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240513 VO MM3 Anthropology of the Global South (2025W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Moodle

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Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 28.10. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Friday 07.11. 15:00 - 18:15 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Tuesday 11.11. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Tuesday 18.11. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Tuesday 25.11. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock
  • Thursday 27.11. 13:15 - 16:30 Hörsaal A, NIG 4.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The global south is a conceptual space comprising regions of the world that have shared experiences of exploitation, inequality, imperialism, and colonialism. However, scholars have pointed to the fluidity and instability of the concept, arguing that it is difficult to draw clear lines in a north–south divide. Nevertheless, this contrasts with the ways in which the global south is generally understood, as a hard-geographic reality that brings up images of the absence of modernity and corruption, underdevelopment, and marginality. In this course, we will deploy ethnographic perspectives to assess and challenge these perceptions and constructions. What is the global south, and how has anthropology engaged with this geopolitical, socio-economic, and cultural formation? How have anthropologists contributed to its study? What are the theoretical debates which anthropologists have generated around what is commonly understood as ‘global south’? The course readings are centered on ethnographic approaches to key sites and dynamics of politics, gendered activism, and violence among others.

After completing this course, students should be able to:

• approach the concept of the global south through a body of theories and ethnographic works;
• understand the global south as a broad formation while recognizing its internal diversity;
• develop their critical reading, analytical, and written communication skills;
• critically engage with the links between theoretical frameworks and the media sphere by placing the readings in a real-life context.

Assessment and permitted materials

MC exam

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
For a positive grade 51 % are required

90-100 %= 1
77-89 %= 2
64-76 %= 3
51-63 %= 4
0-50 % = 5

Examination topics

Examination includes all course readings

Reading list

Additional readings on ‘Global South’

Bhabha, Homi K. 2018. “Introduction: On disciplines and destinations.” In Territories & trajectories. Cultures in circulation, edited by Diana Sorensen, 1-12. Durham and London: Duke University Press

Ciotti, Manuela 2011. “After subversion: Intimate encounters, the agency in and of representation, and the unfinished project of gender without sexuality in India.” Cultural Dynamics 23(2): 107–126

Coronil, Fernando and Skurski, Julie et Al. (eds) 2019. The Fernando Coronil reader. The struggle for life is the matter. Durham and London: Duke University Press

Escobar, Arturo. 2008. Territories of difference: Place, movements, life, redes. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1–26

Escobar, Arturo. 2020. Pluriversal politics. The real and the possible. Durham and London: Duke University Press

Ferguson, James. 2006. Global shadows. Africa in the neoliberal world older. Durham: Duke University Press

Gupta, Pamila et Al. (eds). 2018. “The global south: History, politics, maps.” Radical History Review 131

Harrison, Faye. 2017. “Engaging theory in the new millennium.” In The Routledge companion to contemporary anthropology, edited by Simon Coleman, Susan B. Hyatt, and Anna Kingsolver, 27–56. London and New York: Routledge

Hofmeyr, Isabel. 2018. “Against the global south.” In The global south and literature, edited by Russell West-Pavlov, 307-314. Cambridge University Press

Mbembe, Achille. 2017. Critique of black reason. Durham and London. Duke University Press, Transl. by Laurent Dubois

Mignolo, Walter D. 2011. “THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND WORLD DIS/ORDER.” Journal of Anthropological Research 67(2): 165-188

Papailias, Penelope et Al. 2021. “Against gravity: A worldly interview with Gustavo Lins Ribeiro.” https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/against-gravity-gustavo-lins-ribeiro

Ribeiro, Lins Gustavo 2014. “World anthropologies: Anthropological cosmopolitanisms and cosmopolitics.” Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 43: 483–98

West-Pavlov, Russell. 2018. The global south and literature. Cambridge University Press

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 23.07.2025 12:26