ANY3350 - Questions of Identity: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalisation

Leader: Penelope Graham

Offered

Not offered in 2007

Synopsis

This unit examines the modern phenomenon of nationalism and reviews a range of theories that attempt to account for it. Despite predictions of its demise, nationalism is apparently flourishing as we continue to witness the forging of nations and the construction of national identities around the globe. Overall, the unit explores the thesis that the nation, as a culturally defined community, is the highest symbolic value of modernity. Themes include the relationship of nationalism to ethnicity and migration, gender and sexuality, colonialism and globalisation.

Objectives

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Analyse key concepts constituting anthropological and sociological approaches to ethnicity and nationalism.
2. Demonstrate a grasp of the arguments in the principle works on nationalism currently defining the topic in the social sciences.
3. Analyse the relationship of nationalism to various wide-ranging sociological phenomena such as colonialism and globalisation.

Assessment

Seminar participation: 20%
Oral class presentation (equivalent to 1000 words): 20%
Theorist comparative review exercise (1000 words): 20%
Topical Essay (2000 words): 40%
For the theorist review exercise third-year students must contrast the arguments of two authors, while students at second-year level need only write an account of one theorist's arguments.

Contact hours

2 hours (1 x 1 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial) per week

Prerequisites

A first-year sequence in Anthropology or History or Politics or Sociology or a cognate discipline or by permission

Prohibitions

ANY2350, COS2350, COS3350