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Course Title:
Violence and Social Suffering
Anthropology/Cultural
Formations 1321
Fall 2008 Thursdays 2-4:50
Dr. Nia Parson
Assistant Professor
Anthropology Department
For further information, students may contact Professor Parson
via e-mail at nparson@smu.edu.
Brief Course Description
Even a quick glance at today’s newspaper will reveal how common
violence is to human experience: you may easily see articles on
genocide in Darfur, torture in Guantanamo Bay, gang violence,
and women killed and raped in peace and wartime. What makes this
violence possible? In this course we will explore this central
question. In the process, we will think about how we view and
portray others’ suffering.
Texts
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Biehl,
Joćo. 2004. Vita: Life
in a Zone of Social Abandonment. University of
California Press.
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Linda Green. 1999. Fear
as a Way of Life: Mayan Widows in Rural Guatemala.
Columbia University Press.
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Bourgois, Philippe. 2003.
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
Cambridge University Press.
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Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and
Philippe Bourgois Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology
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Das, Veena; Arthur Kleinman;
Mamphela Ramphele; and Pamela Reynolds, eds. 2000
Violence and Subjectivity. University of California
Press.
Seminar Topics:
WEEK 1: REPRESENTING SUFFERING
WEEK 2: BODIES IN PAIN AND TRAUMATIC MEMORIES
WEEK 3-4: VIOLENCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE
WEEK 5: STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
WEEK 6: SOCIAL SUFFERING
WEEK 7: GENDERED VIOLENCE
WEEK 8: INTIMATE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
WEEK 9: FEMICIDE
WEEK 10 & 11: STATE VIOLENCE AND GENOCIDE
WEEK 12: WAR
WEEK 13: WAR
WEEK 14: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS |
