New Courses for Spring 2004
 
SCSS (Sociology) 150:  Culture, Knowledge, Power
3 hrs
TR 2:00-3:15 pm
Joseph Schneider
Course Description:  The last two decades of the twentieth century witnessed a variety of challenges to conventional disciplinary thought and practice in the humanities and the human and social sciences of western scholarship.  Many of these involved a critical rethinking of usual understandings of culture, knowledge, and power, at the least.  This course aims to introduce students to themes, questions, and ways of reading, writing, and speaking that may be loosely referred to as “post-“ thought, analysis, and criticism that that has constituted a major part of this challenge.  Influences from French post-structuralism, cultural Marxism, feminism, psychoanalytic criticism, postcolonial studies, queer theory, critical race theory, and science/knowledge studies will be reviewed.  Students will be asked to consider the emergence of these critical perspectives and practices relative to established and dominant ways of thinking and writing/speaking defined by existing disciplinary knowledges inside as well as outside the academy.
 
This course is an early version of one of two core courses being developed for the new interdisciplinary major in the Study of Culture and Society (SCS) being planned for Fall 2004. All interested students are invited to enroll in this course for elective hours.   Prereq.:  At least 30 hours of prior course credit/sophomore standing. 
 
SCSA (Anthropology) 150:  Applying Cultural Anthropology
3 hrs
MW 2:00-3:15 pm
Frank Hutchins
Course Description: This course takes anthropological knowledge out of the academic setting and applies it to cases where culture is an important factor. The course is divided among topical areas, covering medical anthropology, development, environment, business, human rights/legal issues, and possibly education. We begin with an overview of arguments for applying anthropology to help solve contemporary problems, then consider some of the ethical questions surrounding this approach. At the start of the semester, students will choose one of the above interest areas and become specialists in problems and possibilities that might be illuminated with an anthropological perspective. They will then design a project that incorporates this perspective in the form of prescriptions and policies. The idea is to tackle problems where beliefs, customs and traditional practices complicate solutions. Grades will be based on project portfolios (although done as a group, individuals will have specific research and design tasks), at least one exam (to measure the grasp of concepts and issues), and in-class exercises.