All the courses listed below I developed (or co-developed) and teach at Miami University.
GHS 101 Introduction to Global Health
This is the gateway course to the global health minor at Miami University. Introduces the complexity and ethical dilemmas of global health as a practical field that seeks to work with organizations and local communities to solve health problems. Students will learn to assess and integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines via guest lecturers to thoroughly describe global health problems.
The highlight of this course is its numerous guest lectures from amazing members of the Global Health Studies faculty, each teaching the linkages between their areas of expertise and global health to encourage disciplinary integration in global health right from the beginning. And when we are very lucky, alumni, such as Jason Singh, Alison Sullivan, Ryan Neville-Cook, Brian Bergman visit to inspire the students on ways they can make a difference in global health.
This is the gateway course to the global health minor at Miami University. Introduces the complexity and ethical dilemmas of global health as a practical field that seeks to work with organizations and local communities to solve health problems. Students will learn to assess and integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines via guest lecturers to thoroughly describe global health problems.
The highlight of this course is its numerous guest lectures from amazing members of the Global Health Studies faculty, each teaching the linkages between their areas of expertise and global health to encourage disciplinary integration in global health right from the beginning. And when we are very lucky, alumni, such as Jason Singh, Alison Sullivan, Ryan Neville-Cook, Brian Bergman visit to inspire the students on ways they can make a difference in global health.
ATH 135 Film as Ethnography
This sprint course explores anthropological approaches to the study of human diversity and variation through the lens of ethnographic and documentary films. A fundamental goal of this course is to help you awaken and craft your own “anthropological imagination,” a vital tool for being an analytically-adept, critically-minded global citizen.
There is no one way to interpret data, something that Dr. Leighton Peterson, a linguistic anthropologist and documentary film maker, and I highlight by co-teaching this course, at times with friendly and spontaneous debates that enliven the class.
This sprint course explores anthropological approaches to the study of human diversity and variation through the lens of ethnographic and documentary films. A fundamental goal of this course is to help you awaken and craft your own “anthropological imagination,” a vital tool for being an analytically-adept, critically-minded global citizen.
There is no one way to interpret data, something that Dr. Leighton Peterson, a linguistic anthropologist and documentary film maker, and I highlight by co-teaching this course, at times with friendly and spontaneous debates that enliven the class.
ATH 175 Peoples of the World
Provides an appreciation of human cultural diversity around the world and through time. It develops anthropological approaches to understanding cultural differences and similarities in political, social, and economic organization, marriage and family patterns, beliefs and other aspects.
This course has a gaming theme -- students do ethnographic observations of games and then create their own, such as African Tangle being played here.
Provides an appreciation of human cultural diversity around the world and through time. It develops anthropological approaches to understanding cultural differences and similarities in political, social, and economic organization, marriage and family patterns, beliefs and other aspects.
This course has a gaming theme -- students do ethnographic observations of games and then create their own, such as African Tangle being played here.
ATH 235 Imagining and Encountering the Other
This course explores the emergence of ‘the Other’ in Western imagination in conjunction with global exploration and colonization, and the emergence of anthropology as a field for testing those imaginings. Students will be introduced and given opportunities to practice anthropology’s basic methods for beginning to understand the Other as real rather than as imagined.
Taught in Europe, one of the highlights of this course is the tour of Brussels, a city heavily sprinkled with the imagery of colonial Othering.
This course explores the emergence of ‘the Other’ in Western imagination in conjunction with global exploration and colonization, and the emergence of anthropology as a field for testing those imaginings. Students will be introduced and given opportunities to practice anthropology’s basic methods for beginning to understand the Other as real rather than as imagined.
Taught in Europe, one of the highlights of this course is the tour of Brussels, a city heavily sprinkled with the imagery of colonial Othering.
ATH 335 Multiculturalism in Europe: Anthropological Perspectives
“More than half of ethnic and immigrant minorities throughout the European Union say that ethnic discrimination is widespread in their countries…”(Caroline Brothers, NYTimes, “Minorities Report Discrimination in E.U. Survey”, April 23, 2009). This course offers an opportunity to develop an anthropological way of understanding and analyzing the situations of peoples that could be categorized as minorities. Students have opportunities to explore the historical and current politics of difference, ideologies of integration, and the processes of cultural change facing minorities and immigrants in Europe.
Also taught in Europe, this course explores both everyday and extreme acts of discrimination and inequity, culminating in a week-long study tour of Berlin and Terezinstadt.
“More than half of ethnic and immigrant minorities throughout the European Union say that ethnic discrimination is widespread in their countries…”(Caroline Brothers, NYTimes, “Minorities Report Discrimination in E.U. Survey”, April 23, 2009). This course offers an opportunity to develop an anthropological way of understanding and analyzing the situations of peoples that could be categorized as minorities. Students have opportunities to explore the historical and current politics of difference, ideologies of integration, and the processes of cultural change facing minorities and immigrants in Europe.
Also taught in Europe, this course explores both everyday and extreme acts of discrimination and inequity, culminating in a week-long study tour of Berlin and Terezinstadt.
