Cultures and Movements with tracks in Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and History
Culture and movements are two interdependent areas of inquiry studied across the social sciences that have implications for understanding contemporary public discourse, policy debates, and current events. Culture refers to the ways people act and interact, the material objects that shape their lives, the social and political organizations that shape social action, and how these change over time. Nearly every human action is shaped in some way by the cultural context in which it is embedded. Movements refer to the interactions and dynamics of practices, values, beliefs, economic systems and institutions over time and include—but are not limited to—social, political, and economic changes that reflect where a society has been and that shape where it may go in the future. Cultural perspectives are uniquely positioned to shed light on movements by providing insight into how movements are shaped—and how they shape—the broader society in which they occur. Cultural perspectives also contribute to understanding movements by clarifying the internal functioning of the social organizations that create and are changed by movements.
This major has three tracks, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and History, each of which provides students the opportunities for academic study and applied research and practice. Students in this major will be exposed to interdisciplinary approaches to both theoretical understanding of culture and movements and the methods used to study related issues. Theoretical approaches include individual-centered, pragmatist, structuralism, cognitive, and political orientations. Methodological approaches incorporate ethnographic, survey research, network analysis, computational, and other approaches. By their senior year, students will have the skills to read cutting-edge research in this interdisciplinary field and will be equipped to compete for jobs with policy organizations, corporations, NGOs, and other top employers. They will also be well-prepared to apply to graduate programs in the social sciences, public policy, history, and management.
Major Requirements
(Not every course listed is offered every semester, and the course list will be updated periodically. Please refer to the online Course Catalog for Courses offered in 2019-2020.)
Divisional Foundation Courses
For Tracks of Sociology, Cultural Anthropology:
For History Track:
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| SOSC 101 |
Foundational Questions in Social Science |
4 |
| ARUHU 101 |
The Art of Interpretation: Written Texts |
4 |
Interdisciplinary Courses
Disciplinary Courses
For Cultural Anthropology Track:
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| CULANTH 206 |
The Ethnography of China: New Directions |
4 |
| CULANTH 211 |
Gender, Mobility and Labor |
4 |
| CULANTH 302 |
Field Methods |
4 |
| And choose two courses from the following five courses |
| CULANTH 207 |
Cultures of New Media |
4 |
| CULANTH 208 |
Global Migration and Ethics |
4 |
| CULANTH 304 |
The Anthropology of Doing Good: China and Beyond |
4 |
| CULANTH 305 |
The Culture of Development: Africa |
4 |
| CULANTH 405 |
Medical Anthropology |
4 |
For Sociology Track
For History Track:
World History thematic area:
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| HIST 201 |
History Methods and Research |
4 |
| And choose one of the following five Pre-Modern World History courses |
| HIST 111 |
Ancient Roots to Global Routes |
4 |
| HIST 112 |
History of the Indian Ocean World |
4 |
| HIST 113 |
Peoples and Cultures of Ancient South Asia, 3500BCE-1750CE |
4 |
| HIST 202 |
World History and Global Interactions |
4 |
| HIST 312 |
Southeast Asia and the Rise of Global Trade |
4 |
| And choose one of the following three Modern World History courses |
| HIST 110 |
Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Global Issues |
4 |
| HIST 313 |
Southeast Asia from the Age of Imperialism to the Global Cold War |
4 |
| HIST 410 |
The Spice Race: How the Spice Trade shaped our World |
4 |
| And one course from electives in the World History thematic area (200-400 level) |
4 |
| And one history course outside of the World History thematic area (100-400 level) |
4 |
Electives
Students can choose the recommended electives in their tracks or select other courses in different divisions as electives. The course list will be updated periodically.
