Anthropology
Note: This page contains all of the regular courses taught by this department. Not all courses are offered every year. Check the searchable schedule to see which courses are being offered in the upcoming semester.
ANTH 111 Introduction to Biological Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
Biological anthropology studies the biological diversity of our species and the evolutionary history that has led us to our present condition. The course includes: (1) examination of the genetics underlying evolution and the mechanisms by which change occurs; (2) variation and adaptation among living humans; (3) living primate populations as keys to understanding our evolutionary past; and (4) human evolution. This course is designed to expose students to the breadth of biological anthropology and to prepare them for upper-level classes in anthropology and related disciplines. Enrollment limited to first-year students and sophomores.
Instructor: Hardy, Murphy
ANTH 112 Introduction to Archaeology
Credit: 0.5
Today people increasingly live in highly industrialized and urban civilizations. But how long have humans had "civilization"? What is "civilization" and how can it be recognized? This course will address these questions, first, by looking at the basic elements of archaeology and its place in anthropology. Some of the topics we will cover include the history of archaeology, fundamental aspects of fieldwork and analysis, and the prehistoric record from the first humans to the origins of civilization.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 113 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
This course introduces students to the discipline that studies and compares other cultures. Students learn about the main concepts used in anthropology and how anthropologists conduct research, while also discovering how people live in other times and places. Students will learn about theories that provide frameworks for understanding and comparing cultures. Ethnographies--descriptions of life in particular places--give students factual materials with which to apply and critique such theories. Through this introduction to the study of culture in general, and an exposure to specific cultures, students inevitably come to re-examine some of the premises of their own culture.
Instructor: Mendonca, Pack, Suggs
ANTH 252 Anthropology of Religion
Credit: 0.5
For most people in most times and most places, religion has been central to defining who they are and how they are related to other humans as well as supernatural entities. Given the centrality of religion to such self-understanding, it is no surprise that anthropologists have long been interested in the topic and have adopted a variety of approaches to its study. These range from perspectives that stress the adaptive functions of belief systems to those that examine how concepts of the sacred may figure in political contests or shape behavior through the power of their symbols. In this course we will review how these viewpoints and the varied definitions of religion they imply converge within and inform the study indigenous resistance to colonialism. Belief systems and concepts of the sacred have been, and continue to be, at the core of many of these efforts to deny or ameliorate processes of imperial domination. By examining "religion in action" we will arrive at a vivid sense of how religion is used in power struggles, helps adapt people to changed circumstances, and preserves some local control over peoples' understandings of themselves and their relations to the world in which they live. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Schortman
ANTH 253 Anthropology of Mass Media
Credit: 0.5
Never before in any period of history have so many people had access to so many mass-mediated images. Yet in spite of this proliferation, anthropology has been a recent newcomer to the study of mass media production, distribution, and consumption as situated human activities. Uniquely suited to enter this discourse, an anthropological approach to mass media transcends the limitations of traditional media scholarship by paying closer attention to the broader social and political contexts in which they are embedded. This course endeavors to develop an anthropological understanding of contemporary forms of cultural communication and reception by analyzing the flow of media images across national borders, and particular emphasis is given to the local impact of media culture in different parts of the world. Students will examine the role of mass media in forging national and ethnic identities, body images, sexuality and gender, and experiences of war and violence. No prerequisites but ANTH 113 is strongly recommended. Offered every two years.
Instructor: Pack
ANTH 254 Beginning Maya Hieroglyphs
Credit: 0.5
Maya hieroglyphic texts from the Classic period (CE 400-900) attract attention due to their beauty and the possibility of learning about Maya history, at least as conveyed in the words of the successful elites. The first half of the course will be devoted to methods of analysis: dating and calendrics, the structure of Maya discourse, phoneticism in the writing system, and basic vocabulary. The second part will consider texts from Yaxchilan, Tikal, Caracol, Uaxactun, Copan, Chichen Itza, and other sites. Topics covered will be the origins and growth of kingship, dynastic succession, warfare, religion, and the role of women among the elite.
