AANA18120U Expanding the Canon: Reading Female and non-white Anthropologists and Social Theorists

Volume 2020/2021
Education

The teaching in spring 2021 will be online until the 1. of April due to the Covid19 situation.

As soon as it is permitted and justifiable, it is up to the individual lecturer whether to transition to a blended format or wish to continue with full online teaching for the rest of the semester.

The individual lecturer will inform you of the above choice in the Absalon room for each course.

Courses with oral exams will be held online if the relevant restrictions have not been lifted at least four weeks before the individual exam. This will be notified in Absalon.

Courses with written exams will not experience any changes in relation to the normal exam form.

Content

Like all social-scientific traditions, anthropology relies on a relatively shared understanding of ‘the canon’ – that is, those texts (and their topics, concerns, styles, theoretical angles, conclusions etc.) that make up what we perceive to be the core of our discipline. Retrospectively, we take these texts to mark the main axes of our discipline’s historical development - the texts we tend to teach in ‘History of Anthropology’.

The course Expanding the Canon invites students to read and discuss texts that lie outside or at the edge of this canon – with an eye to expanding that canon. The texts we read are either ‘anthropological’ texts in some way, or they are more generally ‘social theory’ relevant for anthropologists.

Although there are many directions in which we might want to expand our current understanding of the anthropological canon, Expanding the Canon focuses on two such extensions: we will read a range of texts by female anthropologists/social theorists that may expand our understanding of the tradition and trajectory of anthropology/social theory. And we’ll read texts by non-white anthropologists/social theorists.

Both extensions are not so much meant to ‘replace’ the texts that today make up our canon but to expand and adjust (perhaps radically) the way we think of anthropology as a discipline, and about the field of social theory within which it is embedded.

Participants are invited to suggest texts/authors beyond the course syllabus that they think should be included in a revised canon. We’ll discuss some of them towards the end of the course.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

At the end of the course students are expected to

  • know that a canon of texts plays a central role in Anthropology and other social-science disciplines
  • know that this canon is both evolving and contested, and are familiar with some of the ways in which the current Anthropological canon may be limited
  • know female and non-white authors and some of their texts outside the current canon, and are familiar with arguments suggesting that these texts might be important substitutes to or extensions of the current canon

 

Skills:

At the end of the course students are expected to:

  • be able to reflect on the possible limitations of the current anthropological canon
  • be able to articulate particular perspectives that the class readings might add to the current canon
  • be able to see the relevance of certain kinds of social theory for anthropology

 

Competences:

At the end of the course students are expected to:

  • be able to make convincing arguments both for some of the strengths of the existing anthropological canon and for some of its limitations
  • be able to develop arguments for what the texts we read in the course can add to the existing canon
  • be able to develop arguments for why certain texts are so ‘central’ to anthropology that they should be seen as ‘canonical’

BSc students and MSc students: 500 pages obligatory literature.

The teacher will publish 200-300 pages of supplementary literature.

Course literature will be available through Absalon.

Seminar
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Preparation
  • 130
  • Seminar
  • 42
  • Exam
  • 35
  • Total
  • 207
Written
Oral

In-class oral feedback on first portfolio opgave, written feedback on second portfolio.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination
Portfolio exam
Length: The portfolio exam can be taken individually or in groups of maximum four students. The portfolio exam consists of 2 submissions. The total length of all of the submissions must not exceed 30,000 keystrokes for a single student. For groups of two students the maximum is 40,000 keystrokes. For groups of three students the maximum is 45,000 keystrokes and for groups of four students the maximum is 50,000 keystrokes.
For groups writing together it must be clearly indicated which parts of the assignment each of the students has written.

The assignments are evaluated together with a total grade.
Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

1st re-exam: An essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam.

2nd re-exam: A new essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam.

Essay length: 21,600–26,400 keystrokes for an individual submission. 6,750–8,250 keystrokes per extra member for group submissions. The maximum number of students who can write an essay in a group is four.

For groups writing together it must be clearly indicated which parts of the assignment each of the students has written.

Criteria for exam assesment

See description of learning outcome. Formalities for Written Works must be fulfilled, read more: MSc Students/ BA students (in Danish)/ exchange and credit