SC920-7-SP-CO:
Colonialism, Cultural Diversity and Human Rights
2023/24
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
26 May 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
MA L31112 Migration Studies
This interdisciplinary module begins from the premise that human rights can only be understood in historical, political and social contexts, and that these are heavily bound up with cultural domination. Specifically, we will be looking at past and ongoing colonialism as a major source of contemporary human rights problems concerning minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees.
In the 10 weeks, we will examine how European notions of progress, including mandates for free markets, the expansion of industrialism and the sovereignty of nation states have proliferated at the expense of local uniqueness and cultural distinctiveness. We will tackle these questions by looking at writers such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, and Judith Butler as well as liberal thinkers who provided much of the support for colonialism. These will be combined with discussions of particular international situations such as the French colonisation of Algeria, British colonisation of India, the creation of refugees in Europe and the Middle East, the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers to the USA, the dispossession of indigenous peoples, and the global war on terror.
As well as seminars and in order to bring visual and narrative context to the issues and conflicts we cover, we will also have separate programme of screenings of significant feature films and documentaries such as ‘The Battle of Algiers,’ on the Algerian uprising against French colonialism, ‘Bengal Shadows’ on the famine precipitated by British colonial policies, ‘Hannah Arendt’ on the life of the writer/philosopher and bureaucratic state crimes, 'Rabbit Proof Fence' on the Australian Aborigine stolen generations, Ula Tabari’s artful documentary ‘Private Investigation’ on living as a Palestinian in the Israeli state, ‘De Nadie’, a documentary about ‘nobodies’ heading for the US-Mexico border, and Errol Morris’ ‘Standard Operating Procedure’ which reveals American soldiers ‘views of the torture they used during the invasion of Iraq and ‘war on terror’.
Class Format: lecture, seminar discussion, textual analysis, film analysis.
Most modules at postgraduate level in Sociology are taught as a 2hr seminar. Most classes, labs and seminars will be taught face-to-face (assuming social distancing allows this). There may also be some online activities – either timetabled as a live online session or available on Moodle in the form of pre-recorded videos. You will be expected to watch this material and engage with any suggested activities before your seminar/class each week.
Please note that you should be spending up to ten hours per week undertaking your own private study (reading, preparing for classes or assignments, etc.) on each of your modules (e.g. 30 hours in total for three 20--credit modules).
This module will include a range of activities to help check your understanding of the complex colonial histories and human rights issues we cover. These will include individual exchanges of ideas with me the instructor and specific feedback on group presentations.
Attendance at the classes/seminars is the heart of the module, providing opportunities to talk with your class teacher and other students and give feedback on lectures, readings and student presentations. The classes/seminars will be recorded and available via Listen Again. However, Listen Again is a very poor substitute for the live class sessions. Please note that the recording of seminars/classes is at the discretion of the teacher.
-
Patrick Harries (2007) ‘The battle of Algiers: between fiction, memory and history’, in Black and white in colour: African history on screen. Oxford: James Currey, pp. 203–222.
-
Lazreg, M. (2008) ‘Conscience, imperial identity and torture’, in
Torture and the twilight of empire: from Algiers to Baghdad. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 173–190. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bmzmz7.13.
-
Samson, C. (2020c) ‘The Uneasy Present of Colonialism’, in
The colonialism of human rights: ongoing hypocrisies of western liberalism. Cambridge: Polity. Available at:
https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/573074.
-
-
Pitts, J. (2005) A turn to empire: the rise of imperial liberalism in Britain and France. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Unversity Press.
-
-
-
-
Frantz Fanon (1967) A dying colonialism. New York: Grove Press.
-
Fanon, F. and Philcox, R. (2004) The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press.
-
-
Olsson, G. and Kanopy (Firm) (2016) ‘Concerning Violence.’ [San Francisco, California, USA]: Kanopy Streaming. Available at:
https://panopto.essex.ac.uk/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b8f08f15-0882-4fa0-b449-acbc01509973#.
-
‘Opinion | Art’s Colonial Legacy: “It Would Have Been Better Not to Have Needed Museums.”’ (2024)
The New York Times [Preprint]. Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/aime-cesaire-congo-art.html.
-
Arendt, H. (1976) ‘The decline of the nation-state and the end of the rights of man’, in The origins of totalitarianism. New ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, pp. 267–302.
-
Agamben, G. (1998)
Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. Available at:
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1519297.
-
-
Perugini, N. and Gordon, N. (2015)
The human right to dominate. New York: Oxford University Press. Available at:
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199365012.001.0001.
-
Erakat, N. (2019) Justice for Some. Stanford University Press.
-
Pappé, I. (2015) ‘The forgotten victims of the Palestine ethnic cleansing’, in Richard Ratcliffe and Sophie Richter-Devroe (eds)
The Naqab Bedouin and colonialism: new perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 57–67. Available at:
http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315766461/chapters/10.4324/9781315766461-3.
-
-
Anna Haebich (2016) ‘Neoliberalism, settler colonialism and the history of indigenous child removal in Australia’,
Australian Indigenous Law Review, 19(1). Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26423300.
-
Barta, T. (2008) ‘Sorry, and not sorry, in Australia: how the apology to the stolen generations buried a history of genocide’,
Journal of Genocide Research, 10(2), pp. 201–214. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520802065438.
-
-
Taussig, M.T. (1986) Shamanism, colonialism, and the wild man: a study in terror and healing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
-
Vista de Indigenizando el derecho internacional y descolonizando el antropoceno: genocidio ecológico y nación indígena en la Colombia contemporánea (no date). Available at:
https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/maguare/article/view/86199/75125.
-
-
Chandran Kukathas (2021) ‘Equality’, in
Immigration and Freedom. Princeton University Press, pp. 87–124. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/reader.action?docID=6425531&ppg=104.
-
Jones, R. (2016) Violent borders: refugees and the right to move. London: Verso.
-
-
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Group presentation |
|
25% |
| Coursework |
Research Paper |
|
75% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Prof Colin Samson, email: samsc@essex.ac.uk.
Prof Colin Samson
socpgtad@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
Yes
Prof Benjamin Bradford
University College London
Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 36 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
18 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
18 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.