Anthropology Goes to the Movies: Close Encounters with Another Kind
Class | Registration opens 7/21/2025 9:00 AM
What happens when people from very different cultures come into contact? Surprise? Misunderstanding? Fear? Fascination? Frustration? Disaster? Transformation? What can we learn about others and ourselves in these close encounters with another kind?
Join us to explore these questions through the lens of popular fictional films. During this ten-week class we will discuss nine movies:
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Dances with Wolves
- Invictus
- The Visitor
- Mississippi Masala
- The Witness
- Night on Earth
- The Gods Must Be Crazy
- Grand Torino
Links to short, suggested readings by anthropologists will help frame our discussion.
Format: Class members are highly encouraged to engage the class in collaborative learning by volunteering to “take an hour” to outline some of the history and themes of the film of the week and prepare us for a lively discussion.
Resources/Expenses: All movies are available for streaming from the usual services or the library.
Donna Kerner
Donna Kerner is a cultural anthropologist who has lived much of her life in East Africa and the South Pacific conducting field research. Her research interests include Gender and Famine; Education and Class Mobility; Material Culture and Memory; and Entrepreneurship/Micro Finance. She is Professor Emerita at Wheaton College where she taught for thirty-three years and held the William Isaac Cole Endowed Chair.