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Last Updated: July 26, 2021

*NOTE: Timetable subject to change or modification. Anthropology graduate students will be able to enrol into Fall session graduate courses starting August 5, 2021. Enrolment for Winter session graduate courses will begin October 15, 2021. Students from other departments should follow instructions for enrolment on the Graduate Course Description and Timetable page.

• Fall 2021 Timetable
• Winter 2022 Timetable
• 2021-22 Graduate Course Descriptions

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Fall Courses of Interest in Other Departments

To be announced at a later date.

(*) : denotes a CORE COURSE – see 2021-22 Anthropology Graduate Handbook for program specific course requirements.

(¹):  strongly recommended for SCL doctoral students in year 2.

(²): recommended for SCL master's students       

(³): Please note the following changes in graduate course requirements for Master’s students in Archaeology: Incoming Master’s students are now required to enrol in ANT 4010: Archaeology in Contemporary Society and no longer required to enrol in ANT 4020: Archaeological Theory. PhD students are still required to enrol in ANT 4020: Archaeological Theory, and are not required to take ANT 4010.                                                                              

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Courses of Interest in Other Departments

To be announced at a later date.

(*) : denotes a CORE COURSE – see 2021-22 Anthropology Graduate Handbook for program specific course requirements.

(¹):  strongly recommended for SCL doctoral students in year 2.

(³): Please note the following changes in graduate course requirements for Master’s students in Archaeology: Incoming Master’s students are now required to enrol in ANT 4010: Archaeology in Contemporary Society and no longer required to enrol in ANT 4020: Archaeological Theory. PhD students are still required to enrol in ANT 4020: Archaeological Theory, and are not required to take ANT 4010.      

2021-22 Graduate Course Descriptions

• Fall 2021 Timetable
• Winter 2022 Timetable

ANT 1099H S - Quantitative Methods II (M. Schillaci) (return to timetable)

This course will cover many of the multivariate statistical methods used by biological anthropologists and archaeologists such as principal components analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis including formal classification and canonical variate analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and cluster analysis. 

ANT 3005H F - Advanced Topics in Paleoanthropology (D. Begun) (return to timetable)

Paleoanthropology is a cornerstone of Evolutionary Anthropology. An up-to-date awareness of current ideas and recent developments is essential for any Evo ANTH graduate student, whether they plan a career in Paleoanthropology or another area. It is especially relevant today in the context of increasing awareness and action regarding the past contributions of anthropology to racism, intellectual colonialism and white supremacy. In this course we begin with an exploration of the historical racism in Paleoanthropology and current efforts at decolonization and move on to a survey of the state-of-the-art in the field. The topics will be customized based on the interests of students. Potential topics include but are not limited to method and theory (e.g. environmental reconstruction, paleodiet, functional morphology, systematics), hominid origins, Pliocene hominins, origin of Homo, Pleistocene hominins, modern human origins and the origin of living human biological diversity. The goal is to familiarize you with the broad sweep of paleoanthropology. Students will be assessed based on participation (leading and contributing to discussion), preparation of an AAPA-style abstract and a final AAPA-style presentation. Topics will be of your choosing with my guidance. 

ANT 3010H S - Human Osteology: Theory and Practice (M. Cameron) (return to timetable)

This course is directed towards people who already have some knowledge of human osteology and will provide a comprehensive overview of how researchers analyze human skeletal remains. The methods and tools used to study human skeletal remains will be critically examined and the ethical implications of osteological research across the history of the discipline will be discussed in depth. This course will explore diverse theoretical challenges in the field, as well as the limitations and advantages of newly emerging lines of research.

ANT 3031H F - Advanced Research Seminar I: Sleep and Primate Evolution (D. Samson) (return to timetable)

This course is an overview of our current understanding of primate sleep ecology and function with particular focus on how these elements drove the evolution of human sleep. Specifically, the aim of the class will be to provide students with a strong, theoretical background of the function of sleep in the animal kingdom with particular attention paid to primate lineages. This will serve as a springboard for the application of several innovative methods measuring the spectrum of behaviors on the inactive-active continuum.

