果冻影院

Undergraduate

Module Content

This module investigates a range of problematics tied to the domain conventionally framed as the "post-conflict." It will examine classic and contemporary approaches to: war, conflict and its 鈥減ost;鈥� wounds, suffering and their re-inscription; erasures, silencing and collective amnesia; witnessing, testimony and narrative; mourning, memorialization and violent appropriations; trauma and spectral returns; justice and revenge; reconciliation and healing. As we can see, what many of these terms already suggest is that precisely where 鈥渧iolence鈥� ends and its supposed 鈥渁ftermath鈥� begins is often an open question, subject to continual reassessment, and at times may even remain undecidable.听

The module will introduce students to a range of theoretical and methodological debates on violent aftermaths, exploring the productivity of ethnographic contributions. This module is not designed to offer different 鈥渆mpirical鈥� case studies, from various sites around the world, that fit within an already assumed understanding of the 鈥減ost-conflict.鈥� Rather, it is a theory-driven course, structured to question the presuppositions behind, and established approaches to, understandings of 鈥減ost-conflict,鈥� 鈥渧iolence,鈥� 鈥渨ar,鈥� 鈥減eace,鈥� etcetera, which are invariably shaped by colonialism and its various forms of violence. The module offers critical readings of the literature to develop new and decolonized perspectives on both academic and popular liberal positions and assumptions. It thus fundamentally engages in training students to develop their critical reading and writing skills to facilitate new understandings of the violent structures of the very world we live within.听

听

Learning Outcomes听

• To enable students to identify and critically evaluate a range of major social theoretical approaches to, and everyday understandings of, contexts of violent aftermaths.听

• To gain knowledge of the history of major theoretical perspectives on the aftermaths of violence both within and beyond the discipline of anthropology and be able to听critically assess the contributions and limitations of these approaches.听听

• To facilitate students in developing their skills in approaching academic texts in a critically engaged way, in formulating analytical questions, in constructing convincing argumentation, in writing academic critique, and in taking great control over their own learning.听听

• To develop critical understandings of the constitutively perspectival grounding of all knowledge and to be able to critically engage with such positioning, together with the ethical issues that relate specifically to the production of anthropological knowledge.听

• To develop critically informed responses to recent injunctions to decolonize scientific knowledge, in relation to the thematic domain of violent aftermaths.听

Delivery method听

A weekly two-hour seminar, which will听sometimes begin with a short lecture before transitioning to a class-wide discussion involving active student participation.听

Additional Information听

• Students are expected to participate in and make informed contributions to the discussions of the assigned readings in seminars.听

• Each student will give a brief 5-minute presentation in the seminars on one of the required readings for a given week.听

• Each week all students must submit, in writing, before class, an "Active Reading" response on the required readings.

听

Postgraduate

Module Content

This module investigates a range of problems tied to the domain conventionally framed as the "post-conflict." It will examine classic and contemporary approaches to: war, conflict and its 鈥減ost;鈥� wounds, suffering and their re-inscription; erasures, silencing and collective amnesia; witnessing, testimony and narrative; mourning, memorialization and violent appropriations; trauma and spectral returns; justice and revenge; reconciliation and healing. As we can see, what many of these terms already suggest is that precisely where 鈥渧iolence鈥� ends and its supposed 鈥渁ftermath鈥� begins is often an open question, subject to continual reassessment, and at times may even remain undecidable.

The module will introduce students to a range of theoretical and methodological debates on violent aftermaths, exploring the productivity of ethnographic contributions. This module is not designed to offer different 鈥渆mpirical鈥� case studies, from various sites around the world, that fit within an already assumed understanding of the 鈥減ost-conflict.鈥� Rather, it is a theory-driven course, structured to question the presuppositions behind, and established approaches to, understandings of 鈥減ost-conflict,鈥� 鈥渧iolence,鈥� 鈥渨ar,鈥� 鈥減eace,鈥� etcetera, which are invariably shaped by colonialism and its various forms of violence. The module offers critical readings of the literature to develop new and decolonized perspectives on both academic and popular liberal positions and assumptions. It thus fundamentally engages in training students to develop their critical reading and writing skills to facilitate new understandings of the violent structures of the very world we live within.

Learning Outcomes

To enable students to identify and critically evaluate a range of major social theoretical approaches to, and everyday understandings of, contexts of violent aftermaths. To gain knowledge of the history of major theoretical perspectives on the aftermaths of violence both within and beyond the discipline of anthropology and be able to critically assess the contributions and limitations of these approaches.

• To facilitate students in developing their skills in approaching academic texts in a critically engaged way, in formulating analytical questions, in constructing convincing argumentation, in writing academic critique, and in taking great control over their own learning.
• To develop critical understandings of the constitutively perspectival grounding of all knowledge and to be able to critically engage with such positioning, together with the ethical issues that relate specifically to the production of anthropological knowledge.
• To develop critically informed responses to recent injunctions to decolonize scientific knowledge, in relation to the thematic domain of violent aftermaths.
• To develop skills in demonstrating originality in the assessment and application of the major contributions to the anthropology of 鈥減ost-conflict鈥� contexts, including the critical assessment of the methodologies employed by the leading approaches.

Delivery method

A weekly two-hour seminar lead by the module convenor.

Additional Information

• You are expected to participate in and make informed contributions to the discussions of the assigned readings in seminars.
• Each student will give a brief 5-minute presentation in the seminars on one of the required readings for a given week.
• Each week all students must submit, in writing, before class, an "Active Reading" response on the required readings.