ANSO 103 Introduction to Society and Culture This course is an introduction to the academic study of culture and social structure, as developed through the fields of cultural anthropology and sociology. Students will develop a vocabulary of core concepts and analytical skills for the study of cultures and societies both local and global. Through readings, films, lectures, class discussions, and experiential projects, students will explore the nature of communities, organizations, and institutions; the system of meanings that form and inform them; and the interplay between individuals' lives and the societies in which they live. Along the way, students will be asked to apply course concepts to their own lives in a critical way, and to reflect upon how such issues as belief systems, social stratification, culture change, gender roles, etc. play out in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world.

ANSO 212 Quantitative Research Methods An introduction to the use of quantitative analysis and statistical reasoning in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and human development and social relations. The course will emphasize understanding and critiquing data and conclusions, and students will produce data sets as well. Students will develop skill in using SPSS. ANSO-103

ANSO 220 Special Topics: Anthropology & Sociology This course will focus upon a topic in Anthropology and Sociology that is not addressed in the department's regular offerings. The course can be repeated with a different topic. Take ANSO-103

ANSO 220 ST: World At Work In this course, we will explore work practices of individuals and social groups in different sectors and societies with particular attention to how people form particular identities in various work processes while their work experiences also affect their lives outside of work. We will address the intersectionalities of class, racial and ethnic, and gender and sexual inequalities at work and explore pressing issues of the new economy such as job (in)security, work-life balance, health and wellbeing, and family-work relations along with the formations of consent and resistance to work discipline. Must have taken ANSO-103.

ANSO 220 The Family This course examines the institution of The Family, primarily from a critical perspective. After situating The Family in cultural and historical structures of race/ethnicity, class, and gender, we explore the institution as a site for the production and reproduction of femininity, masculinity, and (hetero)sexuality. ANSO-103

ANSO 220 Gentrifiction This course will provide a survey of theories, historical studies, and debates on gentrification. We will first examine popular conceptualizations of gentrification. Students will learn about the application of the "revanchist" model of gentrification. We will then examine research studies that focus on new forms of gentrification from the Global South. In the context of the climate crisis, we will focus on environmental gentrification and how it affects working-class communities.

ANSO 220 Chinatowns in the Americas This course will provide a survey of theories and historical studies on immigration and the formation of migrant neighborhoods. We will first examine the formation of trans-Pacific Chinese American communities. We will then examine the 19th Century "coolie" trade to former European colonies in Latin America. Lastly, we will give focus on the formation and transformation of Chinatowns in large US metropolitan areas. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, students will learn about sexualized racial fears tied to public health concerns in late-19th Century US Chinatowns.

ANSO 220 ST: Saving Humanity: The Ethics of Politics of Humanitarianism The need to save humanity, alleviate human suffering, and inspire compassion for the "humanity" of others have become essential forces in contemporary global politics. Military interventions to help prevent war crimes or providing relief for people in need are instances where human rights activists and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in shaping what it means to be human or have "humanity," whose suffering is legitimized, and who deserves care. Calling on the work of anthropologists, sociologists, and legal scholars, this course will surface assumptions of human rights work and humanitarianism and reveal the tensions they contain. We will examine the common origins and differences among human rights and humanitarianism, the transformations of transnational regimes of care, and the construction and reproduction of "humanitarian crises" as key elements in contemporary politics. The course covers topics such as human rights activism, refugees and forced displacement, transitional justice, and humanitarian intervention. ANSO-103

ANSO 220 Media Ecologies How do media technologies shape our lives? Do we bend our use of them to our own free will, or do media, in the words of one famous scholar, "determine our condition"? This course takes an "ecological" approach to media by considering equally how media technologies develop within specific cultural contexts and how technologies, once in regular use and "stable," shape cultures and social structures in turn-a "symbiosis" of technological and cultural development. After laying some theoretical groundwork, we survey the historical advent of technologies like the printing press, sound recording, photography, and film, interrogating the impacts of such technologies on everything from social structures to sensory perception. The remainder of the course delves into critical problems and "media ecologies" of the present day, from the engineering of urban landscapes to audiovisual surveillance networks to social media activism to virtual worlds, arriving at a richer understanding of how media operate as environments, and environments as media. Students will respond regularly to readings on forums, write several short ethnographic and critical reflection papers, and produce a mid-length, final research paper. Must have previously taken ANSO-103.

