ANTH40S15: The Anthropocene and Multispecies Anthropology (Advanced)

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• To explore anthropological approaches to the environment and human and other-than-human (animals, plants, microbes, etc.) worlds.
• To develop a critical understanding of how anthropology approaches human and other-than-human coevolution, relations, and companionship.
• To apply these perspectives to exploring the origins and lived experiences of the Anthropocene among humans and other-than-humans.

• An introduction to the Anthropocene as a historical phenomenon, a scholarly concept, its social and political affordances, and its manifestations in the world around us
• An introduction to multispecies anthropology and human-wildlife interaction from the perspective of different subfields of anthropology
• An introduction to economic, social, political, and environmental origins and contexts of human-wildlife interaction, collaboration, and conflict
• Exploration of the ways in which agriculture, urbanisation, deforestation, and pollution are altering human and other-than-human habitats, with consequences for, inter alia, species survival, health and disease
• Exploration of the ways in which the Anthropocene and multispecies anthropology challenge human-centred accounts of human and other-than-human evolution, persons, societies, and lifeways
• Exploration of the ways in which theoretical models and ideas drawn from evolutionary biology, ecology, and social anthropology (e.g. complex adaptive systems, niche construction, entanglement, assemblage) may provide opportunities for interdisciplinary understanding of the Anthropocene.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Anthropological approaches to the Anthropocene as a scholarly concept and potential geological epoch or event.
• Intellectual meanings and opportunities that derive from multispecies perspectives for anthropology and its subfields.
• Distinctive contributions from anthropology on non-Western understandings of human/non-human relationships.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to read and understand contributions to the Anthropocene and multispecies anthropology from different subfields and neighbouring disciplines.
• Critical assessment of arguments and evidence from subfields of anthropology concerned with the Anthropocene, multispecies relations, and human-wildlife relations.
• Synthesis of arguments and evidence from subfields of anthropology towards an understanding of the Anthropocene and multispecies relations.

Key Skills:

• Library research
• Presentation skills (through tutorial presentations)
• Independent research and literature review (summative assignment)
• Teamwork (through small group work exercises)
• Critical thinking and analytical skills: interpretation of primary and secondary data and critical discussion of arguments, theory, data, methods (summative assignment)

• The module will be taught through lectures and seminars, introducing and exploring key contents, subject knowledge, and subject skills.
• Teaching and learning materials will include academic and non-academic publications, including research monographs, articles, online resources, and visual and audio media (films, photographs, podcasts, etc.).
• Seminar participation and completion of formative and summative assignments will provide opportunities to practice and assess knowledge and skills acquired.
• Self-directed study using key and further readings, plus students own research, will complement and extend teaching provided by staff.
• The summative written assignment will draw from lectures, work completed during seminars, and students self-directed study.
• The formative component will involve a preliminary drafting of the summative assignment.

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