ANTH 1719 - ANTHROPOLOGY OF RACE AND SCIENCE

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
One of Anthropology's major contributions to the world was the concept of "Race". But after the 1940s it was abandoned and "Culture" became Anthropology's trademark. This course examines why this happened and how our understandings of culture and race are connected. This course takes a critical look at the narratives and discourses in and around race and its relationship to Anthropological and scientific thought. We will examine how these discourses essentialize and naturalize bodies as well as our understandings of them. We will explore narratives which use the tool and authoritative voice of Anthropology, science, scientific method and genetics. In addition, we will look at some of the historical and contemporary narratives of the biological underpinnings of race discourse and its incorporation into everyday imaginings of social identities. This course will seek to engage both the social and biological framings of race and attempt to demonstrate where these discourses converge and where they divert away from one another. In addition to academic readings we will look at blogs, internet posts and media to view and critique the ways in which science logic becomes racialized logic in everyday discourse.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Seminar
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Attributes: DSAS Diversity General Ed. Requirement, DSAS Social Science General Ed. Requirement, SCI Polymathic Contexts: Soc/Behav. GE. Req.

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