Study all the things!

I apologise, the meme of which the title of this post refers to has become much too overused. I'm ashamed at myself for using it, but it's an apt description of how I feel.

WHY DO I KEEP CHANGING MY MIND ABOUT MY DISSERTATION TOPIC?

Seriously, sometimes I just want to do this to myself:

It might knock some sense into me, and in my new-found wisdom I might stick on one topic.

I mentioned in the last post that I want to do my individual studies project [dissertation] on depression, self and identity. The idea came into my mind last week whilst I was reading Sally Brampton's Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression. I have neither the book nor the few notes I made on it with me at the moment (they are back in London, waiting patiently on my desk), but I remember a few lines that really stuck out for me. Brampton mentions at one point that depression is a disease in which you lose yourself, that it is one of unexplained, unbearable loneliness, and also states "I am a depressive".

Among others, these three statements reminded me of one of the topics in my medical anthropology module from last year; Selfhood, Personhood and the Body. It was inevitably going to be one of my favourite topics out of all those I was fortunate to study last year, because my favourite thing from the year previously was my research and subsequent essay regarding Mary Douglas' quotation "what is carved on human flesh is an image of society" (or words to that effect - this was two years ago, I can't remember the phrase exactly). I then decided to write an essay last year on "Powerful bodies: use and modification amongst vulnerable women", and it was definitely one of my best that year. I'm very proud of it, even if I do say so myself.

I think it's because I really, really enjoyed the subject matter. Two of the books I mention in it - Hunger: An Unnatural History by Sharman Apt Russell and Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa by Jean Jacobs Brumberg. The way we think, and use, our bodies is fascinating. The fact that society influences our way of thinking should be obvious, but we often don't pay much attention to it. Obviously everyone is aware that Western media nowadays shows lots of skinny girls, but I think it's interesting to take that one step further and learn about how there was a huge increase in cases of anorexia and bulimia in Fiji in the mid-1990s once television was introduced to the country [1]. That they didn't want to be slimmer for many of the reasons women in America or the UK want to be slimmer (so that potential sexual partners find them attractive), but because they associated the way the women in American media looked with qualities such as confidence, assertiveness and power, often related [in their minds] to economic success.

I hope this all makes sense to anyone reading this. I've got a terrible cold at the moment so my head is a little fuzzy, and I'm not being as precise with my wording as if I were writing an essay. I'm hoping you're able to follow this.

Anyway, the bodies and Fiji reading popped up on the identity week's revision readings along with several others, three of which really grabbed my attention. Actually, two of these were from the topic "healing techniques of modern societies", but for the purposes of revision I lumped them all together into one topic. One of the readings was on how Western medicine is learned, and it mentions the dualism of mind/body that is so seemingly clear cut in Western society. It suggested that biomedicine objectifies the patient and makes them feel more machine-like (I can go explain this in another post at a later date, but for now, please take my word for it?). Scheper-Hughs and Lock (1997) adds to this that Western science and clinical medicine has a fundamental opposition between spirit and matter, mind and body, real and unreal, to the extent that social information is almost deemed irrelevant to "real" biomedical diagnosis. It is in the body or it is in the mind. Pain is either physical or mental.

Sally Brampton disagrees. She tells us that there is no clear reason why people become depressed, and that whilst it is a mental condition, she was most certainly in physical pain at times. This, to me, is interesting.

Scheper-Hughs and Lock also talk about identity and personhood as related to the individual or society. They mention that in traditional Japan there is a culture of social relativism - one's self-identity changes with the social context. We don't really have that in the West, or at least we think we don't. We tend to see self-identity as a very individual, personally malleable thing, something which we can create by consuming, but which is also fixed in a way - Brampton mentions losing herself. We have a fixed idea of who "we" are. My mind made the connection between her talking about the loneliness involved in an illness where you have lost yourself, and the individual/social person idea.

There was another article my mind managed to connect to these regarding drugs and medication, but this has gone on far too long already and I'm too tired to look up exactly what it said.

So yeah, as you can see (or maybe you can't - I'm really, really unsure about how clear all that rambling was, and I'm very aware of how little sense anthropologists can often seem to make), I have a lot of things running around in my head about why I'd like to look at the self and depression.

But...

There's always a but...

I bought this book the other day:

My sister, O, read the blurb and instantly said it sounded like my sort of book. All about remaking the body and how we're influenced to do so.

And I've seen a few books on anorexia recently that I'd really like to read.

And I've got another upstairs that I'm planning on taking with me to Lanzarote next week.

