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Department of Comparative Human Development

Chair

Susan Goldin-Meadow (Autumn)
Michele Friedner (Winter-Spring)

Professors

Jennifer Cole
Susan Goldin-Meadow
Sydney Hans
Guanglei Hong
Susan Levine
Dario Maestripieri
Richard Shweder

Associate Professors

Michele Friedner
Micere Keels
Jill Mateo
Eugene Raikhel

Assistant Professors

Eman Abdelhadi
Marisa Casillas
Terra Edwards

Chiara Galli

Faculty Associates

E. Summerson Carr
Robert Gibbons
Don Hedeker
Katherine D. Kinzler
Salikoko Mufwene
Constatine Nakassis
Kristen Schilt
Linda Waite
Amanda Woodward

Emeritus Faculty

Irene Elkin
Judith Farquhar
Ray Fogelson
William Goldstein
John A. Lucy
Martha K. McClintock
David E. Orlinsky
Margaret Beale Spencer
Nancy Stein
Susan Stodolsky
 

The Department of Comparative Human Development (CHD) is an interdisciplinary program at the critical edge of thought and research in the social sciences, examining what it means to be human during a contemporary moment marked by rapid social, technological, and ecological change; massive global movements of people and ideas; and wide-ranging forms of inequality. Faculty and students in the Department conduct interdisciplinary, holistic and comparative research and scholarship focused on individual lives within various, changing, and heterogeneous contexts. Drawing on methods and concepts from anthropology, biological and developmental psychology, educational research, sociology, and statistics, Department members are committed to examining humans as simultaneously sociocultural, biological, and psychological beings who change over developmental and historical time. Such perspectives make CHD a unique space for research addressing topics including difference, equality, and power in multicultural societies; the developmental, symbolic and embodied processes involved in learning and socialization; the social shaping of vulnerability and resilience in relation to shifting categories such as gender, race, class, age, sexuality, and ability, among others. Faculty and graduate students conduct research in a wide range of locations using diverse methods including long-term participant observation, qualitative interviewing, analysis of survey data, experiments, classroom observation, and field research with non-human animals.

Information on How to Apply

The application process for admission and financial aid for all Social Sciences graduate programs is administered through the divisional Office of the Dean of Students. The Application for Admission and Financial Aid, with instructions, deadlines and department specific information is available online at: https://apply-ssd.uchicago.edu/apply/

Questions pertaining to admissions and aid should be directed to ssd-admissions@uchicago.edu or (773) 702-8415.


Comparative Human Development Requirements

Terms:

Required - Every Comparative Human Development graduate student must take this course

Distribution - Students need to take at least one qualified course in each of the five graduate areas

Specialization - Students must take three additional courses in one of the 5 areas in which they wish to focus their studies

Every CHD student must take the following courses for a quality grade (13 courses total):

  1. CHDV 40000 HD Concepts (Required)
  2. 5 distribution courses, one in each category: 
      • Comparative Behavioral Biology (1)
      • Socialization, Learning, and Life Course Development (2)
      • Culture, Self and Society (3)
      • Health, Vulnerability and Wellbeing (4)
      • Methods in Human Development Research (M)
  3.  CHDV 30101 Applied Statistics in Human Development Research (one course requirement).  Students who have completed an equivalent course may select a higher level statistics course as a substitute in consultation with their adviser and the Director of Graduate Studies.

      Courses equivalent to CHDV 30101 include the following:

PPHA 31100Statistics for Public Policy II (**)100
SOCI 30004Statistical Methods of Research100
SOCI 30005Statistical Methods of Research-II100
STAT 22400Applied Regression Analysis100

(**) Both courses must be taken in sequence to fulfill requirement

   4. CHDV 42401 Trial Research in Human Development I and CHDV 42402 Trial Research in Human Development II (Required).

   5. Three additional CHD courses in chosen area of specialization.  If Methods in Human Development Research is your area of specialization, you must choose an additional area of specialization to take three courses in.

   6. CHDV 40001 Introduction to Comparative Human Development monthly seminar with CHD faculty members (during a student's first and second years; subsequent year attendance is strongly encouraged but not required).

Students are not required to complete all these requirements by the end of their second year.  However, they must have five quality (letter) grades by the end of winter quarter of their first year, and ten quality grades by the end of the winter quarter of second year. A grade of B or better is required to satisfy the requirements of these courses.  On average a graduate student should take at least two courses for quality grades in each quarter of their first two years.  Students are expected to maintain an average of B+ or better.  A well-qualified student may place out of intermediate statistics by examination provided by the instructor of the statistics course.  In addition, students will participate in elective courses and workshops in the department, and the University in consultation with their advisors.

Students are expected to maintain an average of B+ or better. A student who can demonstrate basic competence in the core curricular areas may petition the faculty through the Chair's office to place into an advanced course in the same area. A well-qualified student may place out of intermediate statistics by examination provided by the instructor of the statistics course.

Students will participate in elective courses and workshops in the department, and the University, in consultation with their advisors.  All pre-candidacy students are required to attend all departmental colloquia, professionalization events, and the Trial Research conference.

More detailed explanation of these requirements and departmental policies are found in the annual Graduate Manual and all students are required to follow these requirements and policies to be in good academic progress and be permitted to continue in the program.  Students not in good academic standing will be placed on academic probation as described in the Graduate Manual.

Mentored Teaching Experiences

As part of the requirements of the PhD program, all students must complete five points of Mentored Teaching Experiences (MTE) as part of their pedagogical training, unless otherwise indicated below.  All MTE points are awarded by the department, thus prior approval of the student’s adviser and the DGS must be obtained for any teaching assignment outside the department.  Students progressing through the program will receive points of mentored teaching activities according to the list below.  All students matriculating in 2019 or later must complete at least one MTE point for CHDV 20000 and/or CHDV 20100.  All MTE points are expected to be completed in CHD parented or CHD faculty taught courses.  An exception can be made for non-CHDV courses with prior written approval of the Adviser and the DGS.  At the end of each teaching assignment, an evaluation of the student’s performance from the Faculty Instructor of Record or Co-Instructor of Record will be collected by the department and provided to the student.  These evaluations will be included in the end of the year evaluation of the student’s progress in the program.

MTEs are required for all students who matriculated in 2016 or later.  Students who matriculated before 2016 must complete the Graduate Aid program points as described in the Graduate Manual of the year of matriculation.

It is expected that students will fulfill their MTE requirements through serving as teaching assistants in required CHDV courses, in some cases, courses in the university at large, and through teaching their own courses in CHD.  In rare cases, the department, together with students and advisors, may decide that MTE points would best be performed through other means than teaching. Such decisions are at the sole discretion of the department.

The following list describes the teaching point valuation for various pedagogical activities.  Students with one or no remaining MTE point to fulfill will not be prohibited from applying to be an Instructor of Record, a Neugarten Lecturer, or a co-teacher with a faculty member, or a Teaching Assistantship, as long as the additional MTE points are approved by the student’s adviser and the DGS. 

  • Teaching Assistantship (1 point): Usually for large courses taught by a faculty member or instructional professor. T.A.s are expected to attend lectures and fulfill duties such as running discussion sections, grading, or other roles as specified by the course instructor.  T.A.s are provided guidance and mentorship in this role by the course instructor.
  • Teaching Internship (1 point): This role is typically associated with seminars or small courses as well as encompassed Core Internships and Writing Internships. Teaching interns are expected to attend seminar sessions and fulfill duties such as leading discussions, grading, mentoring students, or other roles as specified by the course instructor.  Teaching interns are provided guidance and mentorship in this role by the course instructor.
  • Instructor of Record (2 points): PhD students may occasionally serve as instructor of record for a stand-alone course of their own design. These courses are typically associated with competitive lectureships, such as the Bernice Neugarten Lectureship in CHD or similar opportunities offered by various Departments, Centers, Institutes, or Programs.  Students must apply for these positions and will be mentored in this role by their PhD advisor, as well as potentially by a faculty member overseeing graduate lectureships in another unit or center.
  • Co-teaching with Faculty (2 point): Ph.D. students may occasionally serve as a co-instructor of record with a faculty member or instructional professor, equally sharing duties of designing the course and teaching.  Students in this role will be provided guidance by their co-instructor.

All students matriculating in the summer of 2019 or later are required to be a Teaching Assistant in CHDV 20000 Introduction to Human Development or CHDV 20100 Human Development Research Design for at least one MTE point out of their five required points.

All teaching assignments as described above must be part of the five MTE points of a student’s program.  

College Teaching Certificate:  The College Teaching Certificate is recommended but will not count for a MTE point.

Suggested time frame: At least two MTE points must be completed during the third year, and the remaining points can be completed during the fourth year or later.  The general expectation is that students will T.A. for at least two lecture courses during the third year and then fill out the rest of their points in accordance with their needs and current availability in the Department.

Planning and approval:  Each student's MTE plan must be approved by their Advisor and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).  Students must confer with their Advisor and submit their requests for teaching during the following academic year by the start of each Spring Quarter.

Teaching in the Core: Serving as a Lecturer in the Core can fulfill one or two points per quarter depending on the division of labor in the particular Core sequence.  Lecturers will earn two points per quarter for sequences such as "Self, Culture, and Society" and "Power, Identity and Resistance," in which they are typically responsible for independently running two seminar-style meetings per week.  Lecturers will earn one point per quarter for sequences such as "Mind" in which they are responsible for one weekly discussion section.

Petitions and exceptions: Students may petition to substitute or opt out of certain components of the teaching requirement or to apply for an additional MTE point, with the written approval of their Advisor and the Director of the Graduate Studies. Petitions will then be reviewed and decided upon by the Chair of the Department, in consultation with the DGS. As noted above, in rare cases, the department may decide that MTE points would best be performed through means other than teaching.

Required Courses

CHDV 40000 HD Concepts will introduce students to the history, theoretical bases, and major areas of inquiry in the Department of Comparative Human Development.  This course is taken during the fall quarter of the first year.

CHDV 42401 Trial Research in Human Development I and CHDV 42402 Trial Research in Human Development II) are seminars (a two quarter sequence) that will launch students into their research projects and will guide them from the beginning to the completion of those projects.  The seminar is taken in the spring quarter of the first year and the fall quarter of the second year.  Trial Research papers are due by the beginning of the spring quarter of the second year.  The trial research project must be completed and formally approved by the faculty during the spring quarter of the student’s second year, then presented at the student Trial Research Conference.  Students are expected to report regularly on the progress of their research to the trial research seminars. The trial research is carried out under the direction of the research advisor and is read by one other faculty member.

