Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2025 - SA 201W OL01

Anthropology and Contemporary Life (A) (4)

Class Number: 2567

Delivery Method: Online

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Online

  • Instructor:

    Jie Yang
    yangjie@sfu.ca
    1 778 782-4297
    Office Hours: by appointment Via: [Zoom]

  • Prerequisites:

    Recommended: SA 101.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to the anthropological perspective as applied to the organization of everyday life in contemporary settings. Introduces positivist, interpretive, and critical interpretive approaches to the analysis of social actions, identities, and values as enacted in space and time. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Contemporary human life is characterized by the accelerated movement of people and objects; the explosion of information and new technologies; emerging transnational cultures; changing forms of class, gender and race/ethnicity exploitation; new health concerns; and economic and environmental disruptions. These new trends resist traditional scholarly treatment within the discipline of anthropology. This course thus explores anthropology’s history of interdisciplinary theories and methods that address the human consequences, dislocations, challenges, and opportunities encompassed in social and cultural change. It offers a rethinking of basic concepts, methods and formulations of research projects to engage altered ethnographic objects and shifting ethnographic field. The course addresses the shifting conditions of the analysis of cultural practice in anthropology, particularly as boundaries between those who study and those who are the objects of study erode and the discipline itself is reorganized. It aims to answer broad questions, such as how information and communication technologies and mass media re-demarcate the private and the public and mediate social relations at many levels of social action; how globalization and transnational processes have challenged the centrality of the nation-state in theorizing culture and power; and how the concept of culture has been redefined within the changing social contour, with its increasing use outside of the academy and among peoples studied by anthropology.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Master key anthropological theories
  • Cultivate ethnographic sensibility
  • Develop ability for critical reading/writing/thinking
  • Develop ability for professional presentation

Grading

  • Essay 1: Auto-ethnography 5%
  • Re-write of Essay 1 10%
  • Discussion Leadership and Participation 15%
  • First draft of Essay 2 15%
  • Second Draft of Essay 2 and Workshop on Essay 2 20%
  • Final draft of Essay 25%
  • Final test 10%

NOTES:

Grading: Where a final exam is scheduled and the student does not write the exam or withdraws from the course before the deadline date, an N grade will be assigned. Unless otherwise specified on the course syllabus, all graded assignments for this course must be completed for a final grade other than N to be assigned. An N is considered as an F for the purposes of scholastic standing.

Grading System: The undergraduate course grading system is A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D, F, N (N standing indicates student did not complete course requirements). Intervals for the assignment of final letter grades based on course percentage grades are as follows:

A+ (95-100) | A (90-94) | A- (85-89) | B+ (80-84) | B (75-79) | B- (70-74) | C+ (65-69) | C (60-64) | C- (55-59) | D (50-54) | F (0-49) | N*
*N standing to indicate the student did not complete course requirements

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.