2014-2015 University Catalog archived
Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN)
|
|
|
|
HONORS: An Honors Program in sociology and anthropology is offered for qualified students; see department head for details.
Department Head: Krzysztof Jasiewicz
Faculty
First date is the year in which the faculty member began regular-faculty service at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.
Alison Bell, Ph.D.—(2002)-2010
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of Virginia
Lynn G. Chin, Ph.D.—(2012)-2012
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Stanford University
Jonathan Eastwood, Ph.D.—(2006)-2010
Associate Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., Boston University
Donald A. Gaylord. M.A.—(2013)-2013
Instructor in Anthropology and Staff Archaeologist
M.A., University of Virginia
Sascha L. Goluboff, Ph.D.—(1999)-2013
Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Ph.D., University of Illinois
Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Ph.D.—(1991)-1994
William P. Ames Jr. Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Ph.D., Polish Academy of Sciences
Harvey Markowitz, Ph.D.—(2003)-2013
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Ph.D., University of Chicago
David Robert Novack, Ph.D.—(1976)-1988
Abigail Grigsby Urquhart ‘11 Term Professor of Sociology
Ph.D., New York University
Major
SOAN 101 - Introduction to Anthropology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter
Prerequisite: First-year or sophomore standing. Juniors and seniors with instructor consent. An examination of people and their cultures. An introduction to the techniques employed by the physical anthropologist, archaeologist, and ethnographer is provided. Specific subjects considered include: the physical prerequisites to the acquisition of culture, archaeological interpretation of cultural behavior, and the influences of culture upon the individual and society. Staff.
SOAN 102 - General Sociology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter
Prerequisite: First-year or sophomore standing. Juniors and seniors with instructor consent. Human society: culture, personality, human nature, social groups, associations, and institutions; analysis of major institutions and of modern social trends. Staff.
SOAN 118 - Basic Statistics in the Social Sciences
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2013 and alternate years.
Introductory statistics course designed to help students become good consumers of statistics, but especially geared for students interested in sociology, archeology, and anthropology. Course is aimed to help students engage in hypothesis-testing. Topics include descriptive and inferential statistics, sampling, and regression analysis. Students also get practical experience with cleaning and analyzing real world secondary data. Chin.
SOAN 180 - FS: First-Year Seminar in Sociology
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Offered occasionally. Each first-year seminar topic is approved by the Dean of The College and the Committee on Courses and Degrees. Applicability to FDRs and other requirements varies.
First-year seminar. Prerequisite: First-year standing. First-year seminar.
SOAN 181 - FS: First-Year Seminar in Anthropology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Offered occasionally. Each first-year seminar topic is approved by the Dean of The College and the Committee on Courses and Degrees. Applicability to FDRs and other requirements varies.
First-year seminar. Prerequisite: First-year standing. SOAN 181: FS: Culture in Contemporary Africa: Beyond the Dark Continent (3). First-Year Seminar. Prerequisite: First-year class standing. This seminar examines the diverse groups of people within the African continent and how anthropologists have approached understanding this diversity, in the context of an increasingly interconnected world. Students first explore the dynamic history of the continent, with particular focus on colonialism and anthropologists’ role in colonialism, in order to examine the politics of representation and social change. We also explore several pertinent topics in specific social and historical contexts, such as the construction of personhood, gender, ethnicity, religion, and politics, and we examine the experiences, idioms, and structures of social inequality in relation to international development and clientism, with particular attention on popular discourses about wealth and power in the media and local idioms of witchcraft, vampires, and the occult. (SS4) Jenkins. Fall 2014
SOAN 190 - Bibliographical Resources
Credits: 1
Planned Offering: Fall
An introduction to the use of the library and other compilations of information on sociology and anthropology. Directed by library and sociology and anthropology department staff. Degree credit is awarded for only one 190 course regardless of academic discipline. Staff.
SOAN 202 - Contemporary Social Problems
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years.
A study of the relationship of social problems to the cultural life and social structure of American society. An analysis of the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to selected social problems in American society. Eastwood.
SOAN 205 - Power and Status: An Introduction to Social Influence
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years.
This seminar explores the fundamental sociological concepts of “power” and “status” and how they are related to social influence. Power and status undergird social inequality on both a macro and a micro level. Students view the types, uses, and consequences of power and status differences through a structural social psychological lens, while analyzing leadership in organizational contexts. Students compare the nature of “power” versus “status” and investigate the ways power and status 1) parallel, 2) differ, and 3) interact with one another in theory and in practice of creating, maintaining, and changing our social world. Students are asked to think creatively about what role status and power dynamics have in shaping all aspects of everyday social life, particularly their lives at W&L. Chin.
