International Politics of the Body
| Module title | International Politics of the Body |
|---|---|
| Module code | POL3326 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Kate Goldie Townsend (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 30 |
|---|
Module description
This module will equip you with conceptual and analytical tools to think critically about diverse global bodily practices and norms. You will examine feminist and multicultural approaches to understanding challenges to human rights internationally and consider what should be prioritised in different contexts: local norms or individual rights.
You will take a critical approach to norms and expectations about people’s bodies while researching and discussing challenging real-world bodily practices, such as, early marriage, wartime rape, and female genital cutting/mutilation. You will make normative and interpretative arguments about the practices in written assessments.
You will explore questions and themes around contentious expectations about human bodies, such as, the politicisation of religious dress codes in different international contexts, the treatment of intersex people’s bodies internationally, international reproductive rights, disability and marginalisation.
Students who have taken POL2124 will be well-suited to the module, but it is not obligatory to have studied POL2124. It is an applied political philosophy module.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The aim is to enable you to think critically about the norms and practices impacting on people’s bodies in the international context.
You will be engaging with arguments in favour of human rights and those defending cultural/group practices which will help to give you a broader capacity for understanding how people and their bodies are affected by policies, norms, and practices internationally.
You will be challenged to do research into real-world bodily practices, and to apply theoretical literature to the practices.
The written assessments will help develop crucial analytical skills that can be transferred to employment requiring research into real-world events impacting on human rights.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand theoretical approaches to contentious bodily practices
- 2. To develop arguments about real-world bodily practices and norms
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Analysis of political approaches to human bodies
- 4. Analysis of international policies, norms, and institutions
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. Guided independent research
- 6. Analytical writing skills
Syllabus plan
Part 1.
Theoretical approaches to understanding bodies in context. In this part of the module you will engage with debates addressing tensions between individual rights and cultural norms, including but not limited to, multiculturalism and liberalism, feminist approaches to international political issues, transnational and multicultural challenges to western feminist discourse. This is the more theory heavy part of the module that will give you the conceptual and analytical tools to approach diverse bodily practices.
Part 2.
The second part of the module will get deeper into discussing different bodily norms and practices that challenge human rights commitments. The topics will include practices such as wartime sexual violence, child marriage, intersex genital mutilation/modification, FGC/M, sex trafficking, pornography, abortion, international dress codes. This part of the module is where we use the theoretical tools we’ve engaged with to critically discuss different bodily practices.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | 256 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 44 | 22 x 2-hour seminars |
| Guided independent study | 88 | Reading for weekly seminars |
| Guided independent study | 168 | Formative plan, and 2 summative essays |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay plan x 2 | 1000 words (2 x 500) | 1-5 | Oral and written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading review | 50 | 2500 words | 1, 3, 5, 6 | Written |
| Essay | 50 | 2500 words | 1-6 | Written |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading review (2,500 words) | Reading review (2,500 words) | 1,3, 5, 6 | Referral / Deferral period |
| Essay (2,500 words) | Essay (2,500 words) | 1-6 | Referral / Deferral period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Claudia Card, “Rape as a Weapon of War”, Hypatia (1996)
- Karisa Cloward, When Norms Collide; Local responses to activism against female genital mutilation and early marriage (2015)
- Ratna Kapur, Gender, Alterity and Human Rights (2018)
- Serene Khader, Decolonizing Universalism; A transnational feminist ethic (2019)
- Serene Khader, Adaptive Preferences and Women’s empowerment (2011)
- Paul Kirby, “The body weaponized; War, sexual violence and the uncanny”, Security Dialogue (2020)
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without borders; decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity (2003)
- Jaya Sagade, Child Marriage in India; socio-legal and human rights dimensions (2012)
- Jaya Sagade and Christine Forster, Women’s Human Rights in India (2019)
- Amia Srinivasan, The Right to Sex (2021)
- Celeste E. Orr, Cripping Intersex; disability culture and politics (2022)
- Susan Moller Okin, “Feminism and multiculturalism: some tensions” (1998)
- Elizabeth Wicks, The State and The Body (2016)
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- Bharti Chhibber, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights”, World Affairs; The Journal of International Issues (2018) https://www.jstor.org/stable/48520052
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 6 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 07/03/2025 |
| Last revision date | 07/03/2025 |