For Cultural Anthropology Track:
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| CULANTH 101 |
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology |
4 |
| CULANTH 105 |
Sound in Everyday Life; Anthropological Perspectives |
4 |
| CULANTH 106 |
Home, House, and Housing: An Anthropological Exploration of Human Dwellings |
4 |
| CULANTH 209 |
Globalization and Alternative-Globalizations |
4 |
| CULANTH 303 |
Politics of Food: Land, Labor, Health, and Economics |
4 |
For Sociology Track
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| SOCIOL 104 |
Love, Marriage, and Family in Comparative Perspective |
4 |
| SOSC 203 |
The Social, Political, and Economic Implications of Immigration |
4 |
| SOCIOL 205 |
Gender, Work, and Organizations |
4 |
| SOCIOL 301 |
Race, Ethnicity, and Citizenship |
4 |
For History Track
Electives in the World History thematic area:
| Course Code |
Course Name |
Course Credit |
| HIST 107 |
Gandhi and Moral Leadership |
4 |
| HIST 114 |
Modern South Asia |
4 |
| HIST 115 |
Brides of the Sea: Trading Cities in the Indian Ocean World, 200BCE to 2000CE |
2 |
| HIST 116 |
Mughal India Through the Eyes of European Travelers |
2 |
| HIST 121 |
Pan-Africanism: Global Story of an American Idea |
2 |
| HIST 204 |
Asia in World History |
4 |
| HIST 206 |
World History in Seven Meals |
4 |
| HIST 314 |
Writing the History of War |
4 |
| HIST 315 |
Why Be a Bandit? |
4 |
| HIST 411 |
Seeing History from the Mountains and the Seas: Ethnographic histories of Asia |
4 |
| HIST 412 |
Global Labor History |
4 |
Career Path
The Cultures and Movements major prepares graduates for advanced study in social sciences, public policy, management and for careers in fields such as policy organizations, non-governmental organizations, consulting companies, research institutions, universities and other areas.
Culture and Social Movements
This course focuses on the culture and politics of social movements, interest groups, NGOs, and collective protest activity. This course explores theoretical approaches to understand the organizational, tactical, and affective dimensions of social discontent, resistance, collective action, and protest. It will also examine histories of direct action such as public provocation and moral shock, occupation of buildings and sit-ins, marches and street blocking, performance and “art-activism”. The students will be required to select and conduct an independent research project. Possible examples: Black Lives Matters, the Tea-Party, “white rage” and the election of Donald Trump, neo-fascist movements in Europe and elsewhere, the Arab Spring, environmental protest movements, labor activism, and suicide as a form of protest.
Social Science Perspectives on China: From the Socialist Past to the Global Present
This course is an advanced course on social science approaches to the study of China. We begin with the role of anthropology and sociology in the May Fourth Period, and then trace its development through the socialist period and into the transition to a market economy. We explore the dynamics between the rural and the urban under different regimes, forms of unequal social and economic development, the socialist “work unit” system, theories of “guanxi” (social exchange), the role and figure of the peasant and the more recent figure of the cosmopolitan urbanite, the changing dynamics between public and private life, the cultures and politics of China’s multi-ethnic border regions, population control and birthing policies, and the changing structures and attitudes toward family, marriage, gender and sexuality. These topics will be surveyed both books and articles, feature films, novels and short stories, documentaries and readings from popular culture. While this course will utilize materials from the “western” anthropology of China, we will also engage the flourishing field of socio-cultural anthropology within China, inviting leading anthropologists in China for guest lectures and conversations via teleconferencing. A fieldwork dimension will also be added to the course, focusing on Kunshan, Shanghai and environs, and the Suzhou corridor.
Culture and Social Movements
This course focuses on the culture and politics of social movements, interest groups, NGOs, and collective protest activity. This course explores theoretical approaches to understand the organizational, tactical, and affective dimensions of social discontent, resistance, collective action, and protest. It will also examine histories of direct action such as public provocation and moral shock, occupation of buildings and sit-ins, marches and street blocking, performance and “art-activism”. The students will be required to select and conduct an independent research project. Possible examples: Black Lives Matters, the Tea-Party, “white rage” and the election of Donald Trump, neo-fascist movements in Europe and elsewhere, the Arab Spring, environmental protest movements, labor activism, and suicide as a form of protest.
