Module HUSS3331: NATIONS AND ETHNIC GROUPS

Department: Anthropology (Human Sciences) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

HUSS3331: NATIONS AND ETHNIC GROUPS

Prerequisites

• Completion of Stage 1 Human Sciences OR Completion of Political & Economic Organization (ANTH2051) OR Kinship & Belief Systems (ANTH2041) OR completion of Phase 1 MBBS (for students taking intercalated BSc in Medicine and Human Sciences).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide students with an anthropological understanding of the social mechanisms that generate and sustain nations and ethnicities.
• The module allows students to become 'experts' on regional literature and to integrate their knowledge with the more general theory provided in lectures.

Content

• This module will consist of an introduction to some key theoretical debates in the anthropology of nationalism and ethnicity: unpacking categories such as 'nation', 'state', 'ethnic group', etc.
• theories on the origins of nationalism.
• symbolic boundaries.
• imagined communities.
• pluralism.
• building blocks of ethnic and national identities (religion, language, politics).
• orientalism and occidentalism.
• transculturalism and transnationalism.
• tourism.
• gender.
• memory: eg. Holocaust, Sept. 11th.
• representation.
• Students will be reading relevant material which relates to one or more geographical region or ethnic group and integrating these with the theoretical literature and material provided in lectures.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will have an anthropological understanding of ways in which people negotiate identities within and between ethnic groups and nations.
• Be familiar with a broad range of social science research that contributes to understanding of nation and ethnicity
• Be familiar with relevant ethnographic research from one region of the world that provides useful illustrative material to apply to the understanding of more general theory".

• Critically and comparatively analsye and evaluate anthropological literature and other representations of nation and ethnic group through the selection and application of appropriate explanatory theory.
• Apply subject related knowledge from the course to the evaluation of current world affairs.
• Develop the ability to pursue independent research in anthropology and related fields.

• Communicate complex abstract ideas through written work.
• Plan organise and manage time to meet deadlines.
• Show initiative to independantly find resources on their special region to independantly apply to the evaluation of theory.
• Be computer literate to produce word processed material and access data.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• .

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Essay draft or detailed outline with provisional bibliography - 1500 words, group presentation and handout for a mock exam question.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University