SC920-7-SP-CO:
Colonialism, Cultural Diversity and Human Rights
2020/21
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Current
Sunday 17 January 2021
Friday 26 March 2021
20
29 June 2020
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
MA L31112 Migration Studies,
MSC L31124 Migration Studies
This interdisciplinary module will survey a range of social processes that have a bearing on contemporary controversies surrounding human rights. It will address how colonialism, racism and cultural domination continue to influence human rights are enjoyed and exercised unequally, and indeed may be inapplicable to many social groups in certain contexts. We will be looking at colonialism as a source of human rights problems both in the past and present, analysing how imposed social, cultural and political processes have undermined local uniqueness and cultural distinctiveness. We will tie these to contemporary economic and political issues such as racial injustice, cultural erasure, forced displacement and migration. The module will also expose students to classic texts by Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Michael Taussig. These will be combined with discussions of specific international situations such as the Algerian anticolonial revolution, the creation of refugees in Europe and the Americas, walls and borders in Europe and Palestine, terror and resource extraction in South America, the race for remaining fossil fuels in the Far North of Canada, the forced removal of Aboriginal children in Australia, and the continuing 'War on Terror.'
The module aims to provide students with a broad sociological and anthropological understanding of the factors that have a bearing on the unequal exercise of human rights today.
Students will know about the colonialism as a major factor pertinent to human rights today, and they will be able to understand how these play out in specific contexts in the Americas, the Middle East and Europe.
Please note that assessment information is currently showing for 2019-20 and will be updated in September.
Film screenings include:
'Battle of Algiers' about the Algerian resistance
'Bengal Shadows' on the famine caused by British colonial administration of India
'Concerning Violence', is inspired by Fanon's account of decolonization throughout Africa
'Burden of Dreams' the account of film director, Werner Herzog's Amazonian adventure
'Route 181' on the Israel Palestine border
'Rabbit Proof Fence' on the Australian Aborigine stolen generations
'Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner' on looking at the world as Inuit
'Standard Operating Procedure' on Abu Ghraib
'De Nadie' about the journeys of Central Americans to the US border
As well as seminars, we will also have separate programme of film screenings of significant feature films and documentaries that will add visual and aesthetic dimensions to our understandings of contemporary conflicts over rights around the world. Students will be asked to commit to a group presentation on a relevant film.
- Frantz Fanon. (1967, c1965) A dying colonialism, New York: Grove Press.
- Lazreg, Marnia. (c2008) 'Conscience, imperial identity and torture', in Torture and the twilight of empire: from Algiers to Baghdad, Princeton: Princeton University Press., pp.173-190
- (no date) 'And There'll Be NO Dancing' : Perspectives on Policies Impacting Indigenous Australia Since 2007.
- Trotta, Margarethe von; Sukowa, Barbara; Milberg, Axel. (2013) Hannah Arendt, New York: Zeitgeist Films.
- Bollain, Icíar; Tosar, Luis; García Bernal, Gael. (c2012) Even the rain, [U.K.]: Dogwoof. vol. 272
- 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
- Samson Colin. (2017) 'The Idea of Progress, Industrialization, and the Replacement of Indigenous Peoples : The Muskrat Falls Megadam Boondoggle', in The Idea of Progress, Industrialization, and the Replacement of Indigenous Peoples : The Muskrat Falls Megadam Boondoggle. (150) , pp.1-26
- Fanon, Frantz; Philcox, Richard. (2004) The wretched of the earth, New York: Grove Press.
- Banerjee, Joy; Battacharya, Partho. (2017) Bengal shadows: a film, [France]: Petite-terre.
- Noyce, Phillip; Sampi, Everlyn; Sansbury, Tianna; Monaghan, Laura; Lawford, Ningali; Branagh, Kenneth; Pilkington, Doris; Gulpilil. (2013) Rabbit-proof fence, [Australia]: Miramax.
- Dirdamal, Tin. (2007) De nadie =: Border crossing, Van Nuys, CA: Amigo Films.
- Samson, Colin. (2020) The colonialism of human rights: ongoing hypocrisies of western liberalism, Medford, MA: Polity.
- Arendt, Hannah. (1976) 'The decline of the nation-state and the end of the rights of man', in The origins of totalitarianism, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich., pp.267-302
- Samson, Colin. (2020) 'The Uneasy Present of Colonialism', in The colonialism of human rights: ongoing hypocrisies of western liberalism, Cambridge: Polity.
- Damien Short. (2016) Redefining genocide: settler colonialism, social death and ecocide, London: Zed Books Ltd.
- (no date) Concerning Violence (2014).
- (no date) Rabbit Proof Fence (2011).
- (no date) Salt of This Sea: 2010.
- Pappé, Ilan. (2015) 'The forgotten victims of the Palestine ethnic cleansing', in The Naqab Bedouin and colonialism: new perspectives, Abingdon: Routledge. vol. Routledge studies on the Arab-Israeli conflict, pp.57-67
- Césaire, Aimé. (c2000) 'Discourse on Colonialism', in Discourse on colonialism, New York: Monthly Review Press., pp.31-78
- Pontecorvo, Gillo; Haggiag, Brahim; Martin, Jean; Saadi, Yacef. (2003) The battle of Algiers, [England?]: Argent Films.
- Stefanie Affeldt. (no date) '»Who are the Aborigines?« Western Images of Indigenous Australians', in ›And there'll be NO dancing‹. Perspectives on Policies Impacting Indigenous Australia since 2007.
- Orwell, George. (1962, c1957) 'Shooting an elephant', in Inside the whale: and other essays, Harmondsworth: Penguin., pp.91-99
- Valeria Luiselli. (2017) Tell Me How It Ends.
- Perugini, Nicola; Gordon, Neve. (©2015) The human right to dominate, New York: Oxford University Press.
- Agamben, Giorgio. (1998) Homo sacer: Sovereign power and bare life, Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.
- Ollson, Göran Hugo; Hill, Lauryn; Fanon, Frantz. (2014) Concerning violence: nine scenes from the anti-imperialistic self-defense, London: Dogwoof.
- (no date) Bengal Shadows (Joy Banerjee and Partho Battacharya, 2017).
- Washington, John. (2020) The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum and the US-Mexican Border and Beyond, London: Verso.
- Bollain, Icíar. (2010) Even The Rain.
- (no date) HANNAH ARENDT.
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 |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Essay |
|
80% |
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.
Dr Colin Samson
Michele Hall, Graduate Administrator, Telephone 01206 873051, Email: socpgadm@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
Prof Paul Stretesky
The University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Professor of Criminology
Prof Benjamin Bradford
University College London
Professor
Available via Moodle
Of 724 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
724 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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