Class Schedule Search

“There's something happening here. But what it is ain't exactly clear…” begins the 1966 song entitled “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. The song, like many of the artists who made up Buffalo Springfield, were central to the tumultuous cultural changes of the 1960s in the United States. The long 1960s have been the inspiration for innumerous pieces of art, music, literature and scholarship across the globe. Representations of 1960s in mass media and popular culture have often simplified the period into a story of charismatic leaders and villains with less attention given to the diverse set of actors, politics, and responses. Certainly, the history of the 1960s includes both charismatic leaders and villainous actors but they also spurred the creation of new cultural forms and new politics which shattered a shaky American consensus. This course examines the history of the long 1960s through an exploration of the politics, counter-politics, cultural productions, and everyday life which captured a pivotal period of American history. Central to the story of the 1960s is the emergence of a large constituency which had been largely sidelined in political and social action in the previous generation—the youth. Universities, colleges, bookshops, bars, and music venues all became gathering places for more than just recreation or learning but for politics and pleasure which would help shape the second half of the 20th century. In this class we will explore those spaces, places, and peoples who shaped the long 1960s and continue to impact the ways in which political change happens and where we imagine power can come from.

This course takes place in the 250th year since The Declaration of Independence. The class will
examine the founding of the United States from multiple perspectives and points of view, as well
as the continuing relevance and consequences of those events. What happened, how did it
happen, and why does it still matter? To enable multiple perspectives, the course will be taught
by a series of experts from multiple disciplines and specialties. In addition to various professors
from WashU, the WashU chancellor, Andrew Martin, will present from his expertise, and
renowned professors from beyond WashU will visit campus and lecture on specific topics. The
course will run one time only as a way to commemorate and respond in 2026 to the events of
1776 and the founding of the United States.

This course introduces students to 19th-century art and visual culture. The story of the long 19th century (1789-1914) has tended to be taught as a series of -isms: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, Impressionism, and Symbolism, ending in fauvism. This course studies canonical artists and artworks in tandem with counter- or alter-histories of art to paint a more nuanced picture of the approximately 100 years (1814-1914) under exploration. This course questions how current stories of 19th-century art have been produced and codified. It highlights the continued relevance of 19th-century art and visual culture to contemporary artists working today.

After a brief survey of pre-twentieth-century theories of heredity, this course examines the work of Gregor Mendel and its rediscovery in 1900, and its expansion as an interfield theory in combination with the chromosome theory, pioneered beginning in 1910 by T.H. Morgan at Columbia and R.A. Emerson at Cornell, and led to the expansion of classical genetics up to World War II. The beginnings of biochemical and molecular genetics in the 1920s and 1930s developed rapidly after the war with the double-helix theory of DNA and the rise of molecular genetics. The course ends with examination of the Human Genome Project (Initiative) and the ramifications of genetic biotechnology. Throughout, emphasis is placed not only on the technical and theoretical developments comprising genetics as an epistemic field, but also on the economic, social, political and philosophical interconnections between genetics and society. Agriculture, medicine and the ideology of social control (including such movements as eugenics and Nazi race hygiene) both influenced, and were influenced by genetics, and played an integral part in the construction of the science itself. Readings are drawn from the primary and secondary literature. There is a mid-term, final and periodic student reports.

A&S CREATES (Arts & Sciences Cohort Recruitment and Transdisciplinary Experiences) is a unique approach to academic growth that fosters an environment where doctoral students can collaborate across disciplines and move beyond traditional learning boundaries. Each student participating in A&S CREATES will complete a cohort seminar that is organized around a broad theme. These seminars offer PhD students an expanded, cross-departmental learning community and supercharged possibilities for research collaboration, as well as a platform to translate their scholarly research for new audiences.

This advanced course provides students with a more in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer. We will discuss tumor suppressors, oncogenes, signaling pathways, animal models in cancer, and novel targeted cancer therapies being developed by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

This class explores both historically and experientially the fine arts of French cooking. Students will investigate food culture from various perspectives, including recipes from the chefs of kings, famed literary homages, excerpts from contemporary writers, films, and cooking shows. They will present online food blogs or videos sharing their attempts to master an aspect of the historical, regional, or contemporary food culture we have studied; cooking is optional, but creativity is a plus. Topics to be explored include Terroir; the slow food movements; La table d'hote; the role of the cafe and the market in French and Francophone cooking; and reflections on our own national food cultures. Students will gain the necessary vocabulary and cultural knowledge to be able to converse about cuisine with ease with people from any Francophone country, preferably over a long meal.