ANSO 220 ST: North African Encounters: Society and Culture in Transnational Perspective This course will focus upon a topic in Anthropology and Sociology that is not addressed in the department's regular offerings. The course can be repeated with a different topic. Take ANSO-103

ANSO 220 Drugs and Social Reality In this introduction to the sociological study of drugs, we will explore the interplay between drugs and society with a focus on social meanings attached to different drugs, their use, abuse, markets, and regulation. Drawing from scholarly research, journalism, and popular cultural productions, we will investigate how these social meanings have historically been and continue to be informed by power, prejudice, and profits. Topics and themes include crime and deviance, racism, class stratification, mental health, and medicalization. By developing a sociological framework for understanding the impact drugs and drug policies have on society, you will improve your abilities to analyze and interpret data, recognize bias and faulty reasoning, and evaluate public policies. You will develop and demonstrate these abilities through a final essay, an annotated bibliography, an art assignment, quizzes, and other in-class activities. Students must take ANSO-103 before taking this course.

ANSO 225 Sex and Sexualities This course provides students with an overview of influential theories about the social aspects of sex and sexuality, as well as some direct engagement with ethnographic representations of sexual worlds and their politics. It examines the diversity of human sexual identities and activities in their historical, philosophical, legal, cultural, and social contexts. This course will consider sex and sexualities in an intersectional way, that is, in and through their intersections with issues of race, class, gender, nationality, and globality. ANSO-103 or CGHL-120

ANSO 226 Theory in Action: Context, Positionality And Practical Application Theories have been described in different ways across social movements. They have been defined as integral to liberation, as ancestral legacies, as weapons, and/or as inhabiting our bodies and dictating our actions and knowledges. However, prominent ideas remain that describe theory as abstract and disconnected from reality, considering it an elite and privileged process while divorcing it form action. Nevertheless, all social movements are informed by theories that dictate an understanding of a problem and possible solutions. This course, through an examination of praxis, social movements, and intersectional literature, invites students to consider the ways theory served a key role in social justice projects like the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter, Mothers of East L.A., and tuition equity for undocumented migrants. Students will be exposed to hopeful and flexible theory that foregrounds the possibility of social change. Specifically, they will reflect on their own positionality as an entry point to understanding social problems and endeavor to put theory into practice, or as Aida Hurtado explains, deconstructing while reconstructing Sophomores only

ANSO 232 Nature & Society: Intro Pol. Ecology This course will introduce students to the sub-discipline of political ecology, a field broadly concerned with the relationships between nature and social power. In other words, this course will focus on developing an understanding of how social relations and politico-economic systems produce environmental problems, structure access to natural resources, the resulting struggles over 'nature' and how and in whose interests these may or may not be resolved.Because the field is broad, the course has been structured into themes that we will explore each week. ANSO-103

ANSO 236 Race and Racism This course equips students with a comprehensive understanding of "race" as a socio-political construct, and of racism as a structural and institutional process. Focusing primarily on the twentieth and twenty-first century United States, the course explores how race operates as an organizing principle of American life. It examines the historical development of notions of racial difference and the creation of racial inequality through science, philosophy, the law, and public policy; analyzes how contemporary social institutions perpetuate racial inequality; and considers the landscape of modern racial politics. ANSO-103

ANSO 240 Language, Culture and Society This course examines the relationship among language, culture and society with a special emphasis on the social and cultural factors that affect our use of and attitudes towards language. By examining how language is used in different socio-cultural contexts from an anthropological perspective, we will explore not only how language use varies according to social contexts and social groups, but also the roles that different varieties of language play in the expression of social identity and the production and reproduction of stereotypes and power relationships. ANSO-103

ANSO 245 Qualitative Research Methods This course provides students with the methodological tools and concepts that provide the foundation of sound, ethical, qualitative, ethnographic research. Using a project-based approach, students learn about and gain experience with conceptualizing, designing, implementing, and writing up the results of a qualitative research project. ANSO-103 and Sophomore Standing

ANSO 255 You Are What You Eat: Food and Identity In a Global Perspective The goal of this course is to examine the social, symbolic, and political-economic roles of what and how we eat. While eating is essential to our survival, we rarely pay attention to what we eat and why. We will look at the significance of food and eating with particular attention to how people define themselves differently through their foodways. We will also study food's role in maintaining economic and social relations, cultural conceptions of health, and religion. Finally, the class examines the complex economic and political changes in food systems and the persistence of food's role as an expression of identity, social and ethnic markers. This course is a Shared Passages Sophomore Seminar.