Instructor: Urban
ANTH 310D Music, Human Rights and Cultural Rights
Credit: 0.5
Music is deeply embedded in many forms of individual and cultural identity. This upper-level seminar examines the relationship of music to notions of cultural rights and human rights. Using case studies from a variety of music cultures, we will explore topics such as music censorship, music and warfare, music and disability, and music and AIDS awareness, among others. Engaging with literature from ethnomusicology, anthropology, and other social sciences we will explore the following questions: What roles does music and related forms of expressive culture play in notions of human rights? Who owns music? Who has the right to transform music? What are the artistic, political, and economic reasons for these transformations? What are their implications? What constitutes a cultural-rights violation? What role, if any, should regulatory agencies have with regard to monitoring cultural rights? Prerequisites: permission of instructorand any one of ANTH 113, MUSC 102, or MUSC 103.
Instructor: Mendonca
ANTH 320 Anthropology of Food
Credit: 0.5
This course investigates the central role food plays in human biology and culture. We will explore food from an evolutionary perspective, examining nutritional variations in subsistence strategies ranging from foraging to industrial societies. Students will come to understand that food is a cultural construction as we look at the symbolism and utilization of food from a cross-cultural perspective. Finally, utilizing a biocultural perspective, we will combine our understanding of biology and culture to see the effects of social, political, and economic issues on human nutrition. A variety of methods are utilized in nutritional anthropology, ranging from ethnographic techniques to methods in biological anthropology for assessing the impact of nutrition on human biology. Throughout the semester, students will become familiar with the variety of approaches used to study nutritional anthropology.
Instructor: Murphy
ANTH 321 Evolution and Human Evolution
Credit: 0.5
This course examines anatomical, behavioral, and genetic similarities and differences among living primates and humans, and the evidence for human evolution as reconstructed from the fossil record. Living primates will be studied as potential models for early hominin adaptation and behavior. The purpose of the course is to understand anatomical and behavioral adaptations of hominins and other primates both today and in the past, and to situate these adaptations in a larger ecological framework. This upper-level course assumes a basic knowledge of the fossil evidence for human evolution and some background in evolutionary theory.
Instructor: Hardy, Murphy
ANTH 323 Bioarchaeology of Sub-Saharan Africa
Credit: 0.5
Africa is a vast continent with an incredibly diverse set of people and cultures. The goal of this course is to demonstrate the complexity and depth of sub-Saharan Africa's past through the exploration of human skeletal and archaeological evidence. Most people are aware that Africa is the birthplace of our species, and we will begin our journey by exploring human origins and technological innovations. Unfortunately, other cultural complexities such as emergence of food production, indigenous states, and the development of long-distance trade are usually attributed only to Egyptian civilization. This course seeks to fill in the missing details of innovation and complexity for the rest of the continent by discussing the evidence for a vast array of societies in sub-Saharan Africa's past.
Instructor: Hardy, Murphy
ANTH 324 Biocultural Adaptations
Credit: 0.5
Although biological anthropology relies heavily on an evolutionary perspective, it is also concerned with understanding the interactions between human biology and culture. This biocultural perspective seeks to appreciate how humans adapt to their environment through a combination of biological, cultural, and physiological adjustments. We will explore how humans adapt to a wide variety of environmental factors, including high altitudes, climates, nutrition, and disease. The emphasis of the course will be on understanding our biological and cultural responses to stress and the contexts in which these can be adaptive or maladaptive.
Instructor: Hardy, Murphy
ANTH 325 Human Skeletal Analysis
Credit: 0.5
This course focuses on the application of human skeletal and morphological data to various interpretive problems (descriptive, comparative, and analytic) in biological anthropology. Topics include basic human skeletal and dental anatomy; determination of age, sex, and stature; developmental and pathological anomalies; osteometric methods and techniques; various comparative statistical methods; and problems of ethics, excavation, restoration, and preservation. The course also includes an examination of representative research studies that utilize the above data and methods.
Instructor: Murphy
ANTH 327 Narrative Lives
Credit: 0.5
Within anthropology, the life history has long been recognized as an important vehicle for learning about how culture is experienced and created by individuals. This seminar seeks to develop a better understanding of the research method known as life history, and of its attendant beliefs and limitations in diverse social and cultural contexts. The course will also address how categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and geographic location are experienced and their relevance to personal identity. Equally important, this is a "learning by doing" course, as it will attempt to bridge theories of self-narrative with cultural anthropological research methods. Students will experience firsthand the theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues involved in collecting life histories. By undertaking individual projects, each student will learn to organize and conduct life history interviews, record them, transcribe them, edit them, and present them in written form. The goal is to explore the multiple stages involved in transforming a narrative life into an inscribed text.
