Current Courses

ANTR 1005: Introduction to Anthropology: Understanding Humankind
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Anthropology is the study of human biological and cultural adaptations in time and space, and surveys four major subfields: archaeology, the techniques for gathering and interpreting data about past human behaviour; physical/biological anthropology, the study of human physical variation, including human evolution and the comparison of humans to other primates; linguistics, the study of the structure and distribution of human languages; and social/cultural anthropology (including ethnology), the comparison of different cultures around the world and analysis of their underlying structures. Applied anthropology, including the identification and resolution of contemporary social issues, is also examined.
This is an introductory level elective course. There are no pre-requisites for this course; no specific prior knowledge or experience is necessary.

 

MUSC 1006: Exploring Music and Culture I
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces basic elements of music from a "world music" perspective. Course material explores distinctive settings, sounds and significances of various musical cultures. This ethnomusicological approach draws on and interacts with other fields, including historical musicology, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. Students thus come to appreciate music as a form of human expression, and as a meaningful aspect of daily life. (This course may be credited toward Anthropology.)

 

MUSC 1007: Exploring Music and Culture II
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Exploring music and related cultural practices, this course addresses the fundamentals of music from a world music per-spective. These include rhythm, melody, timbre, texture, form, and the place of technology in music production. This course may be credited towards Anthropology. offered jan-april 2005

 

MUSC 2056: Music in Popular Culture I
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores various aspects involved in the production and development of popular music, paying particular attention to Canadian contexts and material. Illustrative listening examples ground discussions wherein a number of issues are raised, relat-ing to genre, marketing, regulation and legislation, the role of music video, and formative traditions (such as the "singer/song-writer") within the realm.

 

MUSC 2057: Music in Popular Culture II
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course focuses on "world beat", "global pop" and other transnational popular music genres, thereby raising issues such as appropriation, hybridity, transmission, transnationalism and globalization, music as resistance, music and identity, music and nationalism. A number of case studies will be examined from within Indigenous, Canadian and other cultural contexts on dif-ferent continents. offered jan-april 2005

 

 

Previously Taught Courses

GEND 2406: Gender and Performance I
COURSE DESCRIPTION
From an interdisciplinary perspective, this course introduces issues of identity performance implicated in forms of cultural production (especially music and dance). Course material will focus more generally on ways in which various aspects of performance relate to negotiations of gender in everyday life.

 

GEND 2407: Gender and Performance II
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course offers a critical examination of acts of everyday performance as well as literary, theatrical, music and dance performance. Among themes investigated are: the roles of music and dance in relations to constructions of nationhood and identity; modernity and boundaries of nature/culture; new approaches to reading the gendering of traditional, popular culture, music and dance "texts"; "transgressive" and transformative performance.

 

CULT 1005: Introduction to Studies in Culture and the Arts
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the study of culture. By investigating the nature and meaning of 'culture', and focusing on the different theoretical approaches and perspectives employed in the study of culture, the course gives students the necessary foundation to proceed with the study of various manifestations or forms of cultural expression. The course emphasizes that cultural expression is multi-faceted, and is revealed in a variety of ways, through ideas and practices, literary works, visual and performance arts, and the media (to name a few key avenues of expression). The course is also designed to facilitate an appreciation for the diversity of cultur-al expression, laying the foundation for the exploration of both western and non-western perspectives and practices.