Anthropology of the Body

Catalog description

Drawing on a broad and interdisciplinary range of classic and more recent texts, this seminar will examine the theoretical debates of the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical, and literary inquiry. The seminar will explore specific themes, for example, the persistence of the mind/body dualism, experiences of embodiment/alienation, the phenomenology of the body, multi-species entanglements, bio-politics, bio-power, queering the body, and the medicalized, gendered, and racialized body, among other salient themes. This is a graduate reading and discussion seminar. This seminar is a collaborative exercise that is only as good as each participant's contribution. Attendance, preparation, and participation are essential to the quality of everyone’s seminar experience. Active participation includes being present in the seminar, being prepared (you have read the required readings for that class), being able to discuss the readings and constructively critique them, making comments that are pertinent to the seminar content, and being able to contextualize the readings concerning the broader themes under consideration. The weekly session is organized as follows: during the first hour, two or more students will co-lead a critical discussion of the required readings for that day. The remainder of the class will be a general lecture and discussion fleshing out the primary debates and significance of the week’s theme. Non-anthropology graduate and advanced undergraduate students must seek permission from the instructor to enroll.