Instructor: Pack
ANTH 330 Archaeological Methods
Credit: 0.5
This course presents some of the major analytical techniques and theoretical approaches archaeologists employ in their efforts to reconstruct past societies. The course briefly considers the historical development of archaeology, and then explores the key concepts that define the discipline. Students will gain an appreciation of (1) the procedures involved in conducting field research, (2) the nature of the material record, (3) the process of archaeological reasoning, (4) the study of various materials, (5) the role of cultural resource management in modern archaeology, and (6) the nature of culture change. The class will consist of lectures and discussion and is always offered in Honduras, but may also be taught at Kenyon. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 333 Seeds, Settlements, and Standing Stones: The Neolithic in Western Asia and Europe
Credit: 0.5
This course will primarily focus on the topic of the Neolithic. After reviewing current theoretical views on the beginnings of domestication and sedentism, we will look at the actual evidence from plants, animals, and ecology to assess which theory or theories (if any) best explains this major transition in cultural evolution. Next we will examine early social complexity in Western Asia, focusing on new material from Anatolia. In the third section we will look at the biological and cultural transformations the Neolithic wrought in Europe. Finally, we will look at Neolithic monuments from several perspectives: engineering, social organization, landscape, and ritual. The course will combine lectures, demonstrations, discussions, audio-visual materials, and student presentations.
Instructor: Urban
ANTH 336 Fieldwork in Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
This is a field-based course designed to give practical knowledge of and experience in utilizing the techniques of contemporary anthropology. After initial training in both cultural methods (ANTH 464) and archaeological methods (ANTH 330), students will choose to do research in either cultural anthropology or archaeology. Working closely with the instructors, students develop and carry out individual field projects. In the past, cultural field projects have included such topics as herbal medicine, wood use and conservation, religious choice, and attitudes toward pregnancy. Archaeological topics have included studies of rural households, monumental architecture, figurines, and polychrome ceramics. This course is offered only in Honduras.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 338 Theory and Method in Archaeology: Household Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
Theory and method is a rotating-topics course. Topics covered in recent years have included the following: (1) gender and archaeology (addressing such questions as whether we can see gender in the archaeological record, what methods are best for addressing this topic, and how successful have gender-oriented studies been); (2) settlement analysis (looking at spatial distributions and organizations at small and large scales to determine what can be said about social organization using this data); and (3) household analysis (trying to determine empirically what constitutes a household, what activities took place there, and how households relate to larger political and social institutions). Our emphasis, regardless of topic, is on working with actual data. This course is required for participants in the Kenyon Honduras Program. Students who have not participated in the Kenyon Honduras Program will be furnished with a data set for analysis.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 341 Peoples of Mexico
Credit: 0.5
This course will focus on indigenous groups, including the Zapotecs, the Mayas, Nahuatl-speaking groups in central Mexico, and northern groups such as the Coras and Tarahumaras. Utilizing ethnographic materials and films, we will examine such topics as religious syncretism, acculturation, the idea of "Indianness," and identity formation in the modern world. The course is run primarily as a discussion group, and the reading load will be relatively heavy. This course is particularly appropriate for international-studies students concentrating in Latin America, Spanish-studies majors, and anthropology students with an interest in indigenous peoples.
Instructor: Urban
ANTH 342 Peoples and Cultures of Native North America
Credit: 0.5
The primary goal of this course is to separate the public perception and mythology of the "Indian" from the divergent experiences and everyday reality of Native Americans. A thematic approach will be applied to this study, and topics such as history, film, language, spirituality, commercialism, appropriation, subsistence, and sovereignty will be explored in some detail and from a variety of perspectives. Through a survey of various tribal groups, students will analyze some of the major concepts, methods, and theories used in anthropological studies of Native American cultures; assess the impact that stereotypes, biological and cultural interaction with non-Indians, and urbanization have had on Indian identity; and appreciate the richness and complexity of Native American life as it was and continues to be lived in diverse ways and in different places in North America. Offered every third year.
