DELC211: Understanding culture

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Educational Aims

• 'Understanding Culture' gives an insight into twentieth and twenty-first century definitions and analyses of 'culture'. Some key questions we explore on the module include: How has 'culture' been defined and how have these definitions changed during the 19th, 20th and 21st century? How does culture define who we are? What is the relationship between 'culture' and 'power'? How does a 'culture' endorse or suppress markers of identity? How is normativity constructed, questioned or undermined? How can cultural studies and their methodologies help us to understand artistic expressions and cultural practices, and to constructively respond to what matters to others? What role does the body play in our understanding of culture?
• Texts studied on the course may vary, but will typically be organized around the topics of culture and class, gender, sexuality, race, imperialism and decolonization, and cultural resistance.
• Throughout the course students are encouraged to approach cultures as standing in relation to each other, to develop cultural critical self-awareness, and intercultural