Sociology & Anthropology

This course is designed to introduce students to the field of sociology. Sociology is a broad discipline which, at its core, constitutes the scientific study of society. Students in this course are exposed to basic concepts, theories, and methods used in modern sociology. Upon successful completion of Introduction to Sociology, students have a basic understanding of the sociological perspective and the ways in which the discipline frames human behavior at all levels, from a brief encounter of two strangers to global social systems. The course also provides students with specific sociological tools that they can use to better understand their world; the theories, concepts, and ideas covered in this class will help students to recognize the connection between self and society, biography and history, as well as the individual and social structures.

This course introduces students to the discipline of anthropology, with an intent focus on the sub-discipline of cultural anthropology. Students gain an understanding of the methods, theories, and debates that characterize cultural anthropology through a critical exploration of the concept of culture, the central frame through which anthropologists grapple with gender, ethnicity, politics, economics, religion, tradition, technology, identity, globalization, and much more. The fundamentally cross-cultural, cross-temporal, holistic orientation of anthropology makes it unique among the disciplines, and its practitioners try to broaden any discussion of human beliefs and practices to include examples that are as diverse and varied as possible, while insisting on a singular, underlying, and universal "humanity." The course draws on ethnography, a term that applies to both the immersive field research that anthropologists engage in, as well as the written analyses of cultures that anthropologists produce to better understand how culture and representations of culture structure relationships of power and inequality in the contemporary world.

This course challenges students to learn to 'see' families sociologically and to think critically and comparatively about the family as an ideological construct and as a complex social institution. Rather than assuming a universal model of the family, course readings examine families in the United States and elsewhere in the world as diverse entities shaped by economic and political factors, gender ideologies, racial and class inequalities, sexual norms, and cultural changes. Family ideals frequently clash with contemporary family realities; social science is a powerful tool for illuminating the implications and meanings of family continuity and change.

This course aims to enable students to acquire a critical understanding of the theories and practices of heritage by scrutinizing the ideas of "heritage" and its formation in recent decades. We will critically engage the definition of heritage with reference to policies and treaties set up by international organizations like UNESCO and state governments. Addressing heritage both as an academic discipline and as a professional field, the course examines how the ideas of heritage -- oftentimes Eurocentric -- are interpreted, contested, and put into practice in various Asian countries. We will consider what are identified as natural and cultural heritage, as well as the tangible and intangible aspects of heritage, while critiquing the divide between natural/cultural and tangible/intangible. Key themes relating to heritage will be introduced through case studies on scenic sites, historical landmarks, agricultural landscapes, oral traditions, food and cuisine, and digital heritage. The course will engage in current debates about the ownership and authenticity of heritage, by taking into account the negotiations of cultural memories and identities, economic resources, and political struggles at the local, national, and global level. We will work towards developing a comparative framework for understanding natural and cultural heritage not only in Asia but also around the world.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of multiple theories of deviance and social control. Each section of the class is organized around a particular theoretical orientation; each theory will elucidate both how deviance happens and the mechanism of social control that align with that particular theory. Every theory covered in this course is situated within a social, historical, and political context. Social and scientific theories are socially constructed, and thus, the context in which they emerge and exist is fundamental to their basic understanding. Students also learn how to use this diverse set of theories to make sense of how knowledge, power, and inequalities are all fundamentally tied to the ways in which a society comes to define and control deviance. As the semester progresses, students synthesize and integrate these theories to allow for a deeper, holistic understanding of deviance and social control.

Gender surrounds us, but ideas about gender in popular culture often oversimplify its workings. This course provides an overview of a sociological perspective on gender, with close attention to the relational construction of gender difference through analyzing both femininities and masculinities, as well as how gender intersects with other differences such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. The first half of the course examines gender inequality from several classic and contemporary theoretical perspectives. The second half foregrounds empirical research on gender and how gender works and changes over time in institutions that affect our daily lives such as schools, families, and workplaces. Readings focus on the United States as well as other countries within our increasingly globalized world.

