Course Catalog
Course Catalog
Course Wizard
Course Search
College Wide
- Coll of Advancing&Prof Studies
- College of Education and Human Development
- College of Liberal Arts
- College of Management
- College of Nursing and Health Sciences
- College of Public & Community Service
- College of Science and Mathematics
- McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies
- School of Global Incl&Soc Dev
GRAD > ANTH
Anthropology
ANTH 615 Public Archaeology
Description:
An examination of cultural resource management in New England and the United States. This course studies the significance of state and federal environmental and historic preservation legislation, and the implementation of these laws from drafting proposals and the granting of contracts to the collection of data and its analysis for recommendations to mitigate the impact of construction on archaeological sites. Students learn the processes of national register nomination, problem-oriented proposal and report writing, and calculation of budget estimates for proposed work. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 625 Graduate Seminar in Historical Archaeology
Description:
This course provides an overview of the field of Historical Archaeology. Since its emergence in the 1960's, historical archaeology has grown to become the most rapidly expanding field of archaeological research. Starting with a focus on North America, historical archaeology is now a global field that concentrates on the study of the emergence of the modern world and other complex societies. Drawing on a rich palette of interdisciplinary approaches, historical archaeology explores complex global processes such as colonization, industrialization, urbanization, and globalization. This course will focus on the methods employed by the field's practitioners, the various contexts in which this work is conducted, and the theoretical underpinnings of the field as a whole. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 630 Seminar in the Prehistory of the Americas
Description:
The course introduces key topics and literature in the precontact traditions, politics, lifeways, and material practices of the indigenous people of the Americas. The course is designed as a seminar discussion that runs concurrently with a lecture-based course at the undergraduate level. Topics will vary per semester among the following four options: Ancient North America, Ancient Peru, Ancient Mesoamerica, and New England Prehistory. By approval of the Graduate Committee, the course may be repeated for credit if topical focus varies. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 640 Archaeological Methods and Analysis
Description:
This course introduces the practice of historical archaeology in the laboratory and in the field through considerations of research design, methodology, material culture, and technical analyses of archaeological remains. The first portion of the course will involve discussions and readings on research design, field methodology, and sampling and recovery. The remaining segments will cover material culture and technical analyses in the laboratory, with a focus on ceramics, metal, glass, stone, plant remains, animal remains, and conservation techniques. The latter component of the course will be strongly devoted to hands-on, practical training in laboratory techniques and material identification. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 645 Topics in Environmental Archaeology
Description:
This course provides an overview of tools and techniques archaeologists use to investigate the interrelationship between culture and their environments. We will explore how archaeologists and environmental scientists study past human-environment interactions, including human alteration of the environment and cultural responses to environmental change. Discussions of case studies provide examples of the interpretive power of interdisciplinary environmental archaeology research. Laboratory work with collections from archaeological sites provides practical experience and the basis for student research projects. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 650 Materials in Ancient Societies
Description:
A one- or two-semester laboratory course offered as part of the teaching program of the Boston Area Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology, of which UMass Boston is a member. The topic of the course rotates annually among lithic materials, ceramics, faunal/floral materials, metals, and archaeological data analysis. The course may be taken more than once. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 665 Graduate Seminar in Archaeology
Description:
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive background in current archaeological method and theory. It focuses on the major theoretical schools in archaeology, and their historical development. The course includes lectures and discussions on theory and method in archaeology, as well as discussions of methods employed in other historical disciplines. Emphasis is also given to the articulation of social theory as developed in anthropology, history, and archaeological research. Prerequisites: ANTH 240 and 241 or equivalent. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 670 Research Methods in Historical Archaeology
Description:
