An interdisciplinary course that examines the lives of people who were considered extraordinary or different. Key issues in modern texts produced by anthropologists are highlighted. Students design and execute projects reflecting their own interests by combining the tools of social science inquiry with the problems of a particular performing arts field. Analysis of general topics in this area directs the formulation and completion of individual projects. The methodological, political, and ethical issues of participant observation.
Students read and discuss classical examples of participant-observation research.
Each student conducts a participant-observation field research study and presents a preliminary version of the results to the seminar before submission of the written report. Students examine both the historical and structural factors that have molded the construction of poverty and the strategies that people use to survive it. Attention is also given to welfare reform and its impact on populations of color and battered women. Readings consider new social theories of sexuality. An overview of changes in the social meaning of sexuality in the U.S. that have occurred during the past several hundred years.