More than half of all humans on earth now dwell in cities, and urban life is almost certainly an integral aspect of our collective future. This course introduces students to the sociological and anthropological study of the city through an examination of the theories, concepts, and frameworks social scientists have deployed in seeking to understand cities. This examination includes a focus on urbanization, or the underlying processes by which cities emerge, and on urbanism, or the character of life in an urban built environment. The geographical focus of the class ranges from global cities in other parts of the world to the American cities with which students are familiar. This course includes a field-based experiential component that requires students to explore the themes they encounter over the semester in the urban context of Tacoma.

The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the forms of difference and inequality reflected, constructed, and reproduced through notions of race and ethnicity. It asks: what are the forms of knowledge, practices, institutions, and values that have informed the nature and meaning of race and ethnic relations in both the U.S. context and globally? Using a historical, theoretical, and comparative approach, the course examines both the origins of contemporary race and ethnic categories and the way those categories have been reconfigured and deployed over time and space as part of diverse political, social, and economic projects. Drawing on specific cases, students explore how notions of race and ethnicity intersect with other forms of difference such as class, gender, and national identity. Through engagement with sociological and anthropological analyses of race and ethnic difference, the course thus provides students with a conceptual and theoretical toolbox with which to critically examine contemporary race and ethnic relations and engage in informed debate about their implications.

This course is designed to engage students in a critical examination of select issues associated with social stratification in Singapore and Malaysia. Specifically, it examines the themes of identity and culture within the context of the broader dynamics of systematic inequality in these two neighboring countries have very intertwined histories and cultures, but yet are distinct from one another. Through various readings, discussions, lectures, and on-site engagement, the course delves into specific issues such as race, class, gender, and religious fault lines that enable students to (1) become more engaged with the lived experiences of Singaporeans and Malaysians; and (2) develop a more sociologically informed and nuanced understanding of how the aforementioned key components of stratification in these societies shape the lives of its people and institutions.

This course explores lived culture in Southeast Asia with a focus on the themes of power and inequality, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, humans and the environment, as well as religion and syncretism. Described as the crossroads of influences from East and South Asia to Europe and beyond, Southeast Asia is one of the most diverse and fascinating regions of the world. The course includes case studies from throughout the region, with a focus on Indonesia. Students begin by working through the prehistory and initial migration to the area, but focus on contemporary themes related to the peoples, cultures, political economies, and representational practices surrounding the region. In addition to providing a cultural overview of the region, this course critically examines sociocultural change that has occurred in Southeast Asia in recent decades. Spurred by new media and communications technologies, environmental challenges, globalized supply chains, volatile inter/national politics, shifting social norms, and new approaches to religious practice, Southeast Asia is experiencing a rapid transformation. Taking an anthropological approach to understanding these themes and foci, students will read and discuss ethnographic work as well as scholarship from a range of disciplines that explores both the background and contemporary manifestations of these cultural shifts.

This course examines the situations, problems, and continually developing strategies of indigenous peoples living in various countries and regions scattered throughout the world. While the central concern of this investigation focuses on so-called "tribal" peoples and their increasingly threatened, yet still instructive lifeways, the course also deliberately considers selected points of contrast and comparison involving "modern" societies as well. Toward this end, the course uses the approach of political anthropology, which has traditionally been associated with the study of small-scale societies (wherein the realms of "politics" and "economics" are inseparably interlinked with other sociocultural institutions such as "religion" and "kinship"). The ultimate aim of the course is threefold: first, to acknowledge the tragedy of past and presently-continuing destruction of indigenous peoples' physical, social, and cultural lives; second, to learn about and from the resilience and resistance such people have shown over millennia; and third, to inspire hope that it is still not too late for "modern" and "tribal" people humbly and profitably to learn from each other.

This course is an introduction to the sub-discipline of linguistics within the broader discipline of anthropology. The course covers methods used and theories formulated in the study of language in anthropology. These include the structure of language; language through history; a comparison between human and non-human modes of communication; the innate human capacity for language; the relationship between language, thought, and culture; and the study of language, power, and identity. A cross-cultural perspective is emphasized in this class.

This course examines major social movements in terms of their forms, aims, and implications, as well as the research and theories deployed to make sense of them. In particular it explores these movements' recruitment and organizational tactics, resource mobilization, strategy, and effects on public policy. It also analyzes their relation to political institutions, socioeconomic structures, and cultural formations, including mass media and official agencies. The course will focus on select movements which may include civil rights, feminist, environmental, labor, right-wing, and postcolonial/Global South politics.