ATH348 Introduction to Medical Anthropology
Explores why disease emerges within particular socio-cultural settings and how people in those settings understand and treat their ills. Topics include historical and current pandemics, culturally specific illnesses, local medical practices, and individuals' struggles with particular ills.
The assignment that students find most challenging and most rewarding is an illness narrative assignment, in which students have to write up someone else's illness experience. In addition to resulting in moving experiences for students and remarkable papers, it also has triggered funded student research projects.
Explores why disease emerges within particular socio-cultural settings and how people in those settings understand and treat their ills. Topics include historical and current pandemics, culturally specific illnesses, local medical practices, and individuals' struggles with particular ills.
The assignment that students find most challenging and most rewarding is an illness narrative assignment, in which students have to write up someone else's illness experience. In addition to resulting in moving experiences for students and remarkable papers, it also has triggered funded student research projects.
ATH 368 Key Issues in Psychological Anthropology
Psychological anthropology focuses on understanding the individual within society, and thus the ways in which cultural assumptions construct and are constructed by the individual. Psych anthro provides theoretical frameworks widely used in anthropology, child development, and cross-cultural and clinical psychology. Through this course, students have opportunities to analyze the role of cultural worlds in individual well-being, and to engage with the key questions and the associated key theoretical concepts that are driving the field forward today.
Students write up encyclopedia entries on those concepts, the best of which I've made available here to facilitate others' interested in in joining the conversations of psychological anthropology.
Psychological anthropology focuses on understanding the individual within society, and thus the ways in which cultural assumptions construct and are constructed by the individual. Psych anthro provides theoretical frameworks widely used in anthropology, child development, and cross-cultural and clinical psychology. Through this course, students have opportunities to analyze the role of cultural worlds in individual well-being, and to engage with the key questions and the associated key theoretical concepts that are driving the field forward today.
Students write up encyclopedia entries on those concepts, the best of which I've made available here to facilitate others' interested in in joining the conversations of psychological anthropology.
ATH 378 Doctors, Clinics, and Epidemics
The overarching goal in this course is to put American biomedicine under a microscope: to understand it as a cultural world with its own histories, structures, assumptions, moralities, practices, knowledge traditions, language, and social all of which have consequences for people’s health and well-being.
Students research and presented posters explaining the social-cultural origins of a contemporary medical practice, and five posters also were accepted and presented at the University wide Undergraduate Research forum.
The overarching goal in this course is to put American biomedicine under a microscope: to understand it as a cultural world with its own histories, structures, assumptions, moralities, practices, knowledge traditions, language, and social all of which have consequences for people’s health and well-being.
Students research and presented posters explaining the social-cultural origins of a contemporary medical practice, and five posters also were accepted and presented at the University wide Undergraduate Research forum.
ATH 425/525 Ethnographic Methods
Starting with IRB proposals, students learn research design and methodologies. It provides opportunities for students to explore different observation and measurement techniques, practice interviews and conversational analysis, design and analyze survey data using SPSS, code and analyze mixed methods data using Dedoose, and practice writing up research data, often bouncing ideas off of their peers.
Students do amazing semester long projects, this last year's projects included mini-ethnographies with the people at the local farmer's market, with the astronomy club, with the parachuting club, with local D&D groups, and with local Christian and Muslim fellowship groups.
Starting with IRB proposals, students learn research design and methodologies. It provides opportunities for students to explore different observation and measurement techniques, practice interviews and conversational analysis, design and analyze survey data using SPSS, code and analyze mixed methods data using Dedoose, and practice writing up research data, often bouncing ideas off of their peers.
Students do amazing semester long projects, this last year's projects included mini-ethnographies with the people at the local farmer's market, with the astronomy club, with the parachuting club, with local D&D groups, and with local Christian and Muslim fellowship groups.
ATH428 Anthropology of Women’s Health
Explores how culture shapes women's bodies and health from a cross-cultural perspective; topics include cross-cultural examinations of women's life-cycle, illnesses, bodily violations, and notions of beauty.
A small seminar course, it culminates in student poster presentations of their research. This course stimulated a mixed methods research project on disordered eating that is currently under review for publication.
Explores how culture shapes women's bodies and health from a cross-cultural perspective; topics include cross-cultural examinations of women's life-cycle, illnesses, bodily violations, and notions of beauty.
A small seminar course, it culminates in student poster presentations of their research. This course stimulated a mixed methods research project on disordered eating that is currently under review for publication.
ATH 448 Developing Solutions in Global Health
In this practical grant writing course, students learn the anthropological approaches to global health and on teams identify a global health problem, research it, consult with experts, and write a grant proposal.
The course culminates in presenting the grant proposals to a panel of external experts, sometimes faculty in other departments, sometimes colleagues from international institutions, who judge the merits of the proposals.
In this practical grant writing course, students learn the anthropological approaches to global health and on teams identify a global health problem, research it, consult with experts, and write a grant proposal.
The course culminates in presenting the grant proposals to a panel of external experts, sometimes faculty in other departments, sometimes colleagues from international institutions, who judge the merits of the proposals.