Summer Semester 2022

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Dominik Müller

Time and Place: Thursday 16:15 – 17:45, Kochstraße 4, 05.052, (jointly with Sociology)

Synopsis: This course offers students an introductory overview of social and political dynamics in various Southeast Asian states, grounded primarily in literature from the discipline of Cultural Anthropology, alongside additional readings from Sociology, and interdisciplinary Area Studies. The main focus is placed on Malay-speaking Southeast Asia, i.e. Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The course enables students to learn foundational regional expertise while simultaneously examining diverse theoretical and methodological approached that have been developed or applied in scholarship in Southeast Asia. No prior knowledge of the region or its languages is required, but students are encouraged to consider participating in a Malay/Indonesian language course (interested . students can contact the lecturer or the SDAC program coordinator for consultation/assistance).

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Stéphanie Homola

Time and Place: Monday 14:15 – 17:45, the course is going to take place every two weeks (Starting from May 2nd); SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: This lecture in comparative anthropology will address and question the so-called opposition between “Western individualism” and “Chinese collectivism” which is often put forward in literature on decision-making. To do so, we will analyze the roots of Chinese identity and the status of personhood in China. The course will introduce classical studies by Chinese sociologist and anthropologist Fei Xiaotong on social organization in China. We will also rely on more recent works about the issue of morality in contemporary China by anthropologist Yan Yunxiang as well as about the art of social networking (guanxi). In order to give a broader picture of the classical opposition between “the West” and “the East”, the course will also take into account non-Western and non-Asian worldviews and present the structuralist approach of anthropologist Philippe Descola.

Lecturer: Dr. Alexander Horstmann

Time and Place: Thursday 14:15 – 16:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: On first sight, emotions seem to have no place in court proceedings. However, actual court proceedings proof otherwise. Especially, the reports of witnesses speak to the emotions of the prosecutors and the public at large. The discourse in the court thus communicates with public transcripts in many ways. The Research Course addresses new and exciting research on the presence and absence of emotions and affection in court ethnography. It examines the imminent power of affective language, discourse in the context of neutrality and legal professionalism. It argues that the cases proceeded in the course bring to light and center-stage structural violence and tensions in society: The court room is the central stage for negotiating, debating, and contesting contemporary senses of injustice. It is thus extremely vital for democratic society that the court is willing and able to recognize the grievances of victims without compromising the ethical standards of the court. We will use an emerging literature on affective societies (Bens et al 2019) and apply the concepts on case-studies. The course is open for all interested students of the SDAC Master´s Program. On first sight, emotions seem to have no place in court proceedings. However, actual court proceedings proof otherwise. Especially, the reports of witnesses speak to the emotions of the prosecutors and the public at large. The discourse in the court thus communicates with public transcripts in many ways. The Research Course addresses new and exciting research on the presence and absence of emotions and affection in court ethnography. It examines the imminent power of affective language, discourse in the context of neutrality and legal professionalism. It argues that the cases proceeded in the course bring to light and center-stage structural violence and tensions in society: The court room is the central stage for negotiating, debating, and contesting contemporary senses of injustice. It is thus extremely vital for democratic society that the court is willing and able to recognize the grievances of victims without compromising the ethical standards of the court. We will use an emerging literature on affective societies (Bens et al 2019) and apply the concepts on case-studies. The course is open for all interested students of the SDAC Master´s Program.

Literature:

Allen, Tim 2006. Trial justice: the International Criminal Court and the Lord’s Resistance. London: Zed Press.

Bens, Jonas 2020. The Indigenous Paradox. Rights, Sovereignty, and Culture in the Americas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Bens, Jonas, Aletta Diefenbach, Thomas John, Antje Kahl, Hauke Lehmann, Matthias Lüthjohan, Friederike Oberkrome, Hans Roth, Gabriel Scheidecker, Gerhard Thonhauser, Nur Yasemin Ural, Dina Wahba, Robert Walter-Jochum, M. Ragıp Zık 2019. The Politics of Affective Societies. An Interdisciplinary Essay. Bielefeld: transcript.

Bens, Jonas 2018. The courtroom as an affective arrangement: analyzing atmospheres in courtroom ethnography, The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 50:3, 336-355, DOI: 10.1080/07329113.2018.1550313

Clarke, Kamari Maxine 2019. Affective Justice. The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback. Durham: Duke University Press.

Feldman, Ilana, and Miriam Ticktin (eds.). In the Name of Humanity. The Government of Threat and Care. Durham: Duke University Press.

Fowler, Lisa 2018. Doing Loyalty. Defense Lawyer´s Subtle Dramas in the Courtroom. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 47, 2: 226–254.

Nader, Laura 2010. “The Words we Use. Justice, Human Rights, and the Sense of Injustice”. In: Goodale, Marc and Clarke, Kamari M. (eds.). Mirrors of Justice. Law and Power in the Post-Cold War Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 316-332.

