Module Identifier IP30620  
Module Title FAMINE AND GENOCIDE  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Professor Jenny Edkins  
Semester Semester 2  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   8 Hours Seminar (8 x 1 hour)  
  Lecture   22 Hours and Film Sessions (11 x 2 hour)  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Case Study: 1 x 4,500 words  70%
Semester Assessment Essay: 1 x 1,500 words  20%
Semester Assessment Seminar Performance  10%
Supplementary Exam Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics. 

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students will be able to:

- show a critical understanding of issues raised by hunger, famine and genocide
- discuss these questions orally and in writing
- demonstrate knowledge of a number of cases of famine, hunger and genocide
- produce a critical analysis of a specific famine or genocide using concepts encountered in the module


Brief description

This module examines the international politics of mass starvations and genocides and looks at selected case studies in some detail

Aims

The module provides a critical introduction to debates surrounding famines, complex emergencies and genocides in international politics. It presents the argument that famine and hunger are not technical but political problems, bound up with conflict and oppression and similar in many ways to genocides. There is extensive use of video material, the aim being to provide students with a richness of detail which they can draw on to debate the politics of famine and genocide.

Content

The module begins by examining four case studies in some detail: Ireland 1845-1850; Germany 1933-1945; Ethiopia 1984-1985; Rwanda 1994. We then consider what causes famine or genocide and who benefits. We look at several approaches to famine and genocide including the Malthusian approach, Sen's entitlement critique and the complex emergency writers. Later lectures consider a series of issues: the way food for work programmes and famine relief camps sustain that system; technologies and micropractices of famine and genocide, images of famine and the portrayal of disaster, and, finally, questions of memory and accountability.
Alongside the lectures there will be showings of documentaries which illustrate the case studies. Seminars will be student-led.

Transferable skills

The module asks students to think critically and analytically about material they are presented with, both textually and in film. The material is difficult and challenging both intellectually and emotionally. During the seminars they will have the opportunity to learn how to facilitate group discussions, to practice their skills in explaining and discussing their own ideas, and to select material suitable for inclusion in discussion. The final written assignment demands individual initiative in researching a topic, finding material and producing a coherent written piece of some length.

10 ECTS credits

Reading Lists

Books
Christine Kinealy A Death-Dealing Famine
Raul Hilberg The Destruction of the European Jews
Alex de Waal Famine Crimes

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6