Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3156: Central Asian Politics

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Indicative course outline (may change from year to year):

1-2. Introducing and imagining Central Asia: literature, travelogue and film.
3-6. History and historiography: before, during and after the Soviet Union / the making of modern Afghanistan.
7-11. Theories and approaches: transition / political economy / state formation / nation, ethnicity and clan politics / symbolic politics.
12-22. Issues and cases: Gender and bride-kidnapping / Livelihoods and labour migration / Religion and political Islam / Sovereignty and regional cooperation / Water politics and the Aral Sea crisis / Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and the resource curse / Intervention in Afghanistan since 911 / Peacebuilding in Tajikistan / Uzbekistan and the Andijon Uprising / Kyrgyzstan and the Tulip Revolution / China & Xinjiang

Seminars:

Subject knowledge will be communicated in short talks, and developed through private study, reading review exercises, seminar discussions, presentations and assignments. Talks will introduce intellectual and historical contexts and draw on textual sources and cinematic representations as well as case studies as examples.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and teaching activity	44	22 x 2 hour seminars.
Guided Independent study	256	A variety of private study tasks directed by module leader. This includes class preparation (@5 hours per week), presentation preparation (@20 hours), essay researching, drafting and writing (@2 x 30 hours), book review researching, drafting and writing (@ 20 hours), and various extra-curricular activities which will differ from year to year including special seminars and film showings.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Moodle

Other Learning Resources

Audio-Video: Central Asian cinema; Fiction and travel writing