Fall 2024: September 9 – December 27
Subject: ANTH (Anthropology)
Course Level: 300
Number of Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS
Max Enrollment: 22
Schedule: Friday 17:00 – 20:00 CET (Berlin) |11:00 – 14:00 EDT (New York)
Distribution Area: Social Analysis
Language of Instruction: English
Course Prerequisites: English B2 / Equivalent or higher

This course introduces students to anthropologically informed understanding of digital technology within a variety of cultural contexts, than considers examples of how digital technologies open new horizons for the study of culture and society, and than discusses several topics from digital humanities, with a special attention to methods of study and software tools intended for the use of anthropologists, historians, sociologists and specialists in philology. Topics covered in the course include (but are not limited to) social robotics and communicative interaction with non-human agents; mobility, context-aware technologies, smartphones and digital urban studies;  openness, collaboration, privacy, piracy and cybersecurity; studies of user generated content in social networks, particularly Instagram; news consumption, analysis of news flow, bias and censorship; open data and open-source intelligence; AI and contemporary art. The course consists of lectures and seminars. Seminars are dedicated to discussions of reading materials and students’ presentations, as well as to workshops with practical assignments. Students will get acquainted with chatbot platform Dialogflow, software for annotation and analysis of qualitative data such as Atlas.ti and NVivo, tools for multimedia annotation and analysis such as ELAN and Transana.

Guidelines for the Statement of Purpose:
Craft a reflective statement of purpose explaining your interest in the Smolny Beyond Borders online course. The file should be saved with your name and course title as the filename and uploaded accordingly. Your statement’s clarity and substance will significantly influence our selection. Convey your motivations and aspirations for this course succinctly but thoroughly. Kindly write your statement in the course’s Language of Instruction.

Application Portal Instructions:
1) Use the Latin alphabet for all entries on the portal, including your name. If the Language of Instruction is Russian, you may use Cyrillic only within the Statement of Purpose file, and the title of the file should still be in English.
2) Refrain from using email addresses associated with Russian or Belarusian educational institutions.
3) While completing the “Required Information” section, ensure you fill in the “Province” field for your address.
4) Provide an address outside Russia or Belarus in both the “Required Information” and “Geographic Location Confirmation” sections of the “Online Course Application”. This ensures we can send your transcript.
5) You must press the “Sign” button twice during the application.
6) If you hold a bachelor’s degree, select “4th+” in the “Academic Year (online)” section.
7) Applicants either unaffiliated or affiliated with educational institutions in Russia and Belarus should list ‘Smolny Beyond Borders’ as their educational institution.
8) In the student ID section, enter ‘SBB’.
9) Consider drafting your motivation letter ahead of time. Save it as a separate file with this format: LastName_FirstName_CourseTitle for a smoother application process.