SOAN 206 - Archaeology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years.
An examination of anthropologically-oriented archaeology. Specific subjects to be considered will include the history of the subdiscipline, theoretical developments, field techniques, substantive contributions for the prehistoric and historic subareas and recent developments in theory and methodology. Bell.
SOAN 207 - Biological Anthropology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014
This course considers the emergence and evolution of Homo sapiens from fossil, archaeological, and genetic evidence. The class focuses on evolutionary mechanisms; selective pressures for key human biological and behavioral patterns, such as bipedalism, intelligence, altruism, learned behavior, and expressive culture; relations among prehuman species; the human diaspora; and modern human diversity, particularly “racial” variation. The course also examines theories from sociobiology and evolutionary psychology about motivations for modern human behaviors. Staff.
SOAN 212 - Theories of Social Psychology
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2013 and alternate years.
An introduction to three major paradigms present in the sociological tradition of social psychology. The course examines social structure and personality, structural social psychology and symbolic interactionist framework. The three paradigmatic approaches are used to understand how macro-level processes influence micro-level social interaction and vice versa. Chin.
SOAN 221 - Sociology of Religion
(REL 221) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years.
Theories of the origin and functions of religion; institutionalization of religious belief, behavior, and social organization; and conditions in which religion maintains social stability; and/or generates social change. Eastwood.
SOAN 223 - Social Sciences and Religion
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2013 and alternate years
Scholars still debate the appropriate relationship between social science and religion, with the two most extreme positions assuming the impossibility of a social science of religion, on the one hand, and denial of the validity of religious claims, on the other. Beginning with an examination of the fundamental debates regarding the nature and goals of social scientific inquiry, we examine classical and contemporary analyses of religion in psychology, sociology, and anthropology. The major social scientific paradigms - materialist, functionalist, and phenomenological - differ in their implications for understanding and explaining religious phenomena; they provide the context for consideration of questions of reductionism, explanation vs. understanding, insider vs. outsider orientations, and the nature and limits to truth claims made both by social scientists and religious devotees and scholars. Markowitz.
SOAN 224 - American Indian Religions, Landscapes, and Identities
(REL 224) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Drawing on a combination of scholarly essays, native accounts, videos, guest lectures, and student presentations, this seminar examines the religious assumptions and practices that bind American Indian communities to their traditional homelands. The seminar elucidates and illustrates those principles concerning human environmental interactions common to most Indian tribes; focuses on the traditional beliefs and practices of a particular Indian community that reflected and reinforced the community’s understanding of the relationship to be maintained with the land and its creatures; and examines the moral and legal disputes that have arisen out of the very different presuppositions which Indians and non-Indians hold regarding the environment. Markowitz.
SOAN 225 - Peoples of Central Europe Through Literature and Film
FDR: SS4
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2013 and alternate years.
This course provides basic information about the citizens of the Central European nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The beliefs, attitudes, and value systems of the people of Central Europe are studied using core textbook readings supplemented by feature films, video materials, novels, short stories, plays, and poetry. Class discussions focus on interpreting these works of art in the context of comparative, historical-sociological analysis of the Polish, Czech, and Hungarian cultures and societies. Jasiewicz.
SOAN 228 - Race and Ethnic Relations
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall
Prerequisite: At least junior standing. Instructor consent required. An analysis of minority groups in America. Theories of ethnicity are examined focusing on the relationship between class and ethnicity, and on the possible social and biological significance of racial differences. Attention is also given to prejudice and discrimination, as well as to consideration of minority strategies to bring about change. Novack.
SOAN 232 - Historical Archaeology
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014
This course considers the discipline of historical archaeology from developmental, theoretical, methodological, and substantive perspectives. Beginning with the age of European exploration and continuing through modern times, this course surveys archaeological approaches to understanding social relations, class structures, and economic strategies among people of diverse ethnicities in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Students become familiar with prominent theoretical orientations within historical archaeology, debates about archaeologists’ ethical obligations, and methodological developments in fieldwork and artifact research. Bell.
