Anthropology at Chicago: Tradition, Discipline, Department

Undergraduate / Graduate

For nearly a century, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago has been home to ethnographers, linguists, archaeologists, and biological anthropologists who have shaped the field of anthropology. This course explores those intellectual traditions, with an emphasis on faculty members' current scholarship: archival and historical silences, notions of kinship, language-in-use, ideas of waste (ancient to nuclear), science and technology studies, and more. Class meetings will focus on discussions with current faculty around their research, while assignments will incorporate faculty and departmental archives held at the Regenstein Library, artifact collections at the Field Museum, and oral histories collected from members of the department. Intended for those interested in anthropology and/or the history of the social sciences, this course encourages students to get to know faculty members and scholarship that are part the Department, and provides an opportunity to learn more about the people and traditions that have shaped anthropological research at UChicago.