This course introduces the methods, analytical concerns, and theoretical approaches employed by anthropologists investigating past societies through documentary evidence. Readings for the course will range from the foundational literature of ethnohistory, with its primary focus on the historical study of marginalized cultures traditionally the subject of anthropological scrutiny, to recent trends in historical archaeology that reflect both a broader global bias and a heightened sensitivity to issues raised by feminist, postcolonial, and indigenous scholars. Using historiographic tools outlined in class, students will conduct small documentary research projects during the term. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 672 Culture Contact and Colonialism in the Americas
Description:
This course explores the multifaceted nature of colonial encounters between Europeans and indigenous people. Using the Americas as the geographical focus, the course devotes special attention to the analytical and theoretical discourse-shaping anthropological approaches to colonialism through the topics of material culture, gender, ideology, ethnicity, race, identity, labor, class, and resistance. Readings and discussions will draw on data and perspectives from ethnohistory, historical archaeology, and cultural anthropology to tackle the simultaneously global and local nature of colonialism. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 673 Anthropology of the Object: A Gradaute Socio-Cultural Oddysey
Description:
In Socio-Cultural Anthropology, considerable attention is placed on how people engage objects in their daily and ceremonial lives. In fact, the past two decades of material culture study in this sub-field of the anthropology has privileged objects with their own social lives, paths, and distinct forms of agency, all of which depend on the cultural and personal relationships people have with each other through things. In this course we explore case studies from around the globe, examining how certain genres of objects are created, used and re-used in the shifting contexts of contemporary, and historical, identity-making. The course applies socio-cultural anthropological theory to a range of social-cultural and archaeological case studies on the role of material culture in cultural identity, museum politics, and indigenous rights struggles. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 674 Tourism, Heritage & Culture
Description:
The course offers a cross-cultural examination of cultural heritage and tourism through the lens of critical anthropological and archaeological studies. It analyzes the relation between history, heritage, and cultural tradition, and their incorporation into tourism planning and programming; the conflicts between scholarly research findings and interpretations, and those marketable in the tourism and heritage industries; the reasons for controversy and politicization of heritage planni9ng and interpretation; the differences between heritage or historical tourism and other tourism sectors; and the relevance of nationalism, globalization, race, class, gender and sexuality in tourism and heritage. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 676 Anthroplogy of Nature, Place, and Landscape
Description:
This course examines the domains of nature, place, and landscapes from an anthropological and socio-spatial theory perspective. It will provide a historical and cross-cultural analysis on how such domains are perceived and inscribed with complex symbolic meanings and how those are translated into practice. The course also focuses on how places and landscapes become contested, from the colonial landscape imaginary, up to contemporary interpretations of the environment. Finally, it will address the implications of nature, place, and landscape theory for cultural and natural resource management. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 685 Summer Field School in Historical Archaeology
Description:
Summer field survey or excavation in historical archaeology for 6-8 weeks in the Boston or New England area. Credit will be given for any other appropriate field school or internship at another institution. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 696 Individual Research in Archaeology
Description:
Students may take this course in addition to those required in the program in order to pursue research relevant to the program of study. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 697 Special Topics in Archaeology
Description:
The content of this course, while always relevant to the program, will vary depending on the specialty of the visiting or permanent faculty member who may teach this course on a one-time basis. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
ANTH 698 Practicum in Archaeology
Description:
For this course, graduate classroom education is applied in a practical situation, such as field work or a research project for a public archaeology contract agency, a museum, an archaeological laboratory, an historical commission, or a preservation agency. In the practicum students develop a wide range of valuable skills and experience related to possible future employment. More Info
Offered in:ANTH 699 Thesis Research Projects in Historical Archaeology
Description:
In this course, an MA thesis will be developed from a problem-oriented analysis of documentary and archaeological data. The MA thesis will include a description of the problem in the context of the disciplines of anthropology and history, its application to the data, a description of the analyses undertaken, and their results with reference to the problem. In the conclusion the results of the research project should be discussed in relation to other current research in the field. The MA thesis must be read and approved by an examining committee made up of three faculty readers, one from the History Program, one from the Anthropology Department, and one from a department to be determined. More Info
Offered in:
