# Anthro 1853 - The Everyday: Ethnographic Visions and Representations Semester: Spring | Year offered: 2025 | Link: [Course Website](https://locator.tlt.harvard.edu/course/colgsas-225835/2024/spring/21192) Dr. Damina Khaira W 3-5:45pm “Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong My own beliefs are in my song The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then Makes no difference what group I'm in I am everyday people, yeah, yeah” “Everyday People” (1968) by Sly and the Family Stone, later covered by Aretha Franklin (1991) and Arrested Development (1992) In light of the ways in which social forces impact our individual and group behaviors, human daily routine, interactions and life events, to what extent are we “the same/ whatever we do”? Geared towards undergraduates at any level, this course seeks to understand how and why social thinkers and artists across various fields have long endeavored to conceptualize and represent “everyday life”. In particular, we will be looking at how “everyday life” has served as a methodological tool, a point of analysis and a literary trope in anthropological pursuits. In so doing, our classroom materials will include scholarly and ethnographic readings, as well as works of art, film and literature that seek to understand and represent how daily order and disruption frame individual and collective consciousness and behavior, and how power, labor and sociality construct social structure, action and reproduction. Holding a vision of engaged anthropology and transcending disciplinary boundaries, this course encourages students to observe how their questions and renewed awareness of the everyday informs them in their daily interactions with others and how they perceive the world and their surroundings. Students will also learn ethnography through doing ethnography, and in the process, collaborate on a community-driven classroom archive of everyday lived experiences. \*Note: Interested graduate students should contact course instructor. In your email, please outline your current project and motivations for the course. See also:- [ Undergraduate ](/course-area/departmental-courses-primarily-undergraduate-students) - [ Social Anthropology ](/course-area/social-anthropology) - [ 2025 ](/course-year/2025) - [ Spring ](/season/spring)