Stranger Danger

How do we come to think of some things as 'native,' and others as 'foreign,' ‘invasive,' or 'alien?' In this course we take a broad view of the stranger, examining when and how the unfamiliar becomes familiar, and when it becomes Other. Employing methodologies from cultural and linguistic anthropology, we explore topics such as: hospitality and kinship; immigration and citizenship; language politics and nativism; zebra mussels, honeybees, and little green men.