Winter Semester 2022/2023

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Wed. 8:00 – 10:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] In this course we equip ourselves to engage in anthropological research on and in the contemporary. It is designed as a lecture by the professor on the one hand and empirical exercises done by the students on the other. A series of questions will orient us through the semester. How do we do anthropology today? Who do we have to be to do it? With what tools and tactics should we proceed? And what do we hope to achieve? Anthropology here is a science and a vocation, and in our study and practice of its methods we will bring together concern with the epistemological (the tools scholars have available to produce anthropological knowledge, as well as the crafting of new ones); the ontological (discerning or determining anthropological objects); and the ethical (the ways in which we as well as our interlocutors become subjects capable of accessing knowledge, and have relations with others and the things around us).

Students will gain experience with core methods through fieldwork and interview exercises. You will work on ethnographic fieldnotes, conducting and analyzing interviews and interview transcription. As the training of “doing ethnography” is a constant and complex process, these exercises can serve as the empirical basis for an ethnographic project that can be directly preliminary to or the beginning of actual thesis research.

Lecturer: Anna Schneider, MA

Time and Place: Mon. 10:00 – 12:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] This seminar is designed to help you develop your skills in both academic reading and writing. The course will not follow a fixed course structure but adapt to the needs of the participating students. Additionally, there will be plenty of time for independent work and consultation as well. The resources and consultation provided are meant to assist you individually, whether you need tips for improving your understanding of academic texts, a way to get your writing started, or help during the writing process. Possible topics include reading techniques, critical reading, writing fluency, research skills for writing, writing structure, etc. Students should expect to actively engage in class discussions, reading assignments, drafting and revision of writing, as well as peer exchanges of writing and group work. Additionally, there will be opportunities to receive individual consultation and feedback from the teacher.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Viola Thimm & Anna Schneider, MA

Time and Place: SDAC Guest Lecture Series: Mon. 18:00 – 20:00, hybrid format , SDAC Workshop: TBA

Synopsis: [Lecture] The SDAC Guest Lecture Series offers students 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.

The Workshop Series goes beyond the classes taught in the framework of SDAC and provides the students with insights from practitioners and selected scholars. Some of the sessions will have the character of workshops, where students can develop and train new sets of skills. Other sessions will introduce the students to new fields of applied research and the frontier of scientific development.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Time: Tue. 18:00 – 20:00, Place: TBA

Synopsis: [Lecture] The SDAC program maintains a strong partnership with CAS-E (the Center for Advanced Studies – Erlangen) and IKGF (the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities “Fate, Freedom and Prognostication”) at FAU. In this framework, scholars present their ongoing research during the Lecture Series. Students are strongly encouraged to attend these lectures to get insight into the academic world and get into contact with international scholars.

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Farish A. Noor

Time and Place: Tue. 16:00 – 18:00, PSG A 402 (Bismarckstraße 1)

Synopsis: [Lecture] How does language work, and how is language used by political and religio-political movements in particular? The aim of this course is to give a general introduction to Discourse Analysis, and in particular the ideas of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). The course will be divided into two parts: In the first half of the course we will look at the development of the theory of language-use and meaning, beginning from the Socratic method of Socrates/Plato, all the way to the theories of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Hume, and culminating with the analytical philosophy of Russell and the rules of logic as elaborated by Frege. The core of the course will focus on the works of Wittgenstein, notably his two books The Tractatus (1921) and The Philosophical Investigations (1953). The second part of the course will look at how various political and religio-political parties, movements and organisations have articulated their respective ideological positions through specific forms of language-use. In this part of the course we will be looking at speeches, political campaigns, media and propaganda, and will be applying discourse analysis as a linguistic mapping tool to see and understand how certain words can and have been deployed instrumentally for political purposes by political actors and agents.

At the end of the course, students are expected to:
-use discourse analysis as an effective tool for linguistic mapping and for political analysis;
-understand how certain words/ideas come to occupy pivotal positions in certain ideologies or political trends and movements;
-identify the specific features of different movements in the wider constellation of political actors and agents at any given time.

