A concentration in sociocultural anthropology engages students in the study of how different people live and understand the world, their aspirations and struggles, and how both shared and conflicting ideas, values, and interests are related to action and interaction in society. Study and research in sociocultural anthropology is grounded in wide-ranging social and cultural theory and takes ethnography to be a primary mode of research and a key form of expression (whether through ethnographic texts or other media, such as film). This concentration offers students an opportunity to focus on many parts of the world; on areas of inquiry such as environmental anthropology, urban anthropology, or economic anthropology; and on topics such as language, legal and political institutions, race and ethnicity, information, science, and technology, gender, sexuality, and the body, and more. Students completing a concentration in sociocultural anthropology will have excellent skills for interpreting cultural difference, understanding power and inequality, and connecting small-scale human lived experience with understandings of large-scale structures and transformations.
Requirements for students pursuing this concentration include (see course listings below):
(1) one introductory course in sociocultural anthropology at the 100 level;
(2) at least two other courses in sociocultural anthropology at the 200-400 level;
(3) the core research methods course, ANTH 303 (“Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology”), usually taken in the junior year. With DUS approval, a similar methods course taught in the Department, or a related department or program, may substitute;
(4) the core theory course, ANTH 311 (“Anthropological Theory and the Post-Colonial Encounter”), usually taken in the junior year. With DUS approval, a similar course taught in the Department, or a related department or program, may substitute;
(5) completion of either a semester-long independent essay project (while enrolled in ANTH 491) or a more extensive year-long independent essay project (while enrolled first in ANTH 471/472 and then in ANTH 491).
Students are encouraged to learn more about opportunities and sources of support for undergraduate research in anthropology.
Sociocultural-concentrating students are also invited to explore the Certificate in Ethnography as a means to deepen and expand their interests in Sociocultural Anthropology through coursework in related academic units that engage with ethnographic methods and ethnography-informed scholarship, including (but not limited to): African American Studies, American Studies, Environmental Studies, Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (ER&M), History, History of Science and Medicine (HSHM), Political Science, Sociology, Urban Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS).
Note: The Anthropology Department does not offer an independent concentration in linguistic anthropology. Students interested in linguistic anthropology may concentrate in sociocultural anthropology and consult with the DUS and appropriate faculty about choosing courses most relevant to their interests.
Courses
Introductory Courses:
ANTH 1700 – Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 1812 – Agent, Person, Subject, Self
ANTH 1819 – Law as Culture
ANTH 1840 – The Corporation
Core Courses:
ANTH 3720 – Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 3710 – Anthropological Theory and the Post-Colonial Encounter
Courses in Sociocultural & Linguistic Anthropology at the 200-400 Level:
ANTH 1813 – Contemporary Japan
ANTH 2844 – Modern Southeast Asia
ANTH 3808 – Feminist and Queer Ethnographies
ANTH 3809 – Language and Culture
ANTH 3818 – Peril and Possibility in the South Asian City
ANTH 3821 – Middle Eastern Gender Studies
ANTH 3822 – Environmental Justice in South Asia
ANTH 4824 – The Politics of Memory
ANTH 3839 – Urban Ethnography of Asia
ANTH 3842 – Cultures and Markets of Asia
ANTH 3846 – Ethnography and Capitalism
ANTH 3855 – China-Africa Encounters
ANTH 3856 – Goods and Goodness
ANTH 3862 – Unity and Diversity in Chinese Culture
ANTH 3866 – Inequality in America
ANTH 3867 – Technology and Culture
ANTH 3870 – Anthropology of Information
ANTH 3878 – Postwar Vietnam
ANTH 3880 – Evolution of Language and Culture
ANTH 3881 – Sex and Global Politics
ANTH 3882 – Environmental Anthropology
ANTH 4883 – In Ordinary Fashion
ANTH 3684 – Anthropology of Smallholder Agriculture in Developing Countries
ANTH 3888 – Politics of Culture in Southeast Asia
ANTH 4801 – Meaning and Materiality
ANTH 4809 – Climate and Society, Past and Present
ANTH 4814 – Hubs, Mobilities, and Global Cities
ANTH 4815 – Culture, History, Power, Representation
ANTH 4828 – Neighbors and Others
ANTH 4834 – Anthro-History: Interdisciplinary Theory and Methods
ANTH 4838 – Culture, Power, Oil
ANTH 4839 – Political Anthropology and Africa
ANTH 4841 – Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East
ANTH 4848 – Medical Anthropology at the Intersections
ANTH 4851 – Intersectionality and Women’s Health
ANTH 4855 – Masculinity and Men’s Health
ANTH 4865 – Multispecies Worlds
ANTH 4868 – Infrastructures of Empire
ANTH 4870 – Youth Cultures in the Americas
ANTH 4894 – Speculation as Method
Senior Essay Courses:
ANTH 4071 – Readings in Anthropology (Senior Essay)
ANTH 4091 – The Senior Essay