Welcome to Anthropology 4320: Human Evolution!
About me:
I'm an assistant professor in the dept of anthropology at Appalachian State University (i.e. the real ASU!). This is the end of my first year on the tenure-track and really happy to be working here. When not teaching or doing research I spend time with my family (my wife Jenna,;my two kids Harper and Sutton; and our new rescue dog, Roxie).
Like everyone else, the last few months have been difficult but I hope that we can use this course as way to better understand how our common humanity and our ability to work well in groups can be part of the way we can respond to the global pandemic.
My research is about how hominins (primates more closely related to us than to any other living primate) became human. I've studied aspects such as some of the earliest hominin mandibles, the role of warfare in our past, and how semiotics can help us better understand how our ancestors became modern humans. I also spend time intersecting and working with theologians to help build connections between different communities.
One of my passions is thinking deeply about teaching. I've been lucky to learn from some great thinkers in critical pedagogy. If you want an idea of my teaching philosophy, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Alfie Kohn probably influenced me the most along with the work of Jesse Stommel, Audrey Watters, Susan Blum, Laura Gibbs (whose instrumental in me using Blogger this term!), and Cathy Davidson. If you really want, you can read my post here (update coming soon) on why I don't grade
If you want to know more about my research and or teaching stuff check out my site here:
Sadly, most of my knowledge of pop culture begins and ends with the Simpsons and 80s/90s movies, but thanks to my kids I can go head-to-head with anyone on My Little Pony!
About our class:
The goal of this class is to teach us to think deeply on what it means to be human and how we became human. This class is designed to provide you with the tools & techniques necessary to evaluate, engage, and debate ideas of human history and behavior. It is also a collaboration between all of us. You bring a unique and important perspective to the materials that I don’t have. Please share your voice and your thoughts with the class.
We will be using a mixture of Blogger, Slack, and other social media tools to discuss all these things.
We will be using a mixture of Blogger, Slack, and other social media tools to discuss all these things.
What are **your** course goals? Think about what you would like to get out of this class
Student Hours
These are times that you can come and chat about class topics of other issues of interest to you. If you feel lost or have any questions this is a great time to stop by. You can use this link (Coming soon) to setup a time or just drop in.
more soon....
This looks GREAT, Marc... I know you will have so much cool stuff to share via your blog since this course covers such a wide range of ideas and materials. And of course Simpsons and My Little Pony materials exist in abundance. And "more soon" is very much the theme of how blogs grow and evolve (like with this stuff I'm pulling together for the Blog Fest... it's rough now, but it will be more/better soon!). Feel free to delete this comment; just leaving it here so you can see how incoming comments work. :-)
ReplyDeleteWow, Marc. You are really getting organized for your course using blogs. I see you've started some "label" navigation in your sidebar to help students find their way. Laura's post on Labels and Dates for Navigation really help me understand a process and model for doing so. I look forward to following how you plan this out! Great start.
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