ANTHROPOLOGY 450 Enlightenment/Modemity (1 unit) Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall- PH: 265-4068 bunzl@uluc.edu

The emergence of modernity has been a core issue of anthropology, history, and social theory for well over a century.  This has led to the articulation of distinct disciplinary paradigms, influenced by such varying figures as Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and Foucault.  In light of the recent rapprochement of history and anthropology, this interdisciplinary course seeks to bring these perspectives into conversation.  Juxtaposing anthropological and historical perspectives, we will seek to articulate novel approaches to the cultural study of modernity.  To do so, we will shine the ethnographic spotlight on the modem Jewish experience, taking it as an axiomatic case for the transitions engendered by the processes of secularization, urbanization, and globalization.  Students will be encouraged to deploy the theoretical insights from the course to their own ethnographic areas of interest.  The course will meet jointly with History 478B, taught by Adam Sutcliffe.