TOPICS: LEARNING TO ENGAGE: APPLD ANTHRO & ETHNOGRAPHC MTHDS in Spring 2021 (AN3091A)

CM/AN 3091A: Learning to Engage: Applied Anthropology & Ethnographic Methods Are you looking to engage with challenges related to medical care, humanitarian work, business, migration, policing, and the environment? This course offers an introduction to applied anthropological methods used to engage with real problems throughout the world today. We will discuss the use of ethnography—the anthropological process of studying and analyzing human communities—to address contemporary issues around the globe. This course examines public anthropology, that is, the practice of anthropology that seeks to have an impact in the wider world, beyond academic spaces such as the university. Throughout the semester students will become familiar with both the diverse international contexts in which public anthropologists work today--from business to non-profit to government--and some of the major contemporary issues they tackle—including medicine, police work and the military, business, the environment, and migration. We will also look at how public anthropologists have used non-traditional formats such as film, photography, podcasts, and graphic novels to bring their work to a wider audience. We will analyze the contributions of public and applied anthropology, and debate the ethical dilemmas that applied anthropologists have confronted. Finally, students will be encouraged to cultivate their own practice of applied anthropology. Drawing on the models we study together in the course, students will use engaged ethnographic methods of research and analysis to creatively communicate with a wider public about a contemporary issue of their choice.