Courses
Please note this is a sample list of courses offered in past years. Consult the quarterly Time Schedules and the College Catalog for current information on course offerings.
20000. Introduction to Human Development. (=PSYC 21100) This course introduces the study of lives in context. The nature of human development from infancy through old age is explored through theory and empirical findings from various disciplines. Readings and discussions emphasize the interrelations of biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces at different points of the life cycle. Staff.
20100. Human Development/Research Designs in Social Science. (=PSYC 21100) This course exposes students to a variety of examples of well-designed social research addressing questions of great interest and importance. One goal is to clarify what it means to do “interesting” research. A second goal is to appreciate the features of good research design. A third goal is to examine the variety of research methodologies in the social sciences, including ethnography, clinical case interviewing, survey research, experimental studies of cognition and social behavior, behavior observations, longitudinal research, and model building. The general emphasis is on what might be called the aesthetics of well-designed research. Staff.
20202. Problems in the Study of Sexuality. (=ENGL 10300, GNDR 10200, HUMA 22900, PSYC 22650, SOSC 28300) This course focuses on histories and theories of sexuality: gay, lesbian, heterosexual, and otherwise. This exploration involves looking at a range of materials from anthropology to the law and from practices of sex to practices of science. Staff.
20205. The Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. The course provides an overview and introduction to how gender and sexuality have been conceptualized and empirically investigated in anthropology. The empirical literature discussed in the course extends from early studies by Margaret Mead and Bronislaw Malinowski to recently published monographs on topics like transgenderism, obesity and disability. Theoretically, the course offers an introduction to the theories of gender and sexuality developed by Simone de Beauvoir, 1970s feminist anthropologists, Michel Foucault and scholars working in both ethnomethodological and performative paradigms. D. Kulick.
20207. Race, Ethnicity, and Human Development. This course is based upon the premise that the study of human development is enhanced by examining the experiences of diverse groups, without one group standing as the “standard” against which others are compared and evaluated. Accordingly, this course provides an encompassing theoretical framework for examining the processes of human development for diverse humans, while also highlighting the critical role of context and culture. M. Spencer.
20209. Adolescent Development. Adolescence represents a period of unusually rapid growth and development. At the same time, under the best of social circumstances and contextual conditions, the teenage years represent a challenging period. This course presents the experiences of diverse youth from a variety of theoretical perspectives, improving our understanding about the “what” of human development as well as the “how.” Ultimately, the conceptual orientation described is critical for (1) designing better social policy; (2) improving the training and support of socializing agents (e.g., teachers); and (3) enhancing human developmental outcomes (e.g., resilient patterns). M. Spencer.
20400/30400. Intensive Study of a Culture: Lowland Maya History and Ethnography. This seminar surveys patterns of cultural continuity and discontinuity in the lowland Maya area of southeastern Mexico from the time of Spanish contact until the present. The survey encompasses the dynamics of first contact, long term cultural accommodations achieved during colonial rule, disruptions introduced by state and market forces during the early postcolonial period, the status of indigenous communities in the twentieth century, and new social, economic, and political challenges being faced today by the contemporary peoples of the area. A variety of traditional theoretical concerns of the broader Mesoamerican region will be stressed. J. Lucy.
21000/31000. Cultural Psychology. (=ANTH 21500/35110, PSYC 23000/33000) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. There is a substantial portion of the psychological nature of human beings that is neither homogeneous nor fixed across time and space. At the heart of the discipline of cultural psychology is the tenet of psychological pluralism. Research findings in cultural psychology thus raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. This course analyzes the concept of “culture” and examines ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning, with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization, and reasoning. R. Shweder.
21401. Introduction to African Civilization II. (=AFAM 20701, ANTH 20702, HIST 10102, SOSC 22600) Completion of the general education requirement in social sciences is recommended. This course focuses on Eastern and Southern Africa, including Madagascar. We explore various aspects of how the colonial encounter transformed local societies, even as indigenous African social structures profoundly molded and shaped these diverse processes. Topics include the institution of colonial rule, independence movements, ethnicity and interethnic violence, ritual and the body, love, marriage, money, and popular culture. J. Cole.
21500. Darwinian Health. (=GNDR 21500, HIPS 22401) This course uses an evolutionary, rather than clinical, approach to understanding why we get sick. In particular, we will consider how health issues such as menstruation, senescence, menopause and allergies can be considered adaptations rather than pathologies, and how in our rapidly changing environments these traits may no longer be beneficial. J. Mateo.
21800/34300. Primate Behavior and Ecology. (=BIOS 23248, EVOL 37300) PQ: Completion of the general education requirement in the biological sciences. This course explores the behavior and ecology of nonhuman primates with emphasis on their natural history and evolution. Specific topics include methods for the study of primate behavior, history of primate behavior research, socioecology, foraging, predation, affiliation, aggression, mating, parenting, development, communication, cognition, and evolution of human behavior. D. Maestripieri.
