The Anthropological Imagination (ANTH30013)

This is the Capstone subject for students majoring in Anthropology. Focusing on contemporary issues (such as relatedness, identity, personhood, value, modernity and embodiment) that have been encountered through the course of the Anthropology major, the subject is designed to enable students to reflect on and demonstrate what they have learned about anthropology as a discipline. Its format thus differs from other subjects, being built around a series of seminars that explore actual research projects of staff in the anthropology program and how, in each case, theory and ethnography inform the research process.

Students will also work together in small groups to critically analyse and contextualise a particular ethnography, developing research and teamwork skills in doing so. The aims of the subject thus are simultaneously theoretical and practical; it will provide students with experience in recognising how theory shapes the ways questions are both asked and answered, and with the ways that 'doing' anthropology in turn shapes theory.