Methods course. The one-course requirement in Methods is meant to provide the students with the basic quantitative analytic skills necessary to understand and evaluate past research and to conduct research. This requirement should be met within the first two years. 

In addition, students will participate in elective courses in the Department and the University and are encouraged to participate in workshops outside the Department in consultation with their advisors.

Program Counseling

Each student is given faculty assistance in (1) planning a program of courses and training; (2) fulfilling the Divisional and Departmental steps leading to the Ph.D. degree; (3) obtaining a professional position after graduation. Each entering student is assigned to a faculty advisor who will serve until the student chooses a research advisor.

Every student must have an advisor. The CHD Chair will assign an advisor to entering students. As students progress through the program and define their interests, they may wish to change advisors in line with their research activities.  The departmental Student Affairs Administrator should be informed in writing of such changes.  The faculty should be actively consulted in connection with registration and other academic matters. 

Evaluations

All students are evaluated each year in the program. First to Fourth year students should schedule a meeting with the departmental Student Affairs Administrator within the first two weeks of May to review their transcript, grades and status with respect to the fulfillment of distribution requirements. As noted above, first and second year students must have earned at minimum five quality grades (B or better) over autumn and winter quarters during the year by the time of the spring review, with satisfactory spring grades expected to follow.

A milestone occurs in the Spring quarter of second year. Each student will be formally evaluated in the spring quarter of their second year to determine if the student is to be allowed to continue studies leading to the Ph.D. degree or is instead to be awarded a terminal M.A. degree if all other requirements of the M.A. degree are met. 

Four sets of data will be used to evaluate each student: course grades, faculty evaluations, a Trial Research paper, and attendance at departmental events.

Course grades, progress on CHD PhD program requirements, as well as the quality of the Trial Research paper and the TR paper grade received by each student will be a part of the evaluation process.  CHD faculty members who have worked with the student will be asked for their evaluation of the student.  The department may ask non-CHD faculty for feedback on how students performed in their classes as part of this evaluation. Students will also be evaluated based on their attendance at department events such as colloquia and seminars.

During the spring quarter of each year, the faculty, after reviewing the materials on each second-year student, will vote to award the student a terminal M.A. degree or to advance the student to further Ph.D. study. 

Colloquia and Departmental Events

As noted above, first and second year doctoral students are required to attend the Department’s pro-seminar, colloquia, professionalization events, and the TR conference.  All pre-candidacy students are required to attend colloquia, professionalization events, and the TR conference.

Program of Study

The program of study is in many respects unique for each student. In addition to a basic program of courses, it includes other courses and seminars offered by the Comparative Human Development faculty, courses offered in related programs and departments in the University, and the resources of nearby institutions.  Not that not all CHD courses will fulfill CHD distribution requirement; some courses are cross-listed as courtesy cross-listings and thus do not satisfy CHD requirements.  Any course not specifically noted as meeting distribution requirements must be petitioned, including any non CHD courses.

Distribution Requirements:

1. Comparative Behavioral Biology

This area of study investigates behavioral and mental processes at the social, psychological and biological levels of organization in both humans and nonhuman animals. Current research is concentrated in three main areas. In the area of behavioral and social endocrinology, research conducted with rodents and humans investigates the social and behavioral control of stress, reproduction and health and the role of hormone-behavior interactions in development throughout the life span. Specific topics of interest include mechanisms and functions of kin selection, cognition, reproductive senescence, and the social-behavioral modulation of aging and illness. In the area of comparative development, we use nonhuman primate and rodent models of parenting and development to investigate social, emotional, and endocrine aspects of mother-offspring interactions and development across the lifespan. Other topics of interest include affiliative and aggressive behavior, mating strategies, nonverbal communication and social cognition in rodents, primates and humans. In the area of evolutionary psychology, research examines human behavior from an adaptive perspective, in relation to life-history mating strategies, competition and cooperation, risk taking and decision making. Throughout, the research approach is characterized by the integration of social and biological levels of analysis.  

Example courses listed below have been offered in previous years but may not be offered in this academic year. 

CHDV 30901Biopsychology of Sex Differences100
CHDV 34800Kinship and Social Systems100
CHDV 35201Communication in humans and non-humans100
CHDV 37860History of Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences100
CHDV 37861Darwinism and Literature100
CHDV 37950Evolution and Economics of Human Behavior100
CHDV 40900Behavioral Ecology100
CHDV 41451Evolutionary Psychology100
CHDV 48414Evolution of Human Development100

2.  Socialization, Learning, and Life Course Development

The Department has a long tradition of examining “development” not just in childhood, but over the entire life course. A basic premise of our approach is that how people change over their lives is shaped by, and also shapes, social institutions, cultural and linguistic practices, material circumstances and biological potential. We are also interested in how normative models of human development become institutionalized, materialized, and potentially contested as they travel across different cultural or economic settings. Some current areas of research include the influence of families, peers, schools, and neighborhoods on individual trajectories and outcomes; the influences of cultural, social, cognitive, and linguistic variation on the development of communication and interactional practices; the role of youth and generational change in contemporary social life; and how early exposure to social and psychological deprivation or privilege due to educational and economic inequality contributes to subsequent vulnerability or resilience. A particular strength of the Department is the study of how children learn in school settings and the role of gesture and language environment in learning and cognition. Faculty focused on education have unique expertise in the quantitative analysis of large data sets to examine how changes in social policies or school-based interventions generate impacts on a series of developmental experiences associated with age, gender, race/ethnicity and social class. We also seek to develop new experimental observational, and qualitative methods that assess the relationship between cognitive competence and interaction in instructional settings. Faculty and students interested in life-course issues also engage in cross-cultural research in places as diverse as Madagascar, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, and India.

Example courses listed below have been offered in previous years but may not be offered in this academic year.

CHDV 30305Inequality in Urban Spaces100
CHDV 31000Cultural Psychology100
CHDV 36200Signs of Crisis: Ethnographies of Self and Society in Turbulent Times100
CHDV 38990Muslims in the United States100

 

3.  Culture, Self and Society 

The Department has long been a leading center for training in psychological anthropology, cultural psychology, culture and mental health, and the cross-cultural study of the life course, with special attention to what the anthropologist Clifford Geertz once called “the force and durability of ties of religion, language, custom, locality, race, and descent in human affairs.”  Faculty and students investigate the heterogeneous contexts created by national and transnational migration, cultural pluralism, structural inequality, and globalization as these impact human development and functioning. We attend to the political, economic, as well as ethnic and cultural sources of diversity in self and subjectivity, sexuality and gender identity, moral evaluation, and social and linguistic cognition. We particularly seek to understand the psychological and institutional interplay of social difference, hierarchy, and power in multicultural contexts and in periods of rapid social change.  Students and faculty use multiple methods to understand these social and psychological processes, including qualitative fieldwork, quantitative analysis, as well as observational, clinical and experimental methods.

Example courses listed below have been offered in previous years but may not be offered in this academic year.

CHDV 30117Transnational Kinship, Intimacy and Migration100
CHDV 31000Cultural Psychology100
CHDV 33301Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry100
CHDV 36200Signs of Crisis: Ethnographies of Self and Society in Turbulent Times100
CHDV 38950The Development of Communicative Competence100
CHDV 45601Moral Psychology and the Anthropology of Morality100
CHDV 45699When Cultures Collide: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies100

4.  Health, Vulnerability and Wellbeing

The Department maintains a tradition of examining health, illness, disability, and vulnerability from a variety of social science perspectives, including medical anthropology and sociology and disability studies.  We understand health, illness, disability, and vulnerability as experiences that are deeply shaped by inter-related social, political-economic, and psychobiological processes. We are also committed to the idea that how human beings experience distress is inextricable from the ways in which we recognize, represent and respond to it. We are thus equally concerned with the biosocial mechanisms through which health, illness, disability, and vulnerability become embodied in particular persons, as we are with the cultural and linguistic processes through which concepts such as “health,” “illness,” “disability,” and “vulnerability” are produced, enacted, institutionalized and contested. A particular strength of our program is the study of mental health and illness and of psychiatry as a social institution. Current areas of research include culture and mental health; the comparative study of medical and healing systems; psychopathology and resilience across the life course; the psychosocial determinants of malignant and infectious disease; diffusion of suicide through social ties, disability and vulnerability as conditions of ethical and political life; colonialism and traumatic social memory; the social consequences of the neurosciences and genetics; and illness, subjectivity and embodiment. Faculty and students employ a range of ethnographic, experimental and epidemiological methods, and have carried out fieldwork in settings including China, France, India, Madagascar, Russia, Scandinavia and the United States. 

Example courses listed below have been offered in previous years but may not be offered in this academic year.

CHDV 30901Biopsychology of Sex Differences100
CHDV 33301Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry100
CHDV 33305Critical Studies of Mental Health in Higher Education100
CHDV 43204Medical Anthropology100
CHDV 43302Illness and Subjectivity100
CHDV 49856Mobilities100

Methods in Human Development Research (M)

Research on human development over the life span and across social and cultural contexts thrives on multiple theoretical perspectives. This research requires creation and improvement of a wide range of research methods appropriately selected for and tailored to specific human development problems.  Faculty in the department employ research methods that span the full range from primarily qualitative to primarily quantitative and to strategic mix of both. Across all the substantive domains in Comparative Human Development, theoretical understanding is greatly advanced by methodology; therefore, the Department pays serious attention to research design, data collection, analytic strategies, and presentation, evaluation, and interpretations of evidence. The Department has contributed some of the most influential work on psychological scaling on the basis of the item response theory (IRT), multivariate statistical methods, causal inference methods for revealing moderation, mediation, and spillover effects, modeling of human growth, collection and analysis of qualitative data, and methods for cross-cultural analysis. Current research interests include (a) assessment of individual growth and change in important domains of development that are often intertwined, (b) examination and measurement of the structure, process, and quality of individual and group experiences in institutionalized settings such as families, schools, clinics, and neighborhoods, and (c) evaluation of the impact of societal changes or interventions on human development via changes in individual and group experiences, with particular interest in the heterogeneity of growth, process, and impact across demographic sub-populations and across social cultural contexts. 

Example courses listed below have been offered in previous years but may be not be offered this year.

CHDV 30102Introduction to Causal Inference100
CHDV 32401Multilevel Modeling100
CHDV 32501Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis100
CHDV 32702Statistical Applications100
CHDV 32411Mediation, Moderation, and Spillover Effects100
CHDV 36008Principles and Methods of Measurement100
CHDV 39301Qualitative Research Methods100
CHDV 40102Advanced Topics in Causal Inference100
SOCI 40112Ethnographic Methods100

2023-2024 Offerings

The courses below are a guide. For up-to-date course plans, please visit Class Search or the Course List at humdev.uchicago.edu/page/courses

CHDV 30101. Applied Statistics in Human Development Research. 100 Units.