Designed to give undergraduates research experience in various subdisciplines of Anthropology. May be taken more than once for credit.

Limited to those students who have successfully completed ANTHRO 4988, and have a qualifying continuing research project.

Competing theories of knowledge and belief justification will be considered. Careful attention will be given to selected problems such as skepticism, certainty, foundations, coherence, perception, induction.

This course fosters an in-depth knowledge of the French language and accuracy in its use. It employs a comparative approach (linguistic and cultural) initiating students into the art of translation from English to French and from French to English and sensitizing them to the problem of cultural transfer. Students will acquire practical training, cultivating skills advantageous in the workplace by drawing on a wide variety of documents to develop translation strategies. Genres include fiction, autobiography, journalism, advertising, and correspondence spanning different eras, regions, and registers. This course satisfies the college's writing intensive requirement.

Fundamental aspects of organismal genetics with emphasis on experimental studies that have contributed to the molecular analysis of complex biological problems. Examples are drawn primarily from yeast, nematodes, fruit flies, mouse, and humans. Students will conceive and write an original research proposal with a substantial genetics component; the learning goal is to build skills in developing hypotheses from the literature and designing experimental approaches to test those hypotheses. Prerequisite, graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credit 3 units.

One of three core courses at the 3000-level, of which majors and minors must take two, in any order. This course focuses on the processes of storytelling and how stories and cultural narratives are transmitted.

What does it mean to listen to the stories of a nation? And how can a nation define itself through stories told through art, sound, and literature? These and other questions will be explored in German 3030 through a variety of texts and media from the last 75 years of German history, culture, and politics.

In cooperation with WashU's Kemper Art Museum, students will have the opportunity to work closely with cultural artifacts of the German-speaking world exhibited in the Kemper Teaching Gallery. While engaging with the selected artworks, students will continue to develop their skills in reading, listening, speaking, and writing, with a special emphasis on creative writing. The creative writing assignments will culminate in the creation of a student-focused exhibition guide (auf Deutsch naturlich!) for the accompanying Kemper Art Museum Teaching Gallery.

At the same time, the creative writing assignments allow for a systematic review, which will help students gain confidence in their understanding of German grammar and vocabulary while improving their ability to communicate in a variety of formats. A main goal of the course is for students to recognize how storytelling impacts culture and culture impacts storytelling.

Generalized linear models including logistic and Poisson regression (hetrogeneous vairance structure, quasi-likelihood), linear mixed-effects models (estimation of variance components, maximum likelihood estimation, restricted maximum likelihood, generalized estimating equations), generalized linear mixed-effects models for discrete data, models for longitudinal data, and optional multivariate models as time permits. The computer software R will be used for examples and homework problems. Implementation in SAS will be mentioned for several specialized models.

Review of basic linear models relevant for the course; generalized linear models including logistic and Poisson regression (heterogeneous variance structure, quasilikelihood); linear mixed-effects models (estimation of variance components, maximum likelihood estimation, restricted maximum likelihood, generalized estimating equations), generalized linear mixed-effects models for discrete data, models for longitudinal data, optional multivariate models as time permits. The computer software R will be used for examples and homework problems. Implementation in SAS will be mentioned for several specialized models.

This course is a hands-on workshop for analyzing qualitative data and writing up findings. To take this
class, students must have taken a graduate-level qualitative methods course. Students should begin the
semester having gathered some data for their projects and should come prepared to analyze it. We will
focus on improving research design, honing strategies for analyzing qualitative data, learning how to use qualitative coding software, and presenting findings. Students will also develop skills in giving high-
quality peer feedback.

Advanced Readings in Anthropology

This course is for independent study.

This in-person course provides advanced training in conducting human movement science research. Students who wish to pursue advanced research training in human movement science will learn how to analyze, interpret, and disseminate their research. This class is focused on how to make your research visible once data collection is complete. Using data sets generated in the fall course, "Research Methodologies of Human Movement Science", students in spring semester will get hands-on experience analyzing and interpreting real data. Principles of statistical analysis, scientific communication, and ushering a paper to publication will be emphasized. One group project and one solo project will be accomplished throughout the semester.

