Anthropology and Youth CultureANTH-215Fall 2015

Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00-3:15ICC 102

Professor Sylvia W. Onderonders@georgetown.edu

Office Hours: Monday 11:00-12:00 in Poulton Hall 210 in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Thursday 2:00-3:00 in Car Barn 308 in the Department of Anthropologyand by appointment

Course Description

This course will take an anthropological and cross-cultural look at topics related to youth culture, including:The invention of childhood; child soldiers, refugees, and homeless children; coming of age and puberty; cultural norms about gender, sexuality, and body image; political action and resistance by youth; youth and crime; youth and incarceration; global musical forms such as punk rock and hip hop; and cultural concepts of the transition to adulthood.

Course assignments will include a midterm exam, posted responses to readings, a group presentation of a book, and a final reflection paper. Class discussion of the readings in large and small groups will be required, so students should come to class prepared to address the readings in depth. Along with the required texts, there will be additional assigned readings available on Blackboard.

I. Attendance: Students should come to class regularly and on-time. Absences should be explained and acknowledged by the professor by email BEFORE any missed class, but should be avoided if at all possible.II. Readings: Students should come to class having completed the assigned readings. The lecture and/or discussion will presume that you have completed the readings. There will be rotating posting roles for each reading the postings are due based on the type of role assigned.III. Student Postings should be typed/word-processed and spell-checked. Make sure to write your name, the title and author of the reading, and your role, at the top of the posting. After creating your document, post it to the relevant place in the class webpage.

No late assignments will be accepted. Extensions will be granted only under extenuating circumstances and must be cleared BEFORE the deadline.

GradingClass Discussion Leader Role:10%Student Postings:40%Midterm: 20%Group Presentation:20%Reflection Paper:10%

Laptop Use in the ClassroomLaptops (and other devices) may be used in the classroom for note-taking and reference to electronic readings. There may be times when the professor asks students with internet connection to explore various sites in class. HOWEVER, if laptops or other devices are used for unauthorized purposes, the right to have them in use during class will be revoked at the discretion of the professor. Be considerate of your classmates: Share access if it is a part of class work, and warn abusers before the professor revokes electronic privileges for everyone in a fit of frustration caused by one or a few.

I assume that all of us learn in different ways, and that the organization of any course will accommodate each student differently. Please e-mail me or talk to me as soon as you can about your individual learning needs and how this course can best accommodate them. If you do not have a documented disability, remember that other support services, including the Writing Center and the Learning Resources Center, are available to all students.

In Case of Campus ClosureIf campus closes due to weather or other events, the student posting assignments will be due at the same time as they would be under normal conditions. If you were assigned to present in class on a day when campus is closed, then you should write a short summary of the reading and a reflection on how this reading fits into the themes of the class and post it on the class webpage. Instead of class participation through discussion during that class, every student should read the posts about the reading and write a short paragraph that brings out some interesting point from the postings. This paragraph will be due by e-mail before the next class meeting. In case of loss of electricity, you will have to be more creative about how you find your classmates posting ideas and how to get them to the professor!

Required books, in the order in which they will be assigned:

1) Margaret MeadComing of Age in Samoa Series:Perennial Classics Paperback:256 pages Publisher:William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (February 20, 2001) ISBN-10:0688050336 ISBN-13:978-0688050337

2)C. J. PascoeDude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School Publisher:University of California Press; With a New Preface edition (November 1, 2011) ISBN-10:0520271483 ISBN-13:978-0520271487

3)Youth Resistance Research and Theories of Change (Critical Youth Studies)(November, 2013)byEve Tuck(Editor),K. Wayne Yang(Editor) Series:Critical Youth Studies Paperback:256 pages Publisher:Routledge; 1 edition (November 22, 2013) ISBN-10:041581684X ISBN-13:978-0415816847

Students will work with a group to present one of the following books:

Each Student is required to chose one of the following (so, for athletes and scholarship holders, the price of one should be covered) 1) Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women's Lives through War and Peace in Sierra Leone(2009) byChris CoulterPaperback:304 pagesPublisher:Cornell University Press; 1 edition (August 13, 2009)ISBN-10:0801475120ISBN-13:978-08014751222) New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth(2015) byGul OzyeginPaperback:384 pagesPublisher:NYU Press (August 21, 2015)ISBN-10:147985381XISBN-13:978-14798538163) Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in Haiti(2008) byJ. Christopher Kovats-BernatPaperback:256 pagesPublisher:University Press of Florida (December 1, 2008)ISBN-10:0813033020ISBN-13:978-08130330204) People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt Cityby John M. Hagedorn, Paperback:299 pagesPublisher:Lake View Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 1998)ISBN: 09417024645)

