Courses of Lectures “Anthropology of Gift Giving” and “Introduction to Visual Anthropology”

March 24-29, 2014, Nicholai Ssorin-Chaikov, PhD in Anthropology, Researcher and Lecturer, of the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge (UK), will deliver open lectures at TSU organized by the Laboratory for Social and Anthropological Research. Topics of the lecture courses: Anthropology of Gift Giving (10 hours) and Introduction to Visual Anthropology (12 hours).

“Theory of Gift Giving”, classical field of the 20th-century anthropology, is discussed in the course on Anthropology of Gift Giving from the perspective of contemporary ethnographic research and two interrelated groups of problems. The first group of questions addresses the meaning of the “gift” in “modern” societies, type of public relations created through gift giving, moral and social dilemmas of gift giving and what can be studied about different types of modern societies through these dilemmas. The second group examines how “modernity” itself takes the form of a gift. The subjects analyzed are “development”, “modernization”, state and market reforms, “amenities of civilization”, and international aid as a gift of the present.

Course Details

“Introduction to Visual Anthropology” course aims to review main genres of ethnographic film in their connection with the genres of ethnographic texts. The author of the course treats visual anthropology not merely as anthropology, using the methods of documentary films, but as study of visual using ethnographic methods. In addition to lectures, the course includes ethnographic film screenings.

Everyone is welcome regardless of specialty and areas of training. Faculty and staff members have the opportunity to take these courses as a professional training and receive a certificate upon completion.

Schedule:

March 24th (Monday):
12:25-14:00 Anthropology at Cambridge: areas of training, educational process, demand in the labor market (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
14:15-15:50 Anthropology of Gift Giving (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
16.05-18.10 Film Screening (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)

March 25th (Tuesday):
12:25-14:00 Visual Anthropology (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
14:15-15:50 Anthropology of Gift Giving (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
16.05-18.10 Film Screening (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)

March 26th (Wednesday):
12:25-14:00 Visual Anthropology (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
14:15-15:50 Visual Anthropology (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
16.05-18.10 Film Screening (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)

March 27th (Thursday):
14:15-15:50 Anthropology of Gift Giving (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
16.05-18.10 Visual Anthropology (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)

March 28th (Friday):
14:15-15:50 Visual Anthropology (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)
16.05-17.40 Anthropology of Gift Giving (Conference Hall, TSU Scientific Library)

March 29th (Saturday):
14:15-15:50 Anthropology of Gift Giving (Room 33, TSU 3rd study building)
16.35-18.10 Visual Anthropology (Room 33, TSU 3rd study building)

For more information and registration for the course as a professional training, please contact Albina Rasskazschikova, Laboratory Assistant: dream91.07@gmail.com.