This course examines the sociological dimensions of science and technology. In particular, it focuses on: understanding the social construction of scientific and technological knowledge; exploring the main sociological theories of science and technology; understanding how social inequalities are connected to the processes of scientific discovery and technological innovation; thinking critically about concepts like truth, facts, and nature; and seeing how sociological analysis can inform our understanding of the connection between science and technology and social policies and cultural values.

This course is designed to explore diverse and changing forms of transnational migration across a global landscape, with a focus on the dynamic relationships that define migrants' relationships to both home and host communities. The course draws upon anthropological and sociological contributions to migration studies, transnationalism and diaspora studies in order to examine the articulation of culture and identity amidst the complexities of the contemporary world. The course also utilizes case studies that allow students to analyze diasporic experiences both in the United States and abroad. This course allows for a sustained discussion on the changing relationships between people, place, and culture, and the role of anthropological methods in investigating them.

Archaeology seeks to uncover artifacts and the material culture of human life in order to understand past civilizations and the long-term development of human societies across space and time. This course offers an introduction to the field of archaeology, providing an overview of its goals, theory, methods, and ethics. Students discuss specific archaeological sites in their historical, social, anthropological, economic, religious, and architectural contexts. Attention is given to issues relevant to classical archaeology today, including the looting of ancient sites, issues of cultural property, and ethics in archaeology. Students have the opportunity to learn and practice basic archaeological techniques, as well as to reflect on the significance of these techniques for understanding other peoples. The course will shift in its regional and historical foci, including an introduction to classical archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean world. Students thus gain an appreciation of the complexities of present-day archaeological research and both the benefits and limitations of the role of archaeology in creating our images of the past.

Past societies are often divided into "prehistoric" and "historic" based on the existence of ties with Western culture. Following this dichotomy, archaeology has long contributed to a Colonialist perspective of selective literacy. In attempt to deconstruct said tendency, this course explores the multiplicity of circumstances in which archaeologists study a past for which historical records exist. The course encompasses ancient societies with hieroglyphic systems of writing, the Near East as the center of biblical archaeology, as well as recent historical periods of the Western nations themselves. For each study region or period, students examine the nature and biases characterizing available written records and explore the ways in which archaeological approaches have created complementary datasets that allow for a more holistic understanding of past societies. This set of comparisons on a global level lays the groundwork for the conceptualization of material culture as an author of its own history even when documents are readily available. As the course modules approach the present -- covering Slavery, the Industrialization, as well as poverty and migration in the 21st century -- discussions increasingly contribute to a comprehensive reflection upon some of the societal problems of today. In this context, the course concludes with an acknowledgment of both the difficulties and potential of heritage stewardship and education.

This course offers an in-depth survey of sociology's foundational theoretical perspectives. Students analyze, compare, and apply the ideas of a range of classic and contemporary social theorists, and in doing so develop a keen appreciation for how the lens we use to think about and perceive various social phenomena profoundly shapes our questions and conclusions about the world. The course focuses on the kinds of questions that have been asked by influential nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers, as well as the theories they have constructed to answer them. The first half of the course focuses on the 'classical' theorists, including Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. The second half is devoted to several contemporary perspectives that build on and extend the classical theories, including theories of gender and race, symbolic interactionism, and postmodernism.

Anthropological theory sees the world through a disciplinary lens that focuses on culture -- shared understandings -- while looking broadly and holistically at the human condition across a broad range of times and places. This course invites students to "think anthropologically" as they become familiar with the various lines of thought that have characterized anthropology since its earliest days to the present. In addition, students learn to grapple theoretically with contemporary problems and articulate their thoughts on them in terms of relevant anthropological theorists. The course involves heavy reading demands and is conducted seminar style with students expected to lead and contribute to class discussions on a daily basis.

This course covers experimental and quasi-experimental design, the design of social surveys, and techniques of data analysis appropriate for each type of design. Individual student research projects are required.

