Elizabeth L. Krause

Fall 2010

ANTH 364 Problems in Anthropology
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30-10:20 a.m.
(Friday discussions)

Through the themes of “culture and power,” we examine key theoretical trends that influence and inform contemporary anthropology. The course has two main goals: to foster critical thinking skills within the discipline of anthropology, and to achieve mastery of writing skills. To this end, you will be required to write in five different genres and for different purposes. This course fulfills the Junior Year Writing requirement. Open to anthropology majors only. Must have passed ENGLWRT 111 or 112 or 113.

ANTH 660 European Field Studies I
Thursdays, 12:30-3:30 p.m.

This seminar is the first of a three-semester European Field Studies Program. This first semester focuses on project conceptualization and research design. This particular iteration of the seminar marks the starting point of a three-year programmatic commitment to “Cultural Heritage in European Societies and Spaces.” Specifically, the 2010-11 research stream of Memory, Monuments, and Commemoration brings together students whose projects investigate a range of ways and contexts in which “contentious politics in heritage narratives and practices [are] related to remembering and marking the past” (see  http://www.anthro.umass.edu/chess/content/research-focus). Toward that end, readings, discussions, and assignments will prepare students to undertake productive and meaningful research in Europe.

Spring 2010

ANTH 397fc Italy: Fascism to Fashion
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

This course complements the department’s strength in the anthropology of Europe. The point of departure is Antonio Gramsci’s Selections from the Prison Notebooks, an influential text within and beyond anthropology particularly for its concept of hegemony. This course uses Italy as a case study to investigate five key themes: the state, civil society and hegemony; the body politic; kinship, gender, and reproduction; culture, economy and globalization. Throughout, we will consider symbolic as well as materialist approaches to grasping experiences of everyday life as they play out in one of Europe’s southern territories.

ANTH 697cc Writing Ethnography
Wednesdays, 12:15-3:15 pm

This graduate seminar takes ethnography as its object of analysis and its subject of practice. The seminar provides students with tools for thinking through the politics of representation. We examine the ongoing consequences of the representational crisis that plagued ethnography, with vehemence in the 1980s, and investigate how and to what degree the genre has recovered. As Veena Das asks, “What is it to engage the life of the other in the context of the everyday?” We may also question whether we are committed to ethnography as a genre, and if so how and why? In addition, the seminar will provide students with a space to practice their own ethnographic writing. In both our reading and writing, we will explore conventional as well as experimental (or blurred) forms of representation, including critical ethnography, the ethnographic novel, creative non-fiction, and cross-cultural memoir.

What I’m planning to teach (subject to change)

Spring 2011
ANTH 680 European Field Studies II

Fall 2011
ANTH 685 European Field Studies III
ANTH 364 Problems in Anthropology

Spring 2012
ANTH 697 Ethnographic Writing
ANTH 205 Inequality and Oppression

Undergraduate course inventory
cultural politics, social theory and writing, economic anthropology, oppression & inequality; narrative, memory and community; Italy; global bodies.

Graduate course inventory

ethnographic writing, historical anthropology & social memory; population & governmentality; theory & method; and European field studies.

Teaching Philosophy

My philosophy of teaching rests on three principles. First, enthusiasm is infectious and ultimately inspires students to engage the material. Second, students need dialog and direction. I aim to present material so students can learn a sense of “intellectual genealogy” in terms of where ideas come from and the possible consequences of certain ways of thinking. I use active learning techniques, discussion and writing assignments to grasp students’ misconceptions as well as learn from their insights and questions. Third, I see anthropology as a design for living. Given anthropology’s mission to educate students and the public in biological and cultural diversity, I search for opportunities to connect social science to students’ own lives and diverse social environments. This means not only understanding how we become social beings, but comprehending the complex histories, struggles, inequities, achievements and potentials of the human world—and why they matter.

Recent courses taught

Fall 2009

ANTH 497S ST-Global Bodies
Lec: Wednesdays, 12:20-3:20 p.m. (Course #39687)
Seminar, Majors only, or instructor permission needed. The human body has increasingly become a popular object for anthropological study. The body is rich as a site of meaning and materiality as well as for “normalization” and governance. This course will explore some of the most pertinent issues surrounding the body today. Topics such as personhood, natural vs. artificial bodies, identity and subjectivity (nationality, race, class, sex, gender), domination and marginalization, and policy will be discussed. We will focus on the body in three main stages: birth, life, and death, with relevant case studies in each stage (e.g., reproductive politics,organ transplant ethics, deviant bodies, etc.). This is a senior capstone course in the Department of Anthropology. As such, it fulfills criteria in the following areas: 1) holism; 2) engagement and activism; 3) practical skills; and 4) change. The course has a digital ethnography component as a final project option. Examples from final digital ethnographic stories can be found on the blog from a senior capstone offered Fall 2008. http://blogs.umass.edu/anthro397mm-ekrause-2/digital-stories-2/

ANTH 364 Problems in Anthropology

Spring 2009

ANTH 205 Inequality and Oppression
Lec: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30-10:20 a.m. (Course #11776)
The course explores the roots and manifestations of inequality and oppression in the United States. Special attention will be given to the ways in which race, class, gender and sexuality articulate with one another. Material touches on truths and fallacies of biological variation. Readings emphasize cultural and social aspects of power with particular attention to historical influences as related to systems, practices and ideologies of consumption, production, distribution as well as resistance. Case studies include topics such as toy consumption, food production, immigration, health care and education.

ANTH 697CC Ethnographic Writing
Tuesdays, 1-3:45 p.m. (Course #17154)
ethnography_syllabus_09.pdf