MA VL. Alltagskulturelle Forschungsperspektiven I: The Anthropology of Surveillance: “Does Suspicion Breed Confidence?”
Dozent:innen: Dr. Grit WesserKurzname: VL AlltagskForsch I
Kurs-Nr.: 05.174.655
Kurstyp: Vorlesung
Empfohlene Literatur
Selected Course Readings:- Glaeser, Andreas. 2011. Political Epistemics: The Secret Police, the Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Lyons, David. 2007. Surveillance Studies: An Overview. Cambridge: Polity Press. Price,
- David H. 2016. Cold War Anthropology: The CIA, the Pentagon, and the Growth of Dual Use Anthropology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Verdery, Katherine. 2018. My Life as a Spy: Investigations in a Secret Police File. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
- Viola, Anne Lora and Pawel Laidler (editors). 2022. Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Zuboff, Shoshana. 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books. Zeitraum April-Juli 2024
Inhalt
In this lecture series we travel throughout time to investigate the relationship between surveillance, power, and control from its analogue past to its digital present. Taking inspiration from the film ‘Brazil’ (1985), Terry Gilliam’s dystopian satire on hyper-surveillance, its ‘suspicion breeds confidence’ slogan is framed as a question to probe this lecture series’ recurrent theme of surveillance in relationship to institutional, social, and interpersonal trust. We examine multifarious surveillance technologies, the power of knowledge and ignorance, people’s voluntary participation in and submission to surveillance as well as their innovative strategies of avoiding being spied upon. We critically assess privacy and mass surveillance in the context of authoritarian and democratic regimes, paying special attention to the former GDR’s state security apparatus (Stasi) and contrast it with modern surveillance capitalism. We also interrogate anthropology’s historical complicity in state surveillance and the role and responsibility of the anthropologist in tackling contemporary challenges of research ethics, including transparency and knowledge production.Zusätzliche Informationen
Grit Wesser (she/her) is a social anthropologist working on the relationship between kinship and ‘the state’. She has explored this connection through ethnographic and historical fieldwork on a life cycle ritual (her PhD research in eastern Germany) and on people’s knowledge attainment about the practices of the state security apparatus in the former GDR/East Germany (interdisciplinary research project ‘Knowing the Secret Police’).Grit earned her MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology and Politics (2011) and her PhD in Social Anthropology (2016) from the University of Edinburgh. She held teaching and research positions at the University of Edinburgh, Newcastle University, and the International College of Dundee. Her research interests include kinship and gender, memory and history, ritual and personhood, the anthropology of surveillance, and the anthropology of food with a regional focus on (East) Germany.
Termine
| Datum (Wochentag) | Zeit | Ort |
|---|---|---|
| 17.04.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 24.04.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 08.05.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 15.05.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 22.05.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 29.05.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | Reading Week/Termin entfällt |
| 05.06.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 12.06.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 19.06.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 26.06.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 03.07.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 10.07.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |
| 17.07.2024 (Mittwoch) | 16:15 - 17:45 | 00 421 P7 1141 - Philosophisches Seminargebäude |