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IR4591   Critical War Studies

Academic year(s): 2024-2025

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Planned timetable: Wednesday 10am - 11am

This module investigates the role of war in constituting the social, political, and cultural fabric of the world we inhabit. Yet, while war makes and remakes politics, societies, and identities, these changes in turn remake war. To study such co-constitutive relations, this module proceeds in two ways. The first part of this module explores war through multiple theoretical dimensions, including gender, race, post-humanism, and ethics. It then proceeds to apply the insights from these diverse perspectives to different ‘sites’ of war, such as technology, memory, representation, and bodies. By examining war through such a multiplicity of theoretical lenses and real-world sites, this module explores the transformative nature of war on social and political orders, and how this shapes our ways of being, acting, and knowing the world. Students should be aware that this is a reading- intensive module and that they will be required to work in small groups to prepare for in class activities.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass IR2006

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 Lecture (X11 weeks) and 1 tutorial (11 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours: 22

Guided independent study hours: 275

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework - 100%


Re-assessment: Written examination - 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr N Rossi
Module teaching staff: Norma Rossi

Intended learning outcomes

  • Examine war through different theoretical lenses including race, gender, and ethics.
  • Explain how war informs everyday societal, political, and cultural life through concrete empirical examples
  • Work in small teams to convey shared findings and knowledge about how war is represented in military advertisements/popular culture.
  • Reflect on the role of fictional writing in the study of war
  • Integrate discourse and visual representations in their analyses of war.