Course Offerings

Topics vary every semester.
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.”

The senior seminar involves an in-depth study of major artists, epochs or themes in art history. The course regularly changes focus and approach according to the specialty of the professor. It will, however, always include a historiographic component and may cut across traditional, chronological, and/or geographical boundaries. May be taken a second time as an upper-level art history elective.
“For the course description, please find this course in the respective semester on the public course browser: https://www.aup.edu/academics/course-catalog/by-term.” May be taken twice for credit.

Sociocultural anthropology is the comparative study of human societies and cultures. This course is designed to introduce students to central areas of anthropological inquiry, a range of key theoretical perspectives and the discipline’s holistic approach. Through field-based research projects, students will also gain familiarity with the discipline’s qualitative research methods (especially participant observation). While students will encounter the works of key historical figures in the discipline, they will also discover current debates on globalization and transnationalism. Finally, this course also strives to cultivate students’ ability to reflect critically on their own identities and cultures, thereby gaining a greater understanding and appreciation for diversity and an improved set of intercultural communication skills.

Using ethnographic case studies, considers issues of power and political institutions from the cross-cultural and holistic perspectives of anthropology. Discusses diverse definitions of power, authority, and charisma and relates them to the development of a variety of approaches in the field of anthropology, and the social sciences more generally.