And now I cannot get mum's suggestion out of my head, that I should be doing my dissertation on anorexia. I don't know why the topic interests me so much! Is it because I love food so much? Or because I have a fixative / obsessive personality, and know that if I'm not careful sometimes when trying to diet I could very easily end up going far too many days without eating enough. And by that, I mean 600-800 calories starting to sound like an awful lot. So whilst I've never, thankfully, suffered from an eating disorder, maybe part of my mind feels a connection to those that do, or to those that like to be in control but get out of hand? I don't know. I think I'm possibly talking rubbish here. All I really mean is that it is a topic that holds a great deal of interest to me, and I'm uncertain which of the two dissertation topics I should pursue.

I think probably the depression one. I think I could write an essay on eating disorders as part of my Anthropology and Psychiatry module - I've seen several of the books that I've already read on one of the previous years' reading list.

I can't tell you how excited I am for this module, and it's not until second term! Seriously, I was looking through the reading list making a note of everything I want to read straight off, and there was about twenty books. One was just for the title - Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie. Who can read a title like that and not want to read the book?

In non-dissertation news, I don't know whether or not to take my laptop to Lanzarote. I took it to Nerja last year, and everyone asked me why on earth I did, then discussed behind my back how antisocial it was etc. Then every single other person on the holiday used it at various points during the week, and it was useful to find maps and timetables and tickets etc for things we wanted to do. In the end, very useful. This time I want it partly in order to be antisocial for a little bit. I want some me-time. I also want to make a start on my dissertation, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually get done whilst on holiday. Part of me thinks I could get a fair few readings done, as my mind is very much on the topics at hand, but the other part of me thinks I'll cave to peer pressure and not do anything.

However, my budget for the holiday is very limited, and I already know it's three times smaller than a number of other people's. This means I'm not always going to be able to go on all the trips out that everyone else does. I know one day people want to go to a water park. I'm not particularly interested in water parks, and that will cost money, so I might see if I can beg off that? I've got a bad cold anyway, if that's an excuse. If they're all out all day, whilst I'll have books with me it might be nice to also have my laptop, as I know there's wifi in some areas.

It's also more baggage to carry. It's a heavy laptop.

And part of me doesn't want to be away from the internet for a week because of everything I'll "miss" in the fandoms I pay attention to and other pop-culture issues. Which I actually enjoy keeping up with, from an "this whole phenomenon of fandoms and celebrity and etc is interesting" sort of way, not just a "I want to know what Benedict Cumberbatch is up to" sort of way (because honestly, I find it really creepy to actively research what another person is doing. If the Sherlock tag on tumblr tells you something, that's fine, but googling actors for their latest news is a little creepy and stalker-ish, and I've felt very bad whenever I've done it. Because, yes, I've done it. Only on a few occasions when I'm wanting to know the follow-up to something else I've read about, but I've felt weird doing it all the same). A week is a heck of a long time on the internet! When I spent more time on Reddit, 24 hours away could sometimes be enough for me to have no idea what half the posts on the front page were talking about. I'm used to being connected and aware, and I like that state just as much as I like putting the laptop down and ignoring it all.

But I think I like the choice - I have the option to be connected, and the option to ignore it. If I don't take my laptop on holiday, I don't have that option at all.

This post is too long and is no longer making sense to me.

If you've got this far, thank you for sticking with me!

This cold needs to go away soon.

[1] Becker, A. 2004. Television, Disordered Eating and Young Women in Fiji.

Anthropology Options (Part II)

So it's been a while. It took far longer than I would have liked for me to finally choose my modules, but in all fairness, it wasn't entirely my fault. It was partly due to the system we have on portico and my being unable to understand how things work. Rather than just looking on the "select modules" list, I decided to browse the module database, not realising until much later that this shows all modules that have ever been available (I think), and not just the ones on offer for that year. So I had many, many more to try to choose between, such as Anthropology of Western Industrial Societies, or the main ones I wanted to do - Ethnographic Film Theory and Practical.

Ethnographic Film Practical would have been perfect for me. It was a term long course that ended up with you producing a 15 minute professional-quality film. It takes you through everything, from using the camera and equipment, coming up with what you're going to film, and editing afterwards. Considering I've sort of decided that I'd like to work in television and/or film (on the production side, not the on-screen side), I thought this would be perfect. But I wasn't sure if it was available for undergraduates or if I'd have to pay the lab fee (which was anything between £550 and £1500 depending on how much the department paid for you). So I sent an email to our undergraduate coordinator, and waited many, many days for my dilemma to be resolved.

As it happens, it's not an available module, which I'd have realised had I only looked at the options under the "select modules" section. I felt like this:

Yes, I'm overreacting a little. I did feel stupid, and annoyed, and irritated, and many other words that mean similar things, but that's just because I'm impatient. Despite the fact that I'm still able to change what modules I want to do in the first week of taking them (which isn't until the first week in October), I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible. The fact that I wasted almost a week looking at modules I'm unable to take anyway really annoys me. On the plus side, H told me about a module that SOAS are doing (or so we think), which is "The Other in Horror and Science Fiction". I think it sounds really interesting, and not just because it involves watching a film every week and has no exam at the end (only essays). So I've picked that one as my non-department module, and I really, really hope it gets the go ahead. It's hosted by their anthropology department, so I can't see why it wouldn't be.

