After the course students
- have tools for making sense of different concepts and research traditions related to the topic
- understand the cultural, social and historical shaping of emotions, affects and senses
- are enabled to recognize how emotions are connected with wider power relations
- are familiar with methodological questions that arise when studying embodied meaning-making

In everyday life different emotions and sensations are often seen as individual, personal and as lacking of social or political significance. This course has as its point of departure an idea of affects, emotions and senses as socially, culturally and historically shaped and potentially collective. The social significance of affects, emotions and senses is examined as well as the ways how they are linked with wider structures of power. Attention is paid to such questions as how affects, emotions and senses participate in the production of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class.In addition, the methodological challenges of studying non-lingvistic, non-conscious and embodied experiences and systems of meaning-making are discussed.

This interdisciplinary course combines different research traditions such as sociology of emotions, feminist theories of affect, social scientific approaches to the body, anthropology of the senses and critical psychology. Themes are approached though preliminary readings, traditional lectures, group discussions and different practical tasks.  The course also aims at developing new and experimental approaches to collective learning.

The course, being targeted mainly at students who have a basic understanding of social research, can be used to compensate both intermediate and advanced level courses upon agreement. Active participation in lectures and exercises is required to pass the course. In addition, the students are expected to compose a learning journal.