological forces. The characteristics of various formation processes and identification of them in the archaeological record.

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5376. Ethnomedicine

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Medical systems in cultural context. Traditional healers, herbal medicine, culture bound systems, the meaning of illness, curing and disease. Impact of biomedicine on traditional and alternative medical systems.

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5377. Global Health and Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Assessing global morbidity and mortality; global health governance; political economy of global health; health inequities; social determinants of health; syndemics; climate change and health; maternal and child health; nutrition; infectious diseases; and war, trauma, and complex emergencies.

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5378. Anthropology of Infectious Diseases

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examination of medical anthropological research and insights on biosocial/biocultural factors in the spread of infectious diseases, including human understanding and responses across cultural groups and through time, anthropogenic factors in contagion, and the nature and pathways of adverse infectious disease interactions.

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5389. Population Ecology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Survey of theory and observations bearing on the causes and consequences of changes in fertility and mortality rates, and in the configuration of causes of mortality and morbidity in human populations.

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5395. Special Topics

1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 48 credits.

Prerequisites: Instructor consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Special topic readings or investigations according to the needs of each student.

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5398. Variable Topics

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

With a change in content, may be repeated for credit.

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5399. Independent Study

1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisites: Instructor consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

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5400. Introduction to Stable Isotopes

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Open to graduate students only.

Grading Basis: Graded

Introduction to stable isotope theory, methodology, and applications.

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5450. Paleoclimate Reconstruction

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Open to graduate students only.

Grading Basis: Graded

The impact of past climate on human societies, from Mid-Pleistocene to late Holocene, discussed in light of modern climatology and paleoclimate reconstruction methods.

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5500. Professional Development in Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Open to graduate students in Anthropology, others with consent.

Grading Basis: Graded

Hands-on survey of practical skills required for professional anthropology, including writing research plans, grant applications, manuscript preparation, teaching philosophies, professional behavior and ethics.

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5510. The Neanderthals

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Interdisciplinary understanding of the biological, cultural, technological and behavioral evolution of Neanderthals and their societies.

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5512. Modern Human Origins

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

The earliest modern people in Africa: their way of life seen from the archaeological, fossil, and genetic evidence.

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5513. Modern Human Dispersals

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Interdisciplinary understanding of the tempo and mode of modern human dispersals across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

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5515. Ancient Civilizations of the Old World

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Examination of early civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and sub-Saharan Africa. Theories explaining the development and collapse of early state-level societies are critically considered.

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5517. Hunter-Gatherers Past and Present

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Investigation of recent and prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies informed by human behavioral ecology, archaeology, and ethnoarchaeology.

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5522. Ecological Anthropology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Interdisciplinary study of human ecology integrating ecological and anthropological theory with archaeological, historical, and contemporary case studies.

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5609. Quantitative Zooarchaeology

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Archaeological problem solving using zooarchaeological and taphonomic data; the evolutionary ecology of human economies; evaluation and quantification of zooarchaeological data; formation of faunal assemblages.

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5706. Archaeobotany

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Method and theory of studying archaeological plant remains in the laboratory, including sampling, identification, and interpretation of data.

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5707. Quantitative Archaeobotany

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Instructor consent required. Recommended preparation: ANTH 5706.

Grading Basis: Graded

Archaeological problem-solving using archaeobotanical data; formation of assemblages; generation, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of data; subsistence economies and plant domestication.

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5708. Plants and People Through the Ages

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: None.

Grading Basis: Graded

Survey of the dynamic relationship between plants and people using an inter-disciplinary approach. Readings draw from anthropology, archaeology, botany, ecology, history, and agricultural and environmental sciences.

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5800. Race in the Formation of the Human Sciences

Also offered as: LLAS 5800, PHIL 5800, POLS 5800

3.00 credits

Prerequisites: Not open for credit to students who have passed PHIL 5380.

Grading Basis: Graded

Exploration of how race and the human sciences emerged out of the theological, epistemological, and political upheavals that resulted in the Euromodern world.

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