Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC2126: 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 Skills	1. Demonstrate and in-depth understanding of the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of forensic science. 2. Exhibit awareness of the socio-political & historical origins of conflicts and the pursuit of justice in the modern world across the north/south divide and the social theory that explains the role of modern science in such contexts.
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Explain and illustrate different modes of sociological, political and philosophical theoretical / conceptual frameworks that help us understand the role of forensic science in the modern world. 4. Think critically about social, psychological and personal issues and develop your social imagination.
Personal and Key Skills	5. 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 6. 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.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Introduction to forensics, materiality and evidence.
What is the sociology of forensic science?
Forensic Science and the state. Case Study: OJ Simpson Case
Questioning evidence: from oral testimony to materiality on trial
When states’ kill: authoritarianism, dictatorship and democracies
The Global South as a site of innovation: from Srebrenica to Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’
Case Study: Argentina and the ‘Disappeared’
Forensic Humanitarianism
International aid, forensic technical assistance and the Global South
The path of the one is the path of the many: Re-imagining forensic science
Citizen-led forensics in Mexico (and beyond?)
Conclusion: Critical assessment of the status of forensic science in an everchanging world.

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
27	123

...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 activities	22	two-hour weekly lectures to go over topics and materials together.
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	5	fortnightly 1 hour tutorials.
Guided independent study	33	Course Readings
Guided independent study	45	Preparation for essays, library, research
Guided independent study	45	Essay revisions

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

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.

Cruz-Santiago, A (2020) ‘Lists, Maps and Bones: The Untold Journeys of Citizen-led Forensics in Mexico’, Victims and Offenders.
Jasanoff, S. (1998) ‘The eye of everyman: Witnessing DNA in the OJ Simpson trial’, Social Studies of Science, 28, 5/6, pp.713-740.
Jasanoff, S. (2007) ‘Making Order: Law and Science in Action’ in Hackett, E. Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M. and Wajcman, J. (eds) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, pp.761-786, Boston, MA: MIT Press.
Moon, C. (2013). Interpreters of the Dead: Forensic Knowledge, Human Remains and the Politics of the Past. Social & Legal Studies, 22(2), 149-169.
Rosenblatt, A. (2015) Digging for the Disappeared. Forensic Sicence after atrocity. Standford Studies in Human Rights, 278 pp.
Schwartz-Marin, E., & Cruz-Santiago, A. (2016). Forensic Civism: Articulating Science, DNA and kinship in contemporary Mexico and Colombia. Human Remains and Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 58-74.
Schwartz-Marin, E., & Cruz-Santiago, A. (2016a). Pure Corpses, Dangerous Citizens: Transgressing the Boundaries between Experts and Mourners in the Search for the Disappeared in Mexico. Social Research:An International Quarterly, 483-510.
Wagner, S. E. (2008). To know where he lies: DNA Technology and the Search for Srebrenica's Missing. Los Angeles : University of California Press.