University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 9

Semester: 1

Planned timetable: To be confirmed

The Anthropology of Political Violence is intended as an introduction to the literature spanning topics including sovereignty and the state, citizenship, marginality, dispossession, collective violence, and justice. We will examine how anthropologists have sought to understand the ways in which political violence becomes embedded in both the body and the everyday, and how impacted communities, in turn, engage and negotiate with political violence as cause, event, process and consequence. To this effect, the module considers political violence through an arc of key ideas and lenses through which political violence has been studied extending from beginnings to aftershocks as well as a means for materialising political futures and aspirations. We will delve into how political violence shapes the re/formation of political communities and boundaries, enactments of sovereignty, possibilities for resistance and self-determination, conflict, and the casting of victims and perpetrators.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass SA1002 and pass SA2001 and pass SA2002

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 hour x 10 Lectures (Weekly), 1 hour x 10 Seminars (Weekly), 2 hours x 3 Workshops

Scheduled learning hours: 46

Guided independent study hours: 240

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: 100% Coursework


Re-assessment: 100% Coursework

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr V L B Buthpitiya
Module teaching staff: Dr Vindhya Lakshmi Buthpitiya
Module coordinator email vlb9@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Soundly grasp a range of introductory topics and significant theoretical and ethnographic and literature central to the study of political violence
• Adopt critical perspectives on the limits and challenges to studying political violence in anthropology
• Comprehend the ethical and methodological complexities of conducting ethnographic research in contexts impacted by political violence in terms of positionality, risk and responsibility
• Critically engage with both textual and visual representations of political violence to consider broader questions relevant to the dilemmas and possibilities for ‘writing’ and ‘showing’ violence
• Appreciate the value of multi-disciplinary and multi-modal approaches to studying political violence and learning on the use of diverse sources and representations extending from audio/visual material to fiction in producing anthropological knowledge
• Plan, research, and develop an independent project