Key facts

Details for course being taught in current academic year
Level 2  -  18 credits  -  spring and summer terms

E-learning links

Study Direct: L6053 (09/10)

Resources

Timetable Link
course handbook 2009-10
course notes & readings

Course description

Course outline

The aim of the course is to examine how contemporary anthropology and anthropologists engage with issues of the day, whether in understanding and helping solve social problems wherever they occur, or in contributing to areas of life usually associated with leisure or “high” culture, including the media, visual arts, tourism, and music. This course thus explores the anthropological understanding of contemporary society and its contributions to it.
It will focus on three topics, drawn from a range of issues of particular interest to Sussex anthropologists. Students will be introduced to anthropological approaches to three issues during the course, each related to faculty members research expertise.
Topics will depend on faculty availability, but may include:
1. Conflict, Violence and Genocide,
2. New Globalising Movements,
3. Modernity, Migration and Refugees,
4. European Integration,
5. Indigenous Cultural Politics,
6. Fundamentalism,
7. Multiculturalism and Minority Rights,
8. Dance and music, Visual Culture.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:
1. Demonstrate a critical perspective on the contribution that anthropology can made to the understanding of contemporary issues.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of key applications of anthropology to contemporary issues.
3. Demonstrate an ability to locate such themes in a wider debate of anthropological theory.
4. Demonstrate an awareness of ways that anthropologists develop their problematics.
5. Express adequate understandings in written and oral forms.

Generic outcomes
1. Use of web resources
2. Ability to use and communicate anthropology in engagement with wider audiences.
3. Potential for a future career.

Assessments

View old exam papers

Resit mode of assessment

Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

Teaching methods

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Contact details

Dr Filippo Osella

Assess convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/migration/profile102434.html

Prof James Fairhead

Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/justice/profile126936.html