IR3026 Trauma, Time and Memory in the Politics of Colonialism and Climate Emergency

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 9

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Planned timetable

Monday 2pm - 3pm

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Prof K M Fierke

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Prof K M Fierke

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

The acknowledgement at the 2022 COP 27 meeting of a relationship between colonialism and climate change represents a reorientation in global politics to the impact of unacknowledged historical traumas on the present and future of the planet. This module explores what is at stake in a shift of emphasis from conflict between states to the relationship between past practices and present and future environmental threats to the planet as a whole.It will critically examine the implications for how we conceptualize trauma, time and memory and the difference between a focus on states, protecting their boundaries, and empires as systems of entangled relations, where the suffering of some is rendered unseen; the extent to which historical trauma bleeds into the present, shaping the political uses of memory in a context of climate emergency; as well as how we might move beyond this legacy toward a more sustainable way of living together on the planet.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS IR2006

Assessment pattern

3-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%

Re-assessment

3-hour Written Examination =100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

I lecture, 1 tutorial per week

Scheduled learning hours

35

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

260

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • understand the relationship between colonialism in the past and climate emergency in the present and future
  • understand the relationship between practices of past empires and states in the present;
  • understand the relationship between trauma, time and memory as they relate to socio-political phenomena in the past and present;
  • understand the historical relationship between dispossession, land and children within empire;
  • understand what it means to say that experiences of historical trauma ‘bleed’ into the present, and, a future for children;
  • understand different approaches to addressing the legacy of the past in the present.