HST6396 - Saving the World? A Global History of Humanitarianism in the Long Twentieth Century

This module offers insight into the development of modern humanitarianism, exploring the inequality inherent to this practice where lost rights are met with material and practical assistance. Going beyond a narrative of charity and kindness to far away strangers, the module will follow a mixed thematic and case study based approach, and may include topics like colonial governance, anti-colonial resistance, development and reconstruction aid, postcolonial worldmaking, trusteeship, visual and popular culture, famine and hunger, as well as case studies such as the work of UNRRA, the Biafran Civil War or the 1971 East Pakistani crisis.