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ERIC Number: ED227050
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1982-Dec-6
Pages: 13
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Teaching a Non-Traditional, Honors Anthropology Course.
Neely, Sharlotte
An undergraduate "Anthropology Through Science Fiction" honors course is described. Participation in the course was by invitation only and included both anthropology and non-anthropology majors. By using science fiction, non-anthropology students quickly became familiar with weekly topics and anthropology majors found the readings a new way to approach familiar topics. Frank Herbert's "Dune" formed the core of the course; additional works included Vonnegut's "Player Piano" and LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness." Students read both science fiction and theory weekly, wrote one-paragraph abstracts of everything they read, kept weekly journals, and wrote an original anthropological science fiction short story. A key function was for the class to take responsibility for the course, with the instructor selecting readings, evaluating student work, insuring that everyone was permitted to speak, and seeing that all pertinent points were made. Students formed a committee which met outside of class to read and react to each other's journals. The course answered the need to present a quality, non-traditional, undergraduate course in an era when anthropology enrollments are falling. (KC)
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (81st, Washington, DC, December 6, 1982).