Course description
• Thesis 15,000 words (50 points)
• One compulsory subject (12.5 points)
• At least two core subjects (12.5 points)
• One elective subject from those listed (12.5 points)
Thesis subject
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-510 Anthropology & Social Theory Thesis
An independent research project on a topic to be approved by the course coordinator and under the supervision of a member of the academic staff. Semester 1, Semester 2 50
Compulsory subject
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-409 Philosophy and Scope of Anthropology
This subject aims to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of contemporary research concerns in social and cultural anthropology. Through the critical and comparative reading of anthropological texts, students should not only become fam... Semester 1 12.50
Core subjects
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-445 Reading Anthropology
This is a special study based on intensive reading selected from teaching interests within the program covering a subject not already taken or extending knowledge within a subject already studied. This subject should facilitate the student's pow... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
121-446 Explanation and Understanding
This subject focuses on the skills entailed in qualitative research projects that seek to understand and explain social and cultural phenomena. It introduces students to various approaches to socio-cultural research and their ethical and methodologic... Semester 1 12.50
136-430 Theories of Modernity
In this subject images of the 'city', 'progress', 'the public' and 'the nation' will be used to establish some of the features of modernity. The way modernity is understood will also be explored through various... Semester 1 12.50
136-431 Imagined Societies
This subject critically engages with questions regarding the place of subjectivity in the constitution and organisation of social and political relations, at both the theoretical and empirical levels. It involves the study of political subjectivities... Semester 2 12.50
136-532 Reading Texts in Social Theory
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
Elective subjects
Subject Semester Credit Points
121-415 Migrancy, Home and Exile
The accelerated speed, frequency and commonality of the movement of people through space is an increasingly ubiquitous feature of the modern world. Consequently, migration studies has developed as an established field of enquiry, encompassing discipl... Semester 2 12.50
121-491 Directed Study in Anthropology
This subject involves intensive reading and/or research in a field of ethnological study and/or an area of topical concern not covered by other subjects available. The course of study may include an appropriate subject offered in another program. Stu... Semester 1, Semester 2 12.50
121-493 Debates in Anthropology and Development
This subject is devoted to an examination of recent theoretical developments and controversies within anthropology and development studies. Each year an important issue that has occasioned debate within the discipline will be examined in detail. Stud... Semester 2 12.50
131-432 Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective
This subject surveys recent developments in feminist theory and feminist methodology within a cross-cultural context. It explores issues involved in present-day debates about feminist epistemology and knowledge, including debates surrounding the rela... Semester 1 12.50
131-547 Rethinking Rights and Global Development
This subject explores the theoretical and political issues surrounding ideas of rights and human rights, with special reference to the development process within the contemporary globalising order. It draws on recent critical, feminist and other (re)... Semester 2 12.50
136-432 The Critical Imagination
This subject explores the three currents that social and critical theorising grows out of: the Enlightenment, revolutionary tradition and romanticism. It critically assesses these currents through an examination of the works of key classical critical... Semester 2 12.50
106-423 Romanticism and Modernity
This subject offers an introduction to romanticism as a paradigmatic discourse of modernity, with particular emphasis on questions of gender, aesthetics and subjectivity. It also examines aspects of the role played by the ideology and discourse of ro... Semester 2 12.50
106-432 Cultural Studies in Asia
This subject will not be available in 2009 12.50
161-431 Recent European Philosophy
This subject involves a study of one or more key texts and themes in 20th century European philosophy. Students completing the subject should have achieved a critical understanding of the texts and themes discussed and be able to relate them to conte... Semester 1 12.50
