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ANTH40D15: Advanced Studies in Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainable Livelihoods

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Open
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Not available in 2024/2025
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Anthropology

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • Equip students with an advanced in-depth understanding of poverty, food security and nutrition in a global context
  • Develop advanced critical knowledge about how food environment, geo-spatial inequalities, and wider determinants of health affect food security, wellbeing, and nutritional status
  • Develop advanced understanding of variable context between global North and South

Content

  • The module will have an interdisciplinary approach of integrating anthropological and public health perspectives to discuss problems relating to food security, nutrition, unhealthy diets, food environments, geo-spatial inequality, and sustainable livelihood framework. The topics will include analysis of global food and nutrition security, sustainable development goals, wider determinants of health, and neighbourhood effects on health and wellbeing. Furthermore, vulnerability contexts, responses and impact of food insecurity in relation to global North and South will be discussed. Readings on this module will include quantitative and qualitative studies, documents from UN organisations, such as the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), CONCERN focusing on broad range of issues around food security, nutrition and sustainable livelihood with its relevance for global North and South.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Demonstrate advanced levels of knowledge about global food insecurity and malnutrition situation, strengths and weaknesses of various assessment techniques, and approaches to improve food security and nutrition
  • Demonstrate advanced in-depth knowledge about place-based inequality, and wider determinants of health
  • Demonstrate understanding of the conceptual framework of malnutrition
  • Demonstrate ability to understand and interpret child grown standard from theoretical and practical perspectives

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Ability to indentify key literature in topic areas of food security and malnutrition
  • Ability to critically analyse malnutrition and its causes
  • Ability to link malnutrition to the geospacial distribution of poverty and food security
  • Develop advanced analytical skills to critically engage with primary and secondary data and relevant literatures on food insecurity, nutrition and neighbourhood effects on health and wellbeing, and to interpret them

Key Skills:

  • Review and adapt approaches to food security, nutrition, and sustainable livelihoods and their relevance for the global North and South
  • Translating subject knowledge and skills into a research project plan including a rationale for the research and a proposed methodology
  • Developing a written research abstract and PowerPoint presentation

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures covering subject-specific knowledge and skills aimed at developing students knowledge and understanding of theoretical and practical issues in the field of food security, nutrition, and sustainable livelihood approaches
  • Seminars will cover discussion around relevant themes and provide opportunities to discuss further on formative and summative assessments.
  • Formative assessment includes writing an abstract using specified content guidelines and preparing PowerPoint presentation slides to pitch their research project plans. Student will have the opportunity to engage in discussions on this through pre-arranged face-to-face/ Teams meeting with module tutor.
  • Summative assessment includes producing a critical reading log and developing a research project proposal. Students will be required to keep a reading log of relevant materials which will help them to prepare the research project proposal. Detailed guideline on these will be provided in the Learn Ultra site of the module, which will include information about suggested essential and optional contents and structure for both the reading log and proposal. Students will also be able to seek further clarification from module tutor as needed.
  • The module Blackboard Learn Ultra site will provide guidance about preparing formative and summative assessment, marking criteria ensuring all relevant information are available and students will be able to seek further clarification as needed.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lecture10Weekly1 hour10 
Workshop/Seminar/Role Play5Fortnightly1 hour5 
Preparation and Reading135 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: CourseworkComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Research project proposal2500 words80 
Critical reading log1000 words20 

Formative Assessment

A 300 word abstract and presentation slides (5-10 slides) about an outline of the proposed research project.

More information

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