As an overview, the course will be presented in four sections: (i) Sleep: descriptions, functions, and mechanisms from eukaryotes to humans, (ii) The evolution of primate sleep, (iii) Methods: measuring sleep and activity in primates, and (iv) Evolution’s legacy on human sleep. The first section provides students with an overview of the mechanisms and functions of sleep and circadian rhythms, as well as a historical approach that fills in the context for which most of these fundamental discoveries were made. The second section presents a phylogenetic perspective on how sleep is expressed in extant species, in both human and non-human primates. The third section, departs from presenting background information and will focus on the application of the current scientific methods used to measure sleep-wake behavior throughout mammals. Finally, the fourth section provides the most up to date evolutionary narrative of the major transitions of human sleep and the consequences of these derived characteristics to our understanding of modern sleep disorders within an evolutionary mismatch framework. The course will conclude with a forward thinking series of predictions on how science and technology will fundamentally alter the way humans sleep in the 21st century and beyond.

ANT 3033H F - Advanced Research Seminar III: Molecular Population Genetics (N.Novroski) (return to timetable)

This course challenges students to explore the genetic variation between and within populations. Topics covered include evolutionary forces, quantitative genetics, and Bayesian statistics as they apply to molecular evolution, evolutionary biology, and forensic and investigative genetics. Students will utilize and evaluate different software tools available to the evolutionary biologist/population geneticist to test and summarize complex -omics data.

ANT 3047H F* - Evolutionary Anthropology Theory (J. Teichroeb) (return to timetable)

This course is an intensive exploration of the ideas that form the foundation of evolutionary anthropology. We will read historically important theoretical texts and critically examine leading concepts in the field. Through guest lectures by scholars in our department we will discuss topics such as molecular clocks, species concepts, signatures of selection, niche construction, genetic drift, sexual selection, human behavioural ecology, epigenetics, and population genetics. We will actively engage with historical and current issues of diversity and decolonization in the discipline of Evolutionary Anthropology throughout each weekly discussion.

ANT 4010H F* - Archaeology in Contemporary Society (M. Friesen) (return to timetable)

This course will explore the role of archaeology in modern society. Its primary goal is to get students to think about how their research affects, and is affected by, the world around them. For both ethical and practical reasons, it is critical that archaeology graduate students (and faculty!) understand the relationship between their research and the broader society with which it articulates. Seminars will draw papers from diverse regions of the globe based around weekly themes, and will attempt to keep discussions at a “practical” level – how does archaeology actually work “on the ground” in relation to a range of contemporary issues and interest groups? This course will offer a broad-ranging overview of relevant topics, intended to be useful as students frame their research questions, apply for funding, pursue fieldwork, interpret data, contribute to policy discussions, and interact with the public. During the second meeting, students will be polled re. specific topics to be covered this year.

ANT 4020H S* - Archaeology Theory (E. Swenson) (return to timetable)

This seminar offers an in-depth examination of the history of archaeological theory and the major theoretical approaches defining the discipline today. Students explore competing schools of archaeological thought concerned with the study of material culture, past social formations, and historical process. From functionalist and natural science-focused positions to poststructural and postmodern inquiries into meaning, representation, and politics to more recent archaeological attempts to de-center humans in hopes of liberating things, this seminar covers a diverse set of perspectives. Emphasis is placed on how shifting positions on human nature, social organization, alterity, gender, and power directly shape archaeological reconstructions and representations of the past. Ultimately, the seminar should provide students with a rich understanding of the theoretical frameworks that underpin contemporary archaeological research and the unique problems inherent in archaeological efforts to represent and interpret the material record.

ANT 4030H F - Artifacts (M. Chazan) (return to timetable)

Artifacts are a class of objects that sit at the interface of the material and the socio-cultural.  While we often think of artifacts as dusty museum objects this is in fact an entire domain that profoundly structures our experience of the world.  From the stone tools that provided much of the context for the evolution of our species to the pacifier that the infant internalizes in early developments artifacts are an essential component of our becoming human.  In this course we let go of our interdisciplinary and disciplinary boundaries to examine artifacts as a type of object spanning early prehistory to modern times.  Our goal is to develop new ways to think about artifacts and thus by extension the human engagement with materiality.  Among topics we will explore are the definition of artifacts, the agency or vibrancy of material, the distinctiveness of art as a type of artifact, and the linkage between artifacts the body, the mind, and the conception of the self.  Our aim is to develop a context for lively conversation and engagement with a wide range of theoretical writing.  Students will also develop an independent research project on a topic of their choosing.  As an instructor I come to this course as an archaeologist but also with the conviction that in a society undergoing the transformative impact of digital technology understanding artifacts is critical to our well being and of some of the most pressing issues facing society today.  This course is open to students regardless of subdiscipline and students in cognate disciplines such as history, art, and museum studies are very welcome.  

