Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: SOCIAL LIFE OF DNA

Department: Anthropology

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This upper level seminar examines the increasing significance of genetics as a central component of our social, economic, and political life. As the potential applications of DNA to our social life increasingly appear endless, this course asks how is genetic information reshaping our understanding of the value of life itself? In addition to identifying markers, scientific knowledge production around genetic information is reconstituting key ideas of risk, care, capital that impact our ideas of disability, race, kinship, citizenship, nationalism, and justice. In this class, our aim is to ask a) what is historically and materially distinct about genetic information as a metaphor for social processes, b) how is the value of life itself being reproduced and transformed for whom, and c) what are potential consequences we face by relating to one another through the geneticization of social life? Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: ANTH 321. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ANTH 521 if student has credit for ANTH 321.