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| Semester | spring semester 2019 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | David Bozzini (david.bozzini@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Anthropologists have been fascinated by the disfranchised and disempowered for a long time. The poor, the victimized and the excluded indeed are haunting anthropological tales and their lives represent various types of violence the discipline has been analyzing in order to better understand the situations vulnerable people face. This seminar aims to give an introduction to this quite extensive theme and explore how anthropology has approached it. The theme includes warfare, various types of conflict and all kinds of (collective) physical violence, but also symbolic and structural violence, ingrained in complex socio-cultural systems. The former accounts for sexism and racism for instance, the latter produces poverty and exclusion, limits individual rights and access to resources and services. Therefore, violence can erupt suddenly or silently creep into everyday life. Defining what violence is and how to understand different types of violence, are the primary goals of this seminar. However, giving ethnographic accounts of violence and suffering presents multiple challenges. Conducting research in violent contexts raises considerable issues ranging from practical to ethical and epistemological: how anthropologists have maintained themselves in violent circumstances? How safety issues have impacted and limited the research project? How have they navigated the minefield of confrontation, conflict and social tension? How have they negotiated (imposed?) their presence along side victims and perpetrators? How have they been able to collect reliable testimonies of violence? Which strategies did they devise in order to account for and describe violence, brutality, suffering, helplessness, hope and outrage? How did they or didn’t they engage in political action related to what they experienced, observed and analyzed? These are a few of the questions that will emerge from the readings proposed during the semester. The course will start with a few introductory readings before moving on to presentations and discussions of case studies. |
| Learning objectives | To stimulate critical understandings of various forms of violence in contemporary societies and assess the limitations of anthropological research in violent contexts. |
| Bibliography | A reference list will be distributed at the beginning of the semester and the core texts will be online on ADAM. A couple of documentaries will be shown and discussed in the classroom during the semester. |
| Comments | Laptop and mobile devices can be used in class only for the purpose of the course. Other uses (messaging, emails, browsing, games, etc.) are not acceptable as they affect learning and participation in class and can distract others. |
| Admission requirements | Grundstudium abgeschlossen. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist aus Gründen der Qualitätssicherung der Lehre auf 20 beschränkt. Die Teilnehmenden werden nach Fachrichtung, Studiengang und in der Reihenfolge ihrer Anmeldung auf die Liste gesetzt. Wer im Rahmen von Auslandaufenthalten und von Austauschprogrammen in Basel studiert wird unabhängig vom Listenplatz immer aufgenommen. |
| Course application | Inscription through MONA, questions can be forwarded to david.bozzini@unibas.ch. Lehrveranstaltungen mit beschränkter Teilnehmerzahl können ab 01.01.2019 bis 10.02.2019 über MOnA belegt werden. Die Zuteilung erfolgt durch die Dozierenden. Bis 15.02.2019 erhalten alle definitiv aufgenommenen Studierenden eine Bestätigungsmail des Dozierenden. Wer an der ersten Sitzung einer Veranstaltung dennoch unentschuldigt fehlt, wird von der Liste gestrichen. In der ersten Sitzung einer Veranstaltung oder per Mail in der Woche der ersten Sitzung erfahren Studierende auf einer Warteposition, ob sie doch teilnehmen können. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul "Research Lab" Kulturanthropologie (Master's degree subject: Cultural Anthropology) Modul: Methoden und Felder der Kulturanthropologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Cultural Anthropology) Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Theorien der Kultur BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Cultural Anthropology) Modul: Theorien der Kultur MA (Master's degree subject: Cultural Anthropology) Modul: Theory and General Anthropology (Master's degree subject: Anthropology) Module: Conflicts and Peacebuilding (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Students must complete the readings before each session and to actively participate in classroom discussions. They will prepare a presentation and discussion during the semester. |
| 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 | Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaft und Europäische Ethnologie |