Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT3013: Visual Anthropology: Methods and Perspectives

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

  • To provide an overview of current perspectives and methods in visual anthropology
  • To introduce you to diverse materials in anthropology of art and photography, ethnographic film and cinema studies
  • To encourage a direct and sustained engagement with visual forms of communication as tools for understanding anthropological concepts
  • To develop an anthropological grasp of the politics and practices of representation

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. display an understanding of the visual media and cultures;
2. develop complex arguments regarding the methodological and substantive issues associated with visual anthropology;
Discipline-Specific Skills3. critically evaluate contemporary anthropological and related texts;
4. display an understanding of the discipline’s approach to visual culture in relation to other approaches and explanations offered in the humanities and social sciences;
5. appreciate key issues relevant to the visual methods, and develop critical, comparative and cross-cultural insight;
Personal and Key Skills6. demonstrate transferable skills in formulating, researching and addressing focused questions;
7. prepare focused and comprehensive written presentations;
8. work independently and in collaboration with others;
9. demonstrate cross-cultural understanding, translation and comparison, which will be of advantage in many professional settings; and
10. prepare and deliver considered oral arguments.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Indicative reading list:

 This is a list of some useful readings for this module that offer important background. Please feel free to select the texts that interest you, or find explanations of concepts, ideas and history of the discipline when you are preparing your presentations or writing essays.

Banks, M. and Morphy, H. E. (eds.), Rethinking visual anthropology. New Haven; London: Yale University Press
Banks. M. and Ruby, J. (eds.) 2011. Made to be seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Freedberg, D. 1989. The power of images: studies in the history and theory of response. Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press.
Evans, J. and Hall, S. (eds). 1999. Visual Culture: the Reader. Open University.
Gaines, J. M. and Renov, M. E. 1999. Collecting visible evidence. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press.
Gray, G. 2010. Cinema: a visual anthropology (Vol. 1). Oxford: Berg.
Grimshaw, A. 2001. The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Anthropology. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.
Heider, K. G. 2006 (1976). Ethnographic Film. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Mirzoeff, N. (ed.) 1988. The Visual Culture Reader. London: Routledge.
Mitchell, W. J. T. 1986. Iconology: image, text, ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pink, S. 2001. Doing visual ethnography: images, media and representation in research. London: SAGE.
Pinney, C. 2011. Photography and anthropology. Reaktion.
Poole, D. 1997. Vision, race, and modernity: a visual economy of the Andean image world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.