ANSO 270 Communities and Schools Drawing on anthropological theories, this course will explore the role of schooling and other educational practices in the production of knowledge and the reproduction of hierarchies both in the United States and abroad. Through their participation in the service-learning component of the course, students will be able to examine firsthand how reproduction occurs in the local educational system. ANSO-103

ANSO 272 Incredible India This course will introduce students to a range of contemporary Indian Problems, from the modern Indian state and its economy to the hierarchical systems of caste, class and gender that structure modern Indian society. In addition to reading a range of texts from diverse disciplines such as history, anthropology, literature, and economics, students will also engage with primary texts. ANSO-103

ANSO 280 Geography of Africanness This course examines African identities and experiences across diverse topographies and landscapes, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives (from social and cultural anthropology to history and political geography). It explores the extension of Africanness, its intersections with Blackness, and diasporic experiences, with a focus on the concept of "thinking Africa from its edges." Through multiple scales of analysis-from individual lived experiences to global representations-the course unpacks African identities and territories. It examines spaces as both literal locations and vernacular metaphors for human experiences, analyzing forests, deserts, and oceans not just as physical landscapes but as symbolic tropes to imagine refuges, challenges, and connections. Combining theoretical texts with ethnographies and historical accounts, the course highlights diverse experiences and methodologies. It critically interrogates knowledge production, the categories used to make sense of different spaces, and how these are used to plan governance, ensure control, and organize resistance.

ANSO 288 Sports in East Asia Whether it's Naomi Osaka on the basketball tennis court, Otani hitting homeruns in Seattle, or the ubiquitous martial arts, "East Asian" sports seem to be everywhere these days. How did this come about? What can we learn about East Asian societies -- and our own -- from studying sports? These are some of the questions we will be tackling as we explore the history and significance of sports in East Asia. Drawing from a combination of theoretical writings, comparative studies, and works focused on East Asia, we will consider sports in terms of several issues: invented traditions, nationalism, body culture, gender, stardom, and the modern Olympics, to name just a few.

ANSO 290 Africa in Global Context This course examines the ways that people and places on the African continent have been and continue to be connected to global dynamics and explores the implications of these past and present connections for people's lives as they are lived today. ANSO-103

ANSO 292 Development and Dispossession This course takes a critical approach to the study of development, focusing particular attention on the displacement and dispossession of local populations. Using contemporary case studies, we examine how neoliberal policies and practices play out in various development sectors, including agriculture, infrastructure, and the extractive industry, in both rural and urban spaces in the U.S. and around the world. This course is a Shared Passages Sophomore Seminar.

ANSO 295 ST: Society on Film This course will consider film as a vehicle for exploring and understanding the social world. As audiovisual media, films can provide compelling insights and evoke strong emotions, yet also potentially manipulate and deceive, possibly more than other media or methods. Therefore, we ask: how reliable are films as ways of knowing and seeing? We will learn to appreciate film as a guide and teacher, yet also sharpen our skepticism toward film the trickster. In the process, we will also deepen our understanding of multiple social and cultural issues through critically viewing and analyzing several narrative films from modern global cinema. Must have taken ANSO-103

ANSO 295 Don't Stop the Music: Social Dimensions Of Musical Performance and Participation We humans play, perform, and participate in music in countless different ways across diverse cultural contexts. In this course, we consider these modes of performance and participation in order to understand our own, largely unexamined and culturally-produced assumptions about music, broadly defined. In doing so, we aim to see more clearly how our own position in the social world conditions our experiences and interactions, both musically and more generally. We will pay especially close attention to how our ways of consuming, valuing, and performing music are shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and other dimensions of our social locations.

