This course is designed to explore diverse and changing forms of transnational migration across a global landscape, with a focus on the dynamic relationships that define migrants' relationships to both home and host communities. The course draws upon anthropological and sociological contributions to migration studies, transnationalism and diaspora studies in order to examine the articulation of culture and identity amidst the complexities of the contemporary world.

This course examines the situations, problems, and continually developing strategies of indigenous peoples living in various countries and regions scattered throughout the world. While the central concern of this investigation focuses on so-called "tribal" peoples and their increasingly threatened, yet still instructive lifeways, the course also deliberately considers selected points of contrast and comparison involving "modern" societies as well.

More than half of all humans on earth now dwell in cities, and urban life is almost certainly an integral aspect of our collective future. This course introduces students to the sociological and anthropological study of the city through an examination of the theories, concepts, and frameworks social scientists have deployed in seeking to understand cities. This examination includes a focus on urbanization, or the underlying processes by which cities emerge, and on urbanism, or the character of life in an urban built environment.

This program allows students to rigorously analyze and understand our modern, complex society, including courses on education, health care, media, inequality, family, deviance, and urban phenomena.