Rosen, Lawrence 2006. Law as Culture. An Invitation. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Sands, Philippe Sands 2016. East West Street. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

Lecturer: PD Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Thursday 08:15 – 09:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis:

In southern Thailand, the majority of the population is Muslim, and transvestites and transsexuals have always played a prominent role, especially in the service sector of body modification. Similar historical conditions are found throughout the Malay archipelago. However, in Muslim-majority southern Thailand, queer Muslim*s have not been marginalized by political Islamization processes, as in Malaysia or Indonesia. In Singapore, homosexuality is still punishable by law; at the same time, the city-state has become one of Asia’s gay capitals.

In this class, we will explore what counts as “normal” and what counts as “queer” genders and sexualities in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, this course introduces what role gender, sexuality, gendered division of labor, and role expectations play in the temporal and regional contexts of Southeast Asia. Drawing on anthropological but also interdisciplinary approaches, we will develop a self-critical perspective on the ways in which cultural, social, economic, and/or political conditions influence the lives and everyday practices of queer people and communities. Thus, we will eventually work together on understanding the mutual constitution of queerness and subjectivity and their social and political implications for the deconstruction of stereotypes, power dynamics, and marginalization.

Lecturer: Dr. Dimitri Drettas

Time and Place: Monday 12:15 – 13:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: This course aims to present and examine the variety of ways used, in the context of traditional Chinese culture, to obtain an awareness of possible situations, or events that have yet to occur, in order to facilitate decision-making processes in the personal, political and economic spheres. Those methods all have in common the importance given to historical precedents and their overreliance on divination. In this perspective, decisions concerning everyday life (wedding, travels, healthcare) or the administrative and diplomatic fields (policy making, war and peace) are viewed as singular events whose optimal conditions can be predicted. Mantic practices such as sorting the Yijing 易經 (Book of Changes) hexagrams, dream interpretation, or horoscopy, are recorded in all major works of Chinese historiography as efficient ways to assess the best choice of action. Narratives from the Zuo Tradition or Sima Qian’s Records constitute pattern-setting models of causality in the worldview of traditional culture, which still informs contemporary Chinese society.

Students will be encouraged to apply their analytical skills and critical thinking to explaining the seemingly contradictory coexistence of modern science and processes inherited from premodern culture, and to question the role played by current repositories of tradition such as almanacs. To that effect, they will be introduced to the common principles of traditional knowledge (cosmology and time reckoning), and to some of the most common techniques practiced nowadays, mainly hexagram sorting and “eight characters fortune
telling” (bazi suanming 八字算命). They will be required to familiarize themselves with two essential methodological tools: Claude Lévi-Strauss’ notion of bricolage and Li Ling’s taxonomic work on the set of practices known as “recipes and techniques” (fangshu 方術). The impact of traditional foreknowledge on modern decision-making will be studied through the recurrent coverage, in the Chinese media, of the use of traditional prediction in electoral and commercial strategies, branding and spatial planning, leading to an observation on the relation between officialdom (guanchang 官場) and the necessity to orient oneself in the maze of social life.

Students attending this class will gain an understanding of the cultural background of decision-making in China which will allow them to identify, contextualize and evaluate the rhetoric surrounding official decisions in the Chinese media and political discourse. Moreover, students will be able to recognize the implicit application of traditional methods used to gain knowledge of the invisible, be it actualized or not.

Lecturer: Dr. Dimitri Drettas

Time and Place: TBA

Synopsis: This course aims to provide students with the skills required to identify, interpret and evaluate arguments, defined as the reasoning offered in support of claims encountered in speech and writing, from academic publications to political discourses and media reports. Understanding the distinction between opinions, proto-arguments and arguments, being able to analyze argument construction and to recognize basic logical fallacies, will help students avoid common rhetorical traps and elaborate sounder arguments. The book, Logical Self-Defense, by Blair & Johnson (1994), will be used as main manual throughout the course, which will focus on the first two sections, “The Basic Tools” and “Fallacies”, and parts of section IV, “Advanced Argumentation”. A selection of the exercises ending each chapter will be discussed with the class. Besides, selected passages from Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995) will be proposed for student presentations and additional discussion focusing on the application of the principles developed in the manual to the fields of parascience and skeptical inquiry. There will be occasional references to another classical handbook, Robert H. Ennis’ Critical Thinking (1996). All reading material will be distributed by the instructor in PDF format or in print, when required.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Dominik Müller

Time and Place: Wednesday 16:15 – 17:45, Kochstraße 4 05.013, (jointly with Sociology)

Synopsis: This course introduces students to the field of Legal Anthropology and acquaints them with some key concepts and debates that have shaped the field during the past three decades. It also includes literature from broader Socio-Legal Studies and addresses increasingly outdated forms of boundary-making between the Anthropology of Law and the Sociology of Law. A particular focus during some of the course sessions is placed on the methodological genre of “courtroom ethnography”, for which the students will read and discuss case studies from across the world (including e.g. Malay-speaking Southeast Asia, the United States, Western Europe, and comprising religious as well as secular courts). Another thematic block is dedicated to the controversial concept of “Legal Culture” in order to explore its advantages, limitations and contested meanings.