ANSO 295 On Being Human in Africa The course examines the multiple experiences of Africans (their racialized and gendered existences, their affective relations, their ways of relating to and caring for each other and the land) and explores what it means to think and write about Africa. The course examines representations and discourses including fiction, academic writing, and social media and considers new paradigms and innovative technologies. Sophomores only

ANSO 315 Sound & Culture in the Middle East An introduction to the popular culture and cultural politics of the modern Middle East, as heard through the medium of sound. Exploring the varied soundscapes and musical cultures of the region, we will examine how sound shapes, reinforces, critiques, and transforms social life, from the local to the international level. Listening to music as both an aesthetic object and a site for the contestation of ideas, we will learn about the ways in which music is used to articulate an array of competing visions: of the nation, colony and post-colony; religion, gender, and sexuality; globalization, hybridity, and modernity. MUSC-103, ANSO-103 or Instructor Permission

ANSO 320 Advanced Seminar: Special Topics in Anthropology and Sociology A seminar for students who wish to explore significant issues in sociology or anthropology at a more advanced level. Topics may vary from year to year. ANSO-103 and one 200-level ANSO course

ANSO 320 Far-Right and Opposition: Neoliberalism, Mobilization, Resistance And Alternatives A specter is haunting the world; the specter of far-right politics. At the dawn of the 21st century, far-right politics have been on the rise in various societies, reflecting the relationships between deepening social inequalities and authoritarian politics. Yet, this moment also offers hope with increasing opposition and collective action. In this course, we will discuss recent works on political mobilization and social activism to develop critical perspectives on the rise of far-right politics. We will address recent discourses of conservative politics, youth radicalization in everyday life, and the organization of resistance in instances like the Black Lives Matter Movement. Must have taken ANSO-103 and at least one 200-level ANSO class.

ANSO 320 Reel Blacks: Conversations in African Am Erican Visual Culture Black identity on film has been formed and fractured by historical and political-economic forces both within and outside of the Black community itself and, more problematically, by those in control of the means of production (i.e. Hollywood). This course explores African American history, art and culture by drawing on a range of scholarly approaches including critical race theory, gender and sexuality studies, cinema studies, and visual anthropology, to name a few. This course will place African American films in conversation with theoretical, philosophical, historical and literary texts, and will provide conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, to other art forms, to audiences and individual viewers, as well as society at large. Must have taken ANSO-103 and 1 200-level ANSO class

ANSO 320 Religion and Capitalism Relationships between religion and capitalism influence our lives in multifaceted ways. Religion plays a crucial role not only in formation of identities, social interactions and communities but also in work experiences, political engagement and social activism. In this course, we will explore critical approaches to address how individuals and social groups both mediate and get affected by these dynamic affiliations between religion and capitalism. We will build on critical social theorists like Marx, Weber, Foucault, and Gramsci to focus on religious and neoliberal discourses at work, the role of religion in political mobilization and hegemony, and religion in resistance to capitalism. Must have taken at least one 200-level ANSO class.

ANSO 320 In Pursuit of Justice Human Rights in Global Perspective One of the most profound legacies of the 20th century has been the development of human rights as a safeguard against state violence and other crimes against humanity. Since the end of World War II, human rights have emerged as the dominant global concept to conceptualize social justice around the world. But what are human rights? What are their origins? What do we mean by "human" when we speak of human rights? And how does the universal framework of human rights accommodate cultural diversity and local interpretations of rights? This course examines the origins and expansions of human rights discourse, its impact on national formations, and its integration into local struggles. We will explore different perspectives about the nature, origin, development, and purpose of human rights, in addition to the issues that are raised by debates about these perspectives. Following an overview of the theories and treaties that comprise the international code of human rights, we will examine a series of case studies that illustrate how human rights have been applied in different global contexts. By examining various justice-seeking movements, such as indigenous rights, women's rights, and transitional justice activism, the course will look at how human rights have evolved over time in response to political and social changes. Must have taken ANSO-103 and 1 200-level ANSO class.

ANSO 320 Social Policy and Social Justice 200-level ANSO course. - Must be completed prior to taking this course.

