Current Anthropological Research: Ocean Anthropology
Undergraduate course
- ECTS credits
- 10
- Teaching semesters
- Autumn
- Course code
- SANT285-13
- Number of semesters
- 1
- Teaching language
- English
- Resources
- Schedule
Course description
Objectives and Content
This course gives a comprehensive introduction to a specific area of contemporary anthropological investigation. Current research trends and recent theoretical developments are explored through critical discussions with emphasis on anthropology's evolving engagement with the selected field. The course offers a unique opportunity to be acquainted with diverse aspects - methodological, epistemological and theoretical - of the research process, aspects that lie at the very basis of anthropological analysis and practice, and of ethnographic production.
Course theme autumn 2024
The ocean is currently emerging as both a site of contemporary climate and biodiversity crisis, and as a space of hope for addressing and remedying these. While ocean science has typically been dominated by natural sciences, the social sciences and humanities have advanced their own theories and methods for studying the ocean(s).
This interdisciplinary course will provide in-depth understanding of how social scientists and humanities scholars are approaching the ocean, with a particular focus on anthropological perspectives. What does anthropology look like at sea? How are human relationships with sea creatures changing at a time of climate crisis? How can oceans be understood as social and cultural, as well as biological, spaces?
We will discuss how the ocean can be approached as a material as well as an imaginative entity. You will learn key theoretical concepts for thinking about what the ocean is and does (and for whom) from a wide array of perspectives, such as the Anthropocene, feminist, queer, and indigenous perspectives, and extractivism at sea. Particular attention will be paid to the multispecies/more-than-human dimensions of the ocean.
The course will also address methodological considerations about doing ethnographic fieldwork with and at sea, as well as exploring how we, as how social scientists and humanities scholars, can work interdisciplinarity and learn from those with different expertise, for example biologists and ecologists.
The course will also include one or two field trips in or near Bergen.
Learning Outcomes
A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence.
The student will be able to:
Knowledge
- provide an overview of the topic addressed in the course, with particular reference to its history and associated theoretical and methodological debates in social anthropology
Skills
- explain the current state-of-art of research in the field of study addressed in the course
- explain the various methodological and theoretical considerations that must be taken in order to further develop the field of study
General competence
- apply key concepts and perspectives from the course and its field of study independently, in the understanding and analysis of local and global processes
- apply an understanding of the correlation and difference between empirical data, theory and analysis in text production
ECTS Credits
Level of Study
Semester of Instruction
Required Previous Knowledge
Recommended Previous Knowledge
Credit Reduction due to Course Overlap
Access to the Course
Teaching and learning methods
Lectures/seminars. May also include field trip and/or presentations
2-4 hours per week 5-10 weeks, 12-16 hours in total
Compulsory Assignments and Attendance
Forms of Assessment
8 hours school exam
The exam will be given in the language in which the course is taught. The exam can be submitted in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.