AANA18133U Global Crisis: Contemporary political matters of concern

Volume 2025/2026
Education

The course is open to:

  • Exchange and Guest students from abroad
  • Credit students from Danish Universities

 

Full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH 

  • Master Programme in Social Data Science
  • Master Programme in Political Science and Social Science
  • Master programme in Global Development
  • Master Programme in Psychology

 

Enrolled students register the course through the Selfservice. Please contact the study administration at each programme for questions regarding registration.

Content

From COVID to conflict and the melting ice in the Antarctic, the world seems currently to be struggling with several international crises. This elective course aims to explore anthropological approaches to such large-scale matters of concern. Looking at, for example, the wars in Syria and Ukraine, the pandemic, climate change, and emerging authoritarianism, it analyses intensifying and interconnected critical states and investigates their local implications. We do this by examining the concept of crisis within anthropology and by questioning how critical aspects of power, politics and globalization affect our contemporary world. The course is divided into 14 seminars with the following thematic orientations focused on the anthropology of… 

  • Emergencies, crises and chronicities
  • Conspiracy
  • Authoritarianism
  • Pandemics
  • Climate change
  • Migration
  • De-, post and neo-colonialism
  • Extractivism
Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

  • be able to identify a relevant anthropological research problem related to political anthropology and crisis
  • be able to locate and analyze empirical material by applying analytical  perspectives from the course literature (using anthropological concepts and theories of social crisis and chronicity) in order to make an anthropological argument 
  • be able to write a well-structured portfolio on a chosen field/case drawing on the literature from anthropology and other related disciplines

 

Skills:

  • be able to demonstrate how matters of concern are shaped in specific sociocultural and politico-economic contexts and further reshape our knowledge of critical states and events

 

Competences:

  • be able to utilize concepts and methods of political anthropology in analyzing a concrete, empirical cases

MA students must include supplementary literature in the exam, which the student selects.

The course will be taught collectively. The different themes will centre on lectures given by experts in the specific fields. A crosscutting subject throughout the entire course will be ‘global crisis’ – i.e., the ways in which contemporary political matters of concern are situated in local as well as global contexts.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 100
  • Exam
  • 64
  • Total
  • 206
Written
Feedback by final exam (In addition to the grade)
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment
Type of assessment details
Free written home assignment with examination prerequisites

The home assignment can be done in groups of up to 4 students. In group assignments, each student’s contribution must be clearly marked in the assignment. The length of the assignment must be a maximum of 10 pages for BA students and a maximum of 12 pages for MA students. For group submissions, an additional 3 pages per extra BA student and an additional 3 pages per extra MA student are allowed. For groups where BA and MA students are writing together, the page limit corresponds to that of MA students.

Students must indicate on the first page of the assignment whether they are BA or MA students. In the case of a group assignment, the individual student's contribution must be clearly marked in the assignment.

The number of standard pages is calculated according to the assumption that a standard page is defined as 2,400 keystrokes including spaces. Read further about Formal requirements for written assignments and exams in Curricula’s Common Part for the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Examination prerequisites

To be eligible for the exam, the student must have submitted and had approved 2 written assignments during the course.

Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Re-exam

Free written home assignment with examination prerequisites

1st re-exam: An essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam. The examination prerequisites must be fulfilled before the re-examination can be conducted.

 

2nd re-exam: A new essay must be submitted. The new assignment must be submitted by the deadline for the re-exam. The examination prerequisites must be fulfilled before the re-examination can be conducted.

Criteria for exam assesment

See learning outcome