This course focuses on some of the present, and possible future, socio-ecological conditions of life on planet earth. In particular we will work to understand the historic, economic, political, and socio-cultural forces that created the conditions we call climate change. With this we will take a particular interest in the question of how race, ethnicity, Indigeneity, class, and gender articulate with the material effects of climate change. The course also focuses on how we, as scholars, citizens, and activists can work to alter these current conditions in ways that foster social and ecological justice for all living beings.

The course will be a combination of lecture and discussion. Students will be assigned a small group to work in, which will be the same group of students they will work with throughout the semester. Each student is expected to attend each class and participate in each class discussion. Many class meetings will involve group or paired work. Students are also expected to participate fully in the collaborative work.

Professor Jerry Jacka

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Fall: 2021, Instructor: Dr. J. Terrence McCabe, Office: Hale 440

This course is designed to explore both the historical and current theories and paradigms concerning human/environmental relationships. Because this is an anthropology course, there will be an emphasis on how anthropologists have examined these relationships, but the readings will also incorporate how geographers and sociologists have looked at, and written about, humans and the environment. Emphasis will also be given to current debates in the literature, but during the first few weeks of the course we will cover important works that form the basis of research being conducted today. Specific paradigms to be discussed include: neo-functionalism, early and later systems ecology, evolutionary ecology, political ecology, symbolic or humanistic ecology, complex adaptive systems and resilience.

The readings will consist of a set of articles that outline or explain each theory being discussed, and for some paradigms, an ethnography in which an author utilizes that theoretical perspective in his/her analysis. Each student will be required to write a final seminar paper that takes one or more theoretical perspectives that have been discussed in class and examine how it has been used either topically or ethnographically. Other possibilities for the paper are the application of one of the paradigms to a specific research problem; or a paper based on the career and changes in thought of one of the more influential theorists in human ecology (e.g. Roy Rappaport or Robert Netting).

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Explore 10,000 years of Maritime peoples, histories, and cultures!

• Key Themes: migration; human- nature relationships; development; resistance; sailing; knowledges; climate change

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Professor Sarah Kurnick

See the University Catalog for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

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Professor Jerry Jacka

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Professor Kathryn Goldfarb

See the University Catalog for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

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This undergraduate/graduate course traces the development of anthropology in museums from the late 19th century to the present day.  Museums are places where ideas, identities, theories and power relations are debated, created, and placed on display.  They are places that reflect and sometimes challenge dominant ideologies about indigenous peoples to a wide audience.  The objectives of this course include: introducing students to a range of topics in contemporary museum politics, theory and practice; presenting the legacy of collecting and challenges of representing others; and, illustrating the interplay of anthropology, material culture and colonialism in order to understand the complex history of contemporary anthropology museums and the move towards collaborative museum anthropology.

Professor Jen Shannon

See the for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

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Professor Michelle Sauther

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Designed as a practicum, this course will introduce students to research and practice in museum anthropology, utilizing our extensive anthropology collections in the CU Museum of Natural History. Students will conduct subject matter and collections research, engage in collaborative methods, and produce narrative stories for exhibit content development. Class time will be spent listening to mini-lectures about contemporary practice and techniques, working with collections items and associated records, providing project status reports, collaborating with team members, and troubleshooting. Students will also create a public display of the outcomes of their research.

Professor Jen Shannon

See the for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

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This is a demanding upper-level cultural (and medical) anthropology course designed for advanced undergraduate and early graduate students interested in the intersections of science and the production of knowledge, the practice of medicine, and the effects on the health of diverse populations. The course uses a case study approach and requires the reading of ten full-length ethnographies. Only for the daring!

Professor Donna Goldstein

See the  for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

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