ANTH 382: Urban Anthropology

ANTH 382-001: Urban Anthropology
(Spring 2017)

12:00 PM to 01:15 PM TR

Section Information for Spring 2017

What do cities around the world today tell us about humankind, social problems, and how to solve them? And how does long-term, in-depth ethnographic study illuminate those problems and their potential solutions? In this course, we will go straight to the source – ethnographies of cities – to see how anthropologists and sociologists devise their research questions, carry out their methods, and do their analysis. We'll cover controversies about the theorization of the poor as well as ethnographic ethics. We will also get out into the city ourselves – on buses, in the Metro, on the Mall, in the malls, on streets, and in neighborhoods – to conduct our own ethnographic investigations in the nation's capital. Students will learn how to formulate research questions about urban life and to develop and undertake a site-based research project; they’ll also learn the art of taking field notes and how to analyze those notes as they write their own small-scale ethnographies.

Tags:

Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Uses tools and resources of sociocultural anthropology to study life in cities in a comparative, global context, including topics such as poverty, discrimination, migration, transnationalism, and urban planning. Case studies draw from different urban environments in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and North America. Limited to three attempts.
Mason Core: Global Understanding
Recommended Prerequisite: ANTH 114 and 60 credits, or Permission of Instructor.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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