DTS316H1

Filth: Dirt and Dehumanization in Transnational Perspective

This class will draw on research from anthropology, religious studies, environmental studies, and other fields to examine transnational, cross-cultural, and diasporic perspectives on filth and dirt and how these concepts are deployed to create and reinforce social hierarchies in a multitude of global contexts. Discussions will address such topics as colonial encounters and otherization through ideas of cleanliness; the weaponization of filth in transnational practices of violence; the commercialization and exportation of trash from wealthy nations to the global south; migrants, cleaning/cleanliness, and dehumanization; and impurity, gender, and sexuality in diaspora communities.