This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This specialist module introduces students to a variety of critical topics in the anthropology of the humanitarian crisis. The module is designed to be team-taught by various members of staff with expertise on the general theme of humanitarian crisis and intervention. Topics covered will vary from year to year to reflect a research-led orientation. Indicative topics might include the refugee & austerity crisis, migration, ethnic conflict, humanitarian solidarity and environmental disaster.
18
Autumn Term
Short essay - 1500 words (20%)
Short essay - 2500 words (20%)
Long essay - 2000 words (40%)
Class participation (20%)
Fassin, D. 2011. Humanitarian Reason. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ticktin, M. 2011. Casualties of Care. University of California Press.
Bornstein, E, and P. Redfield. 2011. "An Introduction to the Anthropology of Humanitarianism." In Forces of Compassion, edited by Erika Bornstein and Peter Redfield, 3-30. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press.
Biner, Z. 2019. States of Dispossession: Violence and Materiality in Southeastern Turkey. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Pina-Cabral, J. 2018. Familial Persons in Dark Times. Social Anthropology 26:376-390.
Theodossopoulos, Dimitrios. 2016a. "Philanthropy or solidarity? Ethical dilemmas about humanitarianism in crisis-afflicted Greece". Social Anthropology 24 (2): 167–184.
Redfield, P. 2012. "Humanitarianism." In A companion to Moral Anthropology, edited by Didier Fassin, 451-467. Malden: Blackwell.
Navaro-Yashin, Y. 2012. The Make-Believe Space: Affective Geography in a Post-War Polity. Durham: Duke University Press
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate general learning and study skills
2. Think critically in anthropological terms about social phenomena
3. Present their ideas systematically and cogently both orally and in writing
4. Use (and combine effectively) written, oral and visual modes of communication
5. Work effectively within a small group
6. Read, comprehend and assimilate texts written for a professional audience
7. Retrieve data
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