Instructor: Pack
ANTH 343 Contemporary Issues in Native North America
Credit: 0.5
For at least the past two centuries, scientists, politicians, and academics have predicted the imminent and inevitable demise of Native American cultures. Far from crumbling, however, indigenous cultures today are still many, varied, and showing new signs of revitalization. According to the most recent census data, population figures for Native Americans have reached pre-contact levels. However, there are still many challenges confronting indigenous peoples in representing and organizing themselves. This course is framed within the present tense and designed as an advanced exploration of the significant issues affecting American Indians in modern society. Topics to be addressed include repatriation, environmentalism, militancy, the sports mascot controversy, aboriginal media, gaming, and, above all, sovereignty. Sovereignty is perhaps the most significant concern facing Native Americans today, as Indian nations in modern America struggle constantly to preserve their inherent right to exercise self-determination. The objective of the course is to examine the dominant cultural attitudes and conflicting values concerning what and who constitutes a Native American in the United States in the twenty-first century. There are no prerequisites for this course but ANTH 113 is highly recommended. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Pack
ANTH 345 Ethnicity in Central America
Credit: 0.5
Central America is the home of some easily recognizable ethnic groups, such as the Mayas and Kunas, but there are other, less well-known peoples. After considering what ethnicity might or might not be, we will learn about a number of groups: Mayas, Garifunas, suppressed Native American groups in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Black Creoles, and immigrants from the Levant who are known as Arabes. Studying these groups will help us understand the hidden ethnic tensions sometimes cloaked by national assertions of mestizo identity.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 346 Women In Latin-American Culture
Credit: 0.5
What happens to women's roles in traditional societies undergoing modernization? Is life better for women in cities or rural areas? Are the benefits of development and industrialization felt equally by all members of a family? How and why do women become involved in revolutionary movements? These and other questions will be examined as this course looks at women's lives in contemporary Latin America. Case studies will be drawn from Central and South America.
Instructor: Urban
ANTH 349 The Maya: Ancient and Modern
Credit: 0.5
Who are the Maya? Why are they often described as "mysterious"? Did they really disappear? In this course we will examine Maya history, culture, language, and tradition, proving that this dynamic group is very much alive, well, and living in what are now the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. We will begin with a survey of Maya history prior to the sixteenth-century arrival of the Spanish, tracing the rise and fall of individual Maya kingdoms, the flourishing of art, architecture, writing, calendrics, and belief systems, and the cycle of everyday life. We will then turn to questions of continuity and change, examining the tumultuous periods of Spanish contact and colonization and the ongoing intersection of Maya tradition and the modern world. Topics covered include social and political organization, religion, art and architecture, writing and calendrical systems, tourism, preservation, and development. This course should be of interest to students of Latin American culture and history, art history, and religion.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 350 Human Sexuality and Culture
Credit: 0.5
In popular thought, sex is about "the birds and the bees" and "doing what comes naturally." Yet anthropology teaches us that for human beings, the natural is the cultural. Based on that premise, this course looks for cultural patterns in sexual belief and behavior. We begin with an examination of the evolution of sexuality. Is sexuality or sexual behavior expressed the same way by all peoples? Why do humans avoid incest? To what extent are gender roles biologically determined? Are sexually transmitted diseases primarily biological or social problems? How do sexual norms reflect sociocultural adaptations? These are just some of the questions we will confront in this course as we examine the functional and structural significance of sexual behaviors in the sociocultural milieu.
Instructor: Suggs
ANTH 355 The Andes (South American Archaeology and Ethnicity)
Credit: 0.5
When one contemplates indigenous South American cultures, the image that comes to mind is of massive stone constructions raised within the Inca empire. But what are the roots of this great civilization? How did the Inca empire develop from the bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers who were living in South America at least 13,000 years ago? The Incas are not the end of the story of native South American cultures, however. Thrust into history by the Spanish and Portuguese conquests in the sixteenth century, indigenous people throughout South America were forced to adapt to destructive diseases along with new social, economic, and religious practices. Even today indigenous groups are adjusting to conditions not of their making: globalization, neoliberal reforms, and environmental degradation, among others. Any student interested in anthropology, archaeology, history, or Latin America will benefit from becoming acquainted with the material we will be covering.
