Module ANT2090 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ANT2090: Sound and Society
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
To explore ways in which the production and consumption of sound are bound up in social relations and practices.
To question cultural assumptions about the nature and possibilities of sound and listening.
To examine how key concepts (for example, ideas of 'place' and 'space') may be re-configured through acoustic perspectives.
To consider the implications of 'thinking acoustically' for anthropological methodology and analysis.
To interrogate listening and sound recording as ways of engaging with and representing social life.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Competently explain how some key texts give insight into the involvement of sound in social relations; 2. Make competent critical assessments of some theoretical perspectives in anthropological and sociological approaches to the study of sound; 3. Accurately identify and competently discuss some methodological issues associated with the study of sound in anthropology and sociology; |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Give clear explanations of how some key concepts in sociology and anthropology can be illustrated in relation to the analysis of empirical data; 5. Competently communicate, both in writing and orally, some awareness of strategies for analytically linking micro and macro perspectives; 6. Show competence in critically assessing and developing theoretical ideas through reflection on experiences and observations of social life; |
Personal and Key Skills | 7. Show an ability to engage in independent research and analysis; 8. Competently build and defend an argument based on evidence; 9. Communicate effectively in written and verbal form. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
1. Sound, Space and Place (part 1)
2. Sound, Space and Place (part 2)
3. Audible Pasts
4. Noise
5. Sound and Surveillance
6. Sound and Control
7. Sound and Sensory politics
8. Listening
9. Sonic sites (a case study of a particular sonic environment)
10. Anthropology in Sound
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 22 | 11 x 2 hour seminars |
Guided independent study | 40 | Examination preparation |
Guided Independent Study | 42 | Module Reading |
Guided independent study | 26 | Essay writing |
Guided independent study | 20 | Seminar Preparation |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Web based and electronic resources:
Anthropology and Sound - online resource produced through a collaboration between the Centre for Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice at the London College of Communication and the Anthropology Department at the University of St Andrews - http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/soundanth/index.php
Cusick, S. 2006. ‘Music as torture: Music as weapon’. Transcultural Music Review 10.http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/a152/music-as-torture-music-as-weapon.
Other Learning Resources
Drever, J. 2005. Sounding Dartmoor. iDAT.
Feld, S. 1991. Voices of the Rainforest. Rykodisc.
Rice, T. 2015. Govindpuri Sound. BBC World Service Documentary. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hm1rx
Wynne, J. 2007. Hearts, Lungs and Minds. BBC Radio 4 documentary
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Individual presentation | 15 minutes | 1-9 | Oral feedback |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay | 50 | 2000 words | 1-9 | Written feedback |
Listening report | 50 | 2000 words | 1-9 | Written feedback |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay | Essay (2,000 words) | 1-9 | August/September reassessment period |
Listening Report | Listening Report (2,000 words) | 1-9 | August/September reassessment period |
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.
Basic reading:
Bijsterveld, K. 2003.‘The Diabolical Symphony of the Mechanical Age. Technology and Symbolism of Sound in European and North American Noise Abatement Campaigns, 1900-1940’. In The Auditory Culture Reader (eds) M. Bull & L. Back, 165-189. Oxford: Berg.
Corbin, A. 1998. Village bells: sound and meaning in the nineteenth-century French countryside. New York: Columbia University Press.
Feld, S. 1990. Sound and Sentiment: birds, weeping, poetics, and song in Kaluli expression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Picker, J. M. 2003. Victorian Soundscapes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rice, T. 2013. Hearing and the Hospital. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Press.