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Course Info for FYSM - 169 - 01, Fall 2025
Class number: 3383 Title: Reefer Department: First Year Sem & Colloq
Career: Undergraduate Component: Seminar Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: Yes Grading Basis: Graded Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 15 Current enrollment: 15 Available seats: 0
Start date: Tuesday, September 2, 2025 End date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM, MC - 305 Instructor(s): Eisenberg-Guyot, Nadja
Prerequisite(s): Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class.
Distribution Requirement: Meets FirstYr Seminar Requirement
Course Description:
From hippies to hip hop, marijuana’s association with American youth counter-cultures is ubiquitous. But what’s the deal with reefer, anyway? How did it become an object of fascination, regulation, and moral panic? How do gender, race, and class shape perceptions of marijuana’s threat? As marijuana is legalized across many U.S. states, this course will explore the social, political, and economic forces that shape the criminalization and decriminalization of marijuana, perceptions of marijuana as a “gateway” drug, and publicly-funded anti-drug campaigns targeting youth. Stepping into the anthropological role of cultural observer and critic, students will practice analyzing pop culture representations of marijuana in the broader social context of U.S. drug prohibition.