Hypothetical Class Assignment

If I had to teach a college level class what would it be?

 The whole time I've studied anthropology I always thought I'd want to study Mayan hieroglyphs. I mean, it's perfect for me. I love language and I speak one that uses pictures for words instead of an alphabet. Win win, right? Not really. While I think Mayan hieroglyphs are fascinating and beautiful I have learned that I'm really not a linguist at heart. Yes, I love learning new languages but, really, I'm only mediocre at them. Also there's that one professor who has been warning me not to go into Maya Archaeology because it is over saturated with other archaeologists. In fact, I should just stay away from the Americas all together. Ok, then. That's going to make it harder to find a graduate school once I start looking. And since I already speak Chinese my professor said I should run with that. "China is hot and sexy right now in archaeology." Cool beans. I'll try my luck at archaeology in China. But what would I want to study (or teach for that matter)?

During my Mesoamerican Archaeology class I learned that trade between groups really interest me. It forces me to remember that these societies weren't in their own bubbles. They were connected to each other more then we can ever really understand. It's fascinating to me to learn how these societies interacted with each other through trade or even immigration. This also happened a lot in the Mesoamerican area.

I think if I were able to teach a class it would be on this idea. I would look at different parts of the world and how trade affected their societies. Mesoamerica would obviously be an area I'd teach. But also areas like the Silk Roads or the trade routes in Africa or what is most fascinating are the trade routes in the Polynesian islands! Maybe it's just me but being reminded of how connected these civilizations were is very fascinating to me.

Another class I think would be interesting is on how immigration affects a society. And especially undocumented immigrants. It would be interesting to look into how not only the immigrants affect the society but also how the society's views affect the immigrants. This would take a lot more thought into creating but could be extremely interesting if taught correctly.