Learning and teaching are inseparable aspects of the same whole. What happens in the classroom is a sort of collective performance: there’s a co-creation of meaning and knowledge between students and teachers.
Non-human animals, more-than-humans, animal persons, biosociality, companion species, multispecies ethnography… all these concepts call into question a distinction that has nurtured anthropology for decades: nature versus culture. Animals force questions upon us that go to the heart of anthropology: How do we differ from animals? How does the ethnographic study of the interactions humans have with other living beings change our understanding of our own humanity? By examining works that range from ethnography to history and philosophy, we will consider how animals problematize our central assumptions about what it means to be human. Accordingly, this course explores a variety of ways in which human beings relate with animals and examines some conceptual tools that can help us make sense of the continuities between humans and other kinds of beings and the worlds we might inhabit with them.
Broadly speaking, Environmental Justice (EJ) refers to the conceptual connections and causal relationships between environmental issues and human rights. EJ is an interdisciplinary body of social science that includes theories of justice and the environment, development, sustainability, political ecology and human rights. The underlying principle of EJ is that everybody deserves the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live. Under the premise that environmental issues are social issues, in this seminar you are going to identify a particular environmental issue and explore the main social consequences said issue provokes.
This course is designed to introduce students to anthropological approaches to nature and environment. Environmental anthropology explores human participation in the natural world, including how people and cultures cause and react to environmental challenges. We explore interdependence among humans and nature, how people in various cultures conceptualize and interact with the environment, and how concepts of nature are intertwined in the debates around environmental problems.
Medical anthropology considers the cultural and social aspects of the body, health, sickness, and healing in cross-cultural perspective. In this course we move beyond common tendencies to narrowly focus on the biological dimensions of illness and healing. Instead we focus on the ways illness, health, and healing are embedded within distinct social, political, and cultural worlds. Topics covered will include the problem of belief; local theories of disease causation and healing efficacy; theories of embodiment; childbirth; medicalization; structural violence; power relations, and the distribution of risk.
This course is designed to introduce students to the analysis of the concept of human experience. This includes an introduction to the concept of human experience from a critical, anthropological perspective and to the methodological implications of this critical approach for the study of broad human phenomena. This course is designed to introduce the student to the social science of anthropology. There are 4 main fields in anthropology, which help to explain the behavior of peoples all over the world. The study of these fields will allow the student to learn about the origin and development of humans in the context of their physical and cultural environments. The student will learn about the workings of his/her own culture as well as the cultures of peoples in other parts of the world. The course will provide the student with the necessary knowledge to pursue more specific or advanced courses in anthropology at either the CEGEP or university level.
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