Course Description:

Congratulations on making it to your final semester as an anthropology major! This class, ATH 450 CUE: Advanced Seminar in Anthropology, is designed to be your culminating experience in the major. It will give you the opportunity to reflect on the anthropological history, knowledge and methods that you have learned over your four years at Muhlenberg; learn more about what it is that professional anthropologists situated in a variety of locations within the discipline do and what drew them to the field; and apply the skills and content that you have acquired to design, conduct, and present the results of an original empirical research project on a topic that interests you.

This year students will be choosing their own shared research theme and topics! How can you use the tools and theories of anthropology to better understand your topic? And how might your topic itself inform anthropological knowledge, theory, or practice? Working alone or in small groups, you will generate a research question related to your chosen topic that speaks to an area of anthropological scholarship; design a research project that seeks to answer that research question; review relevant literature and theory; collect and analyze original empirical data; and present the results of your investigation in the form of a written paper and as a poster presentation to the departmental community at the Annual Research Symposium in Sociology and Anthropology at the end of the spring 2023 semester. In addition to your research projects, we will also be reading and discussing a variety of texts about the experience and practice of anthropology in general and related to your specific research topic.

Although the instructor will provide you with the necessary structure and support, students will be expected to take the lead in developing and carrying out their own research projects and in identifying, presenting, and discussing supplemental literature. In order to create and sustain a supportive and cooperative learning environment, students will also practice giving and receiving constructive criticism of one another’s work through peer reviews, which is a vital component of critical thinking and writing as well as the academic enterprise.

Course Goals:

• To reflect on and apply the anthropological history, knowledge and methods that you have learned over your four years at Muhlenberg.

• To learn more about what it is that professional anthropologists situated in a variety of locations within the discipline do and how anthropologists are have responded to and investigated your chosen research topic.

• To design, carry out, and present the results of an original empirical research project.

• To practice giving and receiving constructive criticism to and from one’s peers.