Anthropology of Humanitarianism

Catalog description

Are cultural categories such as race, ethnicity, origin, gender, class, etc., influencing the way people reflect, design, and implement humanitarian actions in today’s world? This course explores the relevance of anthropological perspectives for international humanitarian action. It will deal with key topics such as forced migration and methodological challenges of studying conflict and crisis, the discipline’s historical engagement with emergencies and human suffering, and the contemporary legalization and financialization of the humanitarian field, and finally, the changing humanitarian-development-security nexus. The course will critically examine how recipients, practitioners, decision-makers, and donors interact with the discourses, institutions, and rules of humanitarianism.