This course provides an introduction to quantitative methods of inquiry and a foundation for more advanced courses in applied statistics for students in social sciences who are interested in studying human development in social contexts. The course covers univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics, an introduction to statistical inference, t test, two-way contingency table, analysis of variance, simple linear regression, and multiple regression. All statistical concepts and methods will be illustrated with applications to a series of scientific inquiries organized around describing and understanding adolescent transitions into adulthood across demographic subpopulations in contemporary American society. We will use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) throughout the course to reveal disparities between subpopulations in opportunities and life course outcomes. At the end of the course, students should be able to define and use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data and to interpret analytical results. No prior knowledge in statistics is assumed. High school algebra and probability are the only mathematical pre-requisites. Every student is required to participate in a lab section. Students will review the course content and learn to use the Stata software in the lab under the TA's guidance.

Instructor(s): G. Hong
Prerequisite(s): At least one college-level mathematics course, can be a high school AP course, First priority for CHDV grads and 2nd priority CHDV undergrad majors.
Note(s): CHDV Distribution, M*, M* This course will not be offered in the academic year 2023-24
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 20101, EDSO 30101, HLTH 20101

CHDV 30102. Introduction to Causal Inference. 100 Units.

This course is designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from the social sciences, education, public health science, public policy, social service administration, and statistics who are involved in quantitative research and are interested in studying causality. The goal of this course is to equip students with basic knowledge of and analytic skills in causal inference. Topics for the course will include the potential outcomes framework for causal inference; experimental and observational studies; identification assumptions for causal parameters; potential pitfalls of using ANCOVA to estimate a causal effect; propensity score based methods including matching, stratification, inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting (IPTW), marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMWS), and doubly robust estimation; the instrumental variable (IV) method; regression discontinuity design (RDD) including sharp RDD and fuzzy RDD; difference in difference (DID) and generalized DID methods for cross-section and panel data, and fixed effects model. Intermediate Statistics or equivalent such as STAT 224/PBHS 324, PP 31301, BUS 41100, or SOC 30005 is a prerequisite. This course is a prerequisite for "Advanced Topics in Causal Inference" and "Mediation, moderation, and spillover effects."

Instructor(s): G. Hong     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Statistics or equivalent such as STAT 224/PBHS 324, PP 31301, BUS 41100, or SOC 30005
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: M; M
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 20102, SOCI 30315, PBHS 43201, MACS 21000, STAT 31900, MACS 51000, PLSC 30102

CHDV 30510. Computational Content Analysis. 100 Units.

A vast expanse of information about what people do, know, think, and feel lies embedded in text, and more of the contemporary social world lives natively within electronic text than ever before. These textual traces range from collective activity on the web, social media, instant messaging and automatically transcribed YouTube videos to online transactions, medical records, digitized libraries and government intelligence. This supply of text has elicited demand for natural language processing and machine learning tools to filter, search, and translate text into valuable data. The course will survey and practically apply many of the most exciting computational approaches to text analysis, highlighting both supervised methods that extend old theories to new data and unsupervised techniques that discover hidden regularities worth theorizing. These will be examined and evaluated on their own merits, and relative to the validity and reliability concerns of classical content analysis, the interpretive concerns of qualitative content analysis, and the interactional concerns of conversation analysis. We will also consider how these approaches can be adapted to content beyond text, including audio, images, and video. We will simultaneously review recent research that uses these approaches to develop social insight by exploring (a) collective attention and reasoning through the content of communication; (b) social relationships through the process of communication; and (c) social state

Instructor(s): James Evans     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 40133, MACS 60000

CHDV 30750. Global Health, Environment, and Indigenous Futures. 100 Units.

The global coronavirus pandemic has made evident the significance of ecological (im)balances for the well-being of societies. The relationship between structural inequalities, changing environments and health, especially for historically and socio-economically marginalized communities, is now well established. At the same time, a growing body of literature links the material conditions of marginalized communities-for instance, spaces of dwelling and conditions of labor-to health status, globally. Based on a set of interdisciplinary literature arranged through anthropological theories, this course will critically engage with notions of health and well-being for indigenous communities, tracing injustices that stem histories of racial, caste- and ethnicity-based, and environmental exclusions. The readings are organized around one central question: What does it mean to be indigenous in a changing planet where social, political, and economic systems are marked by enduring legacies of systemic violence? This graduate and undergraduate level course will introduce contexts within which structural exclusions lead to ill-health and loss of well-being among indigenous communities across the globe. The aim is to develop critical thinking on the political economy and political ecologies of indigenous health as imbricated with issues of social, economic, and environmental justice.

Instructor(s): Sanghamitra Das
Equivalent Course(s): SALC 26501, ANTH 30700, RDIN 20700, SALC 32704, RDIN 30700, CEGU 30700, ANTH 20700, CHDV 20700, CEGU 20700

CHDV 31000. Cultural Psychology. 100 Units.

There is a substantial portion of the psychological nature of human beings that is neither homogeneous nor fixed across time and space. At the heart of the discipline of cultural psychology is the tenet of psychological pluralism, which states that the study of "normal" psychology is the study of multiple psychologies and not just the study of a single or uniform fundamental psychology for all peoples of the world. Research findings in cultural psychology thus raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. In this course we analyze the concept of "culture" and examine ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization, and reasoning.

Instructor(s): R. Shweder     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must be in third or fourth year.
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: B, C
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 33000, CHDV 21000, PSYC 23000, GNSE 31000, CRES 21100, KNOW 31000, GNSE 21001, ANTH 24320, ANTH 35110, AMER 33000

CHDV 31755. Longitudinal Research. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to longitudinal research methods used in psychological research. This includes both the design of longitudinal studies and the use of statistical techniques to analyze longitudinal data. Students will gain experience with reading longitudinal research reports using longitudinal data and develop the skills necessary to conduct and report on their own longitudinal research.

Instructor(s): Hannah Hamilton     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 21755, MAPS 31755, SOCI 30338, PSYC 31755

CHDV 32020. Alternative Feminisms: Gender, Agency, and Liberation in the Middle East. 100 Units.

This course critically examines gender, agency, and liberation in the Middle East. The course will begin with a discussion of human agency, its relation to sociocultural context, and the feminist literature on the issues of agency, resistance, and liberation. Then, we will explore these relationships in non-Western contexts by drawing examples from Turkey, Iran, and Northern Syria. In the cases of Turkey and Iran, we will focus on the feminist movements and women's collective actions for the right to wear and take off the headscarf. In the case of Northern Syria, we will explore the agencies of Kurdish female guerrillas and their conceptions of empowerment. In each case, we will focus on the moral and ethical principles that guide women's choices and trace their sociohistorical foundations.

Instructor(s): S. Numanbayraktaroglu     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Catalog content areas: 3, C
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 32020, ANTH 32020, NELC 32020, GNSE 23159, ANTH 22020, NEHC 22020, CHDV 22020

CHDV 32401. Multilevel Modeling. 100 Units.

This course will focus on the analysis of multilevel data in which subjects are nested within clusters (e.g., health care providers, hospitals). The focus will be on clustered data, and several extensions to the basic two-level multilevel model will be considered including three-level, cross-classified, multiple membership, and multivariate models. In addition to models for continuous outcomes, methods for non-normal outcomes will be covered, including multilevel models for dichotomous, ordinal, nominal, time-to-event, and count outcomes. Some statistical theory will be given, but the focus will be on application and interpretation of the statistical analyses.

Instructor(s): D. Hedeker     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PBHS 32400 or PBHS 32410 and PBHS 32700 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PBHS 33400

CHDV 32501. Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis. 100 Units.

Longitudinal data consist of multiple measures over time on a sample of individuals. This type of data occurs extensively in both observational and experimental biomedical and public health studies, as well as in studies in sociology and applied economics. This course will provide an introduction to the principles and methods for the analysis of longitudinal data. Whereas some supporting statistical theory will be given, emphasis will be on data analysis and interpretation of models for longitudinal data. Problems will be motivated by applications in epidemiology, clinical medicine, health services research, and disease natural history studies.

Instructor(s): D. Hedeker     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PBHS 32400/STAT 22400 or PBHS 32410 or equivalent, AND PBHS 32600/STAT 22600 or PBHS 32700/STAT 22700 or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): STAT 36900, PBHS 33300

CHDV 32702. Statistical Applications. 100 Units.

This course provides a transition between statistical theory and practice. The course will cover statistical applications in medicine, mental health, environmental science, analytical chemistry, and public policy. ,Lectures are oriented around specific examples from a variety of content areas. Opportunities for the class to work on interesting applied problems presented by U of C faculty will be provided. Although an overview ,of relevant statistical theory will be presented, emphasis is on the development of statistical solutions to interesting applied problems.

Instructor(s): R. Gibbons     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PBHS 32400, PBHS 32410 or equivalent, and PBHS 32600/STAT 22600 or PBHS 32700/STAT 22700 or equivalent; or consent of instructor. Knowledge of STATA and/or R highly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): PBHS 33500, STAT 35800

CHDV 32950. Emergence and Development of Mathematics and Language. 100 Units.

We will discuss the emergence and development of mathematics and language in humans. Among the topics we will discuss are the universality and variation of the development of these systems as well as their resilience in the face of biological and input variations.

Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow, S. Levine     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must have completed PSYC 20500 or gain the consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 22950, CHDV 22950, EDSO 32950, PSYC 32950, EDSO 22950

CHDV 33011. Beyond the Culture Wars: Social Movements and the Politics of Education in the U.S. 100 Units.

Passionate conflicts over school curriculum and educational policy are a recurring phenomenon in the history of US schooling. Why are schools such frequent sites of struggle and what is at stake in these conflicts? In this discussion-based seminar, we will consider schools as battlegrounds in the US "culture wars": contests over competing visions of national identity, morality, social order, the fundamental purposes of public education, and the role of the state vis-à-vis the family. Drawing on case studies from history, anthropology, sociology and critical race and gender studies, we will examine both past and contemporary debates over school curriculum and school policy. Topics may include clashes over: the teaching of evolution, sex and sexuality education, busing/desegregation, prayer in schools, multiculturalism, the content of the literary canon, the teaching of reading, mathematics and history, and the closure of underperforming urban schools. Our inquiry will examine how social and political movements have used schools to advance or resist particular agendas and social projects.

