This seminar will present and define critical approaches in the field of security studies which are dealing with social justice issues and contribute to the understanding of human security and human agency within the field. Specifically, this seminar will deal with feminism (in all its forms) and postcolonialism in security studies and their relevance to issues of social justice and challenges to the west-centrism of SS and IR.
The various readings should provide students with varied feminist and postcolonial perspectives on security, war, conflict, and peace and engage students in complex debates. Special attention will be dedicated to the issues of epistemology and knowledge production and its relevance to our understanding of violence, war, and other crucial phenomena relevant to our field (both International Relations and Security Studies).
This will be done through the continuous challenge to the prevailing mainstream paradigm in the field: realism, positivism, and the prevailing notion of objective (universal) knowledge.
Aim of the course
Last update: Mgr. Anna Kotvalová (02.09.2022)
The goal of this seminar is for students to engage in alternative/critical perspectives within the field and to understand the ontological and epistemological challenges and debates taking place in the field of IR and SS (additionally, the goal is for students to understand the crucial role ontology and epistemology play in our field so students are able to apply these concepts on various problems and issues going forward in their studies). Moreover, the goal is to understand the current feminist and postcolonial debates taking place in the field and connect them to the concept of social justice which is so often omitted in our field.
Teaching methods
Last update: Mgr. Anna Kotvalová (26.09.2023)
All sessions are foreseen to take place in Jinonice and all students are expected to physically attend. Students who are officially approved because of a specific situation will participate online, via Teams. Please follow the university's current pandemic regulation for any changes but students are expected to participate in Jinonice if at all possible.
Requirements to the exam
Last update: Mgr. Anna Kotvalová (13.09.2022)
The final grade shall be a composite of preparatory activity (10%), class participation (10%), presentation (30%) and final exam (50%). The preparatory activity shall consist of the successful completion of brief tests on reading assigned to the entire class (A and/or B). These tests must be completed by the due date indicated in Moodle. Presentation (10 minutes) shall consist of a critical overview of one other piece of reading (Ax or Bx) and linking it to the argument of the reading to which it is linked in the syllabus. The assignment of presentations to be prepared by students shall be done during the introductory session. (No presentations are scheduled for this session.) The final exam will take the form of a submitted research paper (2,000 words, excluding references). Students are expected to use relevant secondary literature to support their argument and follow all standards of academic writing when preparing their papers.
