Dr Nicholas Long (Autumn Term)

Dr Johanna Perez (Winter Term)

This course is compulsory on the BA in Social Anthropology and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available on the BSc in Politics. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This is an introductory course that aims to develop incoming students' social science literacy, visual literacy, and writing skills. As such, first year students from all departments are welcome - indeed, encouraged - to enrol in the course. More advanced students (including General Course students) should contact the course leader to discuss whether the course is appropriate for them to take as an outside option. Students who already have an an extensive background in qualitative social sciences and/or humanities, and have thus already developed the skills that this course is intended to foster, will not usually be permitted to enrol. 

This course introduces students to different modes and styles of anthropological representation, inviting critical analysis of the their strengths and weaknesses. It does so by introducing students to detailed, holistic study of social and cultural practices within specific geographic and historical contexts and developing students’ skills in bringing together the various elements of cultural and social life analysed by anthropologists.

The course is structured around a close engagement with full-length ethnographic monographs, which are read in parallel with the viewing and analysis of related films, articles, and materials in other media. These works may be developed by anthropologists or others (filmmakers, artists, members of the community in which the anthropologist was working, etc), and their genres may include, but are not limited to, photography, art, audio, poetry, and fiction.

By the end of each term, successful students will have a detailed knowledge of several important texts and films, a rounded view of the settings studied in each ‘cycle’ of the course, and will have developed the capacity to think critically about ethnographic writing and filmmaking, about anthropological engagements with other media, and about the ways multiple materials may be drawn on to complement each other in developing and communicating anthropological knowledge.

In the AT, there are 15 hours of lectures (including multimedia workshops), and 11.5 hours of classes and seminars.

In the WT, there are 10 hours of lectures (including multimedia workshops), and 11.5 hours of classes and seminars.

The contact hours listed above are the minimum expected. A full timetable will be available at the start of the academic year.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of both AT and WT.

Students will have the opportunity to submit up to four position pieces (two position pieces in the AT and two position pieces in the WT). Only the three position pieces with the highest marks will count towards the student’s final grade for the course. Students are not required to submit all four position pieces but are encouraged to do so to allow one position piece to count as formative coursework.

Detailed reading lists (including this year's set texts) will be provided at the beginning of the course.

For a general introduction to issues covered in the course, see the following:

• Cox, R., Irving, A., and Christopher Wright. 2016. Beyond text? Critical practices and sensory anthropology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Gay y Blasco, P. and Wardle, H. 2019. How to Read Ethnography. London: Routledge.
• Grimshaw, A., and A. Ravetz. 2009. Observational Cinema: Anthropology, Film, and the Exploration of Social Life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Marcus, G. E., and M. M. J. Fischer. 1986. Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Strathern, M. 2013. Learning to See in Melanesia. Chicago: HAU Books.
• Wolf, M. 1992. A Thrice-Told Tale: Feminism, Postmodernism, and Ethnographic Responsibility. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Coursework (100%, 3600 words) in the AT and WT.

All students will produce a portfolio of position pieces (worth 100% of the total mark), submitting a total of two position pieces in the AT and two position pieces in the WT. Each position piece should be 1000-1200 words in length and constitute a focused personal response to the most recent cycle of teaching.

Portfolios will be assessed periodically throughout the year, with the final grade determined after the end of Winter Term.

The overall mark will be a weighted average of the three position pieces with the highest grades, including any zeroes for missed assessments. The two highest scoring position pieces will be weighted at 100% and the third highest scoring position piece will be weighted at 50%.

Students who submit at least one position piece and fail the course will be expected to add to their portfolio at resit in order to achieve a pass.

Students who do not submit any position pieces (0 out of 4), will be awarded a Zero Absent for the whole course and cannot be awarded the degree until they submit sufficient work at resit to complete the course.