Lecturer: Dr. Ferdiansyah Thajib

Time and Place: Thu. 10:00 – 12:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Lecture] The aim of this course is to critically examine important issues, questions, and debates regarding how care work which is understood both as a matter of individual fulfilment and fulfilling the needs of others is intersected by gender, sexuality, race, class and other terrains of difference. In earlier parts of the course, we will explore classic conceptualisations of intersectionality and care in feminist, queer and trans perspectives. Next, we will delve into how care work unfolds in and beyond biomedical, intergenerational, transnational and communal settings as well as processes of indigenous healing and decolonial justice. The final session of the course addresses questions and reflections on how care can be practiced in academic knowledge production. Course materials include texts, films, and other multimedia resources drawn from an array of disciplines including anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, critical race theory, history, political theory, and cultural studies. Upon successful completion of this subject, students are expected to:

• familiarity with feminist, queer and trans perspectives in care studies;
• understanding of the conceptual development of intersectionality in care research;
• the ability to critically assess the concepts of care and processes of knowledge production in academia;
• the ability to critically assess research that deploys an intersectional approach to care and;
• research skills that utilize the concepts of intersectionality and care in different anthropological and sociological studies

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Tue. 12:00 – 14:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Lecture] 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: Oleg Vasilchenko

Time and Place: Wed. 14:00 – 16:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Lecture] The concept of “culture” has radically been put into question by many anthropologists and among some representatives of neighboring disciplines. Many categorically oppose the application of “culture” – especially the plural form “cultures” – as an analytic category. This critique has been influential since the 1980s, when the “writing culture debate” unfolded and began to inform various follow-up discussions in the following years. Among the most prominent examples was L. Abu-Lughod’s (1991) plea for “writing against cultures”. However, proponents of these critiques mostly failed to convey their arguments to broader audiences beyond anthropology, post-colonial studies, feminist theory, and anti-racism research. Other disciplines, such as business- and marketing-oriented programs teaching “cultural competence”, often speak about “cultures”, while claiming a right for themselves to authoritatively define, quantify and measure them, and to explain human being’s behavior through culturizing explanatory frameworks. Both types of “culture”-related academic research appear to exist in epistemic worlds far apart from one another. This course introduces SDAC students to some anthropological critiques and enables them to develop their own informed argumentation on whether speaking of “culture(s)” should or should not be sustained.

As a second step, the course delves into the interrelated problem of cultural representation, i.e. the (im-)possibility of speaking and writing adequately about human beings, cultural Others, and other “cultures”. A key topic to be discussed in this regard will be the “representation crisis”, which overlaps with the abovementioned “writing culture debate”, and anthropological responses that seek to deal with this crisis productively.

Finally, the course will turn to the question of anthropological comparison. After reviewing its trajectory dating back to the colonial era, when what colonial scholars imagined as “cultures” where dubiously mapped, measured and in effect produced, we will discuss why early post-colonial anthropology largely gave up comparative research, and on which grounds attempts have been made since the early 2000s to rehabilitate comparison in more nuanced and less epistemologically violent ways.

Lecturer: Dr. Maria Bondes

Time and Place: Mon. 14:00 – 16:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] Political Sciences – This course introduces students to the co-called “dictator’s dilemma” (Svolik 2012, Dickson 2016) and authoritarian rulers’ varying strategies towards public participation and political control, focusing on the case of China. Rulers of authoritarian regimes around the globe face a fundamental dilemma: They live in the constant threat of being overturned by the masses over which they rule. However, without elections they have incomplete information about citizens’ preferences and are uncertain how best to please public opinion so as to stay in power. While authoritarian regimes are often associated with hard political control, it has become common ground for non-democratic regimes to choose a strategy for survival that combines “hard” elements of coercion and repression with “soft” elements of responsiveness and inclusion. Authoritarian rulers integrate bottom-up input mechanisms and institutions of public participation into their system of governance with the goal of enhancing political stability and effective policymaking. Such an instrumental approach to public participation faces the challenge of mobilizing citizens without promoting political pluralism or democracy.

*This course takes place in person (hybrid teaching is not offered)

Lecturer: Dr. Ferdiansyah Thajib

Time and Place: Wed. 10:00 – 12:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] Gender Studies – This course is intended for students with interest on the sociocultural study of multiple genders and sexualities in Asian contexts. It explores how vernacular forms of sexual and gender pluralism shape personhoods and lived-experiences that are differentially subjected to hegemonic orders of oppression within, across and beyond the region. It maps out how the dynamics of gender and sexuality shape and are sha ped by colonial, postcolonial and decolonial entanglements. In this course we will also discuss how gender and sexuality in Asian regions have been ethically and epistemologically engaged with through academic practice; the ways they are problematised through sameness and difference in public discourse; how they are faced by moral policing and political contestations; and the processes in which they become sources of individual and collective agency. Upon successful completion of this subject, students are expected to:

• Demonstrate a critical understanding on complexities on gender and sexuality in Asian contexts amidst academic landscape which is predominated by western conceptions of gender and sexuality.
• Enhance a critical understanding of how intersectionality works in Asian contexts, including an awareness of gender and sexuality and their complex intersections with other social and cultural categories, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, ability, cosmology and age.
• Develop a rich comprehension of both feminist, queer and trans approaches to the social and cultural construction of gender, sex, and sexuality, not only in scholarly works on, but also from Asia.
• Cultivate a skillset to carefully reflect on the researcher positionality in producing knowledge on gender and sexuality in Asia

