Module HUSS3271: CURRENT ISSUES IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

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

HUSS3271: CURRENT ISSUES IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Prerequisites

• Completion of Methods & Analysis I: Research Techniques (HUSS2101) AND Methods and Analysis II: Research Project (HUSS2111).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• Current Issues in Biological Anthropology, Current Issues in Medical Anthropology.

Aims

• To provide students with an introduction to issues of contemporary research concern in social and cultural anthropology.

Content

• In the first part of the module students will meet in seminars to practice various skills required to review, precis and critically evaluate research papers and projects in this discipline.
• In the second part of the module lectures focusing on up-to-the-minute research of individual members of staff and some guest lecturers will provide students with a rare opportunity to learn about the topics that their tutors have chosen to study and to appreciate and assess the relationship of this research to wider anthropological endeavour.
• Class work will focus on recent literature pertaining to the theme of each lecture.
• In all instances the emphasis will be on the critical assessment of the ideas presented and students will be encouraged to draw on earlier coursework to inform their discussion and/or debate.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of the module students will: "appreciate better those areas of research conducted currently by members of the Department of Anthropology".
• "Be familiar with some of the current social anthropological literature".
• "Be able to evaluate critically current (and often controversial) ideas in social anthropology".
• "Familiarity with the potential breadth of current social and cultural anthropology" and "awareness and understanding of some of the theoretical paradigms used by socio-cultural anthropologists in framing their research".

• "Familiarity with accessing and comparing journals publishing research by social and cultural anthropologists".
• "Ability to engage in discussion and debate regarding research issues in social and cultural anthropology".
• "Critically analyse and evaluate recent and social anthropology journal articles".
• "Critically evaluate evidence, concepts, arguements and assumptions drawn from a range of resources and apply anthroplogical material to relevant issues, eg re fieldwork, interdisciplinarity, gift exchange, etc".

• "Communicate ideas through written work evaluating and comparing texts".
• "Show initiative to find and apply alternative resources".
• "Plan organise and manage time to meet deadlines".
• "Be computer literate to produce word processed material and access relevant published data".
• "Solve problems: develop ability to engage in knowledgeable discussion with researchers and develop pertinent questions regarding research".

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

• Lectures.
• Tutorials.
• Seminars.
• Exam.
• Critique.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Summary of 1 lecture presentation & class discussion (1000 words).

■ 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