Undergraduate summer courses 2024

Summer 2024: May 13 - June 28
Instructor: Dr. Amy Levine
Schedule: T 9:00 - 11:00 & R 9:00 - 11:30
Delivery: Online

Course Description and Objectives

This course aims to answer the question what makes us human? It is an introductory survey of the sub-fields of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural and social anthropology and linguistic anthropology. Two broad principles underlie our understanding of human complexity: First, all individuals and groups possess certain commonalities - in particular, genetic and other biological traits, sociality, language and a powerful symbolising capability; and second, human culture is incredibly diverse and ever-changing. We will explore the sub-fields of anthropology through a range of themes including, but not limited to: evolution; early humans; development of agriculture; emergence of cities and states; culture, supernaturalism, ethnicity and race; and families, kinship and gender.

Skills Development

Skills introduced/developed in this course include: critical reading, writing, citation practices, anthropological terminology and concepts, ethical issues and cultural adeptness. 

Notes

This course is entirely online and no longer has tutorials.  All work is done through BrightSpace and Zoom. You must also purchase either a digital or analog copy of the third edition of Through the Lens of Anthropology: An Introduction to Human Evolution and Culture (University of Toronto Press, 2022).

ANTH 150 - Exploring Anthropology: Race, Culture, and Power

Summer 2024: May 13 - June 5
Instructor: Dr. CindyAnn Rose-Redwood
Online Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays (synchronous) 9:30am-12:50pm

Course Description

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the discipline of anthropology’s role in framing notions of race and how this concept is often intertwined with ideologies of culture and power. We will explore how the discipline has shifted from ideologies around scientific racism to understandings that race is a socially constructed notion produced by people to frame hierarchies of power over other people. We will also examine the scholarly works of anthropologists who are currently encountering, critically examining, and challenging notions of race with respect to their own positionality and ethnographic fieldwork. Through a series of readings, films, and lectures, this course will provide a better understand of how the concepts of race, culture, and power impact the everyday lives of people who are often placed under the “gaze” of anthropologists. The course ends by considering directions for future research on race, culture, and power in anthropology. Students will examine anti-racist praxis in relation to moving anthropology forward as a discipline.

Course outcomes/objectives

• critically examine anthropological scholarship and scholars writing about discourses on race, culture, and power
• develop critical thinking skills on various themes around race and culture, and how hierarchies of power impact the lives of peoples around the world
• explain how the discipline of anthropology contributed to framing discourses on race.
• analyze and critique the positionality of anthropologists in terms of fieldwork
• reflect on the impact of race as a social construct in relation to acts of racism

Topics may include

• history of anthropological thought
• Indigenous peoples, cultures, and power
• Black feminist anthropology
• Asians and racialization
• policing
• music as storytelling
• migration
• health inequities
• anti-racism

Summer 2024: May 13 - June 28
Instructor: Mark McIntyre
Lecture Schedule: MR 11:30 - 12:50 & Tutorial Schedule: MR 13:00 - 14:20
Delivery: In person - CLE A207

Course Description and Objectives

This course provides students with an overview of social and cultural anthropology – its origins, its distinctive methods and concepts, and its place in the contemporary world. In this course, you will learn how to think about contemporary events from an anthropological perspective and how to better understand yourself in relation to others. You will also learn to appreciate the diversity of topics that contemporary socio-cultural anthropology explores and the extent to which it can help you better understand a world where peoples and societies are increasingly interconnected. By the end of the course students should:

• learn to think about contemporary events from an anthropological perspective;
• apply anthropological theories and concepts to real-world problems;
• have a greater degree of familiarity with the field of socio-cultural anthropology, its key concepts, theoretical orientations and methods;
• understand the historical developments that have shaped the subfield of sociocultural anthropology;
• learn to challenge their cultural biases and ethnocentric assumptions;
• demonstrate greater awareness of the cultural and social bases of human prejudice and discrimination;
• gain a better understanding of Indigenous peoples, histories and cultures, and the impact of colonization on individuals, families and communities;
• understand the ethical standards that anthropologists uphold.

