AP/ANTH 1120 6.00 Making Sense of a Changing World: Anthropology Today

(NOT OFFERED FOR SUMMER 2024)

This course is an issues-based introductory course in anthropology. 

In this course you will use anthropological approaches to increase your understanding of global issues in diverse locales. This course challenges you to engage with other ways of knowing and being, and to rethink your taken-for-granted knowledge and beliefs through the comparative analysis of the human condition. This course will take a problem-based approach to a range of topics such as: the effects of race and racism, sources of religious conflict, alternate genders and sexualities, First Nations and health, international development and issues of social inequality. Students are encouraged to bring their own knowledge and experience as the first step in thinking like an anthropologist (i.e. rethinking the taken-for-granted). The emphasis in this course is developing skills (analytical thinking, reading, writing). 

Section A Course Director (Fall/Winter 23-24):  J. Fulton-Melanson - fultonjs@yorku.ca

In this course, you will develop research and analysis skills that can be applied to various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. By the end of this course, you should be able to understand a set of basic anthropological concepts and use them effectively in written and oral communication. This process will involve challenging your worldview and perspectives on social justice, and refining your knowledge of human history throughout the world. By the end of this course, you will know what makes anthropology unique as a social science and how each of the social sciences contribute to create a better understanding of people and the world around you. Finally, you should be familiar with many of the ways people use social and cultural tools to respond to the world they live in.

In this course, you will begin to develop critical information literacy. This will build digital fluency, information literacies, critical thinking, and the ability to ask good questions, marshal evidence, and communicate effectively across varied media. You will learn about the information creation process, how authority is contextual and constructed, the value of information, how research is inquiry, scholarship is conversation, and how to search in strategic exploration.

Section B Course Director (Fall/Winter 23-24):  D. Winland - winland@yorku.ca

Welcome to Making Sense of a Changing World: Anthropology Today, a modular, issues-based introductory course in anthropology. In this course, we will use the lens of anthropology to examine a variety of contemporary questions and problems. We will explore these through active engagement, discussion, and debates while learning about the academic discipline of anthropology. Through each of the four modules in the course, we will challenge how we think about the world and about the different ways in which people live in and make sense of their worlds. In particular, the course will allow you to develop a critical sensibility for issues of inequality and injustice and gain insights into how people in different social and cultural contexts know, reproduce, change and represent themselves and the world around them.

Section M Course Director (Winter 2024):  Z. Hirji - zhirji@yorku.ca

This course provides an introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. Anthropology, in general, is the comparative study of different societies around the world — their origins, development and cultural similarities and differences. The goal of Anthropology, as a social science discipline, is to advance knowledge of who and what we are, how we came to be, and where we might be going in the future. It challenges you to engage with other ways of knowing and being, and to rethink your taken-for-granted knowledge and beliefs. Through the course you will develop critical thinking skills and practical ethnographic skills to increase your understanding of and respect for diversity in our rapidly changing and globalized world. This course aims to uses the lenses of decolonization and globalization to examine a range of topics including authority and power, race and racism, nationalism, gender and sexuality, and social inequality.

Section N Course Director (Winter 2024):  J. Fulton-Melanson - fultonjs@yorku.ca

In this course, you will develop research and analysis skills that can be applied to various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. By the end of this course, you should be able to understand a set of basic anthropological concepts and use them effectively in written and oral communication. This process will involve challenging your worldview and perspectives on social justice, and refining your knowledge of human history throughout the world. By the end of this course, you will know what makes anthropology unique as a social science and how each of the social sciences contribute to create a better understanding of people and the world around you. Finally, you should be familiar with many of the ways people use social and cultural tools to respond to the world they live in.

In this course, you will begin to develop critical information literacy. This will build digital fluency, information literacies, critical thinking, and the ability to ask good questions, marshal evidence, and communicate effectively across varied media. You will learn about the information creation process, how authority is contextual and constructed, the value of information, how research is inquiry, scholarship is conversation, and how to search in strategic exploration.