Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Department: Anthropology

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: How have audiovisual technologies shaped our attempts to understand and represent human culture and society? Does development in multimedia technologies help or undermine our capacities to elicit the "truth" and "reality"? In this seminar, we will explore the field of visual anthropology to consider how different media practices shape and inform our pursuit of knowledge about human conditions. Lectures, readings, and discussions will furnish students with key concepts for analyzing and articulating media practices through the lens of authorship, audience, circulation, and archival practices. Throughout the course, students will engage with and develop approaches to challenging subjects of representation, such as sensorial experiences, taboos, memories of violence and trauma, and politically charged cross-cultural dialogues. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: ANTH 328. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Although there are no required prerequisites to this course, students are recommended to have some background in anthropology, cinema and media studies, history, or other related fields in social sciences. Class readings and mini lectures will provide some historical backgrounds and key approaches in anthropology. Students are expected to be able to grasp key concepts in anthropology quickly while engaging with a fairly substantial amount of workload.