Instructor: Schortman
ANTH 358 Medical Anthropology in Biocultural Perspective
Credit: 0.5
Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the influences of both biology and culture on the human experience of disease. This course introduces students to the anthropological study of disease ecology and medical systems in other cultures. We will explore the role of disease in humans from an evolutionary perspective, noting the influence that culture, ecology, economy, history, and politics have had in the past as well as the present. In addition, we will look at the efficacy and nature of both non-Western and Western ethnomedical systems and the cultural and psychodynamic features of illness. Throughout this course we will examine the application of a medical anthropological perspective in developing sensitivity for cultural and biological variation within the United States and abroad.
Instructor: Suggs
ANTH 362 Working with Field Data
Credit: 0.5
While on study-abroad programs, students often carry out independent study projects. While reports are written before returning home, there still exists a body of data that could be seen in a wider context, approached from different theoretical positions to see which ones help to make sense of the data, and written about in a variety of styles. This course provides an opportunity to work with notes, diaries, photos, recorded interviews, or any other category of data gathered while studying abroad. We explore different ways of writing about ethnographic material, learn how to set experiences and information in the context of a wider literature, and apply different modes of interpretation. Finally, we examine the ethics of field work and writing about field research, with particular attention to protecting those who shared their lives with us.
ANTH 421 Neanderthals
Credit: 0.5
Neanderthals. Dull, dim-witted, hairy, beetle-browed, stooped, savage, primitive, and dragging a woman by the hair. These are among the images elicited from students in introductory anthropology classes when asked to describe our closest relative on the human family tree. Is this an accurate image? Did Neanderthals really have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time? This course will examine in detail the archaeological and paleontological evidence that informs us about Neanderthal behaviors and capabilities as well as the intellectual climate in which this information is interpreted. Topics covered will include the popular images of Neanderthals through time, functional morphology of the skeleton, dietary reconstruction, settlement patterns, and site use. Prerequisites: ANTH 111 or 112 and permission of instructor. Offered every other year.
Instructor: Hardy
ANTH 460 Race and Ethnicity in American Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
In this course we will look first at how the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" have been defined within anthropology, particularly American anthropology. Does "race" exist? Why (or why not) are "race" and "ethnicity" the same? In exploring these questions, we will examine both bioanthropological and socio-cultural approaches to these terms. Next, we will look at a variety of groups within the United States that are known as races or ethnic groups: Native Americans; Hispanics/Latinos; Americans of Asian descent; and those of us whose ancestors came, in colonial times or later, from Africa. Lest we forget that even white folks have "race" and "ethnicity," we will look at a new trend in cultural anthropology, whiteness studies. Here we will discuss how various immigrant groups have "become white," and consider current ideas about the meaning of "whiteness." The course will use readings, films, and television as materials for study and discussion; students will be responsible for presentations on various groups, as well as for choosing some of the audio-visual materials.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 464 Methods in Cultural Anthropology
Credit: 0.5
This course will provide hands-on experience with some research methods that cultural anthropologists use. Participant observation, interviews, and note-taking are standard methods, and we will consider how to organize and access qualitative data through electronic database management. There will be some attention to quantitative methods as well, including statistical inference based on methods such as unobtrusive observation or survey questionnaires. The difficulties of designing a good questionnaire and of becoming a perceptive interviewer or observer are best learned through practice. Students will be required to carry out a research project, from literature search and project design to writing and possibly publishing the results. Only by actually attempting primary research ourselves do we realize just how difficult it is to make statements about human ideas and behaviors that stand up to scientific scrutiny. It is only through such research, however, that we can contribute to knowledge.
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 465 History of Anthropological Thought
Credit: 0.5
Beginning with the Age of Discovery, developing through the periods of conquest and colonization, and continuing into the present, anthropology has embodied as well as defined the Western world's experience with "other" peoples and cultures. Within this broad historical context, this course investigates the emergence and definition of anthropology as a discipline by focusing on (1) significant theoretical issues and "schools" of thought (e.g., evolutionism, functionalism, materialism, and structuralism); (2) biographical and intellectual portraits of several major figures who were instrumental in formulating these issues; and (3) continuing controversies in the elucidation of certain fundamental principles (e.g., "culture," "relativism," and "the primitive"). Prerequisites: senior standing. Offered every year.
