Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Anthropology and/of Activism
School	History and Cultures
Department	African Studies & Anthropology
Module Code	09 39832
Module Lead	Fuad Musallam
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 1
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 is about attempts to radically transform the world. Across social and cultural contexts, there have always been people who reject the status quo, and people who want things to be different. And across anthropology's history, there have always been anthropologists interested in understanding that 'impulse to act' – and, indeed, interested in acting themselves. In exploring anthropologies of activism, and anthropologists' relationship to activism, we will ask the following questions: What is activism, and what is it not? Who are activists, and how do they engage with the world? Can anthropologists be activists? Across a range of ethnographic contexts, we will investigate different forms of political action (which may include revolutionary insurgency, NGO work, everyday resistance), key concerns in the literature (which may include agency, subjectivity, temporality, forms of organisation and association, emotions and affect), and our relationship as anthropologists to our own activism and to that of our interlocutors.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Critically evaluate theories and concepts used in the anthropology of activism. Critically assess how anthropology has related to attempts to change the world. Critically analyse ethnographic examples of transformative and intentional action. Critically evaluate the role of anthropologists in attempts to change the world.
Assessment
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: 1 x 1500 written assignment (40%). 1 x 2000 written assignment (60%). Reassessment: Re-submission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List