Social Science Perspectives on China: From the Socialist Past to the Global Present
This course is an advanced course on social science approaches to the study of China. We begin with the role of anthropology and sociology in the May Fourth Period, and then trace its development through the socialist period and into the transition to a market economy. We explore the dynamics between the rural and the urban under different regimes, forms of unequal social and economic development, the socialist “work unit” system, theories of “guanxi” (social exchange), the role and figure of the peasant and the more recent figure of the cosmopolitan urbanite, the changing dynamics between public and private life, the cultures and politics of China’s multi-ethnic border regions, population control and birthing policies, and the changing structures and attitudes toward family, marriage, gender and sexuality. These topics will be surveyed both books and articles, feature films, novels and short stories, documentaries and readings from popular culture. While this course will utilize materials from the “western” anthropology of China, we will also engage the flourishing field of socio-cultural anthropology within China, inviting leading anthropologists in China for guest lectures and conversations via teleconferencing. A fieldwork dimension will also be added to the course, focusing on Kunshan, Shanghai and environs, and the Suzhou corridor.
Gender, Mobility and Labor
The class examines major changes impacting the organization of gender and labor in the 21st century. We will focus on the movement of female migrant workers into manufacturing and service industries in China, of women from the Philippines and other countries in SE Asia to Hong Kong, Nepal and countries in the Middle East, the growth of “low-end” service sector employment generated by companies like Wal-Mart and many others in the United States, the growth of sex work and human trafficking in different contexts around the world, and the politics of gendered work in “high-end” financial service jobs on Wall Street and in Internet companies, from Silicon Valley to the tech sector in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The final section of the course will focus on questions of gender, labor, and consumption in the burgeoning “sharing economy.” This course therefore takes students into the heart of changing workplaces in different interconnected economies around the world, examining gendered workplace dynamics, such a pay discrimination, sexual harassment, and the use of women in advertising to attract male workers. Students will learn about forms of control and modes of feminist labor organizing, while situating these processes within global dynamics of economic restructuring. The class will help students place their future work aspirations within a global framework. It will also assist them to better grasp the complex politics of gender, mobility, and work in the brave new world of 21st century global capitalism.
Medical Anthropology
Illness and healing fundamentally shape our sense of the boundaries between nature and culture, life and death, mind and body, self and environment, and human and machine. The central goal of this course is to examine where, how, and why we encounter, challenge, bridge, or sustain these divisions. To pursue this goal, we examine the cultural, social, and political dimensions of biomedicine globally and cross-culturally. We study ethnographic writing as unique methodological and theoretical inroads into these perspectives. Our discussions will draw on both scholarly and popular cultural accounts of the experiential and interpretive aspects of medicine. Course readings introduce you to key concepts in critical medical anthropology, and trace health, illness, and biomedicine through gender, sexuality and race.
Sound in Everyday Life: Anthropological Perspectives
This course introduces students to the study of sound and sonic environments in urban spaces. Students will learn about theoretical approaches that approach sound and sonic landscapes as socially cultivated and study listening as a cultural practice. This course includes study of sound and music from different traditions around the world, recorded soundscapes (films, games, installations), built and ecological environments (parks, subways, streets, institutions, clubs, neighborhoods), the politics of making sound, and the history and use of sound technology (sound production, reproduction, reception, acoustic materials). This course introduces students to the study of noise in relation to public life, the representation of public life in sound, the shaping of city living practices by its acoustic architecture, and creative responses of sound in urban activist projects. Students in this course will conduct their own fieldwork on urban soundscapes.
Globalization and Alternative-Globalizations
The course explores the culture, politics and process of globalization in light of the responses, ideologies, and practices of the anti-globalization movement. We will focus on the interrelationship between the analysis of globalization and policy formulation on such topics as social justice, radical environmentalism, animal rights, labor, migration, poverty, natural resource management, religion and citizenship. Special attention will be focused on the role of social media, film, and photography in anti- and alternative globalization movements. Case studies from the United States, Latin America, South and East Asia, Africa, and Europe will be explored.
