Schools, Departments & Programs

Anthropology

Certificate in the Ethnography of Communication
Purpose

Students pursuing the certificate are introduced to theories, methods, and contexts essential to the comprehensive study of communication in cultural contexts. Students learn to navigate the vast diversity of cultural life in the world that exists simultaneously with a universal equality in the human capacity for thought, imagination, and expression. The certificate courses provide students with a foundation from which they can explore shifts, circulations, and innovations in public culture, particularly as it is manifested in language and practice in the emerging global arena as well as among local communities. This certificate involves the study of performance, language, and media as they engage the full range of communication, from the everyday to special forms, genres, and uses, and from face-to-face to mediated encounters.

Requirements

Students must complete at least 24 credit hours, including all other College requirements for certificates and the following:

  1. Introductory Sequence. Complete both courses:
    • ANTH-A 122 Interpersonal Communication
    • ANTH-L 222 Global Communication
  2. Electives, as needed, to complete remaining requirements (may include only one additional 200-level course). Select from the following courses:
    • Anthropology Courses (choose a minimum of 18 credit hours):
      • ANTH-A 200 Topics in Anthropology of Culture and Society (Approved topic: Bad Language)
      • ANTH-L 200 Language and Culture
      • ANTH-E 206 Chanting Down Babylon: Protest and Popular Culture in the Afro- Caribbean
      • ANTH-A 208 Topics in the Anthropology of the Arts and Expressive Behavior (Approved topics: Arts, Politics and Global Encounters; Sex, Drugs, Rock-n-Roll: Subversive Culture)
      • ANTH-E 208 Global Jazz, Reggae, and Hip-Hop: African Diasporic Music Beyond the African Diaspora
      • ANTH-L 208 Ways of Speaking
      • ANTH-E 220 Performing Human/Nature: Defining Relationships with the Environment
      • ANTH-E 252 Anthropology through Visual Media: Global Ethnographic Perspectives
      • ANTH-E 270 Captivity Narratives
      • ANTH-E 300 Culture Areas and Ethnic Groups (approved topics only)
      • ANTH-L 314 Performance as Communicative Practice
      • ANTH-E 317 Ethnographies of Media Worlds
      • ANTH-E 338 Stigma: Culture, Deviance, and Identity
      • ANTH-E 383 A World of Work
      • ANTH-E 386 Performance, Culture, and Power in the Middle East and North Africa
      • ANTH-E 400 Reading and Writing Ethnography Ethnographic Video Methods (approved topics only)
      • ANTH-L 400 Topical Seminar in the Ethnography of Communication (approved topics only)
      • ANTH-L 410 Language and Society in Central Eurasia
      • ANTH-E 415 Topics in Communication and Culture in Comparative Perspective
      • ANTH-E 422 Native American and Indigenous Media
      • ANTH-E 432 Cultures of Democracy
      • ANTH-E 437 Power and Violence: Political Systems in Ethnographic Perspective
      • ANTH-E 438 Communication in the Digital Age
      • ANTH-E 454 India Lost and Found in Diasporic Feminist Films
      • ANTH-E 460 The Arts in Anthropology
      • ANTH-E 463 Anthropology of Dance
      • ANTH-E 485 Art and Craft of Ethnography
    • English Courses
      • ENG-R 212 Communicating Sustainability
      • ENG-R 228 Argumentation and Public Advocacy
      • ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
    • Folklore and Ethnomusicology Courses
      • FOLK-F 141 Urban Legend
      • FOLK-F 205 Folklore in Video and Film
      • FOLK-F 252 Folklore and the Humanities
      • FOLK-F 253 Folklore and the Social Sciences
      • FOLK-F 256 The Supernatural and Folklore
      • FOLK-F 307 Middle Eastern Folklore/Folklife/Folk Music
    • History Courses
      • HIST-J 300 Seminar in History (approved topics only)
      • HIST-E 340 African Popular Culture (approved topics only)
    • The Media School Courses
      • MSCH-F 392 Media Genres (approved topics only)
      • MSCH-J 460 Topics Colloquium (approved topics only)
  3. At least 15 credit hours of courses at the 300- or 400-level from the list above
  4. At least 18 credit hours must be in Anthropology (includes the Introductory Sequence courses)
  5. At least 18 credit hours of the above coursework must be taken in residence on the Bloomington campus