Instructor(s): Lisa Rosen     Terms Offered: Spring 2022-23
Equivalent Course(s): EDSO 33011, SOCI 20588, SOCI 30588, EDSO 23011, HIST 27718, HIST 37718, CHDV 23011, PBPL 23011

CHDV 33301. Culture, Mental Health, and Psychiatry. 100 Units.

While mental illness has recently been framed in largely neurobiological terms as "brain disease," there has also been an increasing awareness of the contingency of psychiatric diagnoses. In this course, we will draw upon readings from medical and psychological anthropology, cultural psychiatry, and science studies to examine this paradox and to examine mental health and illness as a set of subjective experiences, social processes, and objects of knowledge and intervention. On a conceptual level, the course invites students to think through the complex relationships between categories of knowledge and clinical technologies (in this case, mainly psychiatric ones) and the subjectivities of persons living with mental illness. Put in slightly different terms, we will look at the multiple links between psychiatrists' professional accounts of mental illness and patients' experiences of it. Questions explored include: Does mental illness vary across social and cultural settings? How are experiences of people suffering from mental illness shaped by psychiatry's knowledge of their afflictions?

Instructor(s): E. Raikhel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: 3,4; C
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 33301, KNOW 23301, ANTH 35115, HIPS 27302, CHDV 23301, HLTH 23301, ANTH 24315

CHDV 33500. New Perspectives on Language Emergence. 100 Units.

In this course we will investigate anthropological and linguistic perspectives on language emergence, as well the social, demographic, environmental, linguistic, and modality (vision, speech, touch) factors that contribute to the formation of new languages. Emerging languages in communities around the world offer unprecedented scientific opportunities to address important questions previously deemed intractable, such as: Where does language come from? How do our experiences of the world influence the way our languages are structured? At what level of abstraction can language be studied as an autonomous object of analysis? The topic of language emergence has tended to focus on the interaction of linguistic, psychological, and demographic factors. We will bring the important anthropological dimension to the topic of language emergence, which addresses the way that users of emerging languages inhabit the world. The readings, lectures, and discussions will address new implications for our understanding of language creation.

Instructor(s): Diane Brentari & Terra Edwards     Terms Offered: Autumn. Meeting Mondays from 1:30p until 4:20p
Prerequisite(s): One Linguistics course and one Anthropology course are recommended. Consent of instructor required.
Note(s): Consent of instructor required; To be admitted, please email Professors Brentari and Edward a paragraph-long description about what you bring and what you hope to get out of this seminar.
Equivalent Course(s): CDIN 33500, ANTH 33501, CHDV 23500, COGS 22008, ANTH 23501, LING 33500, CDIN 23500, LING 23501

CHDV 33930. Biological and Cultural Evolution. 100 Units.

This course draws on readings in and case studies of language evolution, biological evolution, cognitive development and scaffolding, processes of socialization and formation of groups and institutions, and the history and philosophy of science and technology. We seek primarily to elaborate theory to understand and model processes of cultural evolution, while exploring analogies, differences, and relations to biological evolution. This has been a highly contentious area, and we examine why. We seek to evaluate what such a theory could reasonably cover and what it cannot.

Instructor(s): W. Wimsatt, S. Mufwene     Terms Offered: Not offered in 2022-2023
Prerequisite(s): Third- or fourth-year standing or consent of instructor required; core background in evolution and genetics strongly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 28615, LING 39286, LING 11100, BPRO 23900, PHIL 32500, PHIL 22500, CHDV 23930, NCDV 27400, HIPS 23900, CHSS 37900, ANTH 38615

CHDV 34800. Kinship and Social Systems. 100 Units.

This course will use a biological approach to understanding how groups form and how cooperation and competition modulate group size and reproductive success. We will explore social systems from evolutionary and ecological perspectives, focusing on how the biotic and social environments favor cooperation among kin as well as how these environmental features influence mating systems and inclusive fitness. While a strong background in evolutionary theory is not required, students should have basic understanding of biology and natural selection. Course will use combination of lectures and discussion.

Instructor(s): J. Mateo
Note(s): CHDV Distributions: A; 1 Not offered in 2023-2024
Equivalent Course(s): ECEV 34800, EVOL 34800

CHDV 35201. Communication in humans and non-humans. 100 Units.

This seminar will compare communication in humans and non-humans. Topics to be covered include the reliance of communication on more general cognitive processes, the learnability of communicative systems, referential intent, honest signaling, and deception. These issues will be explored through readings that cover recent work at the intersection of human and animal communication.

Instructor(s): J. Mateo
Note(s): Not offered in 2023-2024
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 35201

CHDV 36008. Principles and Methods of Measurement. 100 Units.

Accurate measurement of key theoretical constructs with known and consistent psychometric properties is one of the essential steps in quantitative social and behavioral research. However, measurement of phenomena that are not directly observable (such as psychological attributes, perceptions of organizational climate, or quality of services) is difficult. Much of the research in psychometrics has been developed in an attempt to properly define and quantify such phenomena. This course is designed to introduce students to the relevant concepts, principles, and methods underlying the construction and interpretation of tests or measures. It provides in-depth coverage of test reliability and validity, topics in test theory, and statistical procedures applicable to psychometric methods. Such understanding is essential for rigorous practice in measurement as well as for proper interpretation of research. The course is highly recommended for students who plan to pursue careers in academic research or applied practice involving the use or development of tests or measures in the social and behavioral sciences.

Instructor(s): Yanyan Sheng     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Course work or background experience in statistics through inferential statistics and linear regression.
Equivalent Course(s): SOSC 36008, SOSC 26008, PSYC 36008, PSYC 28962, CHDV 26008

CHDV 36069. Scientific Childhood. 100 Units.

The first half of the twentieth century was a period of intensified focus and progressive thinking regarding the rights, development, and well-being of children as interests of utmost importance to all society. This focus was marked, inter alia, by concerted efforts to apply the methods of modern science to the investigation of childhood, efforts that in turn forever changed the way we understand, raise, and educate children. This seminar will revisit the lives of children who had served as subjects of observation and experiment from the 1880s to the 1950s, and whose childhood experiences (their emotions, thoughts, and games; their family lives and institutional realities) had shaped the central dogmas of developmental psychology, as well as our ideas about normality. The course takes a biographical approach to the history of science, but rather than focus on the careers of scientists and doctors, delves into the stories of their objects of study, from the Bostonian first graders who answered G. Stanley Hall's pioneering survey to the 44 "juvenile thieves" who had informed John Bowlby's influential attachment theory.

Instructor(s): Tal Arbel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HLTH 26069, EDSO 36069, CHSS 36069, KNOW 36069

CHDV 36078. Normal People. 100 Units.

Worrying about what's normal and what's not is an endemic feature of both our popular and scientific cultures. Is my intelligence above average? What about my height? Should I be feeling this way? Is there a pill for that? People seem to have always been concerned with fitting in, but the way of describing the general run of practices and conditions as "normal" is a rather recent phenomenon; testament to the vast influence of the modern human sciences on how we understand ourselves and others. This seminar will offer a broad historical overview of the ways that group behaviors and individual traits - bodily, moral, intellectual - were methodically described and measured in the past 200 years. We will become acquainted with the work of sociologists and anthropologists, psychiatrists and psychologists, polling experts and child development specialists, and ask about the kinds of people their efforts brought into being, from sexual perverts to the chronically depressed. The course will focus on the scientific theories and techniques used to distinguish the normal from the pathological, together with the new social institutions that translated this knowledge into forms of control. We will read Émile Durkheim on suicide rates and Cesare Lombroso on born criminals; learn about IQ tests and developmental milestones; and consider whether, with the advent of personalized medicine and self-data, we have indeed reached the "end of average."

Instructor(s): Tal Arbel     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 40255, IRHU 20009, KNOW 36078, IRHU 36078, HIST 35213, HIPS 26078, HLTH 26078, HIST 25213, CHSS 36078

CHDV 36200. Signs of Crisis: Ethnographies of Self and Society in Turbulent Times. 100 Units.

Societies" and "selves" make each other up. Under ordinary circumstances, we know intuitively what it means to live in the world. We don't think much about it, though, until things start falling apart. Maybe you suffer a trauma or an environmental disaster hits. Maybe the political system you took for granted all these years collapses, or from one day to the next, your money loses all of its value. In moments like these, and only in retrospect, your "life" and "the world" become coherent things you can talk about, as in, "My life is falling apart," or, "This must be the end of the world as we know it." Going further, you might wonder, "What is a world, exactly? What is it composed of? And now, as it is falling apart, how do we begin to imagine, and plan for, a new kind of future?

Instructor(s): J. Cole T. Edwards     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Completion of SOSC sequence Self, Culture and Society or Power, Identity Resistance is required. Instructor consent required.
Note(s): Categories - undergrad B, C, D; grads: 2,3 NOT offered in 2023-24
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 29000, CHDV 26200

CHDV 36455. Relationships and Health: The Need to Belong. 100 Units.

This seminar will explore the theory that the need to belong is a fundamental human motivation. In our discussions of relevant psychology journal articles, we will examine the connections between relationships and health, how the need to belong is related to empathy, reactions to rejection, and substitutes for belonging.

Instructor(s): Hamilton, Hannah     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 36455, MAPS 26455, MAPS 36455

CHDV 36655. Advanced Topics in Epigenetics of the Brain. 100 Units.

Once considered a domain of cancer, we now recognize that epigenetic processes affect neurodevelopment, cognitive processes, mental disorders, and behavior. Epigenetic mechanisms are those that alter the function of the genome without altering the base sequence of genomic DNA (the As, Cs, Ts, and Gs we are familiar with), thus can be flexibly modified in response to the environment. In this seminar, we will explore a variety of epigenetic modifications, consider how they encode personal and transgenerational experiences, and examine how they direct brain function and behavior. Behavior can be understood on multiple levels and timescales; we will employ knowledge from the emerging field of epigenetics to shed more light into the black box of behavior.

Instructor(s): S. London     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Only fourth-year college students with permission
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 36655

CHDV 36700. Language and Technology. 100 Units.

This course is concerned with the complex cultural dynamics we are immersed in as users of language and technology. Exploring those dynamics, we will ask questions fundamental to the field of linguistic anthropology, like: Who am I, and how do I know for sure? How do I glean information from my environment, and how do my information-seeking activities generate information for others? What is "context"? How are competing contexts generated, activated, or contested, and by whom? How is the rapid and ongoing substitution of channels (e.g. visual, auditory, proprioceptive) consequential for how we live and what we do? How are the messages we send out transmitted, diverted, twisted, or missed entirely, and to what end? Each week, an over-arching question like this will be introduced in readings and a short lecture, along with a set of key concepts, which students will apply in thinking about the environments with which they are most familiar. Students will have opportunities to explore connections that interest them through a range of discussion-based activities in class and in a final project, which may take one of many forms.

