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74741-01 - Seminar: Power of Ignorance: Politics, History, Critique (3 KP)

Semester Frühjahrsemester 2025
Angebotsmuster unregelmässig
Dozierende Maria Birnbaum (maria.birnbaum@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn)
Inhalt Ignorance can be part of oppressive social, political, and epistemic systems. It can at the same time be an instrument of emancipation, self-preservation, and social peace. This seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach studying the multiple meanings and roles of ignorance, investigating its history as well as its philosophical and political implications. It looks particularly at ignorance and epistemic injustice produced by hierarchies of race and gender as well as the specific pratices of ignorance and non-knowledge in politics, history, and anthropology. The seminar’s aim is to offer insight into particular historical and contemporary examples of ignorance and reflect on their theoretical and epistemological implications. It extends the range of analysis by studying ignorance both as the lack of knowledge but also as a specific kind of knowledge, thereby opening up for an analysis of the power of ignorance, strategic unknowns, and determined ambiguity. The seminar is aimed at MA students and PhD researchers with a background in political science, law, anthropology, history, and gender studies.
Literatur Introduction
• Gross, Matthias, McGoey, Linsey, 2015 : Introduction, in: Handbook of Ignorance
Studies, Routledge, 1-14
• Proctor, Robert N.: Agnotology: A Missing Term to Describe the Cultural Production of
Ignorance (And Its Study), in: Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance, Stanford:
Stanford UP, 1-33
• Sullivan/Tuana: Introduction, in: Tuana Nancy and Sullivan Shannon (eds.), Race and
Epistemologies of Ignorance Ignorance, 1-11
History
• Schiebinger, Londa, 2008: West Indian Abortifacients and the Making of Ignorance, in:
Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance, Stanford: Stanford UP, 149-162
• Fricker, Miranda 2016, “Epistemic Injustice and the Preservation of Ignorance” In: Peels,
R. and Blaauw, M., (eds.) The Epistemic Dimensions of Ignorance. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 144-159.
Anthropology
• Chua, Liana, 2012: Anthropological perspectives on ritual and religious ignorance, in:
Handbook of Ignorance Studies, Routledge, 247-255
• High, Casey, 2012: Between Knowing and Being: Ignorance in Anthropology and
Amazonian Shamanism, in: The Anthropology of Ignorance, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 119-135
• Mair, Jonathan, Ann H. Kelly, and Casey High, 2012: Introduction: Making Ignorance an
Ethnographic Object, in: The Anthropology of Ignorance, New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
1-32
Sociology/Politics
• McGoey, Linsey 2012: Strategic unknowns: Towards a sociology of ignorance, in:
Economy and Society 41(1): 1-16
• Aaradau, Claudia, 2017: Assembling (Non)Knowledge: Security, Law, and Surveillance in
a Digital World, in: International Political Sociology, 11: 327-342
Race
• Mills, Charles, 2007, “White Ignorance”, in: Tuana Nancy and Sullivan Shannon (eds.),
Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, 13-38.
• Hill Collins, Patricia, 2002, “Black Feminist Epistemology” (chap. 11), in: Black Feminist
Thought, 251-271.
• Du Bois, W.E.B., 1996 (orig. 1935) “The Propaganda of History”, in: Sundquist, Eric (ed.).
The Oxford W.E.B. Dubois reader, 438-454.
Bemerkungen Attention:
All Seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science.
Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass.
The number of participants will be limited. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science.

 

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen Attention:
All Seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science.
Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass.
The number of participants will be limited. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science.
Unterrichtssprache Englisch
Einsatz digitaler Medien kein spezifischer Einsatz

 

Intervall Wochentag Zeit Raum

Keine Einzeltermine verfügbar, bitte informieren Sie sich direkt bei den Dozierenden.

Module Modul: Conflicts and Peacebuilding (Master Studiengang: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources )
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Modul: Regionaler Fokus M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft M.A. (Master Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft)
Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (Masterstudium: European Global Studies)
Prüfung Lehrveranst.-begleitend
Hinweise zur Prüfung Written assignments: There are two required written assignments:

1. Each seminar participant will write an abstract or collect notable quotes from one reading for each class, due on mid-day the day before class

2. Essay 2000-3000 words. Detailed description of requirements for paper will follow in class.
Evaluation: Final grades will be based upon 1) attendance and participation (25%); 2) written abstracts (25%); 3) essay (50%).
An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich
Wiederholungsprüfung keine Wiederholungsprüfung
Skala 1-6 0,5
Belegen bei Nichtbestehen beliebig wiederholbar
Zuständige Fakultät Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch
Anbietende Organisationseinheit Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft

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