SDG Detail

ANTHRO 247 : Anthropology Today: Debates in Culture

Undergraduate course

Project description

The primary aim is to provide students with an introduction to some of the more topical and controversial themes that social anthropologists are currently engaged with. Topics include: the culture of terrorism, anthropology and cyberculture, the anthropological study of prisons, race and racism, and the politics of representation. The course will introduce you to some of the key contemporary issues and debates that anthropologists are engaged in. This subject will contextualise the discipline of anthropology in the wider world, connecting anthropological practice to technological, political and ethical realities of contemporary life. In this course, through the use of case study and anthropological theory, we will look at digital technologies, organisational ethnographies and the role of the anthropologist in the public sphere. By nature of the discipline, anthropologists are constantly in contact with the world around them. We take our experiences home and use them as data, but our relationship with the world is always more complex than objective observation. Our work extends beyond the academy into public and political life. This subject will consider some of the ways in which ethnographers deal with the multitude of loyalties that our fieldwork engenders in the world today.

Year 2022

Location New Zealand

Organization University of Auckland

Project aims

Project outcome

By the end of this course, students will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of key anthropological concepts that are relevant to the current medical, economic, and environmental crises (Capability 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 6.1 and 6.2) Demonstrate a familiarity with anthropological case studies of related to medical, economic, and environmental anthropology (Capability 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 6.1 and 6.2) Demonstrate ability to do library research at an appropriate level (Capability 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2) Demonstrate reading, writing and discussion skills at an appropriate level (Capability 1.1, 1.2, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.2)