BSc International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response and Spanish / Course details

This course introduces students to the key theoretical concepts that underpin all aspects of international disaster management and humanitarian response. The concepts covered will provide a framework through which to theoretically and critically interrogate the specific processes and practices of disaster management and humanitarian response. The study of international disaster management and humanitarian response is an interdisciplinary endeavour, this course will provide students with the theoretical foundations to engage with the subject matter across a range of disciplines.  

• To introduce students to key theoretical and historical concepts that have shaped humanitarian responses
• To reflect on how shifts and changes in these concepts over time and space have had important effects on the practices of humanitarianism and disaster management
• To foster students’ critical thinking regarding debates and scholarship on humanitarian action
• To develop critical analytical and research skills

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Key theoretical concepts which underpin the analysis of humanitarianism, conflict response and international disaster management
• The practical and operational implications of these concepts and understandings
• To be able to use these concepts to analyse examples of practice from the field
• Introductory grasp of the history of these debates in the academic literature

• Navigate complex theoretical debates and relate them to events and issues in practice
• Compare and contrast narratives originating from different sources
• Identify different methodologies and/or disciplinary orientations in academic literature
• Reflect upon current events and actors with reference to a historical perspective

• Information management skills, requiring evaluation, synthesis, and record-keeping.
• Research skills, including planning, prioritisation of tasks, identification and location of primary and secondary sources, evaluation of findings.
• Essay-writing skills related to the analysis of a specific question, construction of arguments, assessment and deployment of evidence, writing style.
• Participation in seminar discussion and collaborative learning.

Heywood, A. (2015) Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Edkins, J and Zehfuss, M. (2008). Global Politics: a New introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.

Barnett, Michael. And Thomas Weiss (2008) Humanitarianism in Question: Politics, Power, Ethics. Cornell University Press.

Moore, Jonathan, ed. Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).

Donnelly, Jack (2013) Universal Human  Rights in Theory and Practice. Cornell University Press.