Ethnography is the study of human cultures. Ethnographic methods are the constellation of research tools that anthropologists (and nowadays, many others) use in exploring, understanding, and writing about human cultures. This course introduces students to the methodological craft of ethnographic inquiry, and includes an examination of the historical development of this methodological toolkit, the theoretical implications of this approach to research, the ethical considerations paramount to ethnographic research, and the practical concerns involved in "doing" ethnography. Students will have the opportunity to practice and deploy these research methods in fieldwork settings in the greater Tacoma area. The course is structured around the design and implementation of an independent research project that utilizes these methods for anthropological inquiry.

This course examines social and economic inequality in the United States and globally. The goal of the course is to understand the extent of inequality as well as the power structures that systematically distribute resources in a particular way. The course introduces concepts and theoretical approaches that are fundamental to the social sciences. The policy implications that emerge from these comparisons are also discussed.

This course uses a sociological framework to examine gender and sexuality in contemporary Japan. Students are introduced to theoretical frameworks that underpin the study of gender and sexuality and apply those frameworks to the case of Japanese society. Using a culturally relativistic lens, students critically examine the following aspects of Japanese society: the social construction and representation of feminine and masculine gender and sexuality, both normative and otherwise; recent changes in the sexual landscape and the fluidity of both gender and sexual identities across time and space; changing patterns in intimate relationships and the social forces driving these trends; the commodification of gender performances; and feminist perspectives and debates.

Anthropological linguistics asks questions central to both disciplines: What is human language? Why is a person's or an ethnic group's particular language or language variety often such an important part of their identity? When a particular language becomes "lost" or "threatened," what happens to the semantic worlds (not just the words, but the linked insights and wisdom) that used to be encoded in those now no longer heard or spoken phrases and styles of discourse?

In nations with purportedly "one unifying language," mastery of, for example, "Mandarin" Chinese, Russian, Hindi, or certain dialects of English and Spanish are often seen, especially by "gatekeepers" in those societies, as necessary for upward social mobility. How does this impact the life-chances of the native speakers of those other languages or languages varieties (indigenous languages, dialects, creoles, pidgins) spoken there which are less valorized? Conversely, when speakers of "small," "endangered" languages (e.g. Yiddish, Gullah, Basque, Lushootseed, Welsh) organize to revitalize their linguistic heritage, how might "success" here best be judged? How does anthropological linguistics try to explore such questions? How might such concerns about language policies impact the domains of education, the juridical system, and popular imagination? This course will address these and other such issues vital to efforts to keep heritage languages vibrantly alive while also sustaining linguistic pluralism, linguistic rights, and linguistic justice.

Climate change has recently become shorthand for Global Warming, the clearcutting of rainforests, and the burning of fossil fuels. Yet while anthropogenic climate change on the global scale is indeed a modern phenomenon, climate change itself is nothing new, and human societies have been negotiating their natural world for millennia; adapting to changing conditions by inventing new technologies, adopting new social structures, and even modifying the landscapes around them.
This course uses examples from around the world, including Africa, the Mediterranean, Australia, the Americas, Asia, and the British Isles to examine how past societies perceived and interacted with their environments. Aspects of collecting, analyzing and interpreting various climate proxies, and the theoretical foundations for interpreting their relevance to archaeological questions, will constitute major components of this course.

Students focus on visual anthropology in its primary and original form: as a research practice. Specifically, they investigate and practically explore the use of visual media as a tool for anthropological research and presentation. They discuss visual anthropology both as a supplement to textually-focused ethnography, and as an end in itself, in the creation of a visual product that explicates cultural realities. This course focuses on visual forms of communication by analyzing and questioning how facts travel in the world through old and new media such as film, video, photography, including their digital forms. Students are introduced to the history of ethnographic film and contemporary changes that have widened the possibilities of visual anthropology beyond its early confines as a tool for illustration. Critical theory, methods, and ethical concerns are all part of the current refashioning of visual anthropology and are critical components of the class. Students will also be introduced to the emerging sub-discipline of media anthropology, which focuses on the intersections of culture and media consumption, production, and materiality. The class explores the history of media and cultural studies, and how they have informed contemporary media anthropological approaches. The class combines the discussion of theoretical and ethical issues, film and video screenings, and practical assignments in visual ethnography, using a variety of available media.

