Jessica Cattelino

25415. Money. What is money? Why do people use it, how do they talk about it, and what can all of this tell us about the politics of economy and culture? This course will explore social meanings and practices of money in diverse geographical and historical contexts, with special attention to scholarly and popular debates about the moral and cultural impact of money. From postcolonial fiscal politics to gendered household budgeting, from charity to kinship to art, monetary practices call our attention to core anthropological questions of commensurability, meaning, exchange, abstraction, and value.  

25416. Economies of Sex and Gender // Gender and Money (=GNDR 2xxxx) This course offers an anthropological examination of sex, gender, and economic life at their intersection. We read ethnography and social theory to explore the economic dimensions of gender and sex as they are experienced and organized. Simultaneously, we question how key aspects of "economy" (e.g., money and production) are themselves sexed and gendered in theory and practice. Topics include kinship, sex and exchange; work; gendered currencies; and colonialism and development.

32700. The Conditions of Indigeneity. This course examines the politics, conditions, and dilemmas of indigenous peoples, especially in relation to settler states. Comparing the native peoples of Australia, Canada, and the United States, with additional materials from Latin America and the Pacific Islands, we will attend to how indigeneity intersects with citizenship, (post)coloniality, race, and economy. Topics include a genealogical exploration of analytical categories such as indigenous and Fourth World; indigenous citizenship and sovereignty; place, land claims, and indigeneity; the role of native peoples in the imaginations and political theories of settler states; the politics of representation in indigenous arts; and new indigenous political movements.

43600. Locating the Anthropology of the US. PQ Open to anthropology graduate students; others may enroll with permission of instructor. This seminar focuses on recent and classical ethnographies, along with reflections on the field, to query anthropological analysis of the United States. In doing so, we explore the epistemological and cultural geographical foundations and possible futures of the discipline. This course is designed for students with active ethnographic research interests.

53200. Sovereignty, Citizenship, Nation. This seminar examines theories and practices of nationhood, with a focus on the sociocultural dimensions of citizenship and sovereignty.  We will engage classic and recent political theory, but the core readings are ethnographic.  Themes include the relationship between culture and the technologies of nation; the intersections of citizenship with race, gender, and language; nation-state sovereignty in relation to indigenous peoples and national minorities; sovereignty and empire; political belonging and cultural citizenship; and nation and kinship. 

55600. Money, Economy, Value. Anthropologists long have been concerned to understand the myriad ways that groups attach meanings, desires, and hierarchical worth to material objects and economic processes.  This course will explore two core topics in economic anthropology: money and value.  Focusing an ethnographic eye across scales from colonization to household budgeting, we will re-examine the classic social theoretical argument that money deracinates and abstracts social relations, and we will consider money’s link to various aspects of moral and epistemic calculation.  Value is a notoriously elusive analytic, so we will both trace its intellectual biography and consider its potential to link the moral to the material, and the creative to the collective.