CMAa13 Exhibiting Anthropology

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The traditional way of presenting academic anthropological data is a monograph, occasionally accompanied by a few black and white photographs of poor quality. Such medium allows for in-depth report, packed with rich details and traditional analysis of exotic phenomenon or culture. Despite the fact than most of us academics still contribute to this mode of thought reproduction, there are numerous other possibilities, how academic knowledge may be introduced to general, as well as the scholarly public. The course aims to explore these possibilities. At the end of the course, students will undertake the challenge to try an innovative way of data presentation themselves through the method of their own choice.
The final exhibition will display the presentation of primary data, that the students collect during the course through the method of collective biography. Learning about this method, as well as to be able to use the method is the second aim of this course. In order to achieve this, we will work together, in various groups and teams first to collect and to prepare the data, later to present them in the modality of one´s choice/preference. Attendance is therefore vital for the course, as well as the willingness to participate in teamwork and to share parts of personal histories (with the intensity of one´s choice).
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students would master collective biography research method. Each one of them will produce two pieces of original auto-biographic story. They will have knowledge about various modalities of data presentation and will be able to choose a suitable modality for various data accordingly. They will have a first experience of collaborative essay writing and a profound experience of project/exhibition presentation.
Syllabus
  • 1. Voice and voiceless: selection of power / Introduction to methodology and data selection
  • 2. How do (hi)stories come about? Methodology and data selection continued
  • 3. Life as a story or life as a puzzle? Reason and senses examined
  • 4. Worlds as written texts: books, magazines, slogans
  • 5. Art as life, life as art
  • 6. Mind maps, Apps, mobiles and portable exhibitions
  • 7. Reading week – no contact lectures
  • 8. Museums, galleries and human senses revisited
  • 9. Human ZOO: exhibiting people
  • 10. Documentaries, films and reality shows
  • 11. Festivals as rituals, folklore as performance
  • 12. Exhibiting thoughts: university open days
  • 13. Exhibition opening: student project preparation
  • 14. Public exhibition opening (space of FSS)
Literature
    required literature
  • Powis, Richard. 2017. Heartened by Iconoclasm: A Few Preliminary Thoughts on Multimodality. American Anthropologist. 119(2), 359-361.
  • INGOLD, Tim. The Life of Lines. London - New York: Routledge, 2015.
  • PINK, Sarah. Doing sensory ethnography. 2nd edition. Los Angeles: Sage, 2015, xv, 216. ISBN 9781446287590. info
    recommended literature
  • New perspectives in iconology :visual studies and anthropology. Edited by Barbara Baert - Ann-Sophie Lehmann - Jenke Van den Akkerveken - Niels. 1 online r. ISBN 9789054879756. info
  • Turner, Terry. 2006. Anthropology as Reality Show and as Co-production Internal Relations between Theory and Activism. Critique of Anthropology. 26(1), 15–25
  • Collins, Samuel Gerald, Matthew Durington, Paolo Favero, Krista Harper, AliKenner & Casey O'Donnell. 2017. Ethnographic Apps/Apps as Ethnography. Anthropology Now. 9:1, 102-118.
  • EDWARDS, Elizabeth. Raw histories : photographs, anthropology and museums. Oxford;: Berg, 2001, xiii, 270. ISBN 1859734979. info
Teaching methods
lectures, seminars, group writing, class discussion, individual work (writing, reading), collaborative work (project preparation, writing, assessment, feedback).
Assessment methods
50% final essay (collaborative writing within a voluntary group, according to the chosen topic)
50% final presentation (group or individual exhibition)
Language of instruction
English
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/CMAa13