Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LH Ethnographies of the Marginalised
School	History and Cultures
Department	African Studies & Anthropology
Module Code	09 29673
Module Lead	Dr Juliet Gilbert
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	Maximum of 50 students across LI and LH, but this may be capped at 25 in some years in order to manage workloads.
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-10 hours Tutorial-2 hours Guided independent study-178 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Ethnographies of the Marginalised explores anthropological interpretations and involvement with socially, economically and politically deprived groups. In the 1980s, inspired by recent civil rights, feminist and student activism, and in reaction to the social science’s preoccupation with theories of totalising power, anthropologists became concerned with interpreting the actions of the less powerful. Anthropologists asked two questions: How can we account for change? How can we best represent the less powerful ‘other’? The module begins with these two questions, using key theoretical readings to introduce the themes and concerns of early Subaltern Studies. Covering four distinct topics (race, labour, youth and gender), the first half of term draws on key anthropological texts from the 1980s to explore how power differentials can both marginalise and lead to social innovation on the part of the subordinate. The chosen texts have become seminal texts in anthropology because they provide rich ethnographic data about subordinate groups, but they also provide a powerful critique to anthropological method and practice, allowing students to interrogate the aims of the discipline. The second half of the module transcends this focus on dominant/subordinate to examine how we can understand the identities and actions of marginality through the concepts of hope, fantasy, morality and ethics. For these sessions, students are asked to think how groups living beyond the boundaries of power might operate, and how supposedly powerless groups can break through hierarchies of power by using the dominant to act in their interests. The module concludes by considering whether marginalised groups are not just the subject of anthropology but use ethnography to fight their own causes.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Recognise and evaluate the different ways in which groups can be marginalised or excluded from dominant power structures Critically assess the ways in which marginalised groups do act/have agency Compare and critically analyse different conceptual frameworks for understanding marginalised people/communities Critically evaluate anthropology’s ability to represent those without a voice
Assessment	29673-01 : 1500 word essay - Essay 1 : Coursework (40%) 29673-02 : 2500 word essay - Essay 2 : Coursework (60%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 1500 word written assignment (40%)
Other
Reading List