Undergraduate Course: Recognition Struggles in Contemporary France (ELCF10075)
Course Outline
School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
Summary | This course engages with the different recognition struggles that have emerged since decolonisation in contemporary France. It focuses on the struggles of ethnic and religious minorities (Jewish, Muslim, African and Afro-Caribbean) to achieve political recognition for different histories of trauma, including slavery, colonisation and the Holocaust. |
Course description |
'Recognition Struggles in Contemporary France' investigates the socio-political struggles of different ethnic minorities and their attempts to achieve state recognition and reparation for the different histories of trauma affecting their communities. The course examines how France's historical involvement in crimes against humanity (slavery and the Holocaust), as well as other histories of human exploitation and oppression, continues to impact negatively upon African, Jewish and Muslim minority groups. It engages with issues such as: identity formation and shifting ideas on national identity; immigration and integration; memory and trauma theory; social justice and societal racism; and political activism and minority voice. A wide variety of primary sources, including political documents, memory laws, film clips, newspaper reports and political speeches, will be used to provide students with an in-depth knowledge of the historical traumas that connect the past to the present, the wide variety of social responses to the impact of trauma, and the multiple theoretical approaches that can be taken to 'repair' the past.
Course content: Students will be provided with an excellent theoretical grounding in theories relating to recognition and identity struggles, memory and trauma, social justice theory and postcolonialism. These will then be applied through different case studies focusing on particular histories of trauma, their effects on different groups and how these groups have mobilised to achieve political recognition. Three case studies will be investigated, inviting comparisons between the state's treatment of different ethnic and religious groups. Examples include: migrants from the former French colonies, notably those from North Africa, and the fraught memories of colonialism in contemporary France; the Jewish community and social movements to remember France's role in the Holocaust; and the Afro-Caribbean population and the struggle for recognition linked to the history of France's enslavement and genocide of African, Indian, Malagasy and indigenous Caribbean peoples.
Student learning experience: This is a lecture and seminar-based course. On a week-by-week basis, students will be provided with relevant materials and pointed to recommended secondary reading (through the resource list). The first half of the course will focus on theory, with a mixture of lectures and seminars, while the second half of the course will focus on the different case studies, leading to class discussions based on set texts and wider reading. Students' learning and understanding will be tested through a variety of formative and summative assessments, including essay writing, project design and extended essay, and oral presentations.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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Academic year 2023/24, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 18 |
Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
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Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% Coursework:
Discussion Boards (including formative) (20%)
Group Presentation (20%)
Essay (2000 words) (60%) |
Feedback |
Continuous feedback and class work/peer review: informal oral presentations will act as preparation for the formally-assessed oral presentation at the end of the course. Feedback will be received on a weekly basis through student-led class discussions. Students will not only be encouraged to provide each other with feedback during class, but also to seek further individual feedback through face-to-face meetings with the course convener on an ad hoc basis.
Formative assessment feedback: students will be designing (with some supervision) their own essay topics relating to the course content. Each student will have the opportunity for formative assessment by submitting a brief proposal prior to gaining approval for their selected title. The oral presentations will also provide opportunity for formal feedback on the development of their self-designed essay questions.
Summative assessment feedback: students will receive written feedback on all of the summative assessments. Notably, the first theoretical essay will feed forward into their oral presentations, while the oral presentations will feed forward into their end-of-course essay. |
No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of key histories of trauma, including slavery, the Holocaust and colonialism, and how they have affected ethnic minorities living within the French Republic today
- Demonstrate familiarity with the recommended primary and secondary material relating to particular histories of trauma and legal, political and social responses to those histories
- Engage with and interpret layers of meaning within individual texts and between groups of texts.
- Demonstrate the acquisition of certain transferable skills, including ability to criticise, evaluate and interpret evidence, to consider a problem from a number of different perspectives, to accommodate ambiguity and advance reasonable conjectures, to argue cogently and effectively
- Develop effective communication, presentation and interaction skills across a range of media
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Reading List
For a full reading list, see: https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/public/44UOE_INST/lists/12749692970002466?auth=SAML |
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills |
As a result of studying the course, students will benefit from the development of different personal and professional attributes and skills, including:
Generic cognitive skills:
Critically identify, define, conceptualise and analyse complex/professional problems and issues.
Offer professional insights, interpretations and solutions to problems and issues.
Demonstrate some originality and creativity in dealing with professional issues.
Critically review and consolidate knowledge, skills, practices and thinking in a subject/discipline/sector.
Make judgements where data/information is limited or comes from a range of sources.
Communication skills:
Use a wide range of routine skills and some advanced and specialised skills in support of established practices in a subject/discipline/sector
Present or convey, formally and informally, information about specialised topics to informed audiences.
Communicate with peers, senior colleagues and specialists on a professional level.
Autonomy, Accountability and Working with Others:
Exercise autonomy and initiative in professional/equivalent activities.
Exercise significant managerial responsibility for the work of others and for a range of resources.
Practise in ways that show awareness of own and others' roles and responsibilities.
Work, under guidance, in a peer relationship with specialist practitioners.
Work with others to bring about change, development and/or new thinking. |
Keywords | minority identity,memory,slavery,Holocaust,recognition,social justice |
Contacts
Course organiser | Dr Nicola Frith
Tel: (0131 6)50 8967
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Claire Hand
Tel: (0131 6)50 8421
Email: |
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