Paper

Guide

Paper SAN11:
Anthropology of Media and Visual Culture

2016-2017

Part IIA & Part IIB Social Anthropology

Human, Social and Political Sciences Tripos
MPhil in Social Anthropology

Paper Co-ordinator: Dr Rupert Stasch (rs839@cam.ac.uk)

Tripos Supervision and Supervision arrangements:
Supervision for this paper is organized by College Directors of Studies. The
Division of Social Anthropology provides a list of suitable supervisors on the
'Information for Directors of Studies' page on the Social Anthropology website
(http://www.socanth.cam.ac.uk/about-us/dos-info see Current List of
Supervisors by Paper) and Directors of Studies must approach supervisors to
arrange supervision for their students. If Directors of Studies encounters
problems, they are encouraged to contact the Paper Co-ordinator (whose name
and email address are listed above) at the very earliest opportunity.

Directors of Studies may take different views on the appropriate number of
supervisions for students, especially to make adjustments in the light of
individual students' needs. A minimum of 6 supervisions is recommended for
this paper.

MPhil supervision and supervision arrangements:
Supervision arrangement for this paper is the prerogative of the MPhil
supervisor. Each MPhil student is allocated to a supervisor who will meet the
student throughout the year and who will supervise across the range of subject
matter included in the entire course. These sessions should be used to expand
the students knowledge of topics taught in the seminars. Meetings are usually at
two-week intervals and students are expected to write essays for each session.

Syllabus for Paper SAN11:
This paper explores how different social orders are created through production
and circulation of media forms and visual images. The paper begins with lectures
about anthropological theories of representation in general, and about the
overall history and range of anthropological research on media. Further lecture
sequences look at specific communicative technologies and genres across
different societies and historical periods. Cases examined in greatest depth
include photography, radio, amateur film, and Web 2.0. Briefer attention is given

to museum display, street protest, print, popular music, Reality TV, and religious
satellite television channels. We ask what insights and challenges arise in
specifically ethnographic and cross-cultural study of these phenomena.

Mode of assessment for HSPS students: Three-hour written examination at the
end of the year. Three questions to be answered from a choice of approximately
thirteen.
Mode of assessment for MPhil students: Students are required to submit a
research essay of no more than 6,000 words in length, written on a subject
chosen from a set list of topics relating to the Optional Paper.

Intended for students reading:
Part IIA and Part IIB Social Anthropology and MPhil Social Anthropology.

Paper description:
In most human communities today, mass media and digital media are the
primary means by which symbolic forms circulate across time and space, and are
central to the constitution of subjectivities, institutions, and collective events. Yet
while scholars and popular commentators frequently affirm that new media
practices define who people are, actually specifying the relation between media
forms and broader social conditions is a difficult task, to which anthropologists
are increasingly contributing in innovative ways. In keeping with anthropologys
wider emphasis on cross-cultural comparison and on ethnographic study of
symbolic forms in their full social contexts, this papers central questions
include: how specific media technologies are defined and used differently in
different societies; how media forms and visual images are actually made and
experienced in practical life; and how media forms and institutions relate to
large-scale political structures. Drawing on a wider multidisciplinary heritage of
work on media and visual culture, the paper is also concerned with developing
concepts and techniques for analysis of the internal formal and pragmatic
complexity of specific visual images and media representations. We additionally
investigate the coherence of media ideologies, technologies, and iconographic
traditions in their own rights, as forces of wider social innovation or
reproduction.

Definitions:
Syllabus: the range of topics covered by the paper and on which students will be
examined.
Paper description: a brief guide to the rationale behind the paper.
Paper: a set of subjects offered for examination.
Course: a programme of work directed towards a particular paper. Note that the
term is used in various ways, from the teaching and learning undertaken for an
entire degree (degree course) to individual lecture and seminar series (lecture
course). In the latter sense, papers at Cambridge are ordinarily taught through
several lecture courses, as well as through supervision and personal reading.
Supervision work and reading are important. The lectures detailed here will
address topics that fall within the scope of the paper, but are not intended to be
exhaustive. They may also include materials of more general interest.





Lecture courses for this paper are as follows:


Michaelmas Term

Media, Vision and Photography: Dr R. Stasch and Dr C. Lynteris (10 lectures, 2
seminars)

The Visual and Digital Anthropology of New Media: Dr A. Motrescu-Mayes, Dr H.
Diemberger, and Dr M. Elliott (6 lectures)


Lent Term

Case studies in the Anthropology of Vision, Media, and Social Relations Dr S.
Lazar, Dr A. Herle, Dr A. Grant, Dr N. Evans, Dr R. Stasch (5 lectures)

Radio Worlds Prof H. Englund (4 lectures)

Visual Media and Medicine Dr C. Lynteris, Dr N. Evans, Dr B. Poleykett and Dr L.
Engelmann (3 lectures, 1 seminar)

Easter Term

Digital Selves Dr R. Stasch (1 lecture)



Please check the Social Anthropology website for updated information on dates,
times and locations of all lectures and seminars
(http://www.socanth.cam.ac.uk/current-students/timetables)

Background reading

Abu-Lughod, L., F. Ginsburg and B. Larkin (eds) 2002 Media Worlds:
Anthropology on New Terrain. University of California Press.

Barthes, R. 1957. Mythologies. Hill & Wang.

Boellstorff, T. 2010. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the
Virtual Human. Princeton University Press.

Coleman, G. 2014. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of
Anonymous. Verso.

Deger, J. 2006. Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community.
University of Minnesota Press.

Gershon, I. 2010. The Breakup 20: Disconnecting over New Media. Cornell
University Press.

Horkheimer, M. and T. Adorno. 1944. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as
Mass Deception. In Dialectic of Enlightenment. Continuum.

Strassler, K. 2010. Refracted Visions: Popular Photography and National
Modernity in Java. Duke University Press.

Williams, R. 1974. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. Routledge.