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76517-01 - Seminar: Past Forward: Inherited Futures (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers |
Kadiatou Nenein Diallo (k.diallo@unibas.ch)
Julia Rensing (julia.rensing@unibas.ch, Assessor) Lorena Rizzo (lorena.rizzo@unibas.ch) |
| Content | The course explores how individuals and communities imagine and build their futures through processes of inheriting – this may be linked to material heritage and the passing down of objects, a continuation of rituals and practices or a negotiation of the burdens and voids of inheritance, including the legacies of debt, loss, and the absence of what was once passed down. We engage deeply with these far-reaching implications of material and immaterial inheritances and a possible lack thereof. We do so by reflecting on a paradox that seems to be emblematic of the current times: on the one hand, there is a stable and growing investment in inheritance – seen in durable attachments to land, territory, houses and conceptions of identity or genealogical continuity; and on the other we are confronted with an increasing sense of futures displaced, ruptured and threatened by climate change, technological transformation, a shifting global political order, and large-scale migration. In the block seminar we discuss and examine this paradox. The central goal for this seminar is a critical revision of the concepts ‘inheriting’ and ‘future’ and a systematic reflection on objects, materiality and material practices. |
| Comments | Blockseminar; dates: 18.9.2025, 13-17h; 25.9.2025, 10-18h; 9.10.2025, 10-18h; 23.10.2025, 10-18h |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| unregelmässig | See individual dates | ||
| unregelmässig | See individual dates | ||
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 18.09.2025 | 13.15-17.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Thursday 25.09.2025 | 10.15-18.00 | -- Anfrage zentraler Raum für Lehre-, -- |
| Thursday 09.10.2025 | 10.15-18.00 | -- Anfrage zentraler Raum für Lehre-, -- |
| Thursday 23.10.2025 | 10.15-18.00 | -- Anfrage zentraler Raum für Lehre-, -- |
| Modules |
Modul: Fachkompetenz Globaler Wandel (Master's degree subject: Geography) Modul: Praktiken (Master's degree program: Cultural Techniques) Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology) Module: Europeanization and Globalization (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Module: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Fields: Media and Imagination (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Migration, Mobility and Transnationalism (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Zentrum für Afrikastudien |