Care and Suffering
ANTH 113
Fall 2017
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 113 |
In this introductory course, we will explore the production and representation of human suffering, in addition to the modes of care deployed by healers, kin groups, aid workers, and state actors to alleviate the suffering of others. We will begin by mastering dominant approaches within anthropology for studying affliction. We will then examine case examples of bodies in distress. We will discover that suffering is inherently social: it is shared, socially produced, and communicated through socially learned and sanctioned means. Suffering is also social in the sense that it often begs a moral response. With that in mind, we will turn our attention to different regimes of care--such as experimental, pharmaceutical, and humanitarian care--and explore their limitations, paradoxes, and transformative possibilities. Taken as a whole, the course will invite students to question the creation and reproduction of suffering, while at the same time critically reflecting on dominant norms and forms of "doing good."
As a first-year seminar (FYS), this course will also guide and support students in fostering skills as academic researchers and writers. We will start from the position that college-level academic writing is its own genre, distinct from the kind of writing typically taught in high school, and that the steps required to hone this skill are not always transparent, self-evident, or without challenges. As such, the course will include detailed instruction, regular in-class writing exercises, and three take-home writing assignments designed to introduce students to the main principles of successful academic writing. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS ANTH |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings will include articles and ethnographic works by Paul Farmer, Didier Fassin, Arthur Kleinman, João Biehl, Claire Wendland, Lisa Stevenson, Peter Redfield, Liisa Malkki, and Miriam Ticktin, among others.
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Examinations and Assignments:
TBD |
| Instructor(s): Worthington,Nancy Hayden Times: ..T.R.. 08:50AM-10:10AM; Location: BOGH113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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