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AFRICAN STUDIES
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AFRICAN STUDIES
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Anno accademico 2020/2021
- Codice dell'attività didattica
- CPS0390
- Docente
- Alessandro Gusman (Titolare dell'insegnamento)
- Corso di studi
- Corso di laurea magistrale in Antropologia culturale ed etnologia (LM-1)
Master's Degree Course in Area and global studies for international cooperation - Anno
- 2° anno
- Periodo didattico
- Primo semestre
- Tipologia
- Affine o integrativo
- Crediti/Valenza
- 6
- SSD dell'attività didattica
- M-DEA/01 - discipline demoetnoantropologiche
- Modalità di erogazione
- Mista
- Lingua di insegnamento
- Inglese
- Modalità di frequenza
- Facoltativa
- Tipologia d'esame
- Orale
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Sommario insegnamento
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Obiettivi formativi
The course explores the central debates and issues in the anthropology of Sub-Saharan Africa. Through a thematic and geographically broad approach, it will provide students with a broad perspective on cultural diversity within the continent, and on the main challenges contemporary Africa faces.
In media and popular representations, Africa is often described as a place of poverty, conflicts and dependence. The aim of the course is to contextualize the socio-cultural and economic processes taking place in the continent and to provide students with a counter-narrative to this mainstream representations.
To this aim, the course aims to develop the skills: to connect ethnographic cases to relevant anthropological theories; to critically analyze and contextualize news articles, movies, novels; to understand socio-cultural change in Africa within a global context.
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Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi
By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
1) identify the main thematic areas in Africanist anthropology and their relevance for the analysis of contemporary African politics and societies
2) use the basic concepts of anthropology to analyze issues related to African “development” in its different aspects and implications
3) recognize and critically deconstruct the scholarly, journalistic and artistic mainstream representations of Africa
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Modalità di insegnamento
The course will be taught with a mixed modality, with online lectures twice a week and a weekly meeting in presence for discussion and students' presentation. The course consists of lectures, students’ presentations and discussion of selected articles and essays.
Articles, videos and other materials will be posted on Moodle for discussion. Students are expected to actively participate in forums and discussions through the Moodle platform.
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Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
ATTENDING STUDENTS
For attending students, knowledge of concepts and ethnographic cases discussed during the course, and of some chapters of the main textbook, are assessed through two short ongoing assignments (each worth 25% of the final grade), that will be held during the course.
A final essay (maximum 4,000 words; 50% of the final grade) on a topic selected among those discussed in (virtual) class will complete the evaluation of the course.
NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS
For non-attending students the final evaluation will consist on an oral exam (via webex if Covid-19 restrictions will make it necessary) based on the textbook "Global Shadows. Africa in the Neoliberal World Order", on two articles among those posted in the course materials, and on a second book to be agreed with the teacher.
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Programma
- A brief introduction to Africanist anthropology: classic authors and approaches
- The politics of representation: critiques, decolonization and pluralism in African studies
- African economies and “development” as an object of anthropological enquiry
- African cities: urbanization, new forms of belonging, informality
- Migration and mobilities within and from the African continent; forced displacement
- Contextualizing illness and health; access to healthcare in the African continent
Testi consigliati e bibliografia
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Main reading text:
- Ferguson J. (2006), Global Shadows. Africa in the Neoliberal World Order, Durham-London, Duke University Press
Other readings will be proposed for presentation and discussion (for students attending the course).
Non-attending students will be assigned some of the same additional readings, and a second book, upon agreement with the teacher.
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Note
The course will be held from November 2 to December 15, from 2pm to 4pm. On Mondays and Tuesdays the lectures will be in an online modality, via Webex. In presence meetings at campus (room F3) are planned on Wednesdays; more information about the modalities for these meetings will be communicated at the beginning of the course. In any case, in presence meetings won't be compulsary, and alternative online modalities for paper presentations will be discussed at the beginning of the course.
UPDATE November 2, 2020: Due to the recent limitations of in-class lectures to first year courses, the Wednesdays in presence meetings will be replaced by online lectures.
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