Logic of Inquiry in Anthropology (Cultural) (401-3-1)

Instructors

Emrah Yildiz
847/467-6254
1819 Hinman Ave, #103
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1-3pm
Emrah Yıldız joins the Department of Anthropology and the Middle East and North African Studies Program and as an Assistant Professor. His work is a historical anthropology of routes of mobility in the tri-border area among Iran, Turkey and Syria. His research lies at the intersection of historiography and ethnography of borders and their states; ritual practice, visitation and pilgrimage in Islam as well as smuggling and contraband commerce in global political economy.

Meeting Info

ANTHRO Sem Rm 104 - 1810 Hinmn: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This graduate seminar focuses on the key themes, concepts, and debates that have characterized cultural anthropology's logics of inquiry. We will attend to the historical precedents of the sub-field's mode of questioning, both within the broader discipline and in the social sciences and humanities more generally. We will inquire into how cultural anthropology articulates with the other sub-fields of the discipline as it changes in the broader social fields of North American academe and global political economy. Examining these core dimensions of the sub-field will provide a strong understanding of how cultural anthropologists conceptualize their subjects/objects of study in relationship to the shifting terrains in academia and global politics. This approach will also allow us to gain foundational knowledge of the key theoretical trends within cultural anthropology as well as critical dynamics of global political economic processes. Throughout, we will address the larger stakes - both ethical and political - of taking particular ethnographic and theoretical approaches. We will both cultivate a critical approach to the readings, and strive to apprehend them on their own terms in the historical circumstances of their production.

Registration Requirements

Open only to Anthropology PhD Students

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, student will be able to (1) recognize prevalent interpretative modes as well as methodological and theoretical underpinnings of cultural anthropology; (2) evaluate core concepts related to cultural anthropology's logics of inquiry such as culture and society; self and other; structure and agency; time and history; nature and science; economy; materiality/materialism; power and decolonization; (3) generate different theories about some of these concepts through their own research projects by analyzing ethnographic evidence and theoretical discussions drawn from multiple world regions.

Class Materials (Required)

All required texts with the exception of two book-length manuscripts given below can be found under files on the course website.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 2015. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. ISBN: 978-0807080535

Abu El-Haj, Nadia. 2022. Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in post-9/11 America. New York, NY: Verso. ISBN: 978-1788738422.

Class Notes

Students will be evaluated on the basis of two writing assignments (50%) and class participation (50%). The writing assignments include one American Anthropologist style book review of an ethnographic monograph (20%) and one 12-page paper recasting own research project in light of seminar readings (30%). Class participation includes (1) Regular attendance (10%) in seminar meetings and contribution to discussions; (2) 8 Reading responses (25%) out of 9 seminar meetings ; (3) (Co-)leading seminar discussion in one session (15%).