A study of the responses of selected world religious traditions to the emergence of global ecological concerns. Key concepts and tenets of the traditions and their relevance for examination of the environment crisis. In some years, students may additionally have the option of participating in an international learning experience during Reading Week that will have an additional cost and application process.

Religious violence and nonviolence as they emerge in the tension between strict adherence to tradition and individual actions of charismatic figures. The place of violence and nonviolence in selected faith traditions.

Our present environmental challenge constitutes of the most pressing areas of contemporary social, cultural, ethical and ecological concern. Acid rain, poisoned air, forest clear-cutting, ozone depletion, global climate change, toxic waste sites--the list goes on--all weigh heavily on our personal and intellectual lives. This course attempts to introduce students to both the scope and seriousness of present ecological concerns, as well as some core principles and concepts in the field of the intersection of environment and culture, through the lens of feature films. Themes such as the precautionary principle, urban/rural dualisms, ecofeminism, deep ecology, and the overwhelming burden placed on poor populations by environmental destruction are but a few of the areas which will be examined through the use of feature films, both classic and contemporary. We will do this in part by touching on some of the major writers and classic essays in the field, Class lectures will be supplemented by audiovisuals, guest lectures and class discussions.

Since 2007, for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s peoples live in cities. It is estimated that by 2030 over 60% will be urban dwellers. This demographic shift suggests that for many (if not most) people, their primary encounter with “nature” will be urban-based. This course explores "the city" through a multispecies lens and challenges assumptions about the human-centeredness (anthropocentrism) of urban places. In this course students are invited to utilize a variety of approaches, including arts-based ethnography, journaling, archival research, photography, sound-scaping, et al., as we explore the following questions: How do ideas about nature-culture shape our interactions with nonhumans in cities? How do built environments structure human-nonhuman relationships in urban spaces? How have human-nonhuman interactions changed over time in cities? How can we foster more compassionate and caring relationships with nonhumans in cities - and how might we do this in the context of social-ecological injustices and climate change? What might a thriving multispecies city of the future look like?

Special course on selected topics in sociocultural and/or linguistic anthropology; focus of topic changes each year. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

This independent study course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading and initial research planning on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading and study program.

This independent study course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading and initial research planning on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading and study program.

This independent reading course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading program.

This independent reading course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading program.

Special seminar on selected topics in sociocultural and/or linguistic anthropology; focus of seminar changes each year.

Special seminar on selected topics in any social science aspect of anthropology, including one or more sub-fields; focus of seminar changes each year. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

The presence of toxic chemicals is a defining feature of contemporary life. But while toxicity is everywhere, it is not everywhere the same. Considering toxicity through medical and environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, and environmental justice, we will gain new perspectives on the politics of evidence, the nature of health, and the nature of nature. Creative, hands-on assignments will help us understand the toxic worlds around us at UTM.

Survey of major theoretical perspectives developed in social and cultural anthropology. The main ideas and underlying assumptions of each perspective will be critiqued and evaluated for their contributions to the field.

This course is concerned with contemporary medical knowledge practices, with particular emphasis on Western medicine and Public Health. Through a set of key readings in sociocultural medical anthropology, students will explore topics such as the art and science of medicine, end of life rites and rituals, expertise, and the politics and perils of intervention. This is an advanced, writing -intensive seminar that will particularly appeal to sociocultural anthropology students, and those interested in pursuing a career in the health professions.

This class delves into the topic of water from an anthropological perspective by thinking of water not only as resource but also as meaningful substance, symbol, and mediator of human and non-human relations. Class will consist mainly of discussions of ethnographic readings but also of hands-on class exercises, field-trips, and auto-ethnographic work. In some years, students may additionally have the option of participating in an international learning experience during Reading Week that will have an additional cost and application process.

