Extinction
01:070:111 (4 credits)
Core: CCD or CCO; NS
Professor Rob Scott and David Hughes, Anthropology
Do you worry about nuclear annihilation? Does the possibility of bioterrorism scare you? Are you dismayed by growing political violence and ongoing cultural genocides in places such as Darfur? Are you concerned about habitat destruction, catastrophic climate change, widespread famine, or newly drug-resistant diseases? Ever wonder what it means to be a species that can imagine its own demise, understand its role in the demise of another, or contemplate the end of all life?
"Extinction" takes a multiperspective, interdisciplinary approach to understanding extinction as a biological and cultural process, and probes the meaning and significance of such processes for humans around the globe in the 21st century.
This course is particularly recommended for students who intend to pursue majors or minors in anthropology, various area studies, biological sciences, ecology, geography, history, linguistics, philosophy, political science and public policy, religion, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. This course carries credit toward the major and minor in anthropology. Extinction can be used to meet the Core Curriculum goals in Natural Sciences [NS] and either Contemporary Challenges: Diversities and Social Inequalities [CCD] or Contemporary Challenges: Our Common Future [CCO].
