Cultures of Radicalism - Detailseite

Examining the complex ethics of ethnographic research methods, this course explores a range of case studies on cultural practices, which are generally deemed deviant or taboo in the public sphere. It is from this angle of inquiry that students will confront the moral ambiguities of conducting ethnographic research in communities whose ideologies the anthropologist may disidentify or disagree with. For the purposes of this course, radicalism is conceived as a cultural practice motivated by an alternative ideological disposition that provokes anxiety and fear in the public sphere. This course also takes a reflexive look at mainstream anthropological theoretical frameworks such as Marxism, which are arguably considered to be radical in mainstream American and Western European political discourse. This begs the question—are the disciplines of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology politically radical institutions? Ethnographic case studies will also drive the research question—what historical, economic, and cultural circumstances create radicalized subjects? How can anthropologists ethically engage in participant observation with individuals who participate in acts that the researcher may find controversial, or even reprehensible? Can ethnographic research further the ideological agendas of our interlocutors? On the other hand, what types of radicalism can become understandable to ethnographers, ultimately informing the politics motivating anthropological writing?

This course will be conducted exclusively on Zoom and will use Moodle for assignment submissions and the distribution of weekly readings.

Findet im Rahmen des normalen Lehrprogrammes am Institut für Europäische Ethnologie statt, ÜWP Studierende können zusätzlich teilnehmen.

Appadurai, Arjun. 2006. Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ahmed, Sara. 2017. Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press.

Ed. Battaglia, Debbora. 2005. E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outer Spaces. Durham: Duke University Press.

Bourgois, Philippe. 1995. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Clarke, John. 1978. “Football and Working Class Fans: Tradition and Change.” Football Hooliganism: The Wider Context. London: Inter-Action Inprint.

Cooper, Davina. 2013. Everyday Utopias: The Conceptual Life of Promising Spaces. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hall, Stuart and Tony Jefferson. [1979] 1993. Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. London: Routledge.

Hebdige, Dick. 1979. Subculture and the Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge.

Juris, Jeffrey. 2008. Networking Futures: The Movements Against Corporate Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press.

Lepselter, Susan. 2016. The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, Captivity, and UFOs in the American Uncanny. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

McDonald, David. 2014. My Voice is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance. Durham: Duke University Press.

Millar, Stephen. 2020. Sounding Dissent: Rebel Songs Resistance, and, Irish Republicanism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Newell, Sasha. 2019. "Ethnography in a Shell Game: Turtles All the Way Down in Abidjan." Cultural Anthropology. 34.3: 299-327.

Warner, Michael. 2000. The Problem with Normal.

Shoshan, Nitzan. 2016. The Management of Hate: Nation, Affect, and the Governance of Right-Wing Extremism in Germany. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Starn, Orin. 2015. Writing Culture and the Life of Anthropology. Durham: Duke University Press.

Tausig, Benjamin. 2019. Bangkok is Ringing: Sound, Protest, and Constraint. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Taussig, Michael. 2011. I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely My Own. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Teitelbaum, Benjamin. 2017. Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Teitelbaum, Benjamin. 2019. "Collaborating with the Radical Right: Scholar-Informant Solidarity and the Case for an Immoral Anthropology." Current Anthropology. 60.3: 414-435.