Universität Wien

240512 SE Borders, bordering and trans-border connections in Northeast India (P3) (2022W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work
ON-SITE

Participation at first session is obligatory!

The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). The plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used for courses with continuous assessment.
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

If possible, the course is to be conducted in presence. Due to the respective applicable distance regulations and other measures, adjustments may be made.

Update 06.09.2022: Attention changed times!

  • Monday 03.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 10.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 17.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 24.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 31.10. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 07.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 14.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 21.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 28.11. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 05.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 12.12. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 09.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 16.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 23.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Monday 30.01. 16:45 - 18:15 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Content of the course
This course focuses on various issues related to political borders in Northeast India: how have the borders been drawn during the colonisation? Are there natural borders? Did the borders change the life of the people living in border areas, and how? How did political borders become cultural border in some places, while in others, cross-border communities maintained relationships, and circumvented state’s borders? Are most borders today becoming ‘open’ in relation to globalisation?
This course aims at deepening the understanding of border issues, central to borderland people’s lives in the world today, based mostly (but not only) on case studies from Northeast India. This region is surrounded by international borders – with Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Nepal – and crossing a border is part of most people’s lives, whether it is for forced exile, economic mobility, family relationships, or tourism. Its study is therefore particularly relevant for exploring the variety of issues related to borders for people living in borderland and crossing borders on a regular basis.
The teaching method includes: Lectures, discussion of anthropological texts, oral presentations of anthropological texts and writing of a final written essay by the students (deadline for the final essay: March 30, 2023).
Aims of the course
Provide an understanding of the anthropology of borders and borderlands, and of issues related to borders in the world today based on examples from Northeast India. The course will also enable gaining experience in academic writing.

Assessment and permitted materials

Course attendance, active participation to the course, reading and preparation of the texts given for discussion in the seminar, quality of the oral presentation and of the written final essay (plagiarism checked by Turnitin).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Text presentation (oral): 20 points
Reading and preparation of the texts: 10 pts
Participation in the discussion during the seminar sessions: 10 pts
Oral presentation of written essays: 20 pts
Written essay: 40 pts

Examination topics

Topics of the seminar: Borders, bordering and trans-border connections

Reading list

Appadurai, A., 1996. Sovereignty without territoriality: notes for a postnational geography. In: P. Yaeger, ed. The geography of identity. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 40–58
Gohain, S. 2020. Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands. Culture, Politics, Place. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press
Nugent, P. 2019. Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa. The Centrality of the Margins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Paasi, A. 2009. “Bounded spaces in a ‘borderless world’: border studies, power and the anatomy of territory”, Journal of Power 2:2: 213-234, DOI: 10.1080/17540290903064275
Scott, J. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed. An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press
Shneiderman, S. 2010. “Are the Central Himalayas in Zomia? Some scholarly and political considerations across time and space”, Journal of Global History 5: 289–312
van Schendel, W. 2002. “Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance: Jumping Scale in Southeast Asia”, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 20: 647–68.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 03.10.2022 15:29