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CS92PROD
Anthropology of the Senses

ANTH 256
Spring 2020
Section: 01  
Course Cluster: Animal Studies

How do we know what we know? Is seeing really believing? And what about hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling? This course explores Anna Tsing's provocation to "look around instead of ahead," asking: what kinds of participatory observation of the senses help us identify what we know about the world? Through readings, lectures, short form writing, and field trips, we examine the role of the senses in forming what we know about ourselves and others. Writing and research assignments develop tools for documenting, analyzing, and communicating our senses and work towards a critical acknowledgment of sensory hierarchies. Our course readings consist of selections from theories of affect, sound studies, and food studies, as well as key texts in cultural anthropology in order to build an appreciation of the range of sensory information available to us and the strategies we use to communicate our sensory worlds. Our goal is to probe how ethnographic work sensitive to the multidimensionality of the human sensorium can discover and propose real strategies for human vitality.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ANTH
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ANTH)
Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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