Instructor(s): T. Edwards     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Distribution categories: Undergraduate: C, Graduate: 3
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 26700, ANTH 26700

CHDV 37201. Language In Culture I. 100 Units.

The first quarter of the two-quarter Language in Culture sequence introduces a number of analytic concepts developed out of the study of "language" and its limits. We begin with the study of "interaction order" in its multifunctional complexity, teasing out its constitution through the real-time unfolding of indexical (pragmatic) and reflexive (metapragmatic) signs/functions as coherent "text." We use this attention to the dialectics of indexicality and its various implications to investigate various problematics in the philosophy of language (reference, performativity), linguistics (poetics, grammatical sense, variation, register), and sociocultural anthropology (racialization, relativity, subjectivity/identity, temporality, institutionality).

Instructor(s): Constantine Nakassis
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor for Undergrads
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: 5*
Equivalent Course(s): LING 31100, ANTH 37201, PSYC 47001

CHDV 37250. Psychological Anthropology. 100 Units.

This course traces the development of the field of psychological anthropology and critically reviews the various paradigms adopted by psychological anthropologists. In our discussions, we will draw examples from different cultural contexts to critically examine the relationship between culture and psychological functioning. By the end of the quarter, you will develop an insightful understanding of the cultural sources of the self, mind, behavior, and mental health as well as a substantial knowledge of the field of psychological anthropology.

Instructor(s): S. Numanbayraktaroglu     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Grad distribution: 4*; Undergrad Distribution: 3, 4
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 24321, CHDV 27250, HIPS 27250, HLTH 27250

CHDV 37501. Sexual Selection. 100 Units.

A discussion and critical analysis of sexual selection. The course will consist of lectures, reading and discussion.

Instructor(s): S. Pruett-Jones     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Common Core Biology, BIOS 248, or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): EVOL 37500, ECEV 37500

CHDV 37861. Darwinism and Literature. 100 Units.

In this course we will explore the notion that literary fiction can contribute to the generation of new knowledge of the human mind, human behavior, and human societies. Some novelists in the late 19th and early 20th century provided fictional portrayals of human nature that were grounded into Darwinian theory. These novelists operated within the conceptual framework of the complementarity of science and literature advanced by Goethe and the other romantics. At a time when novels became highly introspective and psychological, these writers used their literary craftsmanship to explore and illustrate universals aspects of human nature. In this course we read the work of several novelists such as George Eliot, HG Wells, Joseph Conrad, Jack London, Yuvgeny Zamyatin, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Italo Svevo, and Elias Canetti, and discuss how these authors anticipated the discoveries made decades later by cognitive, social, and evolutionary psychology.

Instructor(s): D. Maestripieri     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Distribution requirements: Undergraduate: A; Graduate: 1
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 24921, KNOW 31418, CHSS 34921, HIST 34921, HIST 24921, CHDV 27861, KNOW 21418

CHDV 37950. Evolution and Economics of Human Behavior. 100 Units.

This course explores how evolutionary biology and behavioral economics explain many different aspects of human behavior. Specific topics include evolutionary theory, natural and sexual selection, game theory, cost-benefit analyses of behavior from an evolutionary and a behavioral economics perspective, aggression, power and dominance, cooperation and competition, biological markets, parental investment, life history and risk-taking, love and mating, physical attractiveness and the market, emotion and motivation, sex and consumer behavior, cognitive biases in decision-making, and personality and psychopathology.

Instructor(s): D. Maestripieri     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: Undergraduate subject area: A, Graduate distribution: 1
Equivalent Course(s): ECON 14810, PSYC 27950, CHDV 27950, PSYC 37950

CHDV 38301. Disability and Design. 100 Units.

Disability is often an afterthought, an unexpected tragedy to be mitigated, accommodated, or overcome. In cultural, political, and educational spheres, disabilities are non-normative, marginal, even invisible. This runs counter to many of our lived experiences of difference where, in fact, disabilities of all kinds are the "new normal." In this interdisciplinary course, we center both the category and experience of disability. Moreover, we consider the stakes of explicitly designing for different kinds of bodies and minds. Rather than approaching disability as a problem to be accommodated, we consider the affordances that disability offers for design. This course begins by situating us in the growing discipline of Disability Studies and the activist (and intersectional) Disability Justice movement. We then move to four two-week units in specific areas where disability meets design: architecture, infrastructure, and public space; education and the classroom; economics, employment, and public policy; and aesthetics. Traversing from architecture to art, and from education to economic policy, this course asks how we can design for access.

Instructor(s): M. Friedner, J. Iverson     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Third or fourth-year standing
Equivalent Course(s): MAAD 28300, MUSI 25719, CHDV 28301, HLTH 28301, MUSI 35719, BPRO 28300

CHDV 38950. The Development of Communicative Competence. 100 Units.

This course examines the emergence of communicative skills in humans. We will focus on how children glean information about language structure and language use from their home environments. We will also discuss the proposed cognitive and evolutionary roots of communicative behaviors, with a focus on current gaps in our knowledge and possible pathways forward. The course will consider these issues from multiple perspectives including linguistics, psychology, and linguistic anthropology. We will also briefly cover a range of methods associated with these different areas of study. It is expected that, by the end of the course, you should be able to think and write critically about how human communication and human language are intertwined in both adults and children.

Instructor(s): M. Casillas     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Subject area: UG: B, C; Grad: 2
Equivalent Course(s): LING 38951, PSYC 38960, EDSO 38950

CHDV 39900. Readings: Comparative Human Development. 100 Units.

Independent reading and research course with faculty.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required.

CHDV 40000. HD Concepts. 100 Units.

Our assumptions about the processes underlying development shape how we read the literature, design studies, and interpret results. The purpose of this course is two-fold in that, first, it makes explicit both our own assumptions as well as commonly held philosophical perspectives that impact the ways in which human development is understood. Second, the course provides an overview of theories and domain-specific perspectives related to individual development across the life-course. The emphasis is on issues and questions that have dominated the field over time and, which continue to provide impetus for research, its interpretation, and the character of policy decisions and their implementation. Stated differently, theories have utility and are powerful tools. Accordingly, the course provides a broad basis for appreciating theoretical approaches to the study of development and for understanding the use of theory in the design of research and its application. Most significant, theories represent heuristic devices for "real time" interpretations of daily experiences and broad media disseminated messages.

Instructor(s): E. Raikhel     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): CHD Grad Students Only
Note(s): Required Course for Comparative Human Development Graduate Students

CHDV 40001. Introduction to Department of Comparative Human Development. 100.00 Units.

The course is mandatory for First and Second year doctoral students in the Department of Comparative Human Development, and it is strongly recommended for more advanced doctoral students in CHD. This course will meet once a month for the entire academic year. One faculty member per month will be responsible for facilitating/discussing their own research and approach to CHD concepts. Grading for the course is dependent on attendance and the active participation of the student. Students are required to register for the course in Autumn, Winter and Spring quarters of first year and grading and credit will be given in the Spring quarter only.

Instructor(s): G. Hong     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): First and Second year graduate student standing in the Department of Comparative Human Development

CHDV 40112. Sem: Health and Society. 100 Units.

A long and healthy life is a widely sought after human goal. But not everyone has equal chances of achieving this goal. This course focuses on the role played by society in differential access to physical, psychological, cognitive health and well-being. We will discuss the role of parental characteristics and childhood circumstances in later-life health, differences in health and well-being for men and women, for racial and ethnic groups, by characteristics of our neighborhoods and communities, and by regions or countries. Each class meeting we will read and discuss three or four journal articles or sections of a book, with class participants presenting each reading, summarizing it, and then critiquing it. The class will then discuss. We will add to and subtract from the readings to match the interests of participants on each topic; the syllabus will list readings as a starting point for this process.

Instructor(s): L. Waite     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Some Social Science background
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 50112, SOCI 50112

CHDV 40404. Computation and the Identification of Cultural Patterns. 100 Units.

Culture is increasingly becoming digital, making it more and more necessary for those in both academia and industry to use computational strategies to effectively identify, understand, and (in the case of industry) capitalize on emerging cultural patterns. In this course, students will explore interdisciplinary approaches for defining and mobilizing the concept of "culture" in their computational analyses, drawing on relevant literature from the fields of Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology. Additionally, they will receive hands-on experience applying computational approaches to identify and analyze a wide range of cultural patterns using the Python programming language. For instance, students will learn to identify emerging social movements using social media data, predict the next fashion trends, and even decipher ancient symbols using archaeological databases.

Instructor(s): Clindaniel, Jon     Terms Offered: Autumn Winter
Prerequisite(s): No previous coding experience required. A Python boot camp will be held at the beginning of the quarter to teach the coding skills necessary to succeed in the course. Open to Advanced Undergraduates with Instructor Permission.
Equivalent Course(s): MACS 20400, MAPS 40401, PSYC 40460, MACS 40400

CHDV 41601. Seminar in Language Development. 100 Units.

Undergraduates should register for PSYC 23200. Psychology and Linguistics doctoral students should register for PSYC 43200. This course addresses the major issues involved in first-language acquisition. We deal with the child's production and perception of speech sounds (phonology), the acquisition of the lexicon (semantics), the comprehension and production of structured word combinations (syntax), and the ability to use language to communicate (pragmatics).

Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 43200

CHDV 42350. Development Over Life Course. 100 Units.

This course explores the biological and social patterning of lives from infancy through old age. Readings will include class and contemporary theory and research related to varied stages of the life course. Discussion will focus on paradigmatic themes in life course development such as: the social situation of lives in time and place, the interconnectedness of lives and generations, the nature of developmental transitions, the timing of life experiences, and the continuity of lives through time. Examples will be drawn from populations of traditional concern within social welfare policy and social work practice.

Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 50400

CHDV 42401-42402. Trial Research in Human Development - I-II.

This course is taken in the Spring quarter of the first year, and again in the Autumn quarter of the second year. The purpose of this seminar is to help students formulate and complete their trial research projects.

CHDV 42401. Trial Research in Human Development I. 100 Units.

This course is taken in the Spring quarter of the first year, followed by part II in the Autumn quarter of the second year. The purpose of this seminar is to help students formulate and complete their trial research projects.

Instructor(s): E. Raikhel     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): CHD grad students only.
Note(s): CHDV Distribution, R

CHDV 42402. Trial Research in Human Development II. 100 Units.

Second in required Trial Research Seminar sequence. This course is taken in the Autumn quarter of the second year. The purpose of this seminar is to help students formulate and complete their trial research projects.

