Institute of Anthropology, University of Gdańsk, the 2022/23 summer semester
Dr. Anna Zadrożna ( an.zadrozna[at]gmail.com )
Course descriptio: The aim of the course is to familiarize students with selected current debates in anthropological theory and practice. Classes are in the form of a discussion based on assigned readings and other materials provided by the lecturer.
Assignments and assessment: Each student is expected to actively participate in discussions and to prepare two blog entries related to selected topics. The final grade will be based on the preparation of 2 blog entries (70%) and active participation in discussions (30%).
Attendance policy: In case of more than 2 absences, a student must inform the instructor and discuss the ways of completion of missed work in an agreed-upon timely manner.
| Week | Date | Reading List |
| Week 1 | 22 Feb | Introduction to the course. Anthropology: visions, questions, approaches |
| Week 2 | 8 Mar | Writing against culture Abu-Lughod, Lila. “Writing against culture.” In The cultural geography reader, pp. 62-71. Routledge, 2008. |
| Week 3 | 15 Mar | The question of representation and time Fabian, Johannes. Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. Columbia University press, 2014. |
| Week 4 | 22 Mar | Anthropology of globalization Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Rosaldo, Renato “Introduction: A World in Motion”. In The anthropology of globalization: A reader. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. pp. 1-34. |
| Week 5 | 29 Mar | Anthropology of accelerated change Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Overheating: An anthropology of accelerated change. London: Pluto Press, 2016, pp. 1-15. |
| Week 6 | 5 Apr | Ethnographies of the state Özyürek, Esra. “Miniaturizing Atatürk privatization of state imagery and ideology in Turkey.” American Ethnologist 31, no. 3 (2004): 374-391. |
| Week 7 | 12 Apr | Post-Truth: state security, border walls and human rights Ho, Karen, and Jillian R. Cavanaugh. “What happened to social facts? American Anthropologist121, no. 1 (2019): pp. 160-167. Dick, Hilary Parsons. “Build the Wall!”: Post‐Truth on the US–Mexico Border. American Anthropologist 121, no. 1 (2019), pp. 179-185. Heyman, Josiah McC, Maria Cristina Morales, and Guillermina Gina Núñez. “Engaging with the immigrant human rights movement in a besieged border region: What do applied social scientists bring to the policy process?.Napa Bulletin31, no. 1 (2009): pp. 13-29. |
| Week 8 | 19 Apr | Ethnographies of nationhood Simpson, Audra. “Indigenous Interruptions: Mohawk Nationhood, Citizenship, and the State.” In Mohawk Interruptus, pp. 1-36. Duke University Press, 2014. |
| Week 9 | 26 Apr | Perspectives on diaspora and transnationalism Sökefeld, Martin. “Mobilizing in transnational space: a social movement approach to the formation of diaspora.” Global networks 6, no. 3 (2006): 265-284. |
| Week 10 | 3 May | Holidays |
| Week 11 | 10 May | Affect and ruination Navaro‐Yashin, Yael. “Affective spaces, melancholic objects: ruination and the production of anthropological knowledge.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15, no. 1 (2009): 1-18. |
| Week 12 | 17 May | Anthropology of absence Bille, Mikkel, Frida Hastrup, and Tim Flohr Sørensen. “Introduction: An anthropology of absence.” In An Anthropology of Absence, pp. 3-22. Springer, New York, NY, 2010. Pistrick, Eckehard, and Florian Bachmeier. “Empty migrant rooms: an anthropology of absence through the camera lens.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 3, no. 2 (2016): 205-215 |
| Week 13 | 24 May | Anthropology of food, gender and migration Naguib, Nefissa. Nurturing masculinities: Men, food, and family in contemporary Egypt. University of Texas Press, 2015. |
| Week 14 | 31 May | Anthropology of the future and presentist perspective on time Ringel, Felix. “Beyond temporality: Notes on the anthropology of time from a shrinking fieldsite.” Anthropological Theory 16, no. 4 (2016): 390-412. |
| Week 15 | 7 Jun | Anthropology of bureaucracy and capitalism Graeber, David. Bullshit jobs: a theory, (2018), chapter 1, pp. 1-26. |
| Week 16 | 14 Jun | Anthropology beyond the human Kohn, Eduardo. “Introduction: Runa Puma” In How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Univ of California Press, 2013, pp. 1-26. |
| Week 17 | 21 Jun | Summary session? |
| Week 18, 19 | 19 Jun-2 Jul | Exams |
Anthropological Perspectives 
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