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Theoretical Perspectives in Social Anthropology and Material Culture (ANTH0013)

Key information

Faculty
Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences
Teaching department
Anthropology
Credit value
15
Restrictions
To take this module students should have completed ANTH0003 Introductory Social Anthropology or ANTH0001 Introduction to Material and Visual Culture as a pre-requisite to be eligible. This module is open to Term 1 and full year affiliate students with equivalent background knowledge (please contact the module convener to discuss). For students starting the BSc Anthropology/ BSc Anthropology with a Year abroad from 20/21, this module is a prerequisite for most Social Anthropology, Material Culture and some Public Anthropology final year only option modules.
Timetable

Alternative credit options

There are no alternative credit options available for this module.

Description

Module Content

ÌýThis module engages the past, present, and future of social anthropology and material culture studies. The course examines anthropology’s relationship to colonial practices asking whether its methods and concerns encourage complicity with power, or resistant forms of thinking. It explores the conditions for anthropology as an ethical praxis in the light of this earlier history, and looks at past and present contributions from feminism, queer and trans studies, and decolonial approaches. The second half of the course focuses on specific debates/topics and topics, for example: multi-species anthropology, capitalism/neoliberalism, technology and infrastructure studies, the Anthropocene. ÌýÌý

Learning Outcomes

Through taking this module, students can expect to enhance their learning in the following areas:

  • Relate contemporary debates about the politics and ethics of anthropological research with longer historical trends and trajectories of debate within and beyond the discipline
  • How to critically evaluate and discuss divergent theoretical approaches in the study of social and cultural phenomena
  • How to relate theoretical approaches to empirical materials, including ethnographic accounts of social and cultural phenomena
  • Understanding the historical development of anthropological thinking and research
  • Exploring the political implications and orientations of different theoretical approaches and currents within anthropology
  • How to evaluate and construct anthropological arguments

Teaching Methods

The module is taught as a single one-and-a-half hour lecture per week and eight one-hour discussion classes (tutorials). Attendance at tutorials is a requirement of the course.

Additional Information

There will be one formative essay The assessed essay should deal with a different topic than the formative essay.

Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year

Intended teaching term: Term 1 ÌýÌýÌý Undergraduate (FHEQ Level 5)

Teaching and assessment

Mode of study
In person
Methods of assessment
100% Coursework
Mark scheme
Numeric Marks

Other information

Number of students on module in previous year
75
Module leader
Dr Tone Walford
Who to contact for more information
tone.walford@ucl.ac.uk

Last updated

This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.

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