ASIAN 4431 - Representing Conflict through Visual Media:Sri Lanka & the Sri Lankan Diaspora in Photography & Film

Fall. 2 credits.

This 2-credit short-course meets 2.5 hours per week during the first half of Fall Semester 2015, supported by the Cornell South Asia Program’s Tamil Studies Initiative. Class meeting times are TBA; class meetings will be scheduled to coordinate with participating students’ full-semester class schedules.

K. Arunasalam.

This course develops a non-linear approach to events and issues surrounding the Sri Lankan conflict – a recently concluded 30-year war and ongoing political conflicts related to ethnicity, religion, nationalism, and access to political and economic resources – through representations in different media, focusing primarily on documentary photography, film and narrative journalism. Central materials for the course include feature film, documentary, music videos and multimedia sources. These are used to explore topics related to the representation of conflict, such as imagery of atrocity, the role of visual media in political argumentation, media bias, and the power of narratives and censorship. The course offers an introduction to key topics related to conflict in the Sri Lankan context, such as the roots of Sri Lanka’s conflicts, the relationship between religion and citizenship, diaspora politics, and competing discourses of “reconciliation” and “accountability.” Student assignments include analysis of visual media included in the course materials and opportunities to capture original student ideas related to the course through audio, stills and video. Students are encouraged to share their existing knowledge with others, including knowledge borrowing from other conflict contexts (including Africa, Europe, and Latin America), contributing to lively classroom discussions. (SC)