21901/31900. Language Culture and Thought. (=ANTH 27605/37605, PSYC 21950/31900) This survey course explores the role of natural language in shaping human thought. Through lecture and discussion, we take up the topic at three levels: semiotic-evolutionary (the role of natural language in enabling distinctively human forms of thinking—the rise of true concepts and self-consciousness), structural-comparative (the role of specific language codes in shaping habitual thought—the “linguistic relativity” of experience), and functional-discursive (the role of specialized discursive practices and linguistic ideologies in cultivating specialized forms of thought—the pragmatics, politics, and aesthetics of reason and expression). Readings, which are drawn from many disciplines, emphasize developmental, cultural, and critical approaches. J. Lucy.
22212/32212. Love, Conjugality, and Capital: Intimacy in the Modern World. (=GNDR 23102, SALC 23101/33101) A look at societies in other parts of the world demonstrates that modernity in the realm of love, intimacy, and family often had a different trajectory from the European one. This course surveys ideas and practices surrounding love, marriage, and capital in the modern world. Using a range of theoretical, historical, and anthropological readings, as well as films, the course explore such topics as the emergence of companionate marriage in Europe and the connections between arranged marriage, dowry, love, and money. Case studies are drawn primarily from Europe, India, and Africa. J. Cole.
23249. Animal Behavior. (=BIOS 23249, HDCP 41650, PSYC 23249) PQ: Completion of the general education requirement in the biological sciences. This course introduces the mechanism, ecology, and evolution of behavior, primarily in nonhuman species, at the individual and group level. Topics include the genetic basis of behavior, developmental pathways, communication, physiology and behavior, foraging behavior, kin selection, mating systems and sexual selection, and the ecological and social context of behavior. A major emphasis is placed on understanding and evaluating scientific studies and their field and lab techniques. J. Mateo.
23900/33200. Introduction to Language Development. (=LING 21600/31600, PSYC 23200/33200) This course addresses the major issues involved in first-language acquisition. We deal with the child’s production and perception of speech sounds (phonology), the acquisition of the lexicon (semantics), the comprehension and production of structured word combinations (syntax), and the ability to use language to communicate (pragmatics). S. Goldin-Meadow.
24204. Romantic Love: Cultural & Psychological Perspectives. This course combines humanistic and social scientific disciplines to examine the phenomenon of romantic love - a "big problem" in practical, theoretical, and cultural senses. The course starts by comparing representations of romantic love experiences in visual, musical and literary arts and myths. After exploring what may be specific to this form of love, we address two further issues: the role and sources of non-rational experience in romantic love, and the role of romantic love in modern marriage. Illumination of these topics will be sought through the discussion of humanistic and social scientific texts and cinematic presentations. D. Orlinsky.
24701/34701. The Development of Social and Emotional Understanding. (=PSYC 24701/34701) This course will focus on the development of emotional and social understanding from infancy through adolescence. Issues to be discourses are: How we conceptualize, define emotional understanding; How emotions are linked to thinking, body, and language expression; How are‹moods and emotions related to each other; Are there stable temperamental differences that‹predispose individuals to be continually angry, depressed, panicked, happy; How good is‹emotional memory; Do young children have the capabilities to remember emotional events‹accurately; What is the role of emotional understanding and expressiveness in young children; developing memory and theory of the mind; How does emotional understanding reflect children's understanding of themselves and other people; Are emotional expressions accurate predictors of behavior in subsequent situations? N. Stein.
25900/30700. Developmental Psychology. (=PSYC 20500/30500) This course introduces developmental psychology, stressing the development and integration of cognitive, social, and perceptual skills. K. Kinzler.
26000. Social Psychology. (=PSYC 20600/30600) This seminar course examines social psychological theory and research based on both classic and contemporary contributions. Among the major topics examined are conformity and deviance, the attitude-change process, social role and personality, social cognition, and political psychology. W. Goldstein.
26301. Practices of Othering and the Logic of Human Rights Violations: Race, Eugenics, and Crowds. (=ANTH 25220/35220, CRPC 26200/36200, HIST 25006/35006, HMRT 26300/36300) How are mass violations of human rights thought up? What scientific theories and political doctrines have been invented and implemented to justify genocide and mass incarceration? These questions serve as our starting point for the course as, through an exploration of different political ideologies and scientific theories, we learn how human rights violations were reasoned and justified. Readings of both primary and secondary sources in the first part of the course explore theories and ideologies that have informed and set the ground for human rights violations. In the second part we focus on the aftermath of genocide and killing and ask how individuals and groups explain their participation in these acts. N. Vaisman.
