The Anthropological Imagination (L6001)

15 credits, Level 4

Autumn teaching

On this module, you’ll explore how anthropologists understand human behaviour and cultural diversity. You’ll examine questions such as why, despite similar cognitive capacities, we see vast cultural variation, how this diversity is created and whether it’s nature or culture that shapes human behaviour.

Using key writings, case studies and audiovisual material, you’ll engage with central concepts, fieldwork methods and anthropology’s unique genre of writing (ethnography). By the end of the module, you’ll have a solid understanding of anthropological theory, methodology and key issues from ethnographies. You’ll also develop analytical skills, the ability to generalise from case studies and the use of ethnographic evidence to support theoretical arguments.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 120 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.