The East African Coast 1BCE to 1800CE

This course is designed to provide students a broad and critical understanding of the history and archaeology of the East African coast and its global interconnections. Beginning with an introduction to the methodological and theoretical approaches of African history and archaeology, the course surveys archaeological and historical research focusing on the East coast of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and offshore Islands). Temporally, this course will range from the Early Iron age to 1800 CE. Topics include geography and environmental history, periodization, foodways, urbanism, craftsmanship, architecture, cross-cultural exchange and materiality, belief systems and current conservation and heritage preservation efforts. This course combines lectures and class discussions for a critical use of contemporary sources, oral histories, and archaeological discoveries.

African Archaeology and History prior to 1800.

Beginning with an introduction to the methodological and theoretical approaches of African history and archaeology, the course surveys African societies and cultures from the Neolithic until 1800 AD. Topics include African geography and environmental history, cross-cultural exchange and materiality, food ways and belief systems, development of Swahili cultures, Western Sudanese states, classical kingdoms of the Sahel, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This course combines lectures and class discussions for a critical use of contemporary sources, oral histories, and archaeological discoveries

Human Osteology

This course introduces learners to the study of the human skeleton. The study of human osteology and human remains has a long and often contentious history, the course begings with the discussion of these histories and ethical considerations. The remainder of the course focuses on understanding the human skeleton, major connective tissues and the contribution of the study of human osteology to bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, paleoanthropology, and others. Using lectures, notebooks and online discusisions learners will learn to identify complete and fragmentary human skeletal remains, name and locate associated muscles, nerves, and ligaments, and understand methods for estimating age, sex, and stature, and assess the interpretation of osteological data.

Introduction to Human Evolution

This couse is designed to provide students a broad background in Human evolution and the human fossil record. The course is divided into five units. We will discuss the history and development of evolutionary theoryand basic genetics in unit 1. Unit 2 will cover Species concepts and factors impacting speciacion events. Unit 3 will discuss Primate diversity and primate morphology and the Human fossil record from Pre-australopithicine to Anatomically modern Homo. Unit 4 and 5 will finish the course with a discussion of Modern human variation and scientific racism using evolutionary perspective to understand modern humans.