27700/31800. Modern Psychotherapies. This course introduces students to the nature and varieties of modern psychotherapies by extensive viewing and discussion of video-taped demonstration sessions. Diverse therapeutic approaches will be examined, including psychodynamic, interpersonal, client-centered, gestalt, and cognitive-behavioral orientations. Couple and family therapy sessions, and sessions with younger clients, may also be viewed. Historical and conceptual models will be presented to deepen students' understandings of what is being viewed, but the main emphasis will be on experiential learning through observation and discussion. Most of the readings will be found in Regenstein Reserve. Grading will be based on class participation and writing assignments. D. Orlinsky.
27901/27902/27903/47901/47902/47903. Modern Spoken: Yucatec Maya. This course is a basic introduction to the modern Yucatec Maya language, an indigenous American language spoken by about 750,000 people in southeastern Mexico. Three consecutive quarters of instruction are intended for students aiming to achieve basic and intermediate proficiency. Students receiving FLAS support must take all three quarters. Others may elect to take only the first quarter or first two quarters. Students wishing to enter the course midyear (e.g., those with prior experience with the language) must obtain consent of instructor. Materials exist for a second year of the course; interested students should consult the instructor. Students wishing to continue their training with native speakers in Mexico may apply for FLAS funding in the summer. J. Lucy
29700. Undergraduate Reading and Research. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for a quality grade. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
29800. BA Honors Seminar. PQ: Consent of CHDV program chair. Students seeking departmental honors must take this course in Spring Quarter of their third year. This seminar is designed to help students develop an honors paper to be submitted for approval and supervised by a CHDV faculty member. A course preceptor provides guidance through the process of research design and proposal writing.
29900. Honors Paper Preparation. PQ: CHDV 29800 and an approved honors paper. To complete work on their BA honors paper, students must register for this course with their faculty supervisor in Winter or Spring Quarter of their fourth year. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. The grade assigned to the BA honors paper becomes the grade of record for this course. Autumn, Winter.
30302. Problems of Public Policy Implementation. (=PBPL 22300, SOCI 30302) PQ: One prior 20000-level social sciences course. PBPL 22100-22200-22300 may be taken in or out of sequence. Once a governmental policy or program is established, there is the challenge of getting it carried out in ways intended by the policy makers. We explore how obstacles emerge because of problems of hierarchy, competing goals, and cultures of different groups. We then discuss how they may be overcome by groups, as well as by creators and by those responsible for implementing programs. We also look at varying responses of target populations. R. Taub.
30402. Anthropology of Disability. This seminar will explore a wide range of theoretical, legal, ethical, and policy issues as they relate to the experiences of individuals with disabilities, their families, and advocates. At the conclusion of the course, students will make presentations on fieldwork projects conducted during the quarter. M. Fred.
30901. Biopsychology of Sex Differences. (=PSYC 31600, EVOL 36900) This course will explore the biological basis of mammalian sex differences and reproductive behaviors. We will consider a variety of species, including humans. We will address the physiological, hormonal, ecological and social basis of sex differences. To get the most from this course, students should have some background in biology, preferably from taking an introductory course in biology or biological psychology. J. Mateo.
32100. Culture, Power, Subjectivity. This course takes up the classic, yet endlessly fascinating, subject of the relationship of historically produced cultural structures and their relationship to individual and collective forms of subjectivity. We analyze the diverse ways in which classic social thinkers (e.g., Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Althusser, Bourdieu, Foucault) have thought about the relationship between individuals and collectivities. Topics include the ways in social and economic formations structure the possibilities for individual human action; the relationship between religious formations and historical transformations; the role of class in the inculcation of taste and desire; and the ways in which, throughout the nineteenth century, new power/knowledge formations have created new ways through which subject formation takes place. J. Cole.
34800. Kinship and Social Systems. (=EVOL 34800) This course will use a biological approach to understanding how groups form and how cooperation and competition modulate group size and reproductive success. We will explore social systems from evolutionary and ecological perspectives, focusing on how the biotic and social environments favor cooperation among kin as well as how these environmental features influence mating systems and inclusive fitness. While a strong background in evolutionary theory is not required, students should have basic understanding of biology and natural selection. Course will use combination of lectures and discussion. J. Mateo.
36800. Gestural Communication in Nonhuman and Human Primates. (=PSYC 36800) This seminar explores the communicative use of nonverbal behavior in human and nonhuman primates. Topics include evolutionary, comparative, and cross-cultural aspects of facial expressions and gestures; comparative and cognitive aspects of eye gaze and pointing; the relation between nonverbal behavior and emotion; the development of nonverbal communication in children; the contextual usage and information content of nonverbal expressions; the relation between nonverbal gestures and speech; the neural control of facial expressions; and the perception and processing of nonverbal information in the brain. S. Goldin-Meadow, D. Maestripieri.
