Below are brief descriptions of select courses I have taught or designed. For a full list of potential course offerings or sample syllabi, please contact me at: kristin.skrabut[at]tufts.edu
Revisioning Cities: Ethnography for Urban Policy and Planning
This research seminar introduces students to the craft of ethnography and explores how qualitative, embedded, and socially committed research can critically and constructively intervene in contemporary urban problems. We read both classic and cutting-edge ethnographic texts on topics like addiction, eviction, violence, insecurity, informal markets, participatory planning, and urban social movements. At the same time, students will experiment with different ethnographic and qualitative research methods – including writing field notes and thick description, spatial and participant observation, in-depth interviewing, material culture analysis, and archival, discourse and media analysis – as they design and execute their own original research projects. Ultimately, our goal is to use ethnographic methods and modes of analysis to uncover alternative ways of envisioning and attending to the world, and to theorize how these new vantages and perspectives might contribute to creating more just policies and urban spaces. (Being taught Fall 2018)
This research seminar introduces students to the craft of ethnography and explores how qualitative, embedded, and socially committed research can critically and constructively intervene in contemporary urban problems. We read both classic and cutting-edge ethnographic texts on topics like addiction, eviction, violence, insecurity, informal markets, participatory planning, and urban social movements. At the same time, students will experiment with different ethnographic and qualitative research methods – including writing field notes and thick description, spatial and participant observation, in-depth interviewing, material culture analysis, and archival, discourse and media analysis – as they design and execute their own original research projects. Ultimately, our goal is to use ethnographic methods and modes of analysis to uncover alternative ways of envisioning and attending to the world, and to theorize how these new vantages and perspectives might contribute to creating more just policies and urban spaces. (Being taught Fall 2018)
Global Slums
This course investigates “the slum” as a social product, an icon of disorder, and a setting for diverse cultures and modes of sociality. By reading social theory and ethnographic case studies of “mega-slums” from around the world, we explore how slums emerge at the intersection of global inequalities, state planning, and the insurgent practices of the poor. Topics we cover include: rural-urban migration, spatial segregation and inequality, informal markets and illicit flows, environmental sustainability, urban social movements, slum tourism, and emerging forms of urban governance and development. By the end of this course, students will understand cities of the “global south” not as exceptions to the rule of orderly urbanisms in the US and Europe, but as the vibrant products of diverse forms of social life that should be analyzed on their own terms. (taught Spring 2018, Spring & Fall 2016)
This course investigates “the slum” as a social product, an icon of disorder, and a setting for diverse cultures and modes of sociality. By reading social theory and ethnographic case studies of “mega-slums” from around the world, we explore how slums emerge at the intersection of global inequalities, state planning, and the insurgent practices of the poor. Topics we cover include: rural-urban migration, spatial segregation and inequality, informal markets and illicit flows, environmental sustainability, urban social movements, slum tourism, and emerging forms of urban governance and development. By the end of this course, students will understand cities of the “global south” not as exceptions to the rule of orderly urbanisms in the US and Europe, but as the vibrant products of diverse forms of social life that should be analyzed on their own terms. (taught Spring 2018, Spring & Fall 2016)
The Anthropology of Poverty & Development
Drawing on theories and methods from anthropology, history, and critical development studies, this course explores how the meanings poverty and development have shifted over time, across space, and in tandem with one another. We scrutinize the construction and everyday operations of the global development apparatus while doing our best to get inside the lives of the world’s poor by reading detailed accounts of everyday survival strategies, political mobilizations, and development initiatives from around the globe. As we investigate topics such as global hunger, modern plagues, disaster relief, gender equality, good governance, and cash transfer programs, we will ask: To what extent are experiences of poverty similar around the world? In what ways are they mediated by local histories and sociocultural institutions? Why is it that so many development and aid efforts seem to fail? And what might these programs incidentally accomplish?
Related Courses: Poverty and Development in Latin America (taught Fall 2015)
Drawing on theories and methods from anthropology, history, and critical development studies, this course explores how the meanings poverty and development have shifted over time, across space, and in tandem with one another. We scrutinize the construction and everyday operations of the global development apparatus while doing our best to get inside the lives of the world’s poor by reading detailed accounts of everyday survival strategies, political mobilizations, and development initiatives from around the globe. As we investigate topics such as global hunger, modern plagues, disaster relief, gender equality, good governance, and cash transfer programs, we will ask: To what extent are experiences of poverty similar around the world? In what ways are they mediated by local histories and sociocultural institutions? Why is it that so many development and aid efforts seem to fail? And what might these programs incidentally accomplish?
Related Courses: Poverty and Development in Latin America (taught Fall 2015)
Transnational Latin America
This course introduces students to the diverse cultures of Latin America by exploring key issues that shape Latin America’s international relations as well as everyday life for specific local populations. Topics we explore include: race and gender inequalities, urban crime and insecurity, social movements, state terrorism, and the traffic of drugs and people across borders. By the end of this course, students will have developed greater insight into dynamics of everyday life in Latin America, the region’s place in the larger world, and how social problems in the region can be more thoughtfully addressed.