This course aims to engage students in an informed and critical study of contemporary China. Focusing on the historical continuity of Chinese society as well as its breaking away from tradition in the post-1949 era, the course encourages students to reflect on China's social transformations over the past seven decades from an anthropological perspective. Key topics include: 1) historical and sociocultural institutions (Chinese kinship, gender and marriage, popular religion and rituals, language and arts); 2) socialist transformations and aftermath (rural and urban transformations, socialist revolution, and the post-Mao reforms); and 3) China's global engagements (environment and development, media and young citizenship, and contested sociopolitical spaces). This course highlights the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of Chinese culture and society, as it draws from materials in other disciplines and beyond academia (such as journalism and documentary film) to supplement ethnographic readings on contemporary China.

Measuring students, norming test results, ranking students and schools, and "racing to the top" are endeavors that produce, according to a competitive paradigm, not only triumphant winners, but also deficient losers. Are there better, more inclusive and more socially just ways to envision and carry out the mission of education? How else might stigmatized students--those who are often perceived only as marginalized, "broken," and in need of "fixing"--be seen and positively incorporated in school systems? This course explores these and related questions, using an anthropological approach to identify the possible riches as well as perceived liabilities "brought to school" by those students who often struggle disproportionately in most educational systems. They include students whose biopsychological functioning is different enough for them to be labeled as "disabled"; students who are poor or have access to very limited economic resources; aboriginal students still negatively affected by their parents and grandparents having been forced to live far from family and home in residential boarding schools; and students whose home language is either a language other than English or a devalued variety of English. Class readings include both ethnographic accounts of such students' lived experiences as well as investigations of various proposed policies of school reform.

This course provides an anthropological overview of Southeast Asia, one of the most diverse and fascinating regions of the world, with a focus and required field component in Indonesia. Because of the Indonesia trip, the course requires an application and students are responsible for some expenses, including airfare. As a survey of Southeast Asian cultural groups and histories from an ethnographic perspective, the course begins on campus, but finishes in Yogyakarta, Central Java'a city often described as the cultural heart of Indonesia, and the country's center of higher education. In the first section of the class students investigate the prehistory, archaeology, and initial migration to the region. Students then examine the origins of agriculture and the development of complex state societies, and the influence of world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and particularly Islam) in the cultural development of SE Asia. Students then look at case studies of `indigenous' peoples in the region. Students also explore the economic and cultural impact of European colonialism and the response of SE Asian people to the European presence, as well as the post-colonial period of nation building. The final section of the course is more geographically focused, and looks at the cultural component of many important issues in modern day Indonesia, including environmental decline and deforestation, the impact of globalization and industrialization, the problems of ethnic and religious minorities, and human rights concerns. Students develop individual research projects that incorporate both library research and ethnographic fieldwork while in Indonesia. The Indonesia portion of the course lasts approximately 18 days, beginning shortly after the semester ends, and features an immersive stay at a local university including language instruction, guest lectures by Indonesian scholars, trips to cultural and historic sites, ethnographic projects, a multi-night stay in a rural village, and potential trips to Bali or other neighboring islands. Puget Sound students stay in the dorms alongside Indonesian students, some of whom sit in on class sessions and help introduce the visitors to their culture and lifestyle through group activities. Two faculty members accompany the group, and course meetings continue abroad, while taking advantage of the Indonesian setting with ethnographic assignments and individualized research projects developed prior to departure. The course is limited to 10-12 students and requires an application and instructor permission. There are fees related to the trip, including the plane ticket. Contact the course instructor for more information.

NOTE: This course will require an 18-day field component in Indonesia, and will require students to pay their own airfare, as well as other potential program fees. Applications will be accepted from all students who have met the prerequisite of SOAN 200 (Cultural Anthropology), and a panel of two faculty members (the instructor and one other member from SOAN or the Asian Studies Program) will evaluate applications on the basis of: (1) academic performance, (2) well-articulated ability/willingness to deal with adverse situations and cultural difference, (3) recommendations by Puget Sound faculty members, (4) interest and enthusiasm for study in and about Southeast Asia, and (5) a clean disciplinary record at the university.