SOAN 234 - Nations and Nationalism
(HIST 234) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years
This course examines the rise and global spread of national identity over the last five centuries by considering cases from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and using these to test major theories of nationalism from history and the social sciences. Major questions considered include the following: What, if any, are the empirically identifiable relationships between national identity and other major dimensions of “modernization,” such as the rise of the modern state and industrial capitalism? Is nationalism a cause, consequence, or victim of “globalization”? Can we construct a theory of the spread of national identity that not only makes sense of macro-level patterns but also articulates clear “microfoundations” and identifiable causal mechanisms? Eastwood.
SOAN 238 - Anthropology of American History
(HIST 238) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2013 and alternate years
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. This course explores issues within historic American communities that ethnographers often investigate among living groups, including cultural values, religious ideologies, class structures, kinship networks, gender roles, and interethnic relations. Although the communities of interest in this course ceased to exist generations ago, many of their characteristic dynamics are accessible through such means as archaeology, architectural history, and the study of documents. Case studies include early English settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts; the 18th-century plantation world of Virginia and South Carolina; the post-Revolutionary Maine frontier; and 19th-century California. Bell.
SOAN 243 - Imaging Tibet
(ARTH 243) FDR: HA
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2014
An examination of images and imaging practices of the early 1900s to the present in order to define and analyze the ways in which both Western and Asian (particularly Tibetan and Chinese) artists have imagined Tibet and its people. Kerin.
SOAN 245 - European Politics and Society
(POL 245) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2013 and alternate years
A comparative analysis of European political systems and social institutions. The course covers the established democracies of western and northern Europe, the new democracies of southern and east-central Europe, and the post-Communist regimes in eastern and southeastern Europe. Mechanisms of European integration are also discussed with attention focused on institutions such as European Union, NATO, OSCE, and Council of Europe. Jasiewicz.
SOAN 246 - Post-Communism and New Democracies
(POL 246) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2014 and alternate years
A comparative analysis of transition from Communism in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Cases of successful and unsuccessful transitions to civil society, pluralist democracy, and market economy are examined. The comparative framework includes analysis of transition from non-Communist authoritarianism and democratic consolidation in selected countries of Latin America, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and South Africa. Jasiewicz.
SOAN 251 - Social Movements
(POL 251) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter
Prerequisites: POL 100, 105 or 111 or instructor consent. A survey of American social movements, including an evaluation of competing theoretical approaches to the study of social movements and an examination of the strategies, successes, failures, and political and social consequences of the civil rights, labor, student, and women’s movements. Close attention is given to factors contributing to the rise and decline of these movements. LeBlanc, Eastwood.
SOAN 252 - Language, Culture, and Communication
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2015 and alternate years
This course surveys anthropological approaches to understanding the intersections among language, culture and society. Topics include non-human communication systems, the origins of human language, and methods of establishing historical relationships among languages. Formal linguistic analysis receives some attention, but the greatest part of the course concerns language in sociocultural contexts. Examples of linguistic phenomena in ethnographic perspective are drawn from people around the world, including the Gullah, the Apache, and the Bedouin of Egypt. Bell.
SOAN 255 - Terror and Violence in Anthropological Perspective
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2013 and alternate years
This course investigates violence and terror in historical and contemporary societies. We discuss the various causes, methods, and effects of violence and terror, and then look at how anthropologists have documented, challenged, and even condoned such processes. Goluboff.
SOAN 260 - Conflicts in Eurasia: Globalization, New States, and Soviet Legacies
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014
In this course, students learn how to apply anthropology and a wide range of other disciplinary techniques to understand and attempt to solve post-socialist problems. Students do independent research on issues relevant to their main areas of course work. We explore how ethnographic fieldwork and cultural theory provide key information about how people in Eurasia relate to daily conflicts through common past socialist experiences and new interactions with globalization, transnational movements, and the world market. Throughout the term, we discuss differences and similarities, advantages and disadvantages of various disciplinary approaches to key conflicts in the region. Topics include crime, the emerging marketplace, poverty, health, gender, and ethnic conflict. We study Eurasia via issues rather than geography, and we focus intensely on the transnational effects of wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan. The class reads material from anthropology and other disciplines and watches several documentaries. Goluboff.
SOAN 262 - The Sociology of Culture
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014
This course introduces research and theory in the sociology of culture. Explores such questions as: What is culture? What is the relationship between culture and society? How and why does culture change? In addition to these questions, topics covered include an examination of the various theoretical approaches to culture; the relationship between high and popular culture and the debate over cultural boundaries; the production, distribution and consumption of culture; national culture and national identity; globalization; and the intersections between culture and class, gender, ethnicity and race. Special attention will be paid to examining key cultural forms, such as television, fashion, music, advertising, museums, art, and literature. Staff.