This course offers an upper-level overview of anthropological research on Islam and cultures of the Muslim world. In this seminar-style class, we will critically examine how anthropologists have approached the study of Islam and Muslim communities and whether there is something we can call the “anthropology of Islam.” We will approach these questions through the critical reading of challenging theoretical texts from the mid-20th to 21st century, but also by examining various manifestations of the Islamic tradition and the diversity and complexity of Muslim cultures around the world, including in sub- Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

The contemporary world is profoundly shaped by mass media. We might even ask if media technologies have changed what it means to be human. Democratic politics, globalized economic flows, and new religious practices all depend on modern technologies of communication, as does the discipline of anthropology. How might we make sense of how social media, television, radio, and film have shaped our lives from an ethnographic perspective? In this course, we will pursue this question through a series of studies of media use, production, and circulation in a wide range of cultural contexts, including the exploring centrality of media to the production of anthropological knowledge. Developing some of the themes that students might have been exposed to in ANT102H5 (Introduction to Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology) and ANT204H5 (Sociocultural Anthropology), students will also be guided in pursuing their own research interests in this upper-level seminar.

Rising sea levels, unnatural disasters, global displacements, energy shortages, poverty, racism, mediated mass-surveillance, conspiracies, populism, pandemics – all provide unsettling markers of our times. As chroniclers and theorists of the contemporary, anthropologists have been keen to diagnose and engage the moment. Their efforts have yielded dividends: key insights into some of today’s most pressing problems, as well as new analytic tools with which to capture them. This fourth-year seminar will enable students to survey a range of pressing contemporary concerns and to explore some of the ways anthropologists and cognate scholars are engaging with them. Because anthropology is part of the world it seeks to understand, the seminar will also consider anthropology’s own grounds of knowledge, dwelling on some of the epistemological, ethical and political conundrums the discipline’s real-world entanglements entail. This concern takes us beyond “troubled times,” inviting reflection on that curious Western project we call “anthropology.”

This independent study course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading, research and planning for a publishable report on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the research and study program.

This independent study course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading, research and planning for a publishable report on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the research and study program.

This independent reading course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading program.

This independent reading course is designed to offer students advanced supervised reading on an anthropological topic not covered in other courses, or covered only briefly. Students who wish to pursue this option with a specific faculty member should approach the faculty member early - before the start of the academic term - to negotiate the reading program.

This course examines different information and communication technologies (ICTs) through the analysis of such genres as contemporary written, visual, oral, electronic and musical forms. It illustrates a range of theoretical perspectives that seek to explain the relationship between communication and technology. This course will also examine, briefly, the history of ICTs.

This course critically examines the written, visual, aural, and dynamic rhetoric as it pertains to communications for academic and other purposes across a range of digital and interactive media discourses.

This experiential learning course introduces students to the practice and theory of coding, programming, and basic development of user-oriented software. The lectures illustrate a core range of software development concepts that provide the foundations needed for the practical coding of front-end applications such as mobile interfaces or of back-end software such as introductory artificial intelligence or social media analysis. The practicals are lab-based and focus on applying these theoretical skills to solving problems grounded in a critical understanding of the interaction between people, culture, and society, by developing software or apps in languages such as Java, Objective C, Swift, Python.

This course introduces students to the foundational principles and analytical tools from the management discipline in link with today’s economic and technological advancements. Particular emphasis is given to the interconnections between information and communications technologies, innovation, the role of managers and their decision-making processes, and related social, cultural, and economic institutions.

This course provides an introduction to the intersecting fields of critical race, media, and cultural studies. We will pay particular attention to dynamics of social difference and power and the communication strategies and technologies through which these are navigated, reproduced and interrupted. Students will be introduced to critical and analytical tools for understanding the cultural and media circulation, regulation and reimagination of things like race, sexuality, time, gender, class, indigeneity, space, ethnicity, ability and nationality. These critical tools equip students with the skills to write, design and build ethical innovations in new media and culture.

From voice responsive cars and virtual assistants to social robots and smart toys, people are increasingly interacting with communicative technologies in their daily lives. In this course students will consider the implications of this evolution in communication practice – informing design, ethics, efficacy, privacy, and other implications. Human-machine communication is a specific area of study within communication encompassing human-computer interaction, human-robot interaction, and human-agent interaction.

This course provides an introduction to research design, conduct, and analysis for making informed business decisions. The course will focus on basic methodologies, qualitative and quantitative methods, data sources, reliability, validity, and other measurement issues, data collection and research design, ethics in research, and report writing and presentation.

An introduction to the basic concepts and skills of design thinking as an interdisciplinary subject. Emphasizes creative and critical thinking in the design process; provides the student with the theory and operational skills necessary to solve design problems in the realms of symbolic and visual communication, material objects, environments, and organized services and activities.