The field of criminology covers two main areas: (1) analysis of law-breaking and (2) investigation of the ways in which laws are made and enforced by the criminal justice system. The first seeks to answer the question, Why do people break (or follow) the law? The second asks, How is (criminal) law made and enforced? These issues are examined historically and cross-nationally but there is particular attention given to contemporary conditions in the United States, a country with a high rate of offending and probably the highest rate of incarceration in the world. In addition to investigating the variation in offending and victimization, the course examines the extent to which the U.S. criminal justice system is biased against certain classes and groups.

This course explores the rise of identity politics within Latin America since the 1990s. It asks how ethnic, racial, feminist, sexual, and transnational identity politics have shaped the nature and goals of a diverse array of social movements in the region. It draws on ethnographic analyses to analyze how specific instances of identity politics emerged from particular historical and national contexts to challenge traditional hierarchies of power in new ways. The course also utilizes fictional, testimonial, and film sources for further investigation of the experiences of participants within these movements and their implications for transformations in Latin American society.

This course examines how culture, identity, and ethics are implicated in economic development efforts around the globe and here at home. Through a critical examination of major development theories and their assumptions about the nature of the global system and the meaning of difference within it, the course explores whose ideas about development matter, how they manifest in terms of particular policies and politics, and what stakes they pose for different social groups. In particular, the course explores how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, health, environment, and education, among other things, have structured development differences. In doing so, the course interrogates the role that colonialism, science, capitalism, and activism have played in shaping development norms and challenges to them. The course engages interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to development through a combination of theoretical and ethnographic texts, as well as experiential learning. This course counts as one of the core courses for the Global Development Studies Designation.

The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, with the movement of people, capital, and cultures across borders transforming lives all over the globe. Yet globalization also shapes, and is shaped by, gender, class, race/ethnicity, age, sexuality, and other axes of difference and inequality. This course examines how gender relations are embedded in practices of globalizing capitalism. Not only does globalization shape the lives of men and women in distinct ways, but the social and economic changes accompanying globalization affect power relations involved in masculine domination. The course examines key developments at the nexus of globalization and gender: the feminization of poverty, feminization of migration, and feminization of workforces which are consistent features of transnational production processes. Besides analyzing the gendered consequences of globalization, including how globalization shapes the lived experiences of women worldwide, it also foregrounds how gendered subjects constitute processes of globalization. Special attention is given to how gender shapes our ideas of what counts as "work," both paid and unpaid, globally, as well as how gender permeates institutions, especially workplaces, but also the government and international organizations.

This course grounds an understanding of many of our social and cultural conflicts within two dominant systems: First, a political-economy that has operated largely in the interests of the elite and thereby produced a level of economic inequality not seen in the United States in at least a century; second, an American empire that, despite continuing displays of force and the stationing of troops across the globe, is showing clear signs of overreach and decline. Beyond manifestations of coercive power, the course explores the system of propaganda and disinformation that seeks to maintain legitimacy and consent. What does it mean for the individual to live in times of such strain? How do these conditions interact with a cultural system that increasingly puts Americans into hostile camps divided by politics, race, gender, education, generation, location, and other factors? In short, a major concern of the course is with what Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to as the "Three Evils": racism, materialism (especially poverty and exploitation), and militarism. But just as MLK Jr. did not call for despair, we recognize that resistance is not futile, and the course explores a vision for a hopeful future based on social movements and social change.

In the contemporary world, tourism is often the foremost process that brings together people from different parts of the world, allowing those from vastly different societies to interact on a face-to-face basis under peaceful, if not always equal, circumstances. As such, tourism as a phenomenon and as a process raises questions about global interconnections and global movements of finance, cultural and material artifacts, ideas, and people across national and cultural boundaries. The two questions this course addresses throughout the semester are 1) what are the economic, political, social, cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism in low and middle income countries? and 2) what are the tradeoffs associated with tourism? In tackling these two questions the course examines a wide range of issues, including the political, economic, social, and cultural implications of tourism, the impact of global tourism on environmental and global conservation efforts, and tourism as a vehicle of social change and as a facilitator of cultural and material globalization. Crosslisted as IPE/SOAN 323.

The course has a two-fold purpose: first, to analyze the political, economic, and cultural forces creating interdependence in the world, and second, to adopt a comparative perspective and to investigate in some depth the social systems in a variety of countries.

