Anthropology of the Senses
ANTH 256
Spring 2020
| Section:
01
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| 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. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS ANTH |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ANTH) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Syllabus may draw Anna Tsing, Paul Stoller, Alex Chávez, Lila Ellen Gray, Ann Cvetkovich, Sianne Ngai, Sara Ahmed, Schafer Murray among others.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Assignments include an ethnographic journal, response essays, and a final paper. |
| Instructor(s): El Zein,Rayya Times: ...W.F. 08:20AM-09:40AM; Location: FISK413; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 25 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 10 | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: 8 | FR: 2 |
| 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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