ANT 1000:  Theoretical Paradigms and Case Studies
Fall 2007, Anthropology, University of Toronto
Course Web Page:  http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3hmlmil/1000F2007.htm
Course CCNet page: link from course web page

Dr. Heather M.-L. Miller
Office:  208 North Building, UTM  (or 269 South Bldg., Munk Centre, St. George)
Phone:  UTM:  905-828-3741  (Wednesdays  & most Saturdays)
St. George:  416-946-8988 (Mondays & most Fridays)
Email:  heather.miller@utoronto.ca       (always use email for messages!)
 
Class meeting :        Mondays 1-3,          Anthropology Building, St. George
Office Hour at St. George:      Mondays 3:30-4:30 ,   269 South, Munk Centre, St. George
 
Course Description
This course approaches theoretical paradigms in anthropology from a different perspective than the usual reviews of literature.  Instead, we will use two different approaches to examine similarities and differences in the way anthropologists across the discipline engage in research and write about their findings.   In the first portion of the course, students will themselves write and review grant proposals, using participant observation methods to experience this necessary aspect of anthropological research.    In the second portion, readings and discussion of professors' research with members of the Univ. of Toronto department will provide examples of different research topics, methods, and presentation approaches.
 
Readings
--For the first portion of the course, read all on-line information for all applicable grants.  The websites for the main grants are linked to their deadlines on the Graduate Deadlines page of the Anthropology Dept. graduate website:  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/anthropology/backup_website/grad/gradevnts.htm .
--Each weekly presenter will assign readings in the second portion of the course.  Most will be available on CCNet.

Course Requirements and Grading
  Total course mark is 100% = 400 points
 [1] 20% (80 points) of the course mark will be based on participation in class.  This includes class attendance, involvement in class discussion, and weekly written submission of informed questions.  These questions should be either about the grant proposal process OR for the speakers relating to their readings. 
 
[2] 40% (160 points) for Masters Grant Proposal work submitted for each class:  20% for helpful critical comments on 3 other students' initial proposals, and 20% for your own final grant proposal packet, in part based on improvement from the first draft.  See handout for details.
 
[3] 40% (160 points) for (imaginary) collaborative grant proposal.  Handout with full details to be provided.

Class Schedule

Week Topics Readings or Assigned Work
(to be finished BEFORE class)
Sept. 10 Introduction and Class Introductions;
Discussion of Assignments; Writing Grant Proposals
---
Sept. 17 Discussion of Difficulties; Reviewing Grant Proposals Draft Grant Proposal Packets Due
Sept. 24 Discussion of Difficulties; Revising Grant Proposals; Assembling Packets Comments on 3 Grant Proposals Due
Oct. 1 Discussion of Difficulties; Other Writing & Reviewing Final Grant Proposal Packets Due
Oct. 8 No Class – Thanksgiving holiday  
Oct. 15 Speaker: Dr. Joshua Barker
“Anthropologists as Mediators: The Changing Conditions of Field Research in Indonesia, 1995-2007”
(1) see department faculty list + website
(2) Barker 2005
Oct. 22 Speaker: Dr. Bonnie McElhinny

(
Dr. McElhinny asks that you please do readings in order listed, in case you run out of time!)
(1) see department faculty list + website
(2) McElhinny 2005
(3) McElhinny et al. 2007
(4) Kramer 1998
(5) Axel 2002
(6) Le Espiritu 2003
Oct. 29 Speaker: Dr. David Begun (1) see department faculty list + website
(2) Begun 2003
Nov. 5 Speaker: Dr. Heather Miller
Themes:  Archaeological Assessments of Value (and other intangibles from material culture);   Collaborations with other anthropologists and other disciplines
(1) see department faculty list + website
(2) Miller 2006 selection
(3) Miller SSHRC (2003)
(4) Lohmann SSHRC (2004)
Nov. 12 Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Jackson
Themes: Anthropological collaborations with NGOs and governmental offices (linguistics and Madagascar); dissertation grant proposals
(1) see UTM department faculty list and CV in CCNet Handouts (not yet on grad dept. link)
(2) Jackson SSRC (2003)
(3) Harman 2002
(4) Freeman 2004
Nov. 19 Speaker: Dr. Naisargi (Nais) Dave
"Ethics in anthropology of ethics: notes from research on queer politics in India"
(1) see department faculty list
(2) Dave in press
Nov. 26 Speaker: Dr. Esteban Parra
“Skin pigmentation variation in human populations: genetic basis and implications for public health.”
(1) see department faculty list + website
(2) Parra 2007
 