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Farish A. Noor

Time and Place: Mon. 12:00 – 14:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] History – For more than a decade I have been teaching the course State, Society and Politics of Malaysia and Southeast Asia, and this two-part course will focus on the region of Southeast Asia as a whole. My approach has been one that is historical, but also one that rejects linearity and teleology and instead gives greater emphasis on agency and contingency/alternative pathways. Rather than begin with the foundational premise that there already exists a place/thing called ‘Southeast Asia’, I invite the students to consider the ontological question of how a thing becomes a thing in the first place. The focus in this course is how the idea of Southeast Asia was invented as a result of human agency and political choices. This approach goes against the conventional manner in which Southeast Asian area studies has been taught in many places. Rather than present the region as something already present and fully constituted, I want them to consider the (discursive) construction of the region from a historical viewpoint that emphasizes human agency and interaction, contestation, fluidity, movement, trade and settlement as the constant variables of a complex region.

The first part of the course covers the precolonial and colonial periods of Southeast Asia, from the 10^th to the late 19^th centuries. Among the themes to be explored are: 1. The salient characteristics of Southeast Asian society and identity in a premodern context, 2. Migration, movement and trade as shaper and makers of regional identity, 3. The nature of the premodern precolonial polity and how politics and theology overlapped in the precolonial era, 4. Southeast Asia’s encounter with the Western world, and how Southeast Asian history is part of world/global history, 5. The impact of the colonial encounter, seen through the lens of new colonial-capitalist organizational/governmental structures and the emergence of a new contractual society, 6. Resistance, collusion, hybridity and active engagement with the realities of colonial-capitalism, and 7. The rise of anti-colonialism in Southeast Asia and the birth of modern ethno-nationalism. These themes, I believe, will show how I intend to emphasize the role of human agency and decision-making in historical processes. As Southeast Asia is a vast area the size of Europe, this course will focus on a few countries in particular: Myanmar/Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The aim of the course is to give a broad (and accessible) historical introduction/overview of the development of Southeast Asia as a region, so that the students will understand how and why the history of this region is connected to world history in general, and why the region remains an important area to study today.

Lecturer: Anna Schneider, MA

Time and Place: Mon. 8:00 – 12:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] Sociology – Decision-making can hardly be described as a detached process. Decisions, decision-makers, and their motives are influenced by their social context, interdependencies, and identities. This course starts with a brief introduction to sociological approaches to decision-making and focuses on the feminist sociological perspective, which understands gender as an organizing principle of society and its institutions. The course is designed to acquaint the students with the discipline and to facilitate critical thought concerning the impact of social factors on decision-making processes. A primary course objective is for students to connect information about individual social identities and expectations to larger social and political contexts.

Following the introduction to Sociology as a discipline, prominent examples of gender and queer theories will be discussed. For example, we will explore the work of de Beauvoir, Butler, Gildemeister, and Adams, as well as closely examine theories of constructing and deconstructing gender. We will apply this theoretical knowledge in exploring questions of representation and absence in decision-making processes and the social perception of decisions and decision-makers. Additionally, the course will rely on empirical work and compare several case studies to enable the students to gain a hands-on understanding of the material.

Lecturer: Mingqing Yuan, MA

Time and Place: Wed. 12:00 – 14:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] “China’s neocolonialism in Africa” has been widely circulated in media and academic discourses alike. However, why is a country paralleled with a continent? How do their engagements look like in history and currently on the ground? What are the roles of different agencies, especially African agency, in shaping these interactions and practices? What are the factors that facilitate or hinder transcultural understanding? This course demystifies the decision-making process in the Africa-China interactions on different levels, i.e. state level, central/ provincial state-owned enterprises (SOE), private companies and individuals. The historical relations, different agents and current power dynamics in China-Africa interactions are closely analyzed within cultural and socio-political contexts. By looking at Chinese and African ideas and practices on national and individual level, this course will demonstrate how different agencies are involved in the decision-making process and how multiple frames of analysis can help us understand the ambiguity and multiplicity in China-Africa relations.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
• have in-depth knowledge about historical contexts, current key debates, and complex realities of China-Africa relations;
• understand different actors and factors in China-Africa interactions and decision-making process;
• grow cultural sensitivity and transcultural skills;
• carry out an independent study on one or several specific cases/topics

Lecturer: Dr. Maria Bondes

Time and Place: Mon. 16:00 – 18:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] This course introduces students to the dynamics of decision-making in China’s multilevel environmental governance. There has been much debate about whether China’s “environmental authoritarianism” could be a more effective approach for tackling the world’s urgent ecological crisis. China promotes its top-down governance system and its concept of “ecological civilization” as a more effective alternative to democratic approaches. In order to develop a solid knowledge foundation in this important debate, students in this course will gain a nuanced understanding of China’s command-and-control system of environmental governance, the role and decision-making of different state and non-state actors throughout policy processes, and the effectiveness of the outcomes for China’s green transition. Based on these insights, students will then critically assess the pros and cons of China’s governance system and its model of “environmental authoritarianism.”