The other modules I picked ended up being Digital Culture; Psychiatry; Science, Society and Biomedicine; and Nationalism, Ethnicity and Race. I don't actually know which I'm looking forward to the most - I think they'll all be really interesting. Although it's strange - I think I'm actually looking forward to Digital Culture the least, despite that being the module that I wanted to do all of last year, and was looking forward to for ages. Now that I've gone off the idea of my dissertation being internet-related, I'm definitely not as interested as I was.

And I think I know why - I'm interested in the internet, I really am. I've spent half my life on it. I find it fascinating how communities form and interact on various social networking sites, and how they seem to come together as one big "internet community" in the face of things such as SOPA and CISPA. But I think I was considering doing my dissertation on the internet last year mainly due to me not wanting to have to interact with people on a face-to-face basis. I'm shy, and I also have a tendency to isolate myself. I isolated myself a lot last year, there was no way I wanted to be interviewing anybody. I thought that if I had to, I could chat to people online, and send out questionnaires. And then when I was trying to think of a dissertation idea, I came up with about twenty ideas that weren't quite anthropological enough, or doable, or interesting enough. It drove me a little mad.

So I'm not doing the internet for my dissertation. Not in the slightest. I started thinking that I wanted to do something related to the medicalisation of gender (or biomedical creation of gender, or something). I've now decided that what I would really like to do is look at the self and identity in people who suffer from depression. Mum suggested I look at anorexia, but I pointed out that my medical essay last year focussed a lot on food control and anorexia, despite it being on control and use of the body amongst women in general. I'd be rehashing a lot of old ground, although I do agree that it would be a fascinating topic.

No, I decided I wanted to do depression and the self because I've been interested in identity, personhood and the self since the start of the degree. My best essay in first year was on body modification, and then I loved the medical anthropology module last year. Well, I loved it in sorts - I didn't like the lectures (or go to many of them) because I didn't like the teaching styles, but I really enjoyed the tutorials and the readings, and it's a topic I've considered studying further as a masters degree.

But masters degrees are expensive, and I don't want to go into anthropology as a career. I can't afford to study something just because I find it interesting, which is a shame, but c'est la vie.

And now I have to go and pack, because I'm going back to Liverpool today on a train that leaves in two hours, so I have to leave here in an hour. I've wasted most of the morning on the internet, so I'm now in a bit of a rush. At least I was able to update this.

Final Year Anthropology Options (Part I)

So the time has come for me to pick my options for my final year studying anthropology. Well, it's not exactly time. I have until we start the year pretty much, and that isn't until October. However, I see no reason not to go through the available courses now and make a preliminary list, especially since the timetable is also available so I can see what clashes with what and won't need to go over everything again in a few weeks because suddenly they're all on the same day.

Let's start with the classes I definitely want to do.

ANTH3001 - Advanced topics in Digital Culture

In this course we will survey the terrain of ‘digital culture’ synthesizing technological, conceptual, historical and ethnographic frames. We will ground the emergence of ‘new’ digital technologies in older communicative, reproductive, replicative and mechanical forms; evaluate the resonance of the digital within cultural production; and investigate the digital as both site and subject of anthropological engagement and enquiry. Key questions asked are: what is new and different about our engagement with digital technologies? Do digital technologies and practices alter or perpetuate continuities in social relationships, hierarchies and political structures? What does it mean to be off line in a digital age? What kinds of new subjectivities and publics do digital practices bring into being?

Throughout the class we will present some ethnographies of emerging digital practices and discuss the social contexts in which they are developing. Some of the areas we will cover are the use of digital channels in the home , in the workplace, in public spaces, in civil society and in migration. We will also address some of the issues surrounding new digital property forms and economies, and new processes of digitization, by tracing the trajectory of diverse digital forms (museum catalogues, medical imaging technologies, digital photography).

Assessment - One essay.

When? - Term 2. Lecture on Tuesday 2pm.

ANTH3017 - Anthropology and Psychiatry

The course examines: a) popular understandings of psychology, self-hood and abnormal experience in different societies, and how they may be organised into a body of knowledge; b) the relationship between popular and professional notions of 'mental illness' and their roots in the wider social, economic and ideological aspects of different societies, with particular respect to women and minority groups; c) the contribution of academic psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis to social anthropology; d )running through the course is the question of whether we can reconcile naturalistic and personalistic modes of thought and, if so, how.

Assessment - 25% essay, 75% exam.

When? - Term 2. Lecture on Tuesday 11am. Seminar on Wednesday 10am(?)

