SO258-15 Surveillance & Security: Race, Gender, Class

Module overview

This module will critically explore the intense growth of mass surveillance strategies in the name of national (and global) security, and their disproportionate application on Othered bodies. Moving on from normative conceptualisations of surveillance and security which tend to frame such trends as being relatively homogenous in their implications, this course will employ feminist, critical race, and postcolonial theory and perspectives to examine the ways in which race, gender and class thinking inform how surveillance is organized and deployed, as well as underlie the legitimation of surveillance practices. We will consider the ways in which media technologies are used for surveillance purposes and their role in resistance against surveillance. We will also explore the ways in which oppressed groups have been at the forefront of making sense of surveillance strategies, organizing against them whilst also subverting the use of surveillance media technologies to ‘police the police’.

Key topics of the module will include: Histories of Surveillance and Classification, 'Algorithms of Oppression', the War on Terror, Surveillance, Gender and Reproduction, Border Technologies, Security, Surveillance and Settler Colonial States, Counter-Surveillance, Resistance and Social Justice, and Critical Feminism on Security and Securitisation.

The module will be taught through a series of 2 hour workshops that will involve a mixture of 'mini lectures', group activities, class discussion and presentations. Students will be assessed through individual presentations and 'seen question' examination.

Key Information

Optional Module

15 CATS

Summative Assessment: Individual Presentation (25%) & 2 hour open exam in the Summer term (75%)

Teaching: 1 x 2 hour workshop per week

Module Convenor: Nisha Kapoor