Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POC2103: Introduction to Postcolonialism

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.

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 assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Group Presentation 18 minutes1-6Verbal/Written

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.

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Attendance reflection 10200 words/topic1-6Written and/or Oral
Review Piece (Review an artistic production)301,500 words1-6Written
Critical Research Paper 602,500 words1-6Written

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 assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
Attendance reflectionOpinion piece (200 words)1-6August/September reassessment period
Review PieceReview Piece (1,500 words) 1-6August/September reassessment period
Critical Research PaperEssay (2,500 words)1-6August/September reassessment period

Re-assessment notes

Review Piece (40%) August/September reassessment period (Students apply a postcolonial lens whilst reviewing a cultural object (examples include a song, a music video, a theatre or televised performance, a painting, a movie, a novel, a restaurant chain).

 

Essay 2,500 words (60%) August/September reassessment period (Students to write an essay answering one question out of 5 provided by the convenor.)

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:

 

Dabashi, Hamid. The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. Zed Books Limited

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The souls of black folk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1903.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. 2004

Davis, Angela Y. Women, race, & class. London: Vintage, 2011.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the subaltern speak?" (1988).

Nandy, Ashis. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism. (OUP India, 1989)

Mignolo, Walter. Local Histories / Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges and Border Thinking. Princeton: University of Princeton Press, 2012.

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man's Burden” (1899). Poem.

Kothari, U. (2005). “Authority and Expertise: The Professionalization of International Development and the Ordering of Dissent”, Antipode, 37 (3).

Escobar, A. (1999). “The Invention of Development”, Current History, 98 (631): 382-386.

Escobar, A. (1997). “The Making and Unmaking of the Third World”. In: M. Rahnema, V. Bawtree, eds., The Post-Development Reader, London: Zed Books, pp. 85-93