AANK12041U Political Anthropology, advanced course: The politics of Invisibility

The politics of invisibility is focused on formations of power and powerlessness that are hidden from the public eye. Based on ongoing research on illicit flows of people, money and goods the course will shed light on some of the elements of social life that are confined to the shadows of society. It will look at concealed and clandestine figures and forces and grant us an overview of our theoretical and methodological possibilities of grasping them. Drawing on contemporary anthropological advances within the literature on politics, criminology and critical ethnography we will explore a range of subjects such as; social shadows, indeterminacy and suspicion and focus on various social flows and formations, such as; alternative political formations, informal economies, criminal networks and undocumented migrants.

The different theoretical and empirical perspectives will be analytically engaged through an exploration of the concept of invisibility on three levels, i.e. structural, social, and existential, moving across scale within the realm of the political.

The course builds on the ongoing collaborative research project Invisible Lives and will combine research-based teaching and teaching-based research. Students will be given the possibility and supervision to draft an independent paper and present it at a student lab – an exploratory workshop with invited speakers.