SOAN 265 - Exploring Social Networks
FDR: SS4
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2015 and alternate years.
This course is an introduction to network analysis. Students learn some of the major network analysis literature in sociology and related fields and develop their skills as network analysts in laboratory sessions. Social science, humanities, business, and public health applications are emphasized. Eastwood
SOAN 266 - Neighborhoods, Culture, and Poverty
FDR: SS3
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2015.
This course examines social-scientific research on the determinants of poverty, crime, and ill health by focusing on neighborhoods as the sites where many of the mechanisms impacting these outcomes operate. In addition to engaging with key readings and participating in seminar discussions, students conduct their own exploratory analyses of neighborhood level processes using ArcGIS and related software. Eastwood.
SOAN 270 - Deviance
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter
An examination of theories of deviance from a sociological perspective. Particular emphasis is placed on the causes of deviant acts and on the social processes utilized in evaluating these behaviors. Theoretical applications are made to crime and mental illness. Novack.
SOAN 272 - Social Revolutions
(POL 272) FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Not offered in 2013-2014
Prerequisite: SOAN 101, 102, or instructor consent. This seminar provides an in depth exploration of a variety of social revolutions. The overarching goal of the course is to discern whether or not a single “theory of revolutions” can be constructed. Are there common patterns to be observed in (and common causes behind) events as separated by time, place, and ideology as the 17th-century “Glorious Revolution” in England, the French Revolution, Latin American revolutions (including the Wars of Independence and the Mexican Revolution), the Russian Revolution, and more recent events such as the revolution that brought the current regime in Iran to power? To this end, students read and discuss a variety of such theories that have been put forward by sociologists, historians, and political scientists and then consider case studies of the aforementioned social revolutions in order to scrutinize these theories. Eastwood.
SOAN 275 - Feminist Anthropology
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2014 and alternate years
This course covers the complex and sometimes “awkward” relationship between feminism and anthropology. We explore topics such as the place of feminist theory and politics within the discipline of anthropology, the problems involved in being a feminist and an anthropologist, and the creation of feminist ethnography. Goluboff.
SOAN 276 - Art & Science of Survey Research
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2013 and alternate years
Prerequisite: Sociology 102 or instructor consent. This course is designed as a group research project devoted to the art and the science of survey research. Students prepare a list of hypotheses, select indicators, construct a questionnaire, conduct interviews, analyze data, and write research reports. When appropriate, the course may include service-learning components (community-based research projects). Jasiewicz.
SOAN 277 - Seminar in Medical Anthropology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter
Despite radical differences in theory and procedure, the diagnosis and treatment of diseases are human cultural universals. This seminar first examines the beliefs and practices that comprise the medical systems found among a wide variety of non-western peoples. We then investigates the responses of a number of non-western communities to the introduction of western, biomedical practices. We finish by considering such ethical issues as whether or not non-western peoples who supply western doctors and pharmacologists with knowledge of curing agents should be accorded intellectual property rights over this information; in what situations, if any, should western medical personnel impose biomedical treatments on populations; and should anthropologists make use of indigenous peoples as medical trial subjects as was allegedly done by Napoleon Chagnon. Markowitz.
SOAN 280 - Gender and Sexuality
FDR: SS4
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter
An anthropological and sociological investigation of sex roles in preliterate and modern societies. Special consideration is given to the role of innate sexual differences, cultural variation, technology, and power in determining patterns of male dominance. Emphasis is placed on real and mythical female and male power in the context of changing relationships between men and women in American society. Novack.
SOAN 281 - Adolescence Under the Microscope
FDR: SS4
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2013 and alternate years.
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. This course focuses on adolescence through the lens of social psychology. Insights from sociology, anthropology, and psychology are employed to explicate the adolescent experience in the United States in contrast to other societies. Topics include: the impact of liminality on adolescent identity in cross-cultural perspective; adolescence as objective reality or cultural fiction; adolescence and peer relations, gender and suicide; and new technologies and virtual adolescence. Each student engages in a research project focusing on adolescence and identity through either interviews or observational techniques. The final project is a group analysis of adolescence as reflected in Facebook. Novack.
SOAN 285 - Introduction to American Indian Religions
(REL 285) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall.