Depending on individual study plans and progress, students can earn credits by:

Attending one or two SDAC classes to be chosen among SDAC elective classes in WS 22/23.

or

Attending one class at FAU in WS 22/23 (5 ECTS). Conditional acceptance by the teacher – to be organized by the student.

or

Conducting Supervised Empirical Research Project (Germany or abroad) – (5 ECTS) *Please contact a program staff member that you would like to be your supervisor on this research project in advance.

Lecturer: Mingqing Yuan, MA

Time and Place: Tue. 14:00 – 16:00, SDAC Seminar Room

Synopsis: [Seminar] What is culture? How does it define or influence our perceptions of self and the other? How do historical context and socio-cultural factors influence one’s decisions? This course deals with theories and practices in transcultural studies with a focus on China. It will cover key concepts and theories in transcultural studies, such as transculturality, language, power and evaluates their applications in analyzing narratives, mechanism and practices of difference-making machinery. This course will also look at how concepts travel and change across time and space, and how cultural texts institutionalize and/or resist existing hierarchies. It shifts the attention of the West-East binary to a more diverse and multiple understandings of culture and China in the world. By integrating different perspectives, this course delivers insights into both historical and current complexities, into unexpected similarities and productive differences that challenge social, national and linguistic borders. Students are encouraged to bring texts/topical discussions of their own choices to the class, which are not necessarily related to China but which enrich the intellectual debates around representation and transcultural communication.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• explain the major theoretical concepts and frameworks of trans/cultural studies;
• apply these concepts and frames of analysis to different cases;
• understand the complex reality and different factors in transcultural encounters;
• grasp historical and current complexities, unexpected similarities and productive differences

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Viola Thimm

Time and Place: Mon. 18:00 – 20:00, hybrid format

Synopsis: [Lecture] The SDAC Guest Lecture Series offers students 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: W2 Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Time and Place: Mon. 10:00 – 12:00, Place: TBA

Synopsis: TBA

*Due to the pending appointment to the new W2 professorship, it is conceivable that the course may be offered late or not at all.

Lecturer: W2 Professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Time and Place: Thu. 16:00 – 18:00, Place: TBA

Synopsis: TBA

*Due to the pending appointment to the new W2 professorship, it is conceivable that the course may be offered late or not at all.

*This course can be accredited for Module – Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines I(Former Module 3) and Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines – Regional Focus(Former Module 8)

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Marco Bünte

Time and Place: Wed. 10:00 – 12:00, PSG 00.6 (Kochstraße 6a)

Synopsis: The seminar looks at the military’s role in the authoritarian and democratic regimes in East and Southeast Asia. The first part of the seminar explores the field of civil-military relations, its development and some of its core concepts and theories. The second part looks at the region of East and Southeast Asia and analyses the ongoing salience of the military, its role in state formation and its economic and political influence in modern democracies.

*This course can be accredited for Module – Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines I (Former Module 3) and Specific Approaches of Selected Academic Disciplines – Regional Focus (Former Module 8)

Lecturer: Henriette Hearn

Time and Place: Wed. 16:00 – 18:00, PSG II 05.013 (Kochstraße 4)

Synopsis: This course aims to provide students with a foundational understanding of the field of socio-legal studies. The study of legal systems provides insight into the histories of societies as well as their deeply engrained inequalities. Among other topics, socio-legal studies examine how intersectional inequalities impact courtroom decisions and how various legal systems were influenced by institutions such as religion or historic processes such as colonialism.
Students will learn about the different disciplines that study legal systems, such as criminology, sociology, and anthropology of law. We will discuss current trends in these fields of studies and how they have evolved. Students will examine various socio-legal research studies to see how socio-legal scholars engage with the field.
An overarching theme of this course will be how socio-legal scholars can have a broader impact beyond their own discipline.
Students are expected to critically engage with the texts and participate in class discussions. As a final project, students will be expected to present a research proposal that would fall under the discipline of socio-legal studies. Students should choose a topic that they are already interested in. Law and legal systems are everywhere and there are interesting ways to relate them to a broad variety of topics.