Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3134: Forensic Science, Conflict and Justice

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Aims

In a world where expertise is constantly contested and science and technology are presented as the silver-bullet solution to current problems, the aim of the module is to inspire a genuine engagement with innovation and forensics. We hope to achieve this by engaging with cutting edge theoretical innovations in science & technology studies, grounded in over a decade of research with victims and perpetrators of violence and the scientist trying to bring order and evidence to complex contexts in which mass violence, genocide and systematic abuses of human rights have made the pursuit of justice a matter of activism, science and wider social and political innovation. At the end of the course the student will have a very good understanding of the social dynamics of forensic humanitarianism and innovations, ideas, and practices to deal with mass atrocities, political repression, and violence. In sum, the students of this course will have the tools to critically engage with forensic science and its development in diverse political contexts.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Produce a critical engagement with the ontological and epistemological assumptions that inform and shape contemporary forensic science.
2. Analyse the political, historical and social implications and drivers that have led to the pursuit of justice and the deployment of forensic science in the modern world, paying attention to the ways in which different social context affect (and are affected by) technical and political arrangements.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Discern how different modes of sociological, political and philosophical conceptual frameworks respond, or fail to respond, to empirical findings, and how in turn empirical data can inform and enrich our theoretical frameworks.
4. Think critically about social, psychological and personal issues and develop your social imagination.
5. Asses the ways in which different theoretical formulations engage with the personal, psychological and collective dimensions of social action, and how in turn these theoretical constructs relate to the specific historical and material conditions that shape modern forensic science.
Personal and Key Skills6. Critical and analytical skills that can easily be transferred to research positions in International NGOS and think tanks working in broad fields such as forensic humanitarianism, conflict and
7. Demonstrate written analytical skills by producing and essay on a deadline that could help you select and analyse relevant data to make decisions in policy making roles, government or as part of civil society organisations.