This class introduces students to some of the dominant themes, values, beliefs, and practices found among the religions of North America’s Indian peoples. The first part of the course explores the importance of sacred power, landscape, and community in traditional Indian spiritualities and rituals. It then examines some of the changes that have occurred in these traditions as a result of western expansion and dominance from the 18th through early 20th centuries. Lastly, the course considers some of the issues and problems confronting contemporary American Indian religions. Markowitz.
SOAN 286 - Land in American Indian Culture, Religion, and History
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2014 and alternate years.
This class focuses on the religious, cultural, and historical dimensions of a selected American Indian nation and ties to its lands as they found expression in the beliefs and practices of its pre- and post-reservation communities. The specific themes that the seminar will address are: 1) Lands, Culture, and Cosmology; 2) Lands, Subsistence, and Ceremony; and 3) Land in the Nation’s History; and 4) Sacred Landscape and Contestation. The course may cover the Lakota Sioux, Cherokee, or other Indian nation. Topic for 2014: Markowitz.
SOAN 288 - Childhood
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall 2014 and alternate years.
This course explores the experience of childhood cross-culturally. It investigates how different societies conceptualize children, and our readings will progress through representations of the life cycle. Beginning with the topic of conception, the course moves through issues pertaining to the fetus, infants, children, and adolescents. Discussions of socialization, discipline, emotion, education, gender, and sexuality are included and special attention is given to the effects of war, poverty, social inequality, and disease on children and youth. Goluboff.
SOAN 289 - Sociology of the Self, Self-Help, and the Pursuit of Happiness
FDR: SS4
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2015 and alternate years.
Prerequisite: SOAN 101, 102, or instructor consent. Beginning with a survey of sociological theories of modernity and modern identities, the course moves to a consideration of empirical scholarly claims that modern identity is somehow problematic, and modern persons somehow especially ‘world-open’ and incomplete. In trying to understand the emergence of social movements oriented toward ‘helping’ and ‘healing’ the self, the following questions are considered: What sociological conditions underlie these movements? Do they have analogues in other times and places or are they tightly linked to the conditions of ‘modern’ societies? If, in the end, ‘self help’ aims to address problems that are sociological at root, can we expect its remedies to be useful? Are any non-individualized solutions to the problems lying behind a felt need for ‘self help’ possible? This course meets once a week with REL 205: Self-Help and PSYC 300: The Pursuit of Happiness in a seminar where students become teachers and lead a class in which we all discuss together the work we have done separately during the week. In this way, students become part of a broad learning community that cuts across the many disciplines and divisions that make up the university. Eastwood.
SOAN 290 - Special Topics in Sociology
Credits: 3 in Fall or Winter, 4 in Spring
Planned Offering: Offered when interest is expressed and departmental resources permit.
A discussion of a series of topics of sociological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Spring 2015 topics:
SOAN 290A: Polish Politics, Society and Culture (4). Prerequisite: Instructor consent required. This study abroad program in Poland will examine the contemporary cultural, social, and political issues of this nation. Poland will be examined here as a test case of a rapid social, political, and economic change, which characterizes the recent historical developments in the entire East Central Europe. The chief educational objective of the course is demonstrate to American students that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can be achieved (1) despite major historical, cultural, and geopolitical adversities, and (2) within a framework of political, social, and economic institutions that are markedly different from those they have known in the United States.
SOAN 290B: Medical Sociology (4). No prerequisite. SOC 102 recommended. The course introduces the sociological perspectives of health and medicine. The class will explore the underlying premise that social factors, not just biological ones, influence health outcomes and the practice of medicine. We cover how our everyday environments can affect our health, both through macro-level institutions (e.g., the shape our healthcare system) to micro-level interactions (e.g., doctor-patient interactions). In doing so, we consider the social organization of health, illness and medicine that go beyond differential access to medical care. Some questions we address include: How is the medical profession changing? What are the pros and cons of market-driven medicine? Does class have an enduring impact on health outcomes? Are we what our friends eat? Can unconscious biases affect the quality of care for people of different ethnicities? Chin
SOAN 291 - Special Topics in Anthropology
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Offered when interest is expressed and departmental resources permit.