Dec. 3 Speaker: Dr. Max Friesen
"Communities Past and Present: Social Archaeology in the Modern Canadian Arctic"
(1) see department faculty list + website
(2) Friesen 2002
(3) Friesen 2007
  FINAL PAPER DUE by Dec. 7 (Friday)
 

References:
 
Axel, Brian, 2002. Historical Anthropology and its Vicissitudes.  In From the Margins; Historical Anthropology and Its Futures, pp. 1-33. Duke University Press.

Barker, Joshua, 2005.  Engineers and Political Dreams.  Indonesia in the Satellite Age. Current Anthropology 46(5): 703-727.  (includes Comments by W. Keane, P. Redfield, G.L. Riebeiro, M. Wiener & Reply by J. Barker)

Dave, Naisargi,  In press.  Between Queer Ethics and Sexual Morality.  Sarai Reader. 

Freeman, Luke, 2004.   Writing for Madagascar’s president.  BBC News.   Sept. 13, 2004 edition.   http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3645594.stm
Friesen, T. Max, 2002. Analogues at Iqaluktuuq: the social context of archaeological inference in Nunavut, Arctic Canada. World Archaeology 34(3): 330-345. (Issue on Community Archaeology.)

Friesen, T. Max, 2007. Hearth rows, hierarchies and Arctic hunter-gatherers: the construction of equality in the Late Dorset period.  World Archaeology 39(2): 194-214.  (Issue on The Archaeology of Equality)

Harman, Danna, 2002.  In kabary, the point is to avoid the point.  The Christian Science Monitor.  May 09, 2002 edition.   http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0509/p01s04-woaf.html

Jackson, Jennifer L., 2003.  Getting an Edge in Wordwise:  The Productive and Social Role of Oratorical Performance in Malagasy Democratic Process.   Social Science Research Council PhD Project Proposal, 2003-2004.  Manuscript.

Kramer, Paul,  1998.  Chapter 2:  Invincible Ignorance:  Knowledge and the Philippine-American War, 1899-1901.  In The Pragmatic Empire:  U.S. Anthropology and Colonial Politics in the Occupied Philippines, 1898-1916. Ph.D. Dissertation, Princeton University. Read pp. 71-93, 116-130. (lots of long footnotes which you can ignore)

Le Espiritu, Yen,  2003.  Home Making  in Homebound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities and Countries.  Pp. 1-17.

Lohmann, Roger, 2004 (Oct.). Anthropology of the Imagination Project:  Mapping the Boundary between Perceiving and Imagining in a Melanesian Culture. Manuscript of SSHRC proposal statement.

McElhinny, Bonnie,  2005.  “Kissing a Baby is Not At All Good For Him”: Infant Mortality, Medicine and Colonial Modernity in the U.S.-Occupied Philippines. American Anthropologist. 107(2): 183-194.

McElhinny, Bonnie, Shirley Yeung, Valerie Damasco, Angela DeOcampo, Monina Febria, Chritianne Collantes and Jason Salonga,  2007 (in press)  “Talk about luck”: Coherence, Contingency, Character and Class in the Life Stories of Filipino Canadians in Toronto.  In Language and Asia-Pacific Americans, edited by Adrienne Lo and Angela Reyes.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.  17 pp.

Miller, Heather M.-L., 2003 (Oct.). Caravanserai Networks Project: The Archaeological Investigation of Historic Travel, Communication and Trade Networks Between South and Central Asia. Manuscript of SSHRC proposal statement.

Miller, Heather M.-L., 2006.  Archaeological Approaches to Technology.  Elsevier/Academic Press.  Read pp. 203-226 (Determining Value, Social Status in Archaeology). 

Parra, Esteban, 2007 (in press).  Pigmentation Review.   Yearbook of Physical Anthropology.