ANSO 322 Prisoners and Detainees Prisoners and Detainees: Race, Citizenship, and Imprisonment: This course examines the ways laws and imprisonment have become means to discipline bodies imagined as dangerous, disposable, and detrimental to the state, in short, non-citizens. It specifically merges two social processes that define non-citizenship -the prison industrial complex and deportability- as mechanisms that actively prohibit entry into the space of belonging for those who are illegalized and strips citizenship from those who are criminalized. We will analyze illegalization and criminalization as social, political, and cultural processes that function to police, discipline, distinguish, and re/form the "other". ANSO-103 and one 200-level ANSO course

ANSO 330 Water, Environment & Society Water, Environment, and Society The world's water resources are widely considered to be in crisis. Water and society shape one another in a process of constant flux. The ways we value and manage water has implications for the environment, for our society, and for the flow of water itself. This course will examine major issues in comparative and international water policy, including water markets, privatization, dams and river basin management, environmental flows, social equity, and water governance. As such we will investigate the social processes of water management that transform water into an ecological resource, a hazard, a commercial product, or a vector for pollution. On the most part, we will focus our investigation on recent debates in the international arena, however, we will have a small section on applying these debates to our backyard case - the Kalamazoo River watershed. Some of the key questions that will guide our inquiry in this course are: Who controls water, why, and how? Who are the winners and losers of water management decisions? How do the ways we think about water influence decisions about its management? How might we make more just and equitable decisions about how to live with (and without) water? Take 1 200-level ANSO course.

ANSO 345 Sexuality in the Digital Age The constant presence of the internet at our fingertips has radically changed the ways in which we think, feel, and engage with sex - or has it? In this class we will examine relevant topics of pornography, sex work, pleasure, and apps used to find sexual partners in the context of our digital world. Students will learn about historical examples of sexuality and sexual cultures and norms that have changed and those that have remained consistent as sexual behavior moves back and forth between physical and digital space. ANSO-103 and one 200-level ANSO course

ANSO 357 Immigrants and Exiles From its classical reference to displaced communities as a result of wars of conquests or natural disasters to current movements of population across borders as a result of global capitalism, the concept of diaspora has accumulated an archive of academic and imaginative literature. This course, a comparative introduction to the study of diaspora, focuses on the development of diverse diasporic communities and their role on the current global stage. Our specific focus will be on how members of these communities stake their claims both to their home countries and to the countries in which they reside. ANSO-103 and one 200-level ANSO course

ANSO 365 Humans and Non-Humans What does it mean to be human? What is the history of the notion of the human, and who or what has been excluded from it? What does it mean to study non-humans through a humanistic frame? How can we know non-human beings? What kinds of knowledges exist at the edges of the discourse on the human? This course will introduce students to these issues through a combination of readings that engage with the field known as new materialisms to consider the ways in which the study of humanity has been challenged by new modes of thinking about being, producing situated answers to these questions. Must have taken ANSO-103 and any 200 level ANSO course.

ANSO 395 Disasters in the Making This course analyzes disasters as social, rather than purely "natural" phenomena. We will not deny the material dimensions of disaster events. We will, however, ask how political, economic, and cultural factors condition the likelihood of disaster (in its myriad forms), and how vulnerability to disaster-generated harm is not equally distributed across populations. We will consider how cognitive biases influence risk perception, and how communities recover from disasters after they occur. Finally we will examine how the media shape our interpretation of disasters. In short, we will consider how the causes, consequences, and understandings of disaster are socially and politically produced. Must have taken 1 ANSO 200-level course or with instructor permission.

ANSO 410 Missionaries to Pilgrims: Diasporic Retu This course explores the synergistic relationship between Africa and its diaspora through an analysis of return voyages. From 19th century formerly enslaves Africans who returned home after emancipation to contemporary religious and ethnic pilgrims seeking connection with their African ethnicity and or spirituality; the meeting space between the diaspora and Africa represents a contested terrain. Because Africa and the diaspora are ideological and political constructs, the class will engage the ways these constructions are negotiated and deployed across space and time. We will pay particular attention to questions of belonging, identity, and place and moments of miscommunication as Africa seeks to claim its diaspora and the diaspora makes claims on Africa. 300-level ANSO course

ANSO 422 Anticolonial & Antiracist Theory What is the "anti" in Anti-Colonial theory and Antiracism? How have communities across the globe theorized their experience as colonial subjects both in their lands as well as in the heart of empire? This course serves as a platform to collectively review key writings in both of these tomes of literature. Students will look at the basic tenants for each theory as well as ways they have been utilized to examine social structures and institutions. 300-level ANSO course.

