Public Notes

Sounding it Out: Music and African Diasporic Life This course is an exploration of the intersection of the histories of colonialism, museum practices and the construction of heritage in the present. In working to move away from extractive and oppressive legacies, how have museums confronted the multiple modes of coloniality? Through various examples, we ask: How does the history of colonialism shape what we come to experience as museum collections and exhibition displays? In what ways do constructions and contestations of heritage reveal enduring colonialities, and how can contemporary art, for instance, be part of forging shared and liveable spaces amongst communities? Can be museums be liberatory spaces? What do we want museums and cultural institutions of the future to look like?

Public Notes

This course explores gender and sexuality through an anthropological lens, with an emphasis on applying critical knowledge to everyday life and contemporary social justice issues. Course materials include anthropological and interdisciplinary texts by queer, trans, feminist, and Indigenous scholars, activists, and community members that examine gender and sexuality regimes across diverse global contexts. We will also engage with multimedia sources such as films, zines, and podcasts. By analyzing and comparing these materials, students will grapple with key questions and debates about gender, sexuality, and power in cross-cultural perspective.

A critical examination of gender and sexuality involves confronting various forms of systemic and interpersonal violence, which may be difficult or triggering for some students. To support students in this process, the course adopts a trauma-informed approach and centers solidarity, resistance, and joy as vital frameworks for understanding how marginalized communities navigate and resist violence and oppression. In addition to more traditional forms of assessment, such as quizzes and a mid-term exam, students will complete a final research paper that explores a chosen course concept through engagement with community activism, social movements, public events, digital campaigns, or artistic practices. Students will also have the opportunity to bridge academic knowledge with embodied and engaged learning by participating in an Orange Shirt Day commemoration in their chosen location. As part of this assignment, they will practice observation and field-note-taking methodologies and produce a reflective essay.

Public Notes

This course examines how an anthropological perspective on politics gives us insight into the nature of power and social transformation across multiple geographic contexts.

Through ethnographies, journal articles, and podcasts, we will begin to develop a cross-cultural perspective on how people’s sense of belonging, community, and personhood are shaped by political systems, and how people in turn shape, transform, and reimagine these systems.

Conceptually, this course will look at how anthropologists have analysed the nature of the state, social policy, and identity through the following topics: migration and citizenship, racial politics, gender and sexuality, policing, colonialism, humanitarianism, and social movements.

Public Notes

This course examines how migrants and refugees create community and identity in the aftermath of displacement. What new cultural formations emerge when a community is dispersed throughout the world? Through an anthropological perspective, you will learn about different communities’ experiences rediscovering their cultural identities, finding a sense of home, and building new communities across generations and places throughout the world. Students will explore case studies that unsettle fixed definitions of belonging, thereby transcending nationalist imaginaries of citizenship, assimilation, and integration. We will explore these themes through oral histories, film, and ethnographies.