A discussion of a series of topics of anthropological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Spring 2015 topics:
SOAN 291-01: Special Topics in Anthropology: Cults (4). In this course, we explore the phenomenon of cults (also known as new religious movements, NRMs). We look at the development of cults, how they operate, and the experiences of those who participate in them. Topics to discuss include: brainwashing, gender, violence, sexuality, child rearing, and the possibility of objectivity on the part of the researcher. We analyze a variety of case studies, but, most importantly, we structure the term around a visit from Marsha Goluboff Low, who will talk about the eighteen years she spent as an Ananda Marga yogic nun. In preparation, we read her autobiography, Orange Robe. (SS4) Goluboff. Spring 2015
SOAN 291-02: Special Topics in Anthropology: Chanting Down Babylon: Rastafari, Reggae, and Structural Inequality (4). This course examines the way people negotiate and giving meaning to experiences of social, racial, and economic inequality, by exploring Rastafarianism, Reggae, and Dancehall subcultures in Jamaica. We investigate the social and economic context that gave rise to Rastafarianism and its central tenets, while also examining the shifting political context through which Rastafarianism, Reggae, and Dancehall continue to find meaning and powerful critical commentary. Throughout this course, we analyze the lyrics of reggae and dancehall music that give insight into the worldview of Rastafarians and the structural inequalities of Jamaican society. Includes discussions on the global impact of Rastafarianism and reggae and its resonance to the experiences of people world-wide. Jenkins. Spring 2015
Winter 2015 topics:
SOAN 291-01: Topics in Anthropology: Campus Sex in the Digital Age (3). This class explores how the cell phone has impacted hooking up and dating on campus, with particular attention to Washington and Lee University as a case study. We discuss the development of campus sexual culture in America and the influence of digital technology on student sociality. Students use open source digital research tools to analyze data (interviews, focus groups, and statistics) collected about dating and hookup behavior at our college. As a digital humanities project, students work in groups to post their analyses on the class WordPress site. Goluboff.
SOAN 291-02: Topics in Anthropology: Contemporary Forms of Slavery (3). This course introduces students to how anthropologists have studied ‘contemporary forms of slavery’, a term representing many forms of inequality, including child labor, debt bondage, and religious practices, among others. The course investigates the language of slavery and what ideas we have about the practice in historical and contemporary forms, while also examining the historical development of using the term to describe these varying forms of inequality. Throughout the course, we examine the complexity involved in applying universalistic ideas of human rights, and the social, political, and economic dimensions of inequality. Jenkins.
SOAN 291-03: Topics in Anthropology: Consumer Cultures (3). “It is extraordinary to discover that no one knows why people want goods,” or so observed a famous pair of authors – one an anthropologist, the other an economist – in 1979. What, since then, have anthropology and interrelated disciplines learned about consumer desire? This course considers human interaction with the material world in a variety of cultures, periods, and scales. From socio-cultural and political perspectives, what do consumers hope to accomplish by buying, patronizing, or using products like Barbies, bottled water, craft beer, tattoos and piercings, football games, farm houses, history museums, cemeteries, or asylums? How does consumerism facilitate claims to social connection, personal identity, and meaning? And how do potentially constructive roles of buying “stuff” relate to debt, hoarding, and environmental overexploitation? Bell.
SOAN 291-04: Topics in Anthropology: Anthropology of International Development (3). This course introduces students to theories, practices, and experiences of economic and social development initiatives that seek to address economic growth, poverty, and inequality. We begin with an overview of the key theoretical and policy frameworks that have informed development initiatives in the post-colonial context. We then examine particular themes in various cultural contexts, specifically discussing gender and households, the informal economy, the experience of poverty and suffering, and the role of governmental and non-governmental organizations. We also examine anthropology’s critical engagement with policies of economic development and the role of anthropologists in the planning and execution of development projects. Jenkins.
Fall 2014 topic:
SOAN 291: Economic Anthropology (3). This course presents a cross-cultural survey of economic practices throughout time and around the world. Using classic and contemporary anthropological studies, we seek to understand how people have organized production, exchange, and consumption, and how these processes articulate with community dynamics such as religious beliefs, ethical codes, social networks, and gender roles. With case studies ranging from prehistoric foragers to contemporary cell phone users, we investigate culturally diverse and socially embedded understandings of commodities, gifts, property, success, and wealth. Bell.
SOAN 360 - Theorizing Social Life
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall
Prerequisites: SOAN 101 (ANTH 101), SOAN 102 (SOC 102), and at least junior standing. This seminar considers the development of theory about social life and culture within anthropology and sociology. We read the works that have shaped, and continue to shape, major theoretical trends in these interconnected disciplines. Goluboff.