Changes in transportation, information, and communication technology, as well as artificial intelligence and automation are rapidly transforming occupational and commercial arrangements. These forces of transnational economic integration undermine conventional organizational and commercial forms, and in so doing alter the ways people execute work and management in many fields. This course examines these phenomena by focusing on work and management in different phases of product and service supply chains locally and globally, in addition to examining differences in experience of these processes on the basis of race, class, gender, nativity, and other intersecting social dimensions.

This course examines the sociological dimensions of health, illness and the profession of medicine. Specifically, this course will address five primary themes: 1) The social construction of health and disease and medical knowledge; 2) health and illness behavior: the study of behaviors related to staying healthy and to interpreting and responding to symptoms of illness; 3) Social Epidemiology: the study of patterns of distribution of disease and mortality in the United States; 4) the roles that patients, physicians, and other players enact in the context of healthcare settings; and 5) the socialization and organization of health care professionals.

This course serves as an introduction to issues surrounding global health. Students explore multiple mechanisms that lead to health inequalities around the world, along with policies and interventions that aim to deal with issues of morbidity and mortality at a national and/or global scale. Topics covered in this course include, but are not limited to: the impact of globalization on the health of specific populations, socioeconomic contexts of disease, issues of infectious disease and nutrition, the interplay between culture and health, ethical and human rights concerns, and the role of NGOs and nonprofits in global health.

Disability studies offers perhaps the most trenchant critique of "the hegemony of the normal"--that is, the reification and privileging of certain numerical indices (for example, IQ score; body mass index; weight and height; complete blood count; range of motion; brainwave frequencies; and other such measurements which are then regarded as "better" or "worse" than comparable numbers). While certainly accepting the importance of such measurements in designing treatments and strategies to improve the quality of life for people living in pain, disability studies seeks to balance this "experience-distant" emphasis on "the quantified life" with "experience-near" insights. Thus disability studies seeks out, reflects on, and tries to incorporate and prioritize the meta-biological realities of the lived experiences of people with disabilities (defined here as lifelong or chronic biological and/or psychological impairments), especially in policy-making endeavors inspired by ideals of social justice. Hence this course focuses on issues of power, disparity, and diversity of experience and identities, particularly as these affect and are affected by the minds and bodies of individuals who "have" (or are socially close to people who "have") conditions that mark them as "not normal". Unlike studies done from the perspective of the healing professions, where non-normalcy is regarded as a condition to be helped or remedied, this course, following the perspective of disability studies, is less concerned with identifying and "fixing" deviation from some statistically defined ideal range, and more directly focused on socially grounded, ever-dynamic identity construction and its relation to emancipatory social change, especially when these processes involve confrontations between individuals with disabilities and the various social institutions (e.g. education, health care, legal and economic systems) they (or their caregivers) must deal with throughout their lives.

Utilizing key aspects of the ethnographic approach and methodology, and complemented with a constellation of interdisciplinary scholarly material tethered to anthropology, this course turns the ethnographic lens on the recent American past. Through a sequential trajectory comprising student-led explorations of American cultural ephemera, students assemble an analytic and empirically-grounded understanding of the evolving American zeitgeist in the decades preceding the postmodern and neoliberal turn. In the second half of the course, students consider a series of lectures and readings that illuminate America's paradigmatic immersion in the postmodern turn, and coincidentally, the extrapolation of the social, political, and economic relations endemic to neoliberalism and the neoliberal era. In the final segment of the course, students peruse a rotating set of theoretically adept materials that seek to explain the American present, and subsequently evaluate these various frameworks based on the understandings of the recent American past they've now assembled.

Islam has significant influence on a broad array of nations, ethnic groups, and local expressions of culture, and plays a role in shaping societies' politics, economics, and law. Taking a practice-focused, anthropological perspective on the study of religion, this course examines the many ways in which culture and society have been co-influenced by Islam in different parts of the world, including here in the Pacific Northwest. The objective of this course is to move beyond stereotypes and essentialization to better understand the diverse, lived experience of Muslims around the world, and the ways that collaborative, ethnographic social science can help in understanding Islam as a way of life. The course aims to help students develop a critical awareness of the ways Muslims' understandings of their faith can be mediated by social, economic, and political phenomena. Students further explore representational politics and power relations surrounding Islam, and how Western powers have historically represented the Islamic world and Muslims, both at home and abroad.