Skills Development

Because this is an introductory course, it will offer the opportunity to exercise a wide variety of skills that are crucial in students’ academic and professional careers. These include critical reading, analytical thinking, intercultural communication and the ability to undertake effective secondary research using online and traditional research sources. In addition, the course will provide students with a supportive environment to develop effective communication skills.

Ethnographic Field School in Cuba

Only for successful applicants - applications closed

Summer 2024: May 22 - June 12
Instructor: Dr. Stephanie Calce
Lecture Schedule: MWF 8:30 - 14:20
Delivery: In person - COR B235

Limited enrolment: 24 students.

Course Description and Objectives

This course is an introduction to the field of forensic anthropological field techniques and crime scene interpretation. This outdoor field course combines methodological approaches to excavation and recovery from both forensic science and archaeology with a focus on documentation and collection of relevant data and is offered over a four-week period in the summer semester. This course will combine in-class instruction and outdoor processing of clandestine burials and will cover topics on: crime-scene protocols and record-keeping; establishing secure scene perimeters; mapping methods (high and low technologies); establishing an excavation grid; excavation techniques (horizontal vs. bisect approaches); stratification; collecting soils, tool marks, and other evidence from the grave; casting soil imprints; taphonomy and taphonomic inference; photography; collecting evidence; maintaining chain of evidence; and crime scene interpretation to reconstruct activities relating to a death event and body deposition.

Skills Development

Students will learn how to think critically, gaining hands-on experience of forensic field techniques that will require group decision-making and collaboration.  Students will acquire skills in spatial data analysis from mapping exercises that will be an essential component of this course, as well as to learn new software related to 3D mapping and photogrammetry. Students will develop essential skills in areas such as deductive reasoning, collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of quantitative data, as well as be trained in areas beyond archaeology that includes knowledge of medical and legal terminology and procedures necessary to communicate with other medicolegal professionals in a forensic context. Students will develop their problem solving, communication, and presentation skills, as well as practical field experience in excavation methods that may be applied in finding employment in anthropological settings, for example, cultural resource management.

Materials Fee  

$65.00 (Summer 2024).  Exact cash amount required.

Due by the 1^st day of class (Wednesday May 22, 2024).

Pay in the Anthropology office Cornett B228.

Until further notice student advising is not available face-to-face. 

Undergraduate adviser: Dr. Yin-Man Lam

Available Mon from 10:00-11:30am by appointment for online advising.

To schedule an online appointment: https://calendly.com/anthua/15min

• choosing classes
• registration help
• transfer credits
• pre-requisite overrides
• advice on  directed studies and your major or minor
• oversees the operation of and changes to the undergraduate program

Honours adviser: Dr. April Nowell

• information about the honours program
• already enrolled in the honours program and have a question

Coop adviser: Anaïs Holdaway or Linda Marlee

Get more information about Anthropology Co-op. Drop by to see Anaïs Holdaway, your Anthropology co-op coordinator in COR B138 ssco@uvic.ca (250-721-7358) or Linda Marlee at sscoop@uvic.ca (250-721-8689).

The UVic calendar has general descriptions and prerequisites for Anthropology courses.

Anthropology's course lists have pdfs with the instructor's specific description of their course.

Anthropology Handbook: Describes the programs and opportunities for undergraduates interested in Anthropology.

Please note: The University reserves the right to limit enrolment and to limit the registration in, or to cancel or revise, any of the courses listed. The university reserves the right to cancel courses if enrollment is not sufficient. Preliminary lists of instructors and courses are subject to change. The curricula may also be changed, as deemed advisable by the Senate of the University. General information about the calendar includes: academic sessions, calendar changes, course values and hours, course experience survey, limit of the University's responsibility, program planning, privacy and access to information, notification of disclosure of personal information to statistics Canada, schedule of classes and the University's right to limit enrollment.