Haverford Moodle

And most of all beware, even in thought, of assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of grief is not a proscenium, a man who wails is not a dancing bear . . .
–Aimé Césaire

How do we turn our collective full-bodied intelligence towards collaboration, if that is the way we will survive?
–adrienne maree brown

The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another....
–Gustav Landauer


There are no dangerous thoughts–thinking itself is dangerous.
–Hannah Arendt

I do think that if I had to choose one word to which hope can be tied, it is hospitality… practice of hospitality recovering threshold, table, patience, listening, and from there generating seedbeds for virtue and friendship on the one hand. On the other hand, radiating out for possible community, for rebirth of community.
–Ivan Illicch

A problem calls for a solution; the only question is whether one can be found and made to work, and once this is done, the problem is solved. A predicament, by contrast, has no solution. Faced with a predicament, people come up with responses. Those responses may succeed, they may fail, or they may fall somewhere in between, but none of them ‘solves’ the predicament, in the sense that none of them makes it go away.
– John Michael Greer

This course will introduce students to the field of environmental anthropology which focuses on the interrelationship between human cultures and natural environments. In particular we will attend to the challenge of anthropological confrontations with the climate crisis related cascading crises, including inequality and white supremacy. Environmental anthropology studies the various ways in which our biological survival and our social structures are influenced by environmental factors around us, while at the same time analyzing how our actions shape these environmental factors in turn. We will look towards anthropology (and related disciplines) for intellectual, imaginative and action-oriented resources for addressing what may be the most critical issue of our time—climate change–and how it intersects with inequality and intensifying authoritarianism. We will approach these issues through experiential methods and collaborative work.
Broadly there are three segments to this course--the self, ecologies, and collaborations (though not in a linear way). Underlying each of them is a search for ways to live differently with and resist authoritarianism, racial capitalism, and the intensifying climate crisis. While these topics may not always be explicitly present in our readings, they are built into the architecture of the course and should be kept in mind throughout it.

I take seriously the notion that our time together is valuable, that we are in an urgent situation that in many ways the institutions we inhabit (Haverford included) have yet to awaken to our predicament. I also believe that anthropological thinking offers some possibilities for imagining and enacting alternatives. From studies of environmental racism and environmental justice, to indigenous movements and speculative design tools, the anthropological approach is often improvisational, lending itself to experiences that allow for novel juxtapositions, and listening to essential quieter voices that often go unnoticed, viewing the world in imaginative ways, and offering possibilities for new configurations. We engage all of our senses and collaborative capacities in this course. Please come ready to experiment...

This advanced seminar is an anthropological exploration of empire both as an analytic category and a historical phenomenon. In this course, we will first discuss anthropology’s historical entanglements with empire as the discipline that studies the non-European Others. Then we will read from anthropologists who have criticized this epistemological legacy and incorporated the study of imperialism, empire and imperial formations in their research agenda since the second half of the twentieth century. By looking at cases from the Caribbean, Africa, America, and the Middle East, this course explores key concepts and major debates such as race, genocide, settler colonialism, security, militarism, diaspora, material culture and museums. Students will emerge from this course with an in-depth understanding of anthropological approaches to empire, methodologies ranging from archival research to ethnography, and the analytical limits and possibilities of empire in making sense of our contemporary world.

This course of Intensive First Year Arabic is designed for students with no previous knowledge, or very limited knowledge, of the Arabic language. Through the communicative approach and audio/visual materials, students learn the sounds, writing system, and basic grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, the form of literary Arabic shared by all Arab countries. Emphasis is placed on the simultaneous development of all the four skills necessary for acquiring any language (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Various aspects of modern Arabic culture and society will provide contexts for the language learning process.

There are no prerequisites for First Year Arabic, and the course assumes no prior knowledge of Arabic. Students who are native or heritage speakers of Arabic or have studied Arabic prior to enrolling in the course have to take the placement exam to assess if they can test out of this course, and into a higher level.

This course of Intensive First Year Arabic is designed for students who have already completed Intensive first semester First Year Arabic, or its equivalent. We will continue learning, through the communicative method and audio/visual material to listen to, speak, read and write Modern Standard Arabic, the form of Arabic shared by educated people of the Arabic Speaking World. Classroom time is mainly devoted to activating the material students already prepared through conversation, discussions, short writing activities and grammar drills. The class will be regularly introduced to authentic cultural materials derived from a variety of the living contexts of the more than 300 million Arabic-speaking people. The aim is to advance students to a higher level of the language and proficiency.
Our main textbook has audio/video components made available on the publisher’s website: Lingco (Please get access if you have not already done that in the Fall.) There are many activities that will help you continue to develop your listening and pronunciation skills, and will immensely help you in your studies. Closely studying the content of the audio/video material and trying to reproduce them will help you acquire more vocabulary and express yourself more eloquently.
No language can be studied in a vacuum and has to be tied to the culture that utilizes it. Arabic is spoken in over twenty African and Asian countries. The written language is standardized, mainly because of the Qur’ân, the spoken dialects vary from one country to another and even from one region to another within the same country. In addition to MSA, you can become familiar with one or another of two major dialects if you so wish; later, you can select other dialects to suit your needs, especially as you travel overseas.