Time Schedule:
Leslie Ashbaugh
BIS 339
Bothell Campus
Examination of various topics and approaches to the study of culture in a global context. May include the study art, literature, theater, cultural history, music history/ethnomusicology, and/or cultural anthropology/geography. Topics and approaches may vary with instructor.
Class description
Contemporary Cultural Anthropology continues to promise to its mostly Western audience the continued "salvaging" of distinct cultural practices before they become engulfed by global Westernization. Anthropology remains resolute in its refusal to accept the conventional perception of Western homogenization. What's more, Cultural Anthropology offers the Western audience the opportunity to culturally critique itself. In this 300-level Global Cultural Studies course, students will be introduced to the experience of cross-cultural fieldwork through the anthropologists' personal accounts (diaries, field notes and autobiographies). How is the "final product"--the ethnography--influenced not only by local politics and the academic training of the fieldworker, but also by the identity and world view of the individual researcher. Given these observations, how do accounts of "other" societies differ from accounts of our own.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Methods of intruction include lectures, films, student discussion, student group presentations and individual projects.
Recommended preparation
Come prepared to work!
Class assignments and grading
The general nature of assignments include classroom participation, in-class writing assignments, an autobiography and life history assignment, a mid-term paper, a book review of an ethnography and a field research project.
All of the above.
