New modules for 2018-19: The Anthropological Imagination and Investigating Social Issues

We are excited to be launching two new modules for the first year students who will be joining us in September 2018. The new modules are Investigating Social Issues and The Anthropological Imagination.

Investigating Social Issues will introduce students to a range of challenges facing societies. The content will reflect current events and social problems that are shaping political, media, and sociological concerns. Topics will include: elites and globalisation; environmental issues; media fragmentation in a post-truth age; the impact of smartphones for the self and personal relationships; the consequences of platform capitalism; and the world of work in precarious times. We will be looking at how a sociological perspective helps us to understand the connections between personal experience and wider social, economic, political and technological changes. The module will draw on a range of sources from academic books and articles to podcasts, short films and documentaries. 

The Anthropological Imagination will give students insights into diverse cultures across the globe including the world of narcotics, cartels and gang violence in Mexico and Columbia; witchcraft in the Sudan; the culture of policing in South Africa; an investigation of Japanese hostess clubs; and the politics of environmental disaster and heatwaves in Chicago. Using a range of classic and contemporary texts, we examine what an anthropological approach brings to the study of social relationships and life today. 

More details about our undergraduate degrees can be found here and details of our open days are here.  

The impact of media on asylum seekers' sense of belonging

Dr Siobhan Holohan, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, recently spoke at the Social Media and Society Conference held in Copenhagen between 18-21 July. The paper, titled ‘Negotiating citizenship: social media use among asylum seekers in the UK’, presented findings from a BA/Leverhulme funded project (with Dr Natalie Soleiman) that seeks to examine how asylum seekers make sense of media discourses about immigration against their precarious citizenship status. Preliminary analysis of the findings suggests that while people in the asylum system are aware of the stigmatising narratives surrounding immigration contained in much mainstream media, they can offset or sometimes transform these discourses via ‘active research’ on social media. By taking charge of the way that they use media, our participants are able to mitigate the effects that dominant discourses about asylum seekers may have on their sense of belonging in the UK. The paper is part of a series of dissemination events from the project, which will conclude with a one-day workshop at Keele University in May 2019.