Current Anthropological Research: Anthropology of Displacement

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.

"Displacement," in popular and academic accounts alike, is widely associated with refugees and the act of fleeing one's home owing to violence. This course, however, suggests that dis-place-ment conveys much more widely human experiences. These include the meaning of place; home, safety, and belonging; the search for roots and origins; and how experiences of rupture impact people's capacities to thrive.

Anthropological work, with its focus on lived experience, provides a particularly powerful entry point from which to explore nuances of how people do (and do not) belong. The course will introduce students to key theoretical and ethnographic approaches to the study of place and what it means to be dis-placed. Topics explored will include, among others: nations and nationhood; borders governance and border crossing; law and illegality; place and place-making; displacement in place; and what it means to build flourish lives and communities in times of social and economic crisis.

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 in-depth knowledge 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
• assess critically 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 and critically analyze the correlation and difference between observation, empirical data, interpretation, theory and analysis in text production
• discuss the potential for applying perspectives from the course in their own research project