Helen Siu
Courses
ANTH 342
Cultures and Markets in Asia
Historical and contemporary movements of people, goods, and cultural meanings that have defined Asia as a region. Reexamination of state-centered conceptualizations of Asia and of established boundaries in regional studies. The intersections of transregional institutions and local societies and their effects on trading empires, religious traditions, colonial encounters, and cultural fusion. Finance flows that connect East Asia and the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and Africa. The cultures of capital and market in the neoliberal and postsocialist world.
ANTH 355, AFST 355, EAST 351
China-Africa Encounters
The history, effects, and implications of Chinese involvement in and with African countries over the past century. Diasporic experiences, with attention to informal economies, cultural strategies, and ethnic and religious tensions; land, finance, and infrastructure; Chinese aid and development in Africa since the late 1960s, including medical aid and charitable groups.
ANTH 362
Unity and Diversity in Chinese Culture
An exploration of the Chinese identity as it has been reworked over the centuries. Major works in Chinese anthropology and their intellectual connections with general anthropology and historical studies. Topics include kinship and marriage, marketing systems, rituals and popular religion, ethnicity and state making, and the cultural nexus of power.
ANTH 415
Culture, History, Power, and Representation
A critical introduction to anthropological formulations of the junctures of meaning, interest, and power. Readings include classical and contemporary ethnographies that are theoretically informed and historically situated.
ANTH 515
Culture, History, Power, and Representation
A critical introduction to anthropological formulations of the junctures of meaning, interest, and power. Readings include classical and contemporary ethnographies that are theoretically informed and historically situated.