MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response / Course details

The course will explore the following topics:

1. The Nature of Humaniatrianism
2. Humanitarian memory
3. Post-colonial conflicts
4. Instrumentalising aid
5. Relief and reconstruction
6. Missionary work
7. Rise and fall international order
8. Famines
9. War and the Red Cross
10. Technology and Effectiveness

The course will enable students to critically interrogate the norms, practices and approaches to mental health and psychosocial support in humanitarian crises from a social science perspective. Students are therefore not required to have any prior medical knowledge. Instead, the course considers the social determinants of mental health in situations of natural hazards, conflict, displacement and violence. The first half of the module considers the conceptualisations of mental health from a western and non-western perspective, whilst the second half looks at how psychosocial support is created in practice from top-down NGO interventions to community-led approaches.

At the end of the course the students will have:

• a survey of the history of modern humanitarianism as an idea or ‘ideology of compassion’
• a social and cultural history of international governmental and nongovernmental organisations in humanitarian crises from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day
• an analysis of the impact of humanitarian intervention
• investigated the intellectual currents of modern humanitarianism o explored some of the complex issues arising from humanitarian work during times and in sites of crisis and conflict
• engaged in scenarios of humanitarian work in order to better understand the constraints under which various actors operated
• assessed historically the importance of humanitarian movements in modern world (especially western) history

Some of the lectures for this unit will be delivered online.

Reading Notes - 30%

Written Essay - 70%

Written feedback following submission