37500-37502-37503. Research Seminar in Animal Behavior I, II, III. (=EVOL 37600-37700-37800) Students register for this course in Autumn Quarter and receive credit in Spring Quarter after successful completion of the year’s work. This workshop involves weekly research seminars in animal behavior given by faculty members, postdocs, and advanced graduate students from this and other institutions. The seminars are followed by discussion in which students have the opportunity to interact with the speaker, ask questions about the presentation, and share information about their work. This workshop exposes students to current comparative research in behavioral biology and provides interactions with some of the leading scientists in this field. D. Maestripieri.
37800. If Someone Asserts It Deny It: Critical Reason and Political Correctness in Social Science Research. This seminar is an experiment in honoring the skeptical intellectual tradition. That intellectual tradition, which has its home in the great universities of the world, aims to achieve accuracy and impartiality in human understanding through a principled commitment to explore the other side, even when that requires the articulation of an unpopular, politically incorrect or against the current point of view. While it may be a matter for debate whether the intellectual virtues we associate with skepticism are at risk of being sacrificed in the academy these days, this seminar engages a social science and public policy literature that raises skeptical doubts about "received wisdom" on a variety of consequential fronts. Warning to prospective seminar participants: "... a good university, like Socrates, will be upsetting" (The University of Chicago "Kalven Committee Report", November 11, 1967). R. Shweder.
38101-38102. Anthropology of Museums I, II.(=ANTH 24511-24512/34501-34502, MAPS 34500-34600, SOSC 34500-34600) PQ: Advanced standing and consent of instructor. This sequence examines museums from a variety of perspectives. We consider the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the image and imagination of African American culture as presented in local museums, and museums as memorials as exemplified by Holocaust exhibitions. Several visits to area museums required. R. Fogelson, M. Fred.
40000. HD Concepts. Our assumptions about the processes underlying development shape how we read the literature, design studies, and interpret results. The purpose of this course is two-fold in that, first, it makes explicit both our own assumptions as well as commonly held philosophical perspectives that impact the ways in which human development is understood. Second, the course provides an overview of theories and domain-specific perspectives related to individual development across the life-course. The emphasis is on issues and questions that have dominated the field over time and, which continue to provide impetus for research, its interpretation, and the character of policy decisions and their implementation. Stated differently, theories have utility and are powerful tools. Accordingly, the course provides a broad basis for appreciating theoretical approaches to the study of development and for understanding the use of theory in the design of research and its application. Most significant, theories represent heuristic devices for “real time” interpretations of daily experiences and broad media disseminated messages. M. Spencer.
40900. Behavioral Ecology. (=EVOL 40900) PQ: Consent of instructor. We will meet once per week to discuss current topics in behavioral ecology, as selected by participating students. J. Mateo.
42200. Research Seminar in Research in Behavioral Endocrinology. (=EVOL 42200, PSYC 26200/42200) PQ: Consent of instructor. Ongoing research in the lab of Professor McClintock is discussed. M. McClintock.
42214. Ethnographic Writing.This course is intended for qualitative, anthropologically oriented graduate students engaged in the act of ethnographic writing, be it a thesis, a prospectus or an article. The course is organized around student presentations of work in progress and critical feedback from course participants. It is hoped that each participant will emerge from the course with a polished piece of work. Only graduate students will be admitted and consent of the instructor is mandatory. J. Cole.
42700 Theories of Self. This course examines influential theories of self formation and functioning especially with respect to how the theories handle social interaction and verbal communication. The course emphasizes close reading, analysis, and discussion of basic texts representative of major approaches. J. Lucy.
42401/42402 Trial Research in Human Development I and II. Required of first and second year Department of Comparative Human Development graduate students. This course is taken in the Spring quarter of the first year, and again in the Autumn quarter of the second year. The purpose of this seminar is to help students formulate and complete their trial research projects. Staff.
45205. Pushing the Boundary: Current Debates on Animals and the Species Divide. Animals embody a reality that is not adequately reflected in traditional thinking. This has been increasingly recognized in recent years, which have witnessed the vigorous interrogation and deconstruction of traditional Western views of a human-nonhuman divide. This course will provide an orientation to current philosophical, legal, humanistic and social science thought on animals, with the goal of linking that work to a larger critical project concerned with the anthropology of vulnerability. D. Kulick.
47500. Urban Field Research. This course will focus on methods for collecting qualitative field data in urban settings from the ground up, so to speak, and to discuss some related methodological issues. In addition to readings, there will be field assignments and students will discuss each other's notes. R. Taub.
50036. Honor. "What is honor?" Asks Falstaff. "Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or Take away the grief of a wound? No. Who hath it?" Honor makes men do strange things. This course attempts both to answer Falstaff's question and to learn why Honor "pricks men on." R. Taub.