SOAN 361 - The History of Violence in America
(HIST 361) FDR: HU
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2015 and alternate years
Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. An examination of the social origins, evolution, and major forms of extralegal, violent conflict in the United States, including individual and collective violence and conflict related to race, class, gender, politics, and ethnicity, especially emphasizing the 19th and 20th centuries. Major topics include theories of social conflict, slavery and interracial violence, predatory crime, labor strife, and inter-ethnic violence. Senechal.
SOAN 367 - Seminar in American Social History
(HIST 367) FDR: HU
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2014 and alternate years.
Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing. An examination of selected topics in the social history of the United States. Requirements include a major research paper based on original source material. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Senechal.
SOAN 375 - Methods of Social Inquiry
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall
Prerequisites: SOAN 101 (ANTH 101) or SOAN 102 (SOC 102), and at least junior standing. The rationale and utility of research and its relationship to social and political theory. The two major aspects of social inquiry-measurement and interpretation-are examined focusing on the structuring of inquiry, modes of observation (experiments, surveys, field research, unobtrusive research, etc.), and analysis of data. The course includes lectures, discussions and field exercises. Chin.
SOAN 377 - Field Methods in Archaeology
FDR: SS4
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring
Additional special fees. Some financial aid may be available through departmental funds. Fieldwork in archaeology. The student participates in all phases of ongoing archaeological projects. Students who have successfully completed SOAN 206 (old ANTH 205) are assured of a place in ANTH 377. With the supervision of the instructor, students may take ANTH 377 more than once. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Bell, Gaylord.
SOAN 378 - Archaeological Field Survey Techniques
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Fall 2013 and alternate years
Prerequisite: Instructor consent. The course is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to engage in archaeological field survey in Rockbridge County. Classroom meetings concerning the theory and methods of modern archaeological survey are supplemented by field research concerning sites of historic and prehistoric significance. Gaylord.
SOAN 390 - Special Topics in Sociology
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: May vary by topic. A discussion of a series of topics of sociological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different.
Fall 2014 topic:
SOAN 390: Microsociology (3). Prerequisite: One course in Sociology or Anthropology. The focus of this seminar is on the intricacies of social interaction. Particular emphasis is placed on three theoretical approaches: symbolic interaction, social dramaturgy, and social construction. Each model is examined with regard to the meaning of interaction and the manner in which it operates. Emphasis is also placed on socialization and self-development within the context of social determinism and voluntarism. The final segment of the course views the various interactionist perspectives as elements to be incorporated in developing a more coherent, emergent image of social interaction. Novack.
SOAN 391 - Special Topics in Anthropology
Credits: 3
Permission of the department required. Topics and prerequisites to be arranged. A discussion of a series of topics of anthropological concern. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different. Staff.
SOAN 395 - Senior Seminar in Social Analysis
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter
Prerequisite: SOAN 102 (SOC 102), SOAN 375 (SOC 375), and one chosen from SOAN 118 (SOC 118), MATH 118, INTR 202 or PSYC 250. This course is designed as a capstone experience for majors with the sociology emphasis. Students, utilizing their knowledge of sociological theory and research methods, design and execute independent research projects, typically involving secondary analysis of survey data. Working on a subject of their choice, students learn how to present research questions and arguments, formulate research hypotheses, test hypotheses through univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses (utilizing appropriate statistical packages such as SPSS), and write research reports. Jasiewicz.
SOAN 401 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 1
Prerequisite: Permission of the department. A course for selected students, typically with junior or senior standing, who are preparing papers for presentation to professional meetings or for publication. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Staff.
SOAN 402 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Departmental consent required. A course for selected students, typically with junior or senior standing, who are preparing papers for presentation to professional meetings or for publication. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Staff.
SOAN 403 - Directed Individual Study
Credits: 3
Prerequisite: Departmental consent required. A course for selected students with junior and senior standing, especially for honors students, with direction by different members of the department. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different. Staff.
SOAN 453 - Internship
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: Grade-point average of 2.500 in the department and 2.500 overall, and permission of the staff. Supervised off-campus experience in a social service agency, research organization or project, or therapeutic or custodial institution. May be repeated for degree credit with permission and if the topics are different.
SOAN 493 - Honors Thesis
Credits: 3-3
Planned Offering: Fall-Winter
Honors Thesis.
|
Print this Page