5) God's Gangs: Barrio Ministry, Masculinity, and Gang Recovery(2013)byEdward FloresPaperback:243 pagesPublisher:NYU Press (December 11, 2013)ISBN-10:147987812XISBN-13:978-1479878123

Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this course, you should be able to1. Understand the various ways that Youth Culture has been an object of study for cultural anthropology, and the anthropological methodologies used to study it 2. Confront the personal and social reality of belonging to culture(s) and the common human tendency to form and find meaning in more or less exclusive groups3. Explain a diversity of ways in which childhood youth adolescence and adulthood have been conceptualized (or not) in various human cultures4. Produce thoughtful analysis of both basic and complex anthropological topics by making connections between readings, lectures, films, guest talks, embodied experiences, and ethnographic observations5. Become familiar with the main anthropological research practices of participant observation and qualitative fieldwork and the published product, ethnography, by reading and analyzing various examples6. Recognize the ethical responsibilities of field research and the analysis of human subjects, as well as the politics of selecting subjects and of writing about human activities and identities7. Hone the skills of reading, outlining, note-taking, summarizing, leading discussion, synthesizing discussion, and making connections through individual and collaborative work for the student posting assignments8. Demonstrate awareness of how anthropological insight can make life outside the classroom more interesting and how other disciplines, professions, and perspectives might be useful for anthropological analysis

THE ENGELHARD PROJECTOur course has been named an Engelhard course through a grant from the Charles Engelhard Foundation and from a larger national project called Bringing Theory to Practice. This national project sponsors different approaches to enhancing engaged learning in college courses. Georgetowns unique focus is on the development of a pedagogy of curriculum infusion, which integrates college health and wellness issues into the content of academic courses by creating meaningful connections between real-life issues of student mental health and wellness and the course content.

At various points in the semester, we will explore these ties through close reflection and direct exploration of how health and wellness issues intersect with our course content. This semester, we will have a guest speaker in this class who will relate the activities and issues of Georgetown University to the readings we will be discussing in this course. It is this connection between the academic and real-life issues that will be the basis of reflection paper due in exam week.

In order to help evaluate this project, at the end of the semester I will ask you fill out a short survey about how the curriculum infusion process worked and about what you learned. You may also be contacted this semester or next year to participate in a focus group. Your participation in both the survey and the focus groups is voluntary and anonymous, but the more people we get to participate the more helpful the information will be to our evaluation of the project.

The Anthropology MajorThe Anthropology major offers courses that provide students with training in ethnographic analysis, field methodologies, and socio-cultural theory. Our core and elective courses share a common vision of anthropology as a discipline steeped in methodologies and concepts that are both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary. Our curriculum prepares students to understand and to communicate the complex linkages between culture and power in changing local, national, and global contexts. Quite critically, our courses explore the public nature of anthropology. The courses provide students the tools to make connections between in-class readings and discussions and pressing issues surrounding human rights, legal systems, transnational migration, politics, race, gender, religion and social justice. Our majors have opportunities to apply anthropological thinking and methodologies to urgent human issues in a range of settings such as courts, government agencies, community-based organizations, schools, and workplaces.

For more information, see: http://anthropology.georgetown.edu/The Department of Anthropology is on the second floor of Car BarnWednesday, September 2 IntroductionsSeptember 7 Labor Day No ClassesSeptember 9 WednesdayStudent Postings due before class: 1) LeVine On Ethnographic Studies of Childhood2) Margaret Mead Coming of Age in Samoa Intros and Chs I-IIIClass Discussion (LeVine and Mead Intros and Ch I-III)Readings and Posting assignments from Culture Counts Introduction to AnthropologyStudent Postings are to be made to the class webpage:For each reading, there are six student posting roles that will rotate:Due 9 am before class:1) Outline2) Quotations3) Questions

Due in Class:4) Discussion Leader

Due 9 am before the next class:5) Synthesis6) Connections

Please write your posts in a word processing program (spell check!) and save them with a heading of:

ANTH 215/Your Name/Author's Name/Title of Reading/pages if relevant/Your Role

Outline Outline the major points of the reading with some significant sub-pointsQuotations extract 3 important quotations with enough context to carry the meaningQuestions create 3 questions that could be used to guide discussion from the reading, with some context to help in answeringDiscussion Leader Review the postings of the first three roles, and come to class prepared to lead discussion on the readingSynthesis take notes of the in-class discussion and write a post that summarizes the major points of discussion (controversy, questions asked, opinions)Connections find a way to connect this reading to other topics of the course (this will become easier as more readings are done) and/or to topics outside the course

Come up to me at the end of class and tell me you read the whole syllabus, and I will give you a Turkish evil eye protection sticker!