This course offers a critical analysis of what it means to be a man using a sociological lens. Feminist scholars made gender visible, problematizing both femininities and masculinities in order to challenge and transform unequal gender relations. Yet until recent decades, men were rather invisible as men, as gendered beings, in academic research. Building on the insights of gender studies, the course emphasizes the socially constructed, power-laden, and historically and culturally variable character of masculinities in its multiple forms. Readings highlight the individual, interactional, and institutional processes through which men become men and "do masculinity" in relation to both women and other men. Using an intersectional approach, the course also explores how masculinities are shaped by other axes of difference and inequality, including class, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and age. Masculinities are analyzed across multiple contexts over the life course, including intimate relationships, schools, families, workplaces, and organizations. Diverse forms of masculinities in the United States as well as masculinities in Mexico, Russia, and Western Europe will be considered.

Political ecology is an active interdisciplinary framework with foundations in anthropology, geography, environmental studies and the biological sciences. Its central contention is that our understanding of environmental issues and environmental change must include an analysis of the social, political, economic, and cultural context in which they are produced. Through a set of advanced readings in the social sciences, students in this course become familiar with the genealogy of this interdisciplinary approach, the keystone texts that inform contemporary political/ecological work, and the new directions that comprise the cutting edge of political ecology. Recurring themes in the reading list will examine indigenous peoples' struggle over resources, the construction of nature through the capitalist lens, and an examination of sustainability in both discourse and practice. Students conduct original ethnographic research that builds upon these areas of interest.

Advanced coursework in anthropology, sociology, and/or international political economy is strongly recommended.

Sociology has long sought scientific status. In the process, it has tended to squeeze out the human and personal from its vocabulary and methods. This course is designed to tackle the crucial questions of sociology by approaching them through an examination of works of literature (for novelists are often excellent microsociologists) and through personal social histories to try and arrive at the abstract and theoretical aspects of sociology from the personal and concrete. The unifying theme of the course is emancipation. This course is conducted in seminar format requiring extensive class participation.

This seminar involves an in-depth examination of selected topics in anthropology and/or sociology. A different topic is selected by faculty each time it is offered. Relevant theory and current research is examined. Students are responsible for research papers and presentations under close supervision of the faculty.

In this capstone course students bring together their previous conceptual, theoretical, and empirical knowledge and skills in sociology and anthropology in order to propose and ultimately investigate a social-scientific research question. Much of the work is done independently while under the supervision of the thesis instructor. In addition to the written report, students also give a public presentation of their thesis.

This course is an optional continuation of SOAN 490, Senior Thesis, for students interested in gathering additional and primary empirical data. Working from their proposed research question from SOAN 490, students must propose a research design, gather and analyze data, and use the results to answer their research question.

Conducting original, independent research is central to the experience of the Sociology and Anthropology major. This activity credit course pairs a student with a SOAN professor to collaborate on a sociological or anthropological research project in progress. In the capacity of research assistant, the student contributes to the project through tasks that may include interviewing, interview transcription, survey administration, data indexing, data summary, bibliographic research and literature review, data coding, data input, and research briefs. Specific details for each project will be specified in a written proposal prepared by the student and professor and approved by the department chair. The proposal will (a) articulate the nature and aims of the research project; (b) set forth the terms of the work to be undertaken by the student; and (c) identify the desired research skills and objectives to be pursued. At the end of the semester, the student prepares a written summary of the experience, reflecting on skills obtained, challenges faced, knowledge acquired, and experiences gained through the assistantship.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork. This course is not applicable to the Upper-Division Graduation Requirement. Only 1.0 unit may be assigned to an individual internship and no more than 2.0 units of internship credit, or internship credit in combination with co-operative education credit, may be applied to an undergraduate degree.

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork. This course is not applicable to the Upper-Division Graduation Requirement. Only 1.0 unit may be assigned to an individual internship and no more than 2.0 units of internship credit, or internship credit in combination with co-operative education credit, may be applied to an undergraduate degree.