New Courses for Spring 2008
ANT 298: Cultural Ecology
Mondays 5:25-7:55 with Prof. Morrison
Cultural ecology is the study of how humans interact with, adapt to, and affect their environment. Using a cross-cultural approach, this course will examine subsistence strategies, from foraging to industrialism, and how they depend on or even change ecosystems.
Contemporary Cultures of the Middle East
Tuesdays from 5:25 to 7:55 with Dr. Isik
As the world becomes more interconnected and linked globally, we are increasingly faced with beliefs, practices, ideals, ideas, and ways of life that at times baffle us and discomfort us. Current conflicts in the world point to a need to actually go beyond stereotypes and understand both sameness and difference when it comes to cultures. The cultures in the region called “Middle East” cannot easily be described by a few adjectives or core symbols, although Western popular and even academic literature on the “Orient” have stockpiled an arsenal of images that center around Bedouins, women in veils, enormous oil wealth, and fundamentalist Islam. This course seeks to look beyond common stereotypes and focus on daily life experiences of families and individuals who live in the region. Starting with the history of the ways in which the West has discovered, translated and written about the Orient. We will consider how power and politics play roles in the production of culture, narrative, identity, and performance.
One of the goals of the course will be to become familiar with the basic social regularities and cultural forms of the Middle East and to understand the sources of diversity and tension that exist within them, and think about them as anthropologists. We will approach this goal by using anthropological writings (ethnographic, comparative) as well as visual material (documentaries, films), and other types of narratives (political writings, articles) to discuss a variety of cultural patterns, social institutions, ideological positions.
The second goal of the course is to begin to link these cultural and social dimensions of the Middle East to contemporary issues and conflicts in and affecting the area.
ECO/PS: 110 Introduction to Political Economy
Tuesdays 5:25-7:55 with Prof. Flynn
Relationship between political and economic life in the U.S. today, with special emphasis on issues relevant to students' lives. Topics will include: the cost and quality of education, housing, and health care; jobs, careers, pay and benefits; military service and the costs of war; the environmental crisis; and critique of the programs offered by current presidential candidates
Introduction to Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Monday & Wednesday 3:30-4:45 with Dr. Standish
This NEW COURSE will introduce students to the subject of GIS, which concerns the storage, analysis and representation of spatial data. Students in the class will learn:
- How to use current GIS software (ArcGIS 9.1) to construct and manipulate digital maps
- The essentials of map-making such as layering and quality design
- How to access data sources, how to import data and combine data sets
- How to use Excel to produce custom designed maps
- Geocoding with digital data
- About the applications and social implication of GIS
There is no course prerequisite, although students should be familiar with basic computer operations.
For further details contact Dr. Standish: standisha@wcsu.edu
PS 398: The Neo-Conservative Agenda & Its Global Consequences
Wednesday 5:25-7:55 with Dr. Brynner
Since 1980 the ascendancy of Neo-Conservatism in the U.S. (and the decline of liberalism) has come to define the post-Cold War era. This course traces its rise from the “big tent” of Ronald Reagan’s GOP, when “country club” Republicans were joined by evangelical Christians whose ideology has become predominant in the party. The geopolitical consequences, from the tragic (Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon and beyond) to the farcical (“Freedom fries” in the Congressional Cafeteria), are closely examined and debated, along with the vastly diminished international influence of the U.S. after: scrapping treaties (Kyoto, Anti-Ballistic Missile, Geneva Conventions), launching “an illegal war” (according to the U.N. Secretary General), and a poisoned international profile.
