Furman offers new major in anthropology and interdisciplinary minor in film studies

MAY 2, 2012
by Tina Underwood, Contributing Writer

Furman University will begin offering a new major in anthropology and a new minor in film studies. Both offerings will be available beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year.

Dr. Brian Siegel

Anthropology is the comparative study of humankind in all times and places. Furman’s anthropology major will require eight four-credit courses, and will have 24 course offerings covering the discipline’s subfields: cultural, linguistic, archaeological and physical anthropology. Furman’s focus will be on cultural anthropology. Courses will be taught by four Furman professors in three departments – Religion, Asian Studies, and Modern Languages and Literature.

Eighteen of the 24 courses for the major are already being taught at Furman. Required courses are Cultural Anthropology, World Prehistory and Anthropological Methods and Theory. Among the 21 regional and topical course electives are Cultures of the Non-Western World, Japanese Cinema, Religions of South Asia, Classical Archaeology, Linguistic Analysis, Cultural Ecology and others.

Anthropology as a major is offered at more than 90 percent of liberal arts colleges said Brian Siegel, an anthropology professor at Furman.

With the addition of the Film Studies Interdisciplinary Minor, Furman joins the ranks of the

Dr. Vince Hausmann

majority of colleges in the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) that offer a Film Studies major or minor. The major encompasses the scholarly study of images and their impact on social, cultural, political and historical events.

To satisfy the requirement for the Film Studies minor, students must complete at least four courses including one required, Introduction to Reading Film. Other courses, which must be selected from no fewer than three departments, include Chinese Film, Media Criticism, Shakespeare on Film and in Production, and French Cinema, among others.

Furman English professor and chair of the Film Studies minor Vincent Hausmann said, “In our image-driven culture, it is important to train students in the histories, conventions and methodologies of encountering and making sense of moving images. We want to develop and hone students’ broader visual literacy – to invite them to analyze moving images more deeply and critically.”

For more information about the Anthropology major, contact Brian Siegel at 864-294-3304, or brian.siegel@furman.edu. For more information about the Film Studies minor, contact Vincent Hausmann at 864-294-3158, or vincent.hausmann@furman.edu.