SA3072 The Anthropology of Political Violence

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 9

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

To be confirmed

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr V L B Buthpitiya

Dr V L B Buthpitiya
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr Vindhya Lakshmi Buthpitiya

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

The Anthropology of Political Violence is intended as an introduction to the literature spanning topics including sovereignty and the state, citizenship, marginality, dispossession, collective violence, and justice. We will examine how anthropologists have sought to understand the ways in which political violence becomes embedded in both the body and the everyday, and how impacted communities, in turn, engage and negotiate with political violence as cause, event, process and consequence. To this effect, the module considers political violence through an arc of key ideas and lenses through which political violence has been studied extending from beginnings to aftershocks as well as a means for materialising political futures and aspirations. We will delve into how political violence shapes the re/formation of political communities and boundaries, enactments of sovereignty, possibilities for resistance and self-determination, conflict, and the casting of victims and perpetrators.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS SA1002 AND PASS SA2001 AND PASS SA2002

Assessment pattern

100% Coursework

Re-assessment

100% Coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

Weekly: 1 lecture, 1 seminar. Each semester: 3 workshops

Scheduled learning hours

46

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

240

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Soundly grasp a range of introductory topics and significant theoretical and ethnographic and literature central to the study of political violence
  • Adopt critical perspectives on the limits and challenges to studying political violence in anthropology
  • Comprehend the ethical and methodological complexities of conducting ethnographic research in contexts impacted by political violence in terms of positionality, risk and responsibility
  • Critically engage with both textual and visual representations of political violence to consider broader questions relevant to the dilemmas and possibilities for ‘writing’ and ‘showing’ violence
  • Appreciate the value of multi-disciplinary and multi-modal approaches to studying political violence and learning on the use of diverse sources and representations extending from audio/visual material to fiction in producing anthropological knowledge
  • Plan, research, and develop an independent project