Instructor(s): M. Tice     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): CHDV 42401 Trial Research in Human Development-I. CHD graduate students only.
Note(s): Required Course for Comparative Human Development Graduate Students

CHDV 42550. Theory, Method & Evidence: Finding Persons in the Social. 100 Units.

This course introduces students to the process of examining relationships among theory, evidence, and method in contemporary social science with a particular focus on writings from sociology, social psychology, and developmental psychology. To situate our focus on theory, evidence, and method we will also draw upon history of science and philosophy of science so we can better understand how we produce knowledge via research on people. The construction of person has taken place over the last century, which is a central idea to psychology, sociology and all social sciences. We will examine what social/psychological theory aims to be, what counts as such a theory; relationships between quantitative and qualitative methods; how we produce knowledge via surveys, interviews, ethnographies, and experiments; and how we make evidence (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging is evidence of what?). The aim of the course is to better situate students to the range of relevant understandings of social theory, social methods, and social evidence. Doing so puts students in the position to consider evidence from a multitude of perspectives leading to clearer formulations and examinations of the social world (e.g., guides on writing research proposals). Further, students will then consider what the examined relationships mean for social science in an age of changing politics of knowledge, including considerations of the replication crisis in the social sciences, particularly psychology.

Instructor(s): Gugwor, Resney     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 30333, CHDV 22550, MAPS 41501, PSYC 39019

CHDV 43600. Processes of Judgement and Decision Making. 100 Units.

This course offers a survey of research on judgment and decision making, with emphasis placed on uncertainty and (intrapersonal) conflict. An historical approach is taken in which the roots of current research issues and practices are traced. Topics are drawn from the following areas: evaluation and choice when goals are in conflict and must be traded off, decision making when consequences of the decision are uncertain, predictive and evaluative judgments under conditions of uncertain, incomplete, conflicting, or otherwise fallible information.

Instructor(s): W. Goldstein     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 43600

CHDV 43680. Topics in Language and Gesture. 100 Units.

The course will focus on a range of topics in language (discourse, narrative, turn-taking, conversational repair, etc.) and how they interact with co-speech and other nonverbal cues.

Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 43680

CHDV 43690. Topics in Action, Representation, and Gesture. 100 Units.

The course will focus on how movement of the body (including gesture) affects learning, information processing, and representation.

Instructor(s): S. Goldin-Meadow     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 43690

CHDV 44599. Historical and Contemporary Issues in U.S. Racial Health Inequality. 100 Units.

This course explores persistent health inequality in the U.S. from the 1900s to the present day. The focus will be on racial gaps in urban health inequality with some discussion of rural communities. Readings will largely cover the research on Black and White gaps in health inequality, with the understanding that most of the issues discussed extend to health inequalities across many racial and ethnic groups. Readings cover the broad range of social determinants of health (socioeconomic status, education, access to health care, homelessness) and how these social determinants are rooted in longstanding legacies of American inequality. A major component of class assignments will be identifying emerging research and innovative policies and programs that point to promising pathways to eliminating health disparities.

Instructor(s): M. Keels     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Only students with 2nd year standing or above.
Note(s): Fulfills grad requirement: 2,4 and undergrad major requirement B.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 24599, HLTH 24599, CHDV 24599, PBPL 24599, CHST 24599

CHDV 44700. Seminar: Topics in Judgment and Decision Making. 100 Units.

This course offers a survey of research on judgment and decision making, with emphasis placed on uncertainty and (intrapersonal) conflict. An historical approach is taken in which the roots of current research issues and practices are traced. Topics are drawn from the following areas: evaluation and choice when goals are in conflict and must be traded off, decision making when consequences of the decision are uncertain, predictive and evaluative judgments under conditions of uncertain, incomplete, conflicting, or otherwise fallible information.

Instructor(s): W. Goldstein     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 44700

CHDV 45601. Moral Psychology and the Anthropology of Morality. 100 Units.

Three types of questions about morality can be distinguished: (1) philosophical, (2) psychological, and (3) epidemiological. The philosophical question asks, whether and in what sense (if any) "goodness" or "rightness" are real or objective properties that particular actions possess in varying degrees. The psychological question asks, what are the mental states and processes associated with the human classification of actions are moral or immoral, ethical or unethical. The epidemiological question asks, what is the actual distribution of moral judgments across time (developmental time and historical time) and across space (for example, across cultures). In this seminar we will read classic and contemporary philosophical, psychological, and anthropological texts that address those questions.

Instructor(s): R. Shweder     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Advanced undergraduates may enroll with permission of instructor
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: B, C; 3
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 44000

CHDV 45699. When Cultures Collide: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies. 100 Units.

Coming to terms with diversity in an increasingly multicultural world has become one of the most pressing public policy projects for liberal democracies in the early 21st century. One way to come to terms with diversity is to try to understand the scope and limits of toleration for variety at different national sites where immigration from foreign lands has complicated the cultural landscape. This seminar examines a series of legal and moral questions about the proper response to norm conflict between mainstream populations and cultural minority groups (including old and new immigrants), with special reference to court cases that have arisen in the recent history of the United States.

Instructor(s): R. Shweder     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates students: 4th year standing and instructor consent only
Note(s): Subject area: Grad: 2, 3
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 45300, GNSE 45600, ANTH 45600, KNOW 45699, HMRT 35600

CHDV 47015. Scientific and Humanistic Contributions to Knowledge Formation. 100 Units.

In this course, we will explore whether the sciences and the humanities can make complementary contributions to the formation of knowledge, thus leading to the integration and unification of human knowledge. In the first part of the course we will take a historical approach to the issue; we will discuss how art and science were considered complementary for much of the 18th and 19th century (for example, in the views and work of Wolfgang Goethe), how they became separate ('the two cultures') in the middle of the 20th century with the compartmentalization of academic disciplines, and how some attempts have recently been made at a reunification under the concept of 'consilience'. In the second part of the course, we will focus on conceptual issues such as the cognitive value of literature, the role of ideas in knowledge formation in science and literature, the role of creativity in scientific and literary production, and how scientific and philosophical ideas have been incorporated into literary fiction in the genre known as 'the novel of ideas'. As an example of the latter, we will read the novel 'One, No One, and 100,000' (1926) by Luigi Pirandello and discuss how this author elaborated and articulated a view of the human persona (including issues of identity and personality) from French philosophers and psychologists such as Henri Bergson and Alfred Binet.

Instructor(s): D. Maestripieri     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Satisfies CHD graduate distribution (1)
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 27015, CHSS 47015, KNOW 28015, KNOW 47015, HIPS 27515, SCTH 47015

CHDV 47300. Doing Multimodal Discourse Analysis, from Interaction to Media Textuality. 100 Units.

Linguistic Anthropology Practicum / Projects in the Linguistics Laboratory

Instructor(s): Constantine Nakassis
Equivalent Course(s): LING 57300, ANTH 57300

CHDV 48700. Adolescent Development in Context. 100 Units.

This course focuses on developmental pathways from middle childhood through adolescence within the context of school, family, community, and culture. Because human development is an applied field, we will be paying special attention to how sociocultural and historical influences affect academic, socioemotional, and identity development in the context of real-world challenges and opportunities faced by adolescents. In addition to learning about developmental and sociocultural theories, students will apply research to policy and practice by creating resources geared toward youth, parents, or those who work with youth. By the end of this course sequence, students should be able to: 1. Describe and apply key theories of middle childhood and adolescent development; 2. Identify developmental opportunities and challenges during middle childhood and adolescence; 3. Discuss the role of identity development in constructing or authoring one's life story; 4. Reframe adolescent risk-taking as a form of creativity and individual expression; 5. Understand how relationships can influence positive youth development; and 6. Translate theory and research into developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive resources for youth, families, and those who work with youth.

Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): SSAD 68700, PSYC 38780, EDSO 28700, EDSO 68700

CHDV 50132. Sem:Causal Inference in Studies of Educational Interventions. 100 Units.

This course will engage students in evaluating the validity of causal claims made in important educational studies conducted within multiple disciplines. A focus will be on what can be learned about the school as an organization and the work of teaching by evaluating attempts to improve education. Fellows will re-analyze data from such studies, write reports that critically evaluate published study findings, and consider implications for research on educational improvement. This course is required of second year Fellows in the Education Sciences. Otherwise, admission to the seminar requires permission of the instructor. Introductory coursework in applied statistics is a prerequisite; prior study of causal inference is recommended.

Instructor(s): S. Raudenbush, G. Hong     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): EDSO 50132, SOCI 50132

Comparative Human Development Courses

CHDV 30150. Language and Communication. 100 Units.

This course can also be taken by students who are not majoring in Linguistics but are interested in learning something about the uniqueness of human language, spoken or signed. It covers a selection from the following topics: What is the position of spoken language in the usually multimodal forms of communication among humans? In what ways does spoken language differ from signed language? What features make spoken and signed language linguistic? What features distinguish linguistic means of communication from animal communication? How do humans communicate with animals? From an evolutionary point of view, how can we account for the fact that spoken language is the dominant mode of communication in all human communities around the world? Why cannot animals really communicate linguistically? What do the terms language "acquisition" and "transmission" really mean? What factors account for differences between "language acquisition" by children and by adults? Are children really perfect language learners? What factors bring about language evolution, including language speciation and the emergence of new language varieties? How did language evolve in mankind? This is a general education course without any prerequisites. It provides a necessary foundation to those working on language at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Instructor(s): Salikoko Mufwene     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): COGS 22002, LING 30150, EDSO 20150, CHDV 20150, LING 20150

CHDV 30239. Language and Labor. 100 Units.

In this class we analyze the role played by language in labor management from the training of the workers, selecting them, and monitoring them at the workplace. We show how Taylorization (i.e. a form of work management based on breaking down occupations into small tasks dissociated from the skills of the workers) has reshaped not only the labor process but also the discourse on workers' skills, including language skills. We also look at the ways in which language performance in the late modernity corporate world has increasingly become what many workers are recruited and therefore paid for.

Equivalent Course(s): LING 30239, ANTH 37525

CHDV 30245. Approaches to Social Literacy. 100 Units.

This course focuses on understanding the ways in which literacy practices and events are social phenomena inextricably linked to specific social and political circumstances. Looking at reading and writing not as simply cognitive accomplishments of individual minds but as socially embedded practices enables us to reflect on what counts as literacy for whom and in which context, how it is performed in different settings (home, school, workplace), and the extent to which it is a source of inequality among people.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 37520, LING 30242

CHDV 30249. Language and Migration: Individual, Social and Institutional Perspectives. 100 Units.

