Prof. Sarah Hlubik

T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM

This course will cover the archaeological record of the Pleistocene. Students will gain an understanding of the biological and geological setting of the time period, with a biogeographic overview of Plio-Pleistocene hominins, including the geological setting of the African continent. The course will cover the Early, Middle, and Late Pleistocene archaeological records of Africa in detail, with comparisons to the Eurasian records and discuss the methods through which we study these time periods. The discussion sections will...

Prof. Damina Khaira
By Arrangement

This course is focused on preparing students to do anthropological fieldwork and develop their own research projects. Through concrete case studies and practical exercises students will be introduced to different approaches to developing research problems, conducting research, and ethnographic writing. Topics covered will include defining research questions and objects of study, situating projects within scholarly literature, and bringing together research data and analysis in different forms of anthropological writing.

The aim...

Profs. Diana Loren and Patricia Capone
Thurs 12:00 PM - 02:45 PM
Vanserg 23

Archaeological data recovered from Harvard Yard provide a richer and more nuanced view of the 17th through 19th century lives of students and faculty in Harvard Yard, an area that includes the Old College and Harvard Indian College. Students will excavate in Harvard Yard, process and analyze artifacts, and report on the results. Additional topics to be covered include regional historical archaeology, research design, surveying, archival research, stratigraphy, and artifact analysis.

Prof. Jennifer Biddle

T 9:00 AM - 11:45 AM

The course is an introduction to Australian First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art and new media.  The focus is arts of the Central and Western Desert.  The course maps sites of language and cultural (re)production, forms of materiality and conditions of colonialism in order to develop appreciation of relationships between art, life and survival. Against neo-liberal and market driven tendencies to commodify Aboriginal culture, the course considers not only contexts in which art is made but what art...

Prof. Jason Ur

T/Th 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Archaeology has focused traditionally on excavations of settlement sites.  However, no settlement existed as an island; ancient peoples moved within a larger environment which constrained their actions while it was...

Prof. Joyhanna Garza
M 9:00am - 11:45am

The abrupt physical closures of 2020 continuing into the present moment have brought into sharp relief the urgency of taking the digital seriously as a mode by which sociality – however constrained – is created and maintained. Rather than posit a singular method of digital ethnography, this course is designed to expose students to different methods and theoretical entry points into ethnography in order to enable students to identify the methods which work best for their present and future research purposes.

Hence, the...

Prof. Anna Jabloner
Weds. 9:45 AM - 11:45 AM
 

The German word for science literally means “knowledge made.” In line with this meaning, STS approaches science as practice. The interdisciplinary field asks empirically and methodologically how knowledge is made, how truths become truths, and how matters come to matter and to be matters of fact.

This course serves as basic introduction to STS, highlighting key political interventions, theoretical contributions, and the field’s recent ascent into a burgeoning academic inter-discipline.