ANTHRO 331

Anthropology Today: Debates in Culture


Please note: this is archived course information from 2020 for ANTHRO 331.

Description

The course will introduce you to some of the key contemporary issues and debates with which anthropologists are engaged. In doing so, the course will contextualise the discipline of anthropology in the wider world, connecting anthropological practice to technological, political and ethical realities of contemporary life.

Through the use of case studies and anthropological theory, we will look at the role of anthropology and anthropologists in the public sphere. Because anthropology is based on field research, anthropologists are constantly in contact with the world around them. We take our experiences home and use them as data, but our relationship with the world is always more complex than objective observation. Our work extends beyond the academy into public and political life.

In 2020, this course will explore what anthropology (and related social sciences) have to offer to our understanding of the three crises that we are all currently facing—the COVID-19 pandemic, the coming economic crisis, and the ongoing environmental crisis. These are challenging, and sometimes distressing, topics, but a critical goal of university education is to help students think clearly and independently about difficult issues, and to identify possible options and causes for hope.

Course objectives

  • To provide students with an understanding of the way anthropological ideas can be applied to issues in the contemporary world.
  • To introduce students to anthropological theories and case studies relevant to contemporary challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic consequences of that pandemic, and the ongoing environmental crisis.
  • To develop a more reflexive anthropological position on these issues for future study, research, and workplace use.
  • To be able to communicate anthropological ideas in a professional and public setting.

Availability 2020

Semester 2

Lecturer(s)

Coordinator(s) Associate Professor Ethan Cochrane
Lecturer(s) Dr Mark Busse

Points

ANTHRO 331: 15 points

Prerequisites

ANTHRO 203 or 30 points at Stage II 

Restrictions

ANTHRO 247