Module Content

This module provides students with a distinctly anthropological perspective on social media. It explores how familiar themes in anthropology, from kinship and friendship networks to the relation between circulation and value, take on new forms in a world of ever-increasing social media connectivity. Combining insights from anthropology and social media studies, you will consider questions such as: Is culture becoming more homogeneous now that more than one billion people worldwide have a Facebook profile, or are there as many different Facebooks as there are local contexts? How does the circulation of online content relate to pre-existing forms of community and belonging? What are the links between algorithms and agency? Are selfies a symptom of increasing individualism? And how can ethnographic methods capture social worlds of infinite distraction, endlessly interrupted by notifications, memes, tweets and Instagram stories?

The module, among more general topics, will touch upon Digital Media and the Islamic World, reflecting the anthropological research that informs the teaching. We will consider case studies in a number of societies, exploring social media in relation to identity and community, art and activism, migration, memory, and citizenship. Specific weekly topics are listed below.

Please note the assessment titles may be subject to change.

Indicative Topics 

The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:

- the presentation of self on social media
- social media and the body
- algorithms and the attention economy
- online activism and post-truth politics

Specific weekly topics:

- Digital ethnography in/of the Islamic World

- Kinship, Gender, Love

- Orientalism and beyond

- Visual Cultures

- Social Movements

- Migration and Diaspora

- Identity and Politics

- War and Conflict

- Media and Memory

 

Undergraduate 

Delivery Method 

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week.

Learning Outcomes 

Having completed the module you will:

· be familiar with the wide-ranging global diversity of cultural norms and adaptations of social media, as well as the key anthropological concepts that have been developed in response to them

· know how to use these anthropological perspectives to critically appraise commonplace narratives about the ills, promise and/or novelty of social media;

· be able to distinguish and appreciate the differences between anthropological and other disciplinary approaches to social media such as those developed in media studies

· know how to use reflexive approaches to research their own social media usage from an anthropological angle and represent this beyond written texts using digital andor audiovisual media.

 

Postgraduate 

Delivery Method 

One 2-hour seminar.

Learning Outcomes 

Having completed the module you will

· be able to critically appraise the wide-ranging global diversity of cultural norms and adaptations of social media, as well as the key anthropological concepts that have been developed in response to them

· know how to use this anthropological record to question and develop original perspectives on commonplace narratives about the ills, promise and/or novelty of social media;

· be able to distinguish, appreciate and communicate the differences between anthropological and other disciplinary approaches to social media such as those developed in media studies, and navigate and critically appraise current research on the topic using these abilities

· know how to use reflexive approaches to research their own social media usage from an anthropological angle and represent this beyond written texts using digital and/or audio-visual media.