ANT 4060H S - Specific Probems I: Digital Archaeology [Cancelled] (P. Sapirstein) (return to timetable)

TBA

ANT 4065H S - Specific Problems II: Archaeology of Human-Animal Relationships (L. Janz) (return to timetable)

This seminar delves into archaeological research on human-animal relationships through time in order to highlight the diverse ways that researchers identify and interpret these interactions archaeologically.  The emphasis will be on methods and theories for understanding hunting and butchery practices, management and domestication, pastoralism, as well as ritual and ideological practice associated with fauna. Students will be graded on participation, reading syntheses, a presentation somehow relevant to their own field of research, and a final essay. 

ANT 4066H S - Household Archaeology (G. Coupland) (return to timetable)

Household archaeology, as the name implies, takes the household as the fundamental unit of study, and considers issues that are primary to households such as production, consumption, and social organization.  Gordon Willey once called the household the most important unit of study in archaeology because in most pre-industrial societies the household was at the core of socioeconomic organization.

The course is organized into four sections.  By way of introduction, we will review anthropological models of the household developed by scholars such as Yanigasako, Netting, and Wilk.  How are households constituted?  What are the rules of membership?  What sorts of social relations and obligations exist among household members?What kinds of work do households do?  In the next section, we will look at some anthropological perspectives on  the household, including ethnicity, identity, gender relations, and craft specialization.  In section three, the focus will be on the main archaeological correlate of households: the house.  We will examine topics such as the built environment, space syntax, and site formation processes. Finally, we will conclude the course with a consideration of the “living house.”

Classes will be organized around a set of readings for each weekly meeting.  Each student will present a seminar on one of the categories from the last three sections of the course. Students who are not presenting will submit short reviews or annotations of the readings for the week at the beginning of each class.  In addition to the reviews, students will write an essay, due at the end of term.  In the essay, students will discuss how household archaeology has contributed to our understanding of prehistory in a defined archaeological culture or culture area of the world.  The results of this essay research will also be presented briefly in class at the end of term (time permitting).

ANT 4069H F -  Writing Archaeology (C. Cipolla) (return to timetable)

This course examines the craft of writing for archaeologists and addresses a wide range of issues including basic mechanics, productivity, and some of the deeper theoretical challenges of writing archaeological narratives. Heavy emphasis is placed on methods for improving the clarity, quality, and quantity of our writing. We explore specific archaeological “genres,” including reports, abstracts, conference papers, grants, peer-reviews, articles, chapters, and job applications. Through course readings, guest lectures, group work, and course assignments, students critically rethink their approach to writing while gaining new practical experience with writing groups, writing schedules, and the art of revision. 

ANT 6003H F* - Critical Issues in Ethnography I (S. Kassamali) (return to timetable)

This reading-intensive course offers a graduate-level introduction to ‘ethnography’ as both genre of writing and practice of thought. It has two aims: one, to conduct close readings of how contemporary English-language anthropologists have treated subjects (or objects of study) that have been central to disciplinary knowledge production as a whole; and two, to demonstrate what diverse ethnographic approaches to understanding our world might look like. Although students are encouraged to think critically about form, convention, and interdisciplinarity, readings are primarily single-author monographs by writers who locate themselves within the discipline of Anthropology. In turn, the course seeks to familiarize students with modes of ethnographic analysis that have been part of the development of the discipline in recent decades.

ANT 6006H F* - Genealogies of Anthropological Thought (F. Cody / W. Butt) (return to timetable)

This course introduces graduate students to some of the major thinkers and traditions in, and for, the discipline of anthropology. While this course establishes strong familiarity with canonical texts, it also demands a critical reflexivity about discipline formation itself and the normalization of ideas. As such, this course aims to situate contemporary anthropological thought within past and ongoing debates among a range of social and political theorists.

