Assignment#1-Read and respond to the essay ‘Oppression’ by Morton Deutsch (all parts).
https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/oppression-introduction (500 words)
Guidance notes: Reader response paper
A reader response paper asks you [the reader] to examine, explain and defend your thoughts about a reading. There are a set of questions below to guide you, and you might find it useful to have them in mind while you are reading. However, you don’t need to follow the questions strictly in your paper – they are suggestions and starting points.
Overall reaction: What was your initial response to the reading?
What argument or point did you find most convincing, interesting or challenging in the text, and why?
How much does the text confirm or challenge ideas you already hold? Did it encourage you to see an issue in a different way, or expand your perspective?
What connections did you make between this text and other issues/debates in your courses?
What else do you want or need to know about this topic?
A few things to keep in mind:
You don’t need to summarise the reading and can assume that I know the contents. I am more interested in what you thought about the ideas and arguments contained in the reading(s).
Please ensure that you have explained , not just stated, your views – say why you think something, not just what you think. Your responses should demonstrate an informed, intellectual engagement with the text.
If you have too much too say, it might be best to focus on a couple of key points and write about these in enough detail, rather than trying to cover a lot of ground. You can always briefly mention other questions or issues.
Reading and writing “critically” does not mean the same thing as “criticizing. Critique should be appreciative and balanced, showing awareness of strengths as well as limitations in a piece of work.
Assignment#2- Completion of study guide on the history Apartheid in South Africa. (500 words)
Study Guide Questions
What effect did the arrival of Europeans in South Africa have on the Africans who lived there?
Did the British see their role in South Africa differently from Afrikaaners? Explain.
Why would successive generations of historians have differing views on the causes and effects of the Mfecane? What role does race play in the writing of history?
Explain how the Mineral Revolution laid the groundwork for racial segregation in South Africa.
Explain the roots of Afrikaner identity.
Pick two laws discussed in the reading. Explain how they drew upon earlier segregationist policies and furthered the cause of apartheid. What part of the system was each designed to uphold?
What methods did the various anti-apartheid groups use to protest the government? Which were the most successful?
Do you think the Freedom Charter was a ‘revolutionary document’, as Mandela claimed? Why or why not? (Link to the Freedom Charter in Blackboard)
What were the different visions for South Africa of the ANC and PAC? How did each plan to achieve its goals?
Sharpeville is seen as a turning point in South African history. Why do think this is so?
Assignment#3:Conflict Analysis Task (Northern Ireland) (1500 words, plus maps)
Choose three of the available papers, each of which provides an alternative explanation of the conflict’s causes (e.g. one emphasising economic factors, one emphasising religion, etc).
For each article, produce a visual map which shows how that author is representing the causes of the conflict – i.e. what emphasis do they give to different factors, actors, events…?
Write a commentary to accompany your maps, discussing what each perspective contributes to our understanding of the conflict, and any strengths or limitations in each, drawing on wider knowledge from the course.
papers for assignment#3:-
1. L. Philip Barnes (2005) Was the Northern Ireland Conflict Religious?, Journal of Contemporary Religion,
20:1, 55-69,
2.Ross, M. H. (2001), Psychocultural Interpretations and Dramas: Identity Dynamics in Ethnic Conflict. Political Psychology, 22: 157–178.
3.History, Structure and Action in the Settlement of Complex Conflicts: The Northern Ireland Case from the book: Irish Political Studies Volume 29, Issue 1, 2014
Assignment#4: Critical Bibliography on the Anti-Apartheid Struggle (1500 words)
Compile a bibliography of three relevant academic sources that examine the struggle against apartheid from different angles, that provide different sorts of information, and/or provide different sorts of interpretation.
Explain how and why the sources differ in their perspective
Identify and explain points of complementarity or conflict in the readings – what do they each contribute to our understanding, what issues remain contested or unresolved?
Comment on what you found most useful, interesting or convincing among the readings.