This seminar will study the history of magic, heresy, and witchcraft in the medieval world. It will begin in the fourth century after the conversion of Constantine the Great and end with the great witchcraft trials of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The seminar will read magical treatises, ecclesiastical polemics against vulgar belief, inquisitorial trials, chronicles, and histories, in our attempt to define what was considered the ordinary and the extraordinary, the natural and the supernatural, good and evil, the boundaries of heaven and earth. How do modern historians use medieval documents to evoke the lives of men, women, and children who believed in magic or were accused of heresy? Can this only be done through a form of historical anthropology? What methods do historians use in trying to understand past ideas and practices? What is historical truth then? What is the relationship of supposedly heterodox belief and behavior with religious orthodoxy? How do we define religion? A theme throughout this seminar will be the definition of evil and the powers of the devil. Students will write a short historiographic essay and a long research essay. Pre-modern, Europe.

This seminar will study the history of magic, heresy, and witchcraft in the medieval world. It will begin in the fourth century after the conversion of Constantine the Great and end with the great witchcraft trials of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The seminar will read magical treatises, ecclesiastical polemics against vulgar belief, inquisitorial trials, chronicles, and histories, in our attempt to define what was considered the ordinary and the extraordinary, the natural and the supernatural, good and evil, the boundaries of heaven and earth. How do modern historians use medieval documents to evoke the lives of men, women, and children who believed in magic or were accused of heresy? Can this only be done through a form of historical anthropology? What methods do historians use in trying to understand past ideas and practices? What is historical truth then? What is the relationship of supposedly heterodox belief and behavior with religious orthodoxy? How do we define religion? A theme throughout this seminar will be the definition of evil and the powers of the devil. Students will write a short historiographic essay and a long research essay. Pre-modern, Europe.

What do transatlantic cables, oranges, bush pumps, barbed wire, corrugated iron, uranium, the pill, kitchens, a breathing machine, and cheek swaps have in common? These are objects that shape human societies. Empire threads through these objects: in telegraph lines that bound colonies to metropoles, in laboratories that translated local knowledge into imperial science, in domestic machines that mirrored global hierarchies of labor and gender. 
Technologies emerge here not as neutral artifacts but as sites where power, culture, and material practice meet. This course explores how technology and empire have shaped one another - especially the intrinsic relationship of technology and knowledge to empire - tracing their connected histories across continents, disciplines, and centuries. We will read about technological objects that travel, as well technologies that have been contested and reimagined imperial power. We begin by asking what counts as “technology” 
and how different cultures and political orders have defined and deployed it. 
Moving through debates on determinism, innovation, and maintenance, we examine the ways technologies have served as instruments of domination and resistance — as tools of extraction, communication, and control, but also of survival, translation, and repair. From Cold War kitchens to African workshops and Indian planning offices, we will explore how people across the world have inhabited, subverted, and reshaped technological systems.

What do transatlantic cables, oranges, bush pumps, barbed wire, corrugated iron, uranium, the pill, kitchens, a breathing machine, and cheek swaps have in common? These are objects that shape human societies. Empire threads through these objects: in telegraph lines that bound colonies to metropoles, in laboratories that translated local knowledge into imperial science, in domestic machines that mirrored global hierarchies of labor and gender. 
Technologies emerge here not as neutral artifacts but as sites where power, culture, and material practice meet. This course explores how technology and empire have shaped one another - especially the intrinsic relationship of technology and knowledge to empire - tracing their connected histories across continents, disciplines, and centuries. We will read about technological objects that travel, as well technologies that have been contested and reimagined imperial power. We begin by asking what counts as “technology” 
and how different cultures and political orders have defined and deployed it. 
Moving through debates on determinism, innovation, and maintenance, we examine the ways technologies have served as instruments of domination and resistance — as tools of extraction, communication, and control, but also of survival, translation, and repair. From Cold War kitchens to African workshops and Indian planning offices, we will explore how people across the world have inhabited, subverted, and reshaped technological systems.

This is the second course on advanced methods and tools for Statistical Computing. This course will introduce classical methods, including the EM algorithm and its variants. It also will cover basic convex optimization theory and advanced computing tools and techniques for big data and learning algorithms.  Experience with a high-level programming language like R, Python, C++, etc. is recommended. 

How does the act of recording and manipulating sound change the way we write songs? How can the tones and moods of a recording interact with notes and rhythms and words? We'll look for answers through experiments in composition, collaboration, and critical listening. Topics will include beatmaking, sound collage, vocal manipulations, sampling, and virtual spaces. Formal training is not required, though we will engage (and learn) basic music theory concepts. To enroll in the course, please complete this application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXBWVs-uf3NBPnmegXArQuQI_qhwA9G1LCLvX_FF-b2Zaq2g/viewform?usp=sharing

Advanced Topics in Anthropology may differ by semester.