This class offers a broad range of perspectives on issues regarding language in the context of migration. For instance we analyze the ways in which language has been instrumentalized by Nation-States to regiment and restrain the mobility of targeted populations. We deconstruct the straightforward correlation between socio-economic integration and language competence in discourse produced by politicians and some academics alike. We also analyze how different types of mobility (e.g., slavery, colonization, and free individual migration) produce, at different times, differing sociolinguistic dynamics.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 27116, LING 30249, ANTH 37116

CHDV 30511. Computing for the Social Sciences. 100 Units.

This is an applied course for social scientists with little-to-no programming experience who wish to harness growing digital and computational resources. The focus of the course is on learning the basics of programming and on generating reproducible research. Topics include coding concepts (e.g., data structures, control structures, functions, etc.), data visualization, data wrangling and cleaning, version control software, exploratory data analysis, etc. Students will leave the course with basic computational skills implemented through many methods and approaches to social science; while students will not become expert programmers, they will gain the knowledge of how to adapt and expand these skills as they are presented with new questions, methods, and data. The course will be taught in R.

Instructor(s): Jean Clipperton     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): MACS students have priority.
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 30510, PLSC 30235, SOCI 40176, ENST 20550, MACS 30500, SOCI 20278, SOSC 26032, MAPS 30500, MACS 20500

CHDV 30609. Women's Rights, Cultural Nationalisms, and Moral Panics. 100 Units.

The discourse on women's rights, and more gradually the rights of transgender and intersex communities, has gained tremendous momentum globally in the last few decades. At the same time, in many parts of the world, these changes have been accompanied by moral panics over what such empowerment means for national "cultures." They have sometimes also resulted in violence against women and sexual minorities. In South Africa, for example, marriage rates have reached new lows and single mothers have become a highly visible social category, eligible for state relief through a newly-instated Child Support Grant. Their access to these new state privileges has been accompanied by increased social surveillance; South African men and elders accuse young mothers of abusing their rights, upending the moral order. Both Uganda and Kenya, where national constitutions guarantee gender quotas for elected politicians, have also recently passed national legislation that seeks to regulate women's clothing (i.e. the so-called "Miniskirt Bill" passed in Uganda in 2014). In India, women's increasing participation in the workforce and their visibility in public space, or couples who contract marriages across religious divides, have led to violent disciplining by other members of the community, sometimes in the name of a "love Jihad." Feminists and queer activists, however, are not mute in the face of such resistance. Instead they have sought new ways to make claims about their right to "public" space.

Equivalent Course(s): SALC 43105, ANTH 35218, CDIN 43105, HIST 40101

CHDV 30669. African Mobilities: Theories and Ethnography. 100 Units.

It would be difficult to overstate the centrality of the "migration crisis narrative" in current discussions of migration in Europe. Even before the refugee crisis this past year, images of overcrowded boats sinking in the Mediterranean, and the strident nationalist discourse with which so many European states have responded, had placed the issue front and center in the European political landscape. Although our attention this past summer was largely focused on the exodus out of Syria, it has long been the case that many of these migrants also hail from Africa. Generally, changes in the landscape of mobility have made the presence of Africans in global migration streams increasingly apparent. In light of these issues, this course examines African migration, but it is as much focused on theories of migration as it is on the specificities of African mobility. To that end, the class tacks back and forth between analyses of mobility within Africa, and studies of migration more generally. Topics to be addressed include governmentality and the creation of borders, the production of immobility, kinship and migration, and the role of mobility in the reproduction of African societies. Readings will include studies of migration from within the African continent, to Europe and to the United States.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 32226

CHDV 31204. Corporate America & the Creation of the Conditions and Convention for the Working Class. 100 Units.

Throughout this course, we will explore the history of Corporate America focusing on some of the more seminal institutions that are still a part of the fabric of the American (and global) economy. In accounting for the history, we will examine the human action that shaped corporations and the communities that they impacted - we will do all of this in an attempt to understand the today's working class and the obstacles those Americans face as they do their best to make a way for themselves, provide for their families and improve their overall situations. The focal point of this course will be the question of loyalty. Among other salient issues and questions to be considered, we will return to this central question: What constitutes loyalty in the employee and employer relationship, and what is the limit in the breach of loyalty that will irrevocably rupture that relationship? We will do all of this while employ hermeneutics based on the teachings/philosophy of Paul Ricoeur (also referencing Gadamer and Heidegger's contribution to our understanding of hermeneutics). We do this in order to create a constructive dialogue that is open to interpretation and the discovery of new or un-plumbed meaning. Using hermeneutics, the final task will be to confront the difficulty of reconciling the conclusions that we will have drawn by the close of the quarter with the reality of our economic system, capitalism.

CHDV 32102. Self and Subjectivity: Discourse, Agency, and Performativity. 100 Units.

This class examines the concepts of self, subjectivity and agency through a series of theoretical and ethnographic readings that seek to problematize the notion of a bounded self, instead locating the making and unmaking of persons in terms of broader institutional, political and cultural contexts. The first two weeks are devoted to some classic attempts to understand self and society, first focusing on the public aspects of culture and personhood and then looking at more psychological approaches to how individual identity is constructed. In the rest of the course we will turn to some alternative ways of theorizing the links between self and subjectivity drawn from the Russian socio-historical school, as well as poststructuralist writing on discourse and performativity. Course material will include theoretical essays and ethnographic monographs.

Instructor(s): J. Cole     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates with consent of instructor
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: C; 2*, 3*, 4*
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 32102

CHDV 32103. Feminism and Anthropology. 100 Units.

This course examines the fraught yet generative relation between various movements of feminism and the discipline of anthropology. Both feminism(s) and anthropology emerged in the 19th century as fields invested in thinking "the human" through questions of alterity or Otherness. As such, feminist and anthropological inquiries often take up shared objects of analysis--including nature/culture, kinship, the body, sexuality, exchange, value and power-even as they differ in their political and scholarly orientations through the last century and a half. Tracking the emergence of feminisms and anthropology as distinct fields of academic discourse on the one hand and political intervention on the Other, we will pursue the following lines of inquiry: 1) a genealogical approach to key concepts and problem-spaces forged at the intersection of these two fields 2) critical analysis of the relation of feminist and postcolonial social movements to the professionalizing fields of knowledge production (including Marxist inspired writing on women and economy, Third World feminism and intersectionality, and feminist critiques of science studies) and 3) a reflexive contemporary examination of the way these two strands of thought have come together in the subfield of feminist anthropology and the continual frictions and resonances of feminist and anthropological approaches in academic settings and in the larger world (e.g., #MeToo, sex positive activism, queer politics, feminist economics).

Instructor(s): Chu, Julie     Terms Offered: TBD
Prerequisite(s): 3rd and 4th year undergraduates only. Graduate students must have consent of one of the instructors.
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 22103, ANTH 25211, GNSE 32103, ANTH 32910, GNSE 22103

CHDV 32203. Caste, Reproduction, and Citizenship in India. 100 Units.

This undergraduate and graduate level seminar will center on caste and reproduction in understanding notions of citizenship in India. The course will systematically engage with ideas of belonging to the post-colonial nation-state, particularly as experienced from following standpoints-gender, caste, indigeneity, and class. Understanding how citizenship is constituted, performed and negotiated in India, especially in relation to the biological and political reproduction of "good citizens", reveals the scopes and limits of citizenship as governance. The course is premised on the centrality of reproduction to governance in the largest democracy of the world. Drawing on a set of interdisciplinary literature, the readings are organized around feminist theorizations of the State, governance, and citizenship to locate the body within the body politic. The aim is to develop critical thinking on how the politics of reproduction is deeply imbricated with the reproduction of democratic politics; a politics that is entangled with knowledge, expertise and constructed human difference. In so doing, the course brings together reproductive governance with articulations of social justice in India.

Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 22203, GNSE 32207, ANTH 32203, RDIN 32203, GNSE 22207, CHDV 22203, SALC 35704

CHDV 33200. Biology of Mental Health. 100 Units.

Students will explore how the brain and body interact with other factors to affect mental health.

Instructor(s): K. Pagel     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Distribution - undergrad: A, B, C, D; grad: 1, 2, 3, 4

CHDV 33700. Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Language Development. 100 Units.

This discussion-based course covers cross-linguistic evidence concerning similarities and dissimilarities in how children learn language across diverse language communities. Each year will revolve around a central topic. This year we will focus on the acquisition of phonology.

Instructor(s): M. Tice     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): satisfies UG category: B and Grad categories: 2, M
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 23720, CHDV 23700, LING 33700, PSYC 33720, LING 23701, COGS 22009

CHDV 34300. Primate Behavior and Ecology. 100 Units.

This course explores the behavior and ecology of nonhuman primates with emphasis on their natural history and evolution. Specific topics include methods for the study of primate behavior, history of primate behavior research, socioecology, foraging, predation, affiliation, aggression, mating, parenting, development, communication, cognition, and evolution of human behavior.

Instructor(s): D. Maestripieri     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Completion of the first three quarters of a Biological Sciences fundamentals sequence.
Note(s): E.
Equivalent Course(s): BIOS 23248, EVOL 37300, CHDV 21800

CHDV 35055. Uncertain Futures: A Sociology of Times to Come. 100 Units.

Between global militarism, intensive inequality, and climate catastrophe, the future looks uncertain. This class engages lay, scholarly and fictional futurisms-particularly emerging from Queer, Indigenous and Black traditions. We will read sociological and anthropological texts that consider how different communities envision the decades and centuries to come alongside speculative fiction that theorizes where earth and humanity are heading. Does humanity have a future? How does that future look? How do differing answers to these questions shape individuals' and communities' lives and decisions?

CHDV 35401. Advanced Topics in Mesoamerican Language and Culture. 100 Units.

A seminar that considers recent research in the ethnography of language in the Mesoamerican region (especially Guatemala and southern Mexico). The course is intended for advanced students with prior experience studying the indigenous languages and cultures of the region through coursework and/or fieldwork. Class effort will be devoted to reading and discussion of selected contemporary ethnographic works, complemented by a few relevant classics. The substantive foci will vary over time but may include language standardization, multilingualism, language socialization, and aspects of the broader communicative ecology including migration, missionization, nonverbal communication, and new media. Special attention will be given to the place of community-based fieldwork in a contemporary context that increasingly demands both narrower topical and broader contextualizing perspectives (whether these be historical, regional, or global).

Equivalent Course(s): LACS 35401

CHDV 36055. Race, Ethnicity, Language, and Citizenship in the United States. 100 Units.