Related Courses: Cultures of Latin America (taught Fall 2013)
This course introduces students to the diverse cultures of Latin America by exploring key issues that shape Latin America’s international relations as well as everyday life for specific local populations. Topics we explore include: race and gender inequalities, urban crime and insecurity, social movements, state terrorism, and the traffic of drugs and people across borders. By the end of this course, students will have developed greater insight into dynamics of everyday life in Latin America, the region’s place in the larger world, and how social problems in the region can be more thoughtfully addressed.
Related Courses: Cultures of Latin America (taught Fall 2013)
Medicine & Society
Biomedicine plays a profound role in shaping social phenomena. It informs how we conceptualize ourselves, how we care for others, the ethical dilemmas we confront, and our global political engagements. Through case studies on topics such as addiction, organ transplants, and infectious disease, students explore the socio-political, moral, and existential issues associated with biomedicine, while also developing theoretical and methodological tools they can use to conduct their own person-centered investigations of afflictions and treatments in the US and around the world. Students leave this course with an appreciation for how social and political processes shape health and disease outcomes, as well as how culture is revealed and produced as people pursue and receive medical care. (taught Fall 2017)
Related Courses: Medicine and Society Pre-College Summer course (taught Summer 2011 &2012)
Biomedicine plays a profound role in shaping social phenomena. It informs how we conceptualize ourselves, how we care for others, the ethical dilemmas we confront, and our global political engagements. Through case studies on topics such as addiction, organ transplants, and infectious disease, students explore the socio-political, moral, and existential issues associated with biomedicine, while also developing theoretical and methodological tools they can use to conduct their own person-centered investigations of afflictions and treatments in the US and around the world. Students leave this course with an appreciation for how social and political processes shape health and disease outcomes, as well as how culture is revealed and produced as people pursue and receive medical care. (taught Fall 2017)
Related Courses: Medicine and Society Pre-College Summer course (taught Summer 2011 &2012)
Population Control: On Life, Statecraft & Kinship
This course invites students to re-conceptualize topics as fundamental as birth, family and death while also exploring how these topics have become objects of global governance. We begin by reviewing how the concept of "population" arose concurrently with the nation-state, and explore how particular demographic regimes came to be associated with development and modernity. We then examine how demographic features (i.e. birth, sex, marriage, family, age and death) are reckoned in diverse cultures from around the world. Students will leave this course with an enhanced understanding of foundational anthropological concepts such as kinship, gender and union formation, and an appreciation for how western normative ideals shape life-ways around the world.
Related Courses: Transnational Lives: Understanding Global Flows and Migrant Bodies
This course invites students to re-conceptualize topics as fundamental as birth, family and death while also exploring how these topics have become objects of global governance. We begin by reviewing how the concept of "population" arose concurrently with the nation-state, and explore how particular demographic regimes came to be associated with development and modernity. We then examine how demographic features (i.e. birth, sex, marriage, family, age and death) are reckoned in diverse cultures from around the world. Students will leave this course with an enhanced understanding of foundational anthropological concepts such as kinship, gender and union formation, and an appreciation for how western normative ideals shape life-ways around the world.
Related Courses: Transnational Lives: Understanding Global Flows and Migrant Bodies
Encountering the Law
By examining the law as people encounter it in everyday life, this course introduces students to socio-legal theory and ethnographic method simultaneously. Using situated case studies, we investigate “law” as the complex intersection of violence, writing, and moral practice. We further investigate how western legal philosophy influences international relations and individual ideals. Through class discussions and assignments, students also develop critical analytical and writing skills.
By examining the law as people encounter it in everyday life, this course introduces students to socio-legal theory and ethnographic method simultaneously. Using situated case studies, we investigate “law” as the complex intersection of violence, writing, and moral practice. We further investigate how western legal philosophy influences international relations and individual ideals. Through class discussions and assignments, students also develop critical analytical and writing skills.
Numbers, Culture, Politics
This course examines numbers as culturally embedded and politically salient entities. Drawing on readings from anthropology, history and philosophy, this course will cover topics as wide ranging as numbers themselves – including the role of numbers in colonial conquest and human rights, financial speculation and economic collapse, the promises and perils of Big Data, and how we break our own bodies down into calculable rates and measures. We will also critically attend to the question of “who counts” – both in a practical sense of who uses numbers and how, and in a political and existential sense, as in whose lives are considered valuable and worth counting. Students will leave this course with an understanding of numbers as both culturally variable objects, and a powerful political language that both constrains and enables social action.
This course examines numbers as culturally embedded and politically salient entities. Drawing on readings from anthropology, history and philosophy, this course will cover topics as wide ranging as numbers themselves – including the role of numbers in colonial conquest and human rights, financial speculation and economic collapse, the promises and perils of Big Data, and how we break our own bodies down into calculable rates and measures. We will also critically attend to the question of “who counts” – both in a practical sense of who uses numbers and how, and in a political and existential sense, as in whose lives are considered valuable and worth counting. Students will leave this course with an understanding of numbers as both culturally variable objects, and a powerful political language that both constrains and enables social action.