ANTH7020 - Anthropologies of Science, Society and Biomedicine

This course will critically engage with recent anthropological research and theory addressing the social and cultural context of novel developments in the field of genetics, biotechnology and the life/medical sciences. These shape shifting arenas of science and technology and their actual or predicted implications for questions of disease risk, collective/individual identity and the politics and ethics of health care has been the focus of much recent research within medical anthropology, STS (Science and Technology Studies) and the anthropology of science. The course incorporates emerging research in different national contexts that include the ‘global south’ drawing on ethnographic work in Asia and South America to provide a critical comparative perspective on these transnational developments.

Assessment - 40% essay, 60% exam.

When? - Term 2. Lecture on Thursday 2pm.

And then I need to decide between the following (and pick two of them).

ANTH3030 - Nationalism, Ethnicity and Race

This course focuses on theories and practices of ethnicity, race and nationalism. The reading material is divided between theoretical work on these issues and ethnographic examples. The readings primarily are from what sometimes are called the '1st and 2nd worlds'. Though most of the readings are contemporary, historical sources will be used as well.

Assessment - 2 essays.

When? - Term 1. Lecture on Thursday 11am.

ANTH3049 - Reproduction, Fertility and Sex

In this course students learn to apply different theoretical and disciplinary approaches to the study of contemporary issues in reproduction and fertility. Each week a different topic is examined from a multi-disciplinary perspective including social anthropology, biological anthropology, demography, biology and other disciplines. The course is a seminar based discussion with considerable student participation: students have to identify an article each week on the topic and be prepared to present their reading to the group. Topics covered are likely to include love, hormones and bonding; adolescent reproduction; reproductive loss (abortion, miscarriage and still birth); breastfeeding; infertility; contraception and contraceptive methods; different roles and priorities of men and women in reproduction; reproduction and migration.

Assessment - 40% essay, 60% exam.

When? - Term 1. Lecture on Monday, 2pm.

ANTH3053 - Temporality, Consciousness and Everyday Life

This course examines the different social modes and states of consciousness through which knowledge of the past may be gained in world societies, while recognizing that views of the past are necessarily conditioned by present experiences and intimations of the future. In the West, rational research into documents and artifacts is generally accepted as the authoritative means of knowing the past. Yet even within Western societies people may contest official history with alternative accounts of the past deriving from personal revelations sometimes received in altered states of consciousness. In various societies from the Pacific to the Arctic the elders possess exclusive authority to pronounce upon what happened in the past. Amongst the First Nations of Canada, in the absence of written sources documenting the ownership of land, a shaman may be called upon to dream the truth of the past.

Assessment - 2 essays.

When? - Term 2. Lecture on Friday, 9am.

ANTH3020 - Social Construction of Landscape

Landscapes are never inert: people engage with them, re-work them, appropriate them and contest them. They are part of the way in which identities are created and disputed. Criss-crossing between history and politics, social relations and cultural perceptions, landscape is a ‘concept of high tension’. It is also an area of study that blows apart from conventional boundaries between disciplines. This course looks at the number of theoretical approaches to the Western Gaze; colonial, indigenous and prehistoric landscapes; contested landscapes; and questions of heritage and ‘wilderness’.

Assessment - 1 essay.

When? - Term 2. Lecture on Tuesday, 9am.

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I'll discuss some of the pros and cons and my thoughts on what to do in the next post, but I'm too distracted by Downton Abbey at the moment to do it now. I was only intending on watching one episode today, but H (my house mate) wisely pointed out that it's far too late for me to expect to get anything else done today, so we should attempt to watch the entire series tonight. 

After carefully considering her suggestion...

I decided there was only one way I could answer.

So until next time!

Who? What? Where? Why?

Who?

I'm a 20-year-old anthropology student, avid procrastinator, sane-ish fangirl of an ever-increasing number of shows (currently working my way through Sherlock, Dr Who, Game of Thrones, White Collar, Suits and Newsroom), and someone who has no idea what they want to do when they graduate from university in a year. I read books, I occasionally write stuff, and I keep starting and abandoning blogs.

What?

A blog about things I want to write about. I'm going to try and keep most of it anthropology-related, but might take a detour from time to time.

Where?

London, UK. Occasionally Liverpool. Very occasionally elsewhere.

Why?

Because I keep meaning to continue blogs when I start them, but rarely do. I've been reading a number recently that are really interesting, and I want to have a go myself. I also want to try exploring anthropology more. I've found what we've learned really interesting, and I've enjoyed discussing it afterwards. However a few weeks after the module has finished, I've usually forgotten what it was we were doing or what I was discussing. I'm hoping that by writing this blog, I'll have a place to reflect on everything and therefore have a record of what it is I've been talking about. Also my dad bet me that I couldn't keep a blog going regularly for six weeks, and I like doing anything my dad says I can't! :P