ANSO 424 Border Epistemologies Border Epistemologies offers a framework for thinking about thinking borders. Through the analysis of theories and ethnographies of the border, this course responds to the theoretical challenges presented by Border Studies to Anthropology and sociology. This course engages questions about solidarity work and border gnosis in relation to scholarship. We engage focused, critical questions about mobility, difference, exclusion, production, reproduction, and resistance. This course asks students to consider the relationship between nationalism, capitalism, ethnocentrism, and violence through the reading of social theory that centers the praxis of migrants and other marginalized people; interrogate the epistemological and ontological bases of social science practice; and build their capacity for coalitional work. One 300-level ANSO course.

ANSO 426 Lest We Forget: Memory and Identity in the African Diaspora What is memory? What is identity? And how do we understand the relationship between these two concepts, particularly for communities once defined as commodities? Research suggests the significance of origins in the formation of individual and collective identity. However, for the African diaspora, origins and the memory associated with it are traversed by trauma and displacement engendered by slavery, the middle passage, and contemporary structural oppressions. This course explores the different ways memory is deployed by the African diaspora as both a protective and resistance apparatus to construct identity and support citizenship claims to their contemporary nation-states. Must have taken 1 ANSO 300-level course or with instructor permission.

ANSO 435 Informal Cities: Urban Configurations in The Global South For the first time in human history, more than half of the global population lives in urban areas, with a majority of them living in cities of the global South. Increasingly, the future of urbanism may remain less with New York and London and more in places like São Paulo, Mumbai, and Shanghai. This course critically reflects on the processes, structural forces and everyday forms of urban life that are at the core of rapid urban growth in the global South. Interdisciplinary scholarship, empirical case studies, and key theoretical works will be examined in-depth to understand urban informality and everyday life in southern cities. One 300-level ANSO course

ANSO 456 Queer Sexuality and the City The histories of modern cities and queer communities are inexorably intertwined. The structure of the city allowed queer folk to seek community in a variety of subcultural practices and behaviors. This course will examine the complicated relationship between sexuality and urban space by challenging the notion that our environments simply serves as the background for activities that take place within them. Instead, we will discuss how the modern city simultaneously shaped and was shaped by the development of modern queer identities. Topics include queer sexualities, the public/private binary, gayborhoods, identity formation & politics, and post-gayness. One 300-Level ANSO course.

ANSO 495 ST: Capitalism and Freedom The course covers subject formations in neoliberal times, with a particular focus on self and social identity, social influence, interpersonal relations, cultural links, prejudice, discrimination and diversity, gender, and social activism. In this course, we will uncover how liberal notions influence thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals, how people internalize and reproduce these ideas, norms and values in everyday life, how they can challenge and oppose these principles, and what they might offer as alternative ways of being. Must have taken at least one 300-level ANSO class.

ANSO 495 Freedom and Nothing But This course is an exploration of the contours of freedom. The central focus of the course will be freedom, what it means, how it arises, what blocks it, and how we might sustain it. Using the women's movement and the Haitian revolution as case studies, we will consider the following questions: How do social, political, and gender identities produce and limit access to freedom? Can different kinds of freedoms be incompatible? Students will have to explore other freedom movements through their research papers, which they will share with the class. Must have taken 1 300-level ANSO course.

ANSO 593 Senior Integrated Project Each program or department sets its own requirements for Senior Integrated Projects done in that department, including the range of acceptable projects, the required background of students doing projects, the format of the SIP, and the expected scope and depth of projects. See the Kalamazoo Curriculum -> Senior Integrated Project section of the Academic Catalog for more details. Permission of department and SIP supervisor required.

ANSO 600 Teaching Assistantship