Instructor: Hardy, Schortman
ANTH 469 Topics in Mesoamerican Archaeology
Credit: 0.5
Mesoamerica is a large culture area extending from far northern Mexico to Nicaragua, and with a continuous sequence of development, lasting at least 22,000 years. In antiquity, a wide variety of cultures was present, and many of them continue today, embedded within contemporary nation-states. Topics in Mesoamerica is a rotating topics course designed, as needed, to present students with an opportunity to continue studying more deeply and/or broadly materials from in other courses. Topics covered over the years include these: intermediate and advanced Maya hieroglyphs; the colonial--period ethnohistory of Mexico; the prehistory of southeast Mesoamerica; and hands-on instruction on prehistoric artifact and architectural analysis.
Instructor:Urban
ANTH 471 Ethnomedicine: Africa
Credit: 0.5
Popular culture tells us that Western biomedical science is the only true and beneficial medical approach in the world. It suggests that traditional medical systems are based only on superstitious nonsense. While anthropological studies of medical systems show them to be different from biomedicine in a number of ways, traditional systems are not solely superstitious; neither are they completely without efficacy. This course surveys some of the many human systematic responses to illness and disease, focusing on African ethnographies. It examines beliefs with regard to etiology (causation), taxonomy (classification), and nosology (diagnosis). The course seeks to demonstrate how culture patterns illness behavior and points to the internal rationality in human responses to disease. Ultimately, it shows that all medical systems (including biomedicine) are first cultural systems, ones that universally medicalize sociomoral problems and sociomoralize medical ones.
Instructor: Suggs
ANTH 474 Drinking Culture: The Anthropology of Alcohol Use
Credit: 0.5
Commensality (cooperative, collective consumption of food) is one of the hallmarks of human culture. Of course, what constitutes food, who gets together to share it, and the systematic connections between commensality and economic, social, and political organization are all widely variable across cultures. This class examines alcohol consumption not as a social "problem" or "addictive behavior," but as a commensal behavior which is culturally meaningful. Taking a cross-cultural perspective, we will look at how the symbolic values and social structure of alcohol and its consumption reflect (and sometimes create) the larger sociocultural milieu of which it is a part. How is drinking related to the construction of gender? How is it used to subordinate some people and elevate others in the political systems? What is its relationship to spiritual life? What role does alcohol consumption play in culture change? In short, what do people "get" from drinking besides "drunk"? The literature will cover anthropological research in Africa, Polynesia, Micronesia, the Americas, and Europe.
Instructor: Suggs
ANTH 478 Method and Theory in Archaeology: Archaeology of Identity
Credit: 0.5
Questions of identity, ethnicity, and social boundaries are fundamental to anthropological archaeology, yet they are among the most difficult to address using archaeological data. In this course we will use new theoretical and methodological approaches to examine how groups define themselves, how group identities are formed, and how we can recognize them in the archaeological record. This class will begin with a consideration of the terms "identity," "ethnicity," and "ethnic group," after which we will examine case studies of particular groups, looking at questions of identity formation and maintenance and their archaeological correlates. While most of the case studies will be drawn from the Precolumbian Americas (North, Central, and South), we will also examine identity formation in the Old World. This course should be of particular interest to majors in anthropology (especially those with a concentration in archaeology), sociology, and international studies (Latin American concentration).
Instructor: Schortman, Urban
ANTH 493 Individual Study
Credit: 0.25-0.5
The Anthropology Department reserves individual study for those students who are unusually motivated in an area of the field and who we believe are responsible enough to handle the challenge of working independently. Such courses might be research-oriented (e.g., students returning from Honduras with data) but are more commonly reading-oriented courses allowing students to explore in greater depth topics that are of interest or utility to them, or that overlap their major course of study. To arrange for individual study, a student should consult with a faculty member during the semester prior to when the independent work is to be undertaken. The individual-study course may be designed exclusively by the faculty member or it may be designed in consultation with the student. For reading courses, a bibliography is created, and the student reads the works on the bibliography, meeting periodically (weekly or bi-weekly) with the faculty member to discuss the works. Terms of course evaluation are left to the faculty directing the individual study, but typically involve either a research paper based on the material in the bibliography or an extensive annotated bibliography with a short explanatory essay tying the entries together and situating the debates which they represent. Another option is for the student to write one- to two-page assessments of each book or reading at intervals throughout the semester. The faculty member comments on these assessments and may request periodic reassessments. The course culminates with a synthetic paper that pulls together all the readings.