Course Details in 2024/25 Session

Module Title	LI The Anthropology of Tomorrow
School	History and Cultures
Department	African Studies & Anthropology
Module Code	09 38821
Module Lead	Anthony Pickles (Jessica Johnson until January 2023)
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-10 hours Guided independent study-180 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	This module asks both how anthropology can help us to understand the future and what kind of challenges the future might pose to the discipline of anthropology. Traditionally, anthropologists tended to write about their fieldwork in 'the ethnographic present', as if the lives they had observed, sometimes decades earlier, were unfolding right now or could be expected to continue unchanged into the future. This approach has long been critiqued for the ways in which it misdirects anthropological understanding and distorts ethnographic representation. As a result, anthropologists have become more attuned to the passage of time. Recently, attention has turned from the past to the future – the time yet to come. This has opened up a wide range of questions, ethnographic, methodological, and theoretical: how do the people anthropologists work with understand and try to influence the future? How, as anthropologists observing the present, can we think about and theorise what has yet to occur? How does thinking about the future re-orient anthropology? In considering such questions, we will look in depth at ethnographic examples from around the world that pertain to the future (covering topics such as divination, hope, speculation and future-fiction); examine a range of anthropological approaches to time and the future; and grapple with how predicted events or transformations (e.g. artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitical upheaval) may shape anthropology in the coming years.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Evaluate theories and concepts used in the anthropology of the future. Assess how anthropology may be shaped by future events in the world. Demonstrate familiarity with ethnographic examples of future-shaping. Evaluate the future usefulness of anthropology.
Assessment	38821-01 : 1500 word written assignment - Essay 1 : Coursework (40%) 38821-02 : 2000 word written assignment - Essay 2 : Coursework (60%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 2 x 2000 word essays (50% each) Reassessment: Same as assessment
Other
Reading List