Prospectus

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Nation, Community, Self: Questions of Culture in South and Southeast Asia

Course
2024-2025

Admission requirements

None

Description

This course introduces students to the contemporary cultures of South and Southeast Asia and their historical trajectories. The course is arranged as a series of connected themes which are discussed from South and Southeast Asian perspectives as well as comparatively. We address matters cultural that are relevant to nations, communities, and individuals in these regions by unpacking the concepts of culture, public, everyday life, civil society, elites and subaltern, and center and periphery. The series of lectures that follows is devoted to the analysis of questions of heritage, religion, gender, caste, class, diaspora, climate change, memory, and the cultural policies of states and institutions, and how these relate to cultural politics in South and Southeast Asia. We also investigate the relationship between culture and forces such as modernity, nationalism, and globalization in South and Southeast Asia.

Course objectives

  • knowledge of and insight into important cultural domains in contemporary South and Southeast Asia and the historical trajectory of their evolution

  • knowledge of and critical insights into debates about culture in general and with regard to South and Southeast Asia

  • development of analytical skills and writing skills regarding questions of culture by means of critical analysis of scholarly studies and contemporary events in South and Southeast Asia

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

  • Lectures

Assessment method

Assessment

The course is assessed in two ways:

  1. A mid-term assignment (a take-home essay or open-book test, TBA) about the course readings, to be submitted at a determined point during the lecture course.
  2. A written examination consisting of essay-type questions.

In order to pass the course, students must obtain an overall mark of “5.50” (=6) or higher.

Weighing

  • Mid-term assignment: 40% of the overall mark

  • Written examination: 60% of the overall mark

Resit

An exam resit is possible only for element 2 (Written examination). The course is an integrated whole. The final examination and the assignments must be completed in the same academic year. No partial marks can be carried over into following years.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

A reading list to be announced later. The readings must be studied prior to the class in question.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr

Remarks

None