Not Offering Fall/Winter 2026-27: Religion has long been a topic of interest to anthropologists, preoccupying the earliest anthropological theories of culture and society. Today, the topic of religion is seeing growing attention across the world. As religion becomes variously encountered with fascination and devotion by some, or fear and hostility by others, questions about the […]
Not offering in Fall/Winter 2026-27: This course is concerned with furthering the dialogue and mutual engagement between Medical Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry - in the context of localized communities, multicultural societies, and global networks alike. Applying a pluralized concept of psychiatry, the course will investigate prevalent practices in clinical psychiatry alongside other culturally and historically […]
Not offering in Fall/Winter 2026-27: The Anthropology of Outer Space offers an anthropological voyage of exploration to other worlds, through human culture, popular imagination, science, and technology. Outer space is full of human paradoxes. Human beings have so far physically travelled only as far as our Moon, and the most distant human artifact, the interstellar […]
Not Offering in Fall/Winter 2026-27: This course examines a variety of theoretical and ethnographic approaches to the intersectionality of womanism, class, sexuality, and race that developed out of and/or intensified by settler, colonial, scientific, political, religious, and (trans)national developments. We will begin with the nature vs culture debate, questioning and critically assessing anthropological concerns over […]
Not offering in Fall/Winter 2026-27: This course explores three main themes. First, it examines the culture(s) of capitalism historically and ethnographically. This anthropology of capitalism covers the age of capitalist empires, the formation of corporations, and the directions and implications of postmodern and financial capitalism. We also examine the "world system" through to the age […]
Not Offering Fall/Winter 2026-27: This course explores the social and cultural basis of human food systems using a cross-cultural approach. Nutritional anthropology, a subfield of medical anthropology, integrates an understanding of human biology with the social and cultural basis of human food systems. Our study of food and eating requires assembling an understanding of the […]
Course Offering Fall/Winter 2026-27: Course Director - Zulfikar A. Hirji - zhirji@yorku.ca The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the discipline, experience, and practice of anthropological research. The task of “doing anthropology” involves a broad range of considerations, such as: defining and selecting research problems, decisions concerning appropriate and/or feasible research strategies […]
Course Offering Fall/Winter 2026-27: This course is about anthropology and visual representations of culture, and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media online, including art, photography, film, and digital technologies to explore the ways in which they shape both the perception and experience of cultural difference and identity. This course examines […]
Not offering in Fall/Winter 2026-27: We are living in a global pandemic. This moment has made the study of infectious disease, viruses, vaccines, and contagion more urgent as we grapple with COVID19 and the ways it has changed our lives. While many of our lives have been affected by COVID19 and subsequent restrictions such as […]
Course offering Winter 2027: The thought of experiencing immersion in another cultural context is both exciting and potentially anxiety producing. How can you develop intercultural competency skills in advance? This course is designed to help you develop those skills and become more confident about what you will experience in a university exchange placement. It was […]