(De)Colonizing Bodies

Catalog description

ln this course, we explore contemporary realities of colonial and missionizing pasts through the lens of bodies. The term "body" can refer to many topics: physical bodies of individual people, social bodies (the way we use our bodies to communicate to others through clothing, body modification, and comportment, among others), the body politic (populations as monitored and controlled by governments), governmental bodies, corpora of literature and fine art, bodies of data, bodies of material culture, and geographic bodies such as land and water. Students will explore the intersections of these bodies through course readings, lectures, and participant observation (one of the signature methods in Anthropology) at instructor-designated settings. Through these experiences, students will become culturally literate in the places they visit, and gain basic proficiency in social science data collection, analysis, and interpretation - while also considering how the health of one type of body influences and is influenced by others. Students will also hone oral and writing skills through daily reflection. With the completion of the course, students will have developed a deep understanding of how colonial and missionary pasts continue to impact individual, population, and environmental health. P: Understanding Social Science course.