PolyX Courses

ANT3500HS Environment, Technology, and Culture Honors and Service-Learning

Instructor: Dr. James Blair 
Length of PolyX: 1 Semester
Curricular or Co-curricular: Curricular and Co-Curricular
Is GPA Required: Yes
GPA: Acceptance in Kellogg Honors College
Class Level: Students in any major, Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
How can students apply or what pre-requisite(s) is required: ANT 1020 – Introduction to Cultural Anthropology - or equivalent from other universities. Acceptance in Kellogg Honors College.

This Poly X signature experience course, designated as “service-learning,” will explore community-engaged anthropological approaches to environment, technology and culture. We will examine perspectives in environmental and applied anthropology, as well as related social sciences, including human geography, political ecology, and science, technology and society (also known as science and technology studies or STS). From this holistic vantage point, we will learn to view landscapes and natural resources not just as forms of ownership over inherently valuable materials, but as sets of social relations among diverse groups and persons. The course will analyze cultural-ecological practices, evaluate environmental policy and management, and attend to the experiences of residents in proximity to local and global sites of resource production and industrial pollution. Taking an applied approach, this service-learning course is ultimately designed to confront the climate crisis and achieve sustainability goals, by developing advocacy strategies and tactics to support community-based action and environmental justice. 

ANT4900 Methods in Anthropology

Instructor: Dr. Amy Dao
Length of PolyX: 1 academic year
Curricular or Co-curricular: Curricular
Is GPA Required: No
Class Level: Students in any major, Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, Graduate Students
How can students apply or what pre-requisite(s) is required: ANT1020 or instructor approval

The course teaches students how to carry out ethnographic research from the development of a research question to a final conference presentation and ethnographic research article. Projects are health related and carried out in the local community. Students will gain an understanding of the social and structural mechanisms for how inequality “gets under the skin” while also acquiring skills in participant observation, in-depth interviewing, life histories, material culture analysis, and qualitative data analysis. Students are research assistants on the project and work collaboratively with the instructor and community partners. The experience positions students for employment in the fields of social science research, public health, non-profit sectors and/or applying to graduate programs in anthropology, health sciences, and related professions. Past students have received intense mentorship, disseminated their research beyond the classroom, and work collaboratively on a multidisciplinary research team.

GEO4090 Applied Cultural Geography

Instructor: Dr. Kristen Conway-Gómez
Length of PolyX: 1 Semester
Curricular or Co-curricular: Curricular
Is GPA Required: No
Class Level: Students in specific major(s);Students in any major;
How can students apply or what pre-requisite(s) is required: Register through BroncoDirect

Through examination of trash in our local environment, this class will include guidance and critiquing of student work in the analysis and evaluation of geographical characteristics of the natural environment and its human use. Includes field mapping, systematic and random sampling of spatial phenomena, and environmental impact reporting.