Welcome to Culture and War

The course will be run by anthropologists Sverker Finnström  and Huai-Tse Yang. The language of instruction is English. If you have any questions about the course content ahead of the course start, contact Sverker Finnström. For questions about admission, etc., contact course administrator Angelika Holm. But first, please read from beginning to end the overview information below.

 

About the course: An anthropological perspective on the study of culture and war

Using ethnographic work, the course documents the everyday processes that characterize, precede, and succeed war or armed conflict. After completing the course, students will possess an in-depth understanding of a selection of contemporary wars and armed conflicts, which will help them:

• Apply anthropological perspectives in the study of other wars and armed conflicts;
• Broaden their understanding of culture and everyday life in times of war and armed conflicts, an understanding pertinent in humanitarian aid, journalism, and conflict resolution;
• Relate local phenomena, such as changing gender roles, children and youth in war, lived vulnerabilities, and displacement, to global phenomena, such as media coverage, humanitarian and military intervention, and arms trade.

Four of the five mandatory course books, listed below, are single-case monographs that offer a regional and thematic distribution over four continents/countries: Africa/Uganda, Europe/Ukraine, the Middle East/Palestine, and North America/the U.S. The Ukraine monograph takes place before and between wars, the Uganda and Palestine monographs during war/conflict; the monograph on the U.S. after war. As a complement to the four single-case monographs, the fifth mandatory course book focuses on the study of perpetrators, with comparative material from Argentina and Cambodia.

 

Course start

The course starts on 2 September at 13.15-15.00. Thereafter, sessions are planned to be held weekly on Tuesday afternoons. A detailed schedule is provided for registered students only.

 

Don't forget to register for the course

To start studying, you need to register. Go to Ladok for students to register. On the Admissions and registration page, there are instructions on how to do this. Registration is open from 25 July until August 24, 2025.

 

Teaching, expectations, and examination

Study plan and expectations, sessions 1-10

Sessions 1-2 are conventional 2x45 min lectures that will introduce the students to the course and the mandatory readings.

In preparing for sessions 1-2, students are to read the introductory chapters to four of the course books (Bohlin & Ståhlberg, Finnström, Segal, Wool) as well as three articles (detailed instructions available for registered students on the course web).

Sessions 3-9 generally consist of a lecture (first hour) and a seminar/group discussion (second hour). In the seminars, students will discuss, in groups and in plenary, the literature they have read ahead of the class.

Session 10 will summarize the course and prepare for the final assignment.

Written seminar responses, sessions 2-9

For sessions 2-9, based on the reading ahead of class, students are to submit written responses to the readings, one day before each session. Detailed instructions are provided for registered students.

Final review essay

On Nov 7, a final written review essay is to be submitted. Detailed instructions are provided for registered students.

 

Mandatory course books: Ukraine, Uganda, Argentina/Cambodia, Palestine, and the U.S.

• Bolin, Göran, and Per Ståhlberg. 2023. Managing meaning in Ukraine: Information, communication, and narration since the Euromaidan revolution. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 135 pp.
• Finnström, Sverker. 2008. Living with bad surroundings: War, history, and everyday moments in northern Uganda. Durham: Duke University Press. 244 pp.
• Robben, Antonius C.G.M., and Alexander Laban Hinton. 2023. Perpetrators: Encountering humanity's dark side. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. 217 pp.
• Segal, Lotte Buch. 2016. No place for grief: martyrs, prisoners, and mourning in contemporary Palestine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 176 pp.
• Wool, Zoë Hamilton. 2015. After war: The weight of life at Walter Reed. Durham: Duke University Press. 194 pp.

All books are all available as e-resources from the Uppsala University Library. They are also available as physical library copies, from the Karin Boye Library and the Cultural Anthropology course literature shelf. Bolin & Ståhlberg's is also fully open access from the publisher's webpage. Finally, the books are available from various (off/online) bookstores.

 

Mandatory course literature, articles

• Articles to be read, and when to be read, are listed on the course web, the "Course reading"-page.

 

That's it! Thank you for reading, and see you in September.

Rebel attack (northern Uganda). Painting by Omotex Prof Designer, 1998.