ANT 6027H F - Anthropology of Violence (C. Krupa) (return to timetable) 

TBA

ANT 6031H S - Advanced Research Seminar I: Anthropology Beyond White Supremacy (Z. Wool) (return to timetable)

TBA

ANT 6032H S - Advanced Research Seminar II: More-than-Human Ethnography (S. Satsuka) (return to timetable)

The aim of this graduate seminar is twofold: (1) to examine the potential and challenges of “more-than-human” approaches to ethnography; and (2) to explore what more-than-human ethnographies could offer to the social debates about the Anthropocene, or the time that demands a critical and fundamental rethinking of the position of the human in the world. More-than-human approaches to ethnography have gained growing attention in the last two decades as a critical response to anthropocentric frameworks in documenting and analyzing culture and society. Based on the realization that human exceptionalism has contributed to abrasive resource extraction and industrialization, colonialism, planetary scale environmental degradation and a variety of injustices associated with the above, more-than-human ethnographies start from the premise that the human is inseparable from what is called “the environment”. Various strategies have been experimented with in order to focus on the “entanglement” among various actors, including humans, and to examine how specific entanglements shape particular social relations and politics. We will first trace some key genealogies of more-than-human ethnography, including multispecies anthropology, nonhuman agency in Science and Technology Studies, multiple ontologies, and feminist/indigenous/decolonial/postcolonial critiques of the Anthropocene. Then, we will read ethnographies that highlight the entangled relationship between human and other beings–such as animals, plants, insects, fungi, microorganisms, land, water, wind, technological devices–that together shape the world.  

ANT 6064H F - Evidence and Uncertainty: The Politics of Law and Science (V. F. Bozcali) (return to timetable)

This seminar explores the production and politics of legal evidence, scientific proof, and uncertainty. It unpacks the ways in which technical-scientific knowledge production processes are mobilized within the legal field, and enable certain legal and political outcomes, while making others impossible. Drawing on the fields of political and legal anthropology, science and technology studies and critical human geography, the seminar brings foundational texts investigating epistemological and ontological conditions of evidence, certainty, and uncertainty together with the recent ethnographies of controversies in the fields of law and science. The seminar will examine various cases that include, but are not limited to, injury claims, environmental contaminations, systematic human rights violations, and political asylum cases.

ANT 6065H S - Anthropology in/of Troubled Times (T. Sanders) (return to timetable)

Rising sea levels, climate emergencies, global displacements, energy finitude, poverty, precarity, racism, mediated mass-surveillance, conspiracies, alternative facts, populism, pandemics – all provide unsettling markers of our times. As chroniclers and theorists of the moment, anthropologists are providing key insights into some of today’s most pressing problems, as well as new analytic tools with which to grasp them. This advanced seminar surveys a range of contemporary concerns and explores some of the ways current anthropologists are engaging – methodologically, analytically, theoretically – with them. Specific topics will vary from year to year. The seminar’s second concern is less with an anthropology of troubled times than with an anthropology in them. This concern arises from the observation that anthropology is part of the world it seeks to apprehend: a world that enables and constrains, incites and inhibits particular modes of anthropological thinking, theorising and practice. The seminar thus interrogates anthropology’s own grounds of knowledge, dwelling on some of the epistemological, ethical and political conundrums that anthropology’s real-world entanglements inevitably entail. This concern takes us well beyond “troubled times,” inviting students to probe and situate that curious set of Euro-American knowledge practices we call “Anthropology.”

ANT 6100H F* - History of Anthropological Thought (J. Sidnell) (return to timetable)

As an introduction to the history of anthropological thought, this MA-level core course aims to familiarize students with the key thinkers, theoretical approaches, and ethnographic innovations that shaped the discipline in the twentieth century. It likewise considers the kinds of knowledge, ethics, and modes of both representation and analysis these different approaches have demanded. An understanding of the historically situated character of our discipline is a crucial component of our contemporary practice, and this includes taking seriously the intellectual genealogies out of which–and often against which—contemporary thought has emerged.

ANT 6150H Y - Proposing Ethnographic Research (T. Li / K. Maxwell) (return to timetable)

This seminar aims to assist doctoral students in the socio-cultural and linguistic field to develop thesis and research grant proposals. Throughout the seminar, the participants will be guided step by step to produce effective proposals for anthropological fieldwork. The seminar is designed as an intensive writing workshop that is based on timely sharing of work and peer-discussion. Run in workshop style, the seminar will help participants to develop skills of giving and receiving constructive comments on each other’s writing. 

ANT 7001H S - Medical Anthropology I (L. Sikstrom) (return to timetable)

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