Lecturer: Dr. Alexander Horstmann

Time and Place: Wednesday 10:15 – 11:45, SDAC Seminar room

Synopsis: Actors, Strategies, and resources: Global Impact of the Chinese Belt and Road project. This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the global impact of one of world’s biggest development and modernization projects: the Chinese Belt and Road project. Connecting China with the world through infrastructure, the project has raised aspirations, but also scepticism regarding the impact on politics, economy, livelihood, and environment. The course will focus on the actors, strategies, and resources of the project to gain a deeper understanding of the project´s impact on different societies.

Rippa, Alessandro 2020. Borderland Infrastructures. Trade, Development, and Control in Western China. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Lecturer(s): Prof. Dr. Dominik Müller / Guest Lecturers

Time and Place: Monday, 18:15 – 19:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: The SDAC Guest Lecture Series offers students of the Elite Graduate Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures” the opportunity to learn about cutting edge research from distinguished scholars of socioculturally oriented decision-making studies from across the world. Guests include university-based researchers from a range of disciplines alongside practitioners working at the intersections of academic research and applied decision-making.

Lecturer(s): PD Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Tuesday 14:15 – 17:45, this course is going to take place every two weeks, date of first session: 26th of April, 2022, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: Since the 2000s, the assumption that the world is moving in a constant flux due to globalization processes has been spreading in social and academic discussions. This narrative was institutionalized two decades ago by the “Mobilities Studies.” In this field, it is assumed that our world is characterized by movements of people, ideas, ideologies and goods across regions and nation-states (e.g. in the form of migration, tourism or pilgrimage) and that this process cannot be stopped by developments in infrastructures and technologies. How can this theoretical and corresponding empirical approach be evaluated?

Current approaches of transnationalism research (as part of migration studies) provide a theoretical basis for understanding the (simultaneous) life of people across national borders. They also focus on power- and violence-filled mobility regimes that stop people and resources at borders instead of letting them flow through. In this sense, mobility remains a resource whose access is determined by socio-structural positioning in society. Both strands of research – mobilities studies and transnationalism research – are thus interrelated, both with their objects of investigation and with their analytical assumptions and findings, moving between the theorization of possibilities and limits of human mobilities. In what contexts do different approaches to the same object of inquiry emerge? How is the production of certain narratives tied to powerful interpretive sovereignties, but also to social consequences?

In this class, we will use current phenomena of transnational mobilities to explore how the theoretical foundations of mobilities studies and transnationalism research are characterized and, furthermore, how critiques and debates in research relate to each other. In this way, we will acquire how we ourselves, on the basis of anthropological ways of understanding, can put different theoretical approaches into a reflective relationship with each other. The aim is to be able to critically situate scientific texts in power-imposed contexts that contribute to the standardization of ideas and approaches, and to learn to critically reflect on these processes using anthropological tools.

Lecturer: Dr. Sven Grundman

Time and Place: Thursday 12:15 – 13:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis:This course provides an introduction into the research on decision-making processes in complex governance systems. In the first part we focus on comparative political science. Through a systematic study and comparison of different types of government and political systems, we will gain a better understanding of political institutions, constitutions, the public sphere, and internal power relations. In the second part we examine the multi-level governance system of the European Union and take a closer look on the relationship between the European Union on the one hand and the People´s Republic of China on the other hand. You will learn how to analyse diverse political regime types and be able to reflect critically on the challenges of EU-China relations.

Lecturer: Anna Schneider

Time and Place: Wednesday 14:15 – 15:45, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: Health does not only have a direct impact on quality of life but also on multiple levels of everyday decision-making. An individual’s health status and health behavior influences their lifestyle and mediates opportunities in their personal and career life, as well as being closely intertwined with their self-perception and identity.

This seminar provides an overview of sociological understandings of health, illness, and health care. Following the biosocial turn, we will examine inequalities in health, illness, and related institutions, while focusing especially on the question of gendered experiences in illness prevention, prevalence, diagnosis, and therapy. The field of gender medicine, serving as a response to the gender health gap, takes underlying biological and social differences of all genders into account and advocates a more personalized, biosocial approach to medical issues. Expending on that approach, will explore how masculinity, feminity, and non-binary genders are shaped by health and in turn shape concepts of health.

Decisions about matters of health are made on various levels and constrain the options and resources of the indivdual. In most cases, health is not only an individual responsibility but one shared by various decision-makers. Consequently, we will analyze multi-level medical decision-making, including pharmaceutical politics, doctor-patient handling in medical institutions, as well as the effect of social structures and contexts. Finally, we will raise questions about health-related intersectionality, stigmatization, and identity.