This course is intended to help students make sense of the current discourse on diversity and inclusion/exclusion from a historical perspective. They will be trained to read critically the evolution of political discourse on citizenship in the United States since the American Revolution. They will learn to detect the role of shifting interpretations of race and ethnicity, after that of European nationality, in determining who is (not) a (full) citizen. For instance, who counted as "American" in the early stages of the Republic? Why were Native Americans and (descendants of) forced immigrants from Africa excluded at the outset? How did English become the unofficial language of American citizenship and inclusion? What factors favored its rise and drove to extinction the competing European national languages?

Instructor(s): Salikoko Mufwene     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LING 26050, RDIN 26050, LING 36050, CHDV 26050

CHDV 37202. Language in Culture II. 100 Units.

This is the second part of a two-quarter sequence on the role of language in social life. Building on the first quarter's focus on the interaction order, this quarter explores how ideologies regiment and reflexively mediate between discursive/expressive practices of the interaction order and the wider organization of social life. How are people's ideas about ways of speaking and modes of expression shaped by their social positions and values? And how do their ideas shape interaction and vice versa? How is difference, in language and in social life, made - and unmade? How and why are some differences persuasive as the basis for action, while other differences are ignored or erased? The course proposes that ideologies are neither true nor false, they are positioned and partial visions of the world, relying on comparison and perspective; they exploit differences in expressive features - linguistic and otherwise - to construct convincing images of people, spaces and activities in sociopolitical processes.

Instructor(s): Susan Gal     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Language in Culture-1
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: 5*
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 37202, LING 31200, PSYC 47002

CHDV 38055. Queerness in the Shadow of Empire: Sexualities in the Modern Middle East. 100 Units.

Critics, from both the Right and the Left, claim that liberal sexual regimes are Western, imperial impositions onto Muslim and Middle Eastern societies. On the other hand, LGBTQ+ advocates claim that the restriction of sexuality is itself a colonial legacy. This class will delve into this debate by examining cutting edge empirical and theoretical work on Queer lives in the modern Middle East.

CHDV 40770. Early Childhood: Human Capital Development and Public Policy. 100 Units.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the literature on early child development and explore how an understanding of core developmental concepts can inform social policies. Our substantive foci will be on early childhood poverty, the role of parenting and the home environment in shaping children's development, and the evidence base for intervention in early childhood for economically disadvantaged children. The course will cover evidence from neuroscience, psychology, economics, sociology, and public policy as it bears on these questions. In particular, we will explore how the principles of early childhood development can guide the design of policies and practices that enhance the healthy development of young children, particularly for those living in adverse circumstances, and thereby build a strong foundation for promoting equality of opportunity, reducing social class disparities in life outcomes, building human capital, fostering economic prosperity, and generating positive social change. In doing so, we will discuss the evidence on whether the contexts of children's development are amenable to public policy intervention and the costs and benefits of different policy approaches.

Instructor(s): Kalil, A     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PSYC 40710, PPHA 40700

CHDV 41920. The Evolution of Language. 100 Units.

This course is designed to review critically some of the literature on the phylogenetic emergence of Language, in order to determine which questions have been central to the subject matter, which ones have recurred the most, and to what extent the answers to these are now better informed. The class will also review new questions such as the following: What is the probable time of the emergence of modern language(s)? Should we speak of the emergence of Language or of languages, in the plural?

Instructor(s): Salikoko Mufwene     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): COGS 22007, CHDV 21920, EVOL 41920, CHSS 41920, PSYC 41920, LING 21920, LING 41920, ANTH 47305

CHDV 42300. Development through the Life Course. 100 Units.

This course explores the biological and social patterning of lives from infancy through old age. Readings will include class and contemporary theory and research related to varied stages of the life course. Discussion will focus on paradigmatic themes in life course development such as: the social situation of lives in time and place, the interconnectedness of lives and generations, the nature of developmental transitions, the timing of life experiences, and the continuity of lives through time. Examples will be drawn from populations of traditional concern within social welfare policy and social work practice.

CHDV 43255. Assembling the Biosocial. 100 Units.

Over recent decades research in the life sciences has increasingly drawn attention to the ways in which processes taking place outside "the body proper" profoundly shape the materializations of health and illness. Rather than understanding brains or genes as determinative and relatively immutable templates for human bodies and behaviors, researchers working on neuroplasticity and epigenetics have increasingly focused on understanding how social and material environments and experiences "get under the skin." While many social scientists have welcomed these developments as validating long-held views about the social determination of health and illness, others have warned these seemingly paradigmatic shifts may only lead to new forms of reductionism. Perhaps most fundamentally, such emergent research has been described as the grounds for a renewed biosocial research agenda or for the rethinking of interdisciplinary work between the life and social sciences. This course traces both the discussions and their historical background, addressing topics including: the nature/culture distinction in anthropology, conceptualizations of "plasticity," "development," and "heredity" in the life and social sciences, and the forms of interdisciplinary exchange and conversation which biosocial research may require.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 40350

CHDV 43335. Psychiatry and Society. 100 Units.

This course examines psychiatry as a social institution, an epistemological authority and a source of social ontology. It will trace the production, circulation and use of psychiatric knowledge from research to clinical practice. Moreover, the course will examine the complex relationships between psychiatric knowledge and its object: mental illness or psychopathology. Put in slightly different terms, we will look at the links between psychiatrists' professional accounts of mental illness and patients first-hand experiences of it.

Instructor(s): E. Raikhel     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): N/A
Note(s): CHDV Distribution: 4*
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 40345

CHDV 43345. The Work of "Care": Managing Life in the 21st Century. 100 Units.

In recent years it has become increasingly clear that the biopolitical project associated with the liberal polity has undergone radical transformation, and that these transformations have been accompanied by increasing social precarity in many parts of the world. In response to the unsettling of older ways of governing people and growing populations, anthropologists have increasingly begun to examine new, emergent ways of fostering life and belonging. This course will examine a range of such works in order to interrogate on the one hand, how governments or other bureaucratic entities may be reformulating their modes of governance and on the other, how people respond with new ways of belonging and care. Potential readings include texts by Anne Allison, Veena Das, Clara Han, Annemarie Mol, Elizabeth Povinelli, China Scherz, Lisa Stevenson, and others.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 45115

CHDV 43901. Concepts in the Anthropology of Medicine. 100 Units.

This is a graduate level introduction to the anthropology of medicine. Students will focus on a number of foundational readings in the anthropology of medicine, with an emphasis on links to broader social and cultural theory. Topics covered will include the problem of belief; local theories of disease causation and healing efficacy; the placebo effect and contextual healing; theories of embodiment; medicalization; structural violence; modernity and the distribution of risk; the meanings and effects of new medical technologies; and global health.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 40355

CHDV 44500. Language and Environment. 100 Units.

This seminar will explore the many ways that language influences and is influenced by the environment. Appropriate for those interested in the socio-cultural foundations of language and language-use, infrastructural dimensions of communication and interaction, and existence as semiotic.

Instructor(s): T. Edwards     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Distributions: grad 3
Equivalent Course(s): LING 44500, ANTH 24501, ANTH 44501, CHDV 24500

CHDV 45100. Seminar: Anthropology of the Body. 100 Units.

Drawing on a wide and interdisciplinary range of texts, both classic and more recent, this seminar will variously examine the theoretical debates of the body as a subject of anthropological, historical, psychological, medical and literary inquiry. The seminar will explore specific themes, for example, the persistence of the mind/body dualism, experiences of embodiment/alienation, phenomenology of the body, Foucauldian notions of bio-politics, biopower, queering the body, and the medicalized, gendered, and racialized body, among other salient themes.

Instructor(s): P. Sean Brotherton     Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 45112, CHSS 45125, ANTH 45125

CHDV 45620. Anthropology of Migration and Travel. 100 Units.

This is NOT a survey course about the current state of "the Anthropology of Migration and Travel." Rather it considers how this field and its objects of study might be re/built out of the fragments of an eclectic group of scholarly interventions, only some of which claimed to have anything to do with the study of "migration" or "travel" as we have come to know it (read: push-pull, territorial nation-based, rights-oriented). The course proceeds by examining constituent elements or basic techniques for how one might go about assembling something that could pass as part of an "Anthropology of Migration and Travel" without falling into its various disabling conceptual traps (read: see read #1). The goal is to provide a kind of DIY kit for dreaming up and animating a future object of study that could shake up the field to your liking and likeness (hint: new cyborgs and monsters are welcome...). Readings will consist of a mix of ethnography, history and theory and be organized into three parts: 1) Routes, Zones, Contact, 2) Planes, Trains, Automobiles and 3) Stranger, Guest, Enemy. The final session will be run as a design lab for discussing student works-in-progress.

Instructor(s): Julie Chu
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 45620

CHDV 47655. Diversity Science in Human Development. 100 Units.

This graduate seminar explores the concept of "diversity science" as a launching point to think deeply about what diversity is, how diversity has been defined and studied in U.S. psychological research, and its implications for doing science that moves us toward a more just and equitable society. Students will grapple with the nuanced language and definitional tools of diversity, the persistence of racism, sexism, and exclusion in diversity-relevant research, and how to take-up critical perspectives and approaches to study human development. The course adopts a historical and interdisciplinary perspective, with the goal of deepening and broadening our understanding of and approach to diversity in human development research.

CHDV 47705. Philosophical Foundations of Linguistic Anthropology. 100 Units.

In this graduate seminar we explore the philosophical and epistemological foundations of linguistic anthropological thought, with a specific focus on methodology. We read primary texts in the (post)Enlightenment analytic tradition, American pragmatism, and phenomenology alongside the linguistic anthropological tradition to clarify why the methodological, analytic, and theoretical discourse of contemporary linguistic anthropology (what questions we ask after, or don't; how we pose them and study them; and what principled positions the field has staked) has taken the form it has. Topics may include categoriality and empirical knowledge; mediation and semiotic realism; linguistic relativity; causality, contingency, and temporality; interpretation and experience; reflexivity; and the unconscious, among others.

Instructor(s): Constantine Nakassis
Prerequisite(s): Language in Culture-1 or Consent of Instructor
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 57705

CHDV 48201. Third Year Seminar. 100 Units.

This seminar is designed to assist graduate students towards a successful completion of their third-year assignments.

Instructor(s): s. Numanbayraktaroglu     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): This seminar is open to CHD Third Year graduate standing only.

CHDV 49900. Research in Comparative Human Development. 100 Units.

This course is often taken with the student's adviser in preparation for their dissertation.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): Instructor consent required. CHD graduate students only.

CHDV 70000. Advanced Study: Comparative Human Development. 300.00 Units.

Advanced Study: Comparative Human Development