Course overview
This course introduces students to core themes in the anthropology of violence and crime that include, violence and identity/subjectivity; terror, pain and suffering; war, technology and visual culture; fear, threat and sorcery; and organised crime. It addresses issues, instances and everyday lived experiences of violence and crime in human societies from a comparative anthropological perspective. The course draws on a wide variety of examples, including global conflicts and state violence, virtual and technologically mediated warfare, gang violence, processes and politics of criminalisation, human trafficking and organised crime, intimacies of violence including gendered, family/ domestic and sexual violence, migration and displacement, terrorism, the politics of legitimate and illegitimate violence, collective memories of suffering, and transitional justice. Case studies are drawn from various regions and countries, including but not limited to, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Latin America, North America, Rwanda, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Denmark, and Nepal.
Course learning outcomes
- Obtain knowledge and understanding of anthropological approaches to conflict, violence and human suffering
- Demonstrate awareness and use of specific academic and non-academic conflict resources (web, library, film, etc)
- Demonstrate broad understanding of what drives conflict on a global basis, especially the diversity of cultural, political and economic factors
- Obtain knowledge and understanding of the content and techniques of a chosen discipline at advanced levels that are internationally recognised
- Demonstrate the ability to locate, analyse, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide variety of sources in a planned and timely manner
- Obtain an ability to apply effective, creative and innovative solutions, both independently and cooperatively, to current and future problems
- Demonstrate an awareness of ethical, social and cultural issues within a global context and their importance in the exercise of professional skills and responsibilities