Subject Description
Sociology and Anthropology

SOAN 337 | Capitalism and Culture

Contemporary Americans typically have some sort of inkling about capitalism and everything that it connotes, and many students arrive on campus with a fairly critical perspective about this economic system and the social forms that blossom from those arrangements. In this course, students will develop a significant philosophical foundation in the history of capitalism, the expansion of that economic system to global dominance, and how theorists assess its impact on our lives today.

SOAN 284 | Historical Archaeology: From Decolonization to Heritage Politics

Past societies are often divided into "prehistoric" and "historic" based on the existence of ties with Western culture. Following this dichotomy, archaeology has long contributed to a Colonialist perspective of selective literacy. In attempt to deconstruct said tendency, this course explores the multiplicity of circumstances in which archaeologists study a past for which historical records exist.

SOAN 205 | Heritage of Asia: Nature, Culture, and the Politics of the Past

This course aims to enable students to acquire a critical understanding of the theories and practices of heritage by scrutinizing the ideas of "heritage" and its formation in recent decades. We will critically engage the definition of heritage with reference to policies and treaties set up by international organizations like UNESCO and state governments. Addressing heritage both as an academic discipline and as a professional field, the course examines how the ideas of heritage -- oftentimes Eurocentric -- are interpreted, contested, and put into practice in various Asian countries.

SOAN 309 | Anthropology of China: Contemporary Cultural and Social Issues

This course aims to engage students in an informed and critical study of contemporary China. Focusing on the historical continuity of Chinese society as well as its breaking away from tradition in the post-1949 era, the course encourages students to reflect on China's social transformations over the past seven decades from an anthropological perspective.

SOAN 498 | Internship Seminar

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork.

SOAN 497 | Internship

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork.

SOAN 494 | Research Assistantship

Conducting original, independent research is central to the experience of the Sociology and Anthropology major. This activity credit course pairs a student with a SOAN professor to collaborate on a sociological or anthropological research project in progress. In the capacity of research assistant, the student contributes to the project through tasks that may include interviewing, interview transcription, survey administration, data indexing, data summary, bibliographic research and literature review, data coding, data input, and research briefs.