Contemporary Perspectives on Peace Studies

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Sessions run as seminars, promoting professor-led structured discussions, developed around the guidelines for readings made available before each module. Students manage parts of the debates on the topic they are working on. Practical exercises aimed at the elaboration of co-authored review articles, leading to the submission of an article for publication in an academic journal: mapping and discussion of strategies of development of academic articles, identification of the most relevant journals, preparation for publication and submission process. 

Learning Outcomes

The seminar’s goal is to develop analytical skills of the major cutting-hedge themes in the research agenda on international peace and security, and to provide knowledge on the work of contemporary political thinkers.

Specific objectives and competencies:

a) Understanding the structural elements underpinning fundamental contemporary political and philosophical contributions on peace and security;

b) Mapping and identifying the most relevant contributions to the topics covered in the seminar as well as the central debates structuring them.

b) Critical analysing the relevance of existing approaches.

c) Developing and presenting innovative ways in which the research agenda can be moved forward.

d) Developing academic writing skills and to map and identify major outlets for publication of their critical analyses of the proposed themes. 

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Review article – what is it and how to do it?

Risk and emotions in IR

   Ulrich Beck

  Michel Foucault

Technology, security and the state of exception

  Karl Schmidt

  Giorgio Agamben

  Bruno Latour

Discussion of the review articles

From human rights to post-human security

  Hannah Arendt

Final discussion of the review articles and publication strategies.

Head Lecturer(s)

Natália da Costa Pereira Bueno

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 40.0%
Continuous assessment: combination of written work, in-class participation and oral presentations : 60.0%

Bibliography

Agamben, G. 2005. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Beck, U. 1998. “Politics of Risk Society” in Franklin, J. (Ed.) The Politics of Risk Society. Cambridge: Polity Press, 9-22. [D-11-5]

Burke, A. 2015. “Security cosmopolitanism: the next phase”, Critical Studies on Security, 3:2, 190-212.

Crawford, N. C. 2014. “Institutionalizing Emotions in World Politics: Fear and Empathy”, International Theory, 6: 4, 535-557.

Foucault, M. 2008. The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-79. Basingstok: Palgrave Macmillan [32 FOU 2008].

Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford UP [BP 316 LAT].

Owens, P. 2007. Between War and Politics. International Relations and the Thought of Hannah Arendt. Oxford: Oxford UP [327 OWE].

Ridley, D. 2008. The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students. Londres: Sage. [303 RID 2012 c.2]