The Sunspots writers looked back and wrote about the best courses they’ve taken thus far at Cornell. Amber Krisch '21 selected an course taught by Professor Magnus Fiskesjö.
Amber Krisch ’21: My first semester freshman year, I decided it would be adventurous to take an anthropology class (I’m a biology major). After browsing the class roster for a while I found one that was once a week and four credits at a time that was available. It was called “Taboo and Pollution” taught by Magnus Fiskesjo, and it ended up being one of the most profound, fascinating, content rich classes I’ve taken thus far.
“Taboo and Pollution” was about the taboos of different cultures throughout history, both in the United States and across the world. Those taboos are formed in response to the disgust or horror we feel when something loses distinction, can no longer be classified, or crosses the boundary of what accepted. I was in a class of about 5 people, three of which were anthropology graduate students. The classes lasted about two hours long and were mainly discussion-based. It was a lot of reading and writing, but the readings were engaging and diverse; each week we focused on a different topic/group of people/aspect of culture, and I learned a lot despite not having any background in anthropology!
The full blog post is available here.
The Cornell Daily Sun: Sunspots, an online-only publication, aims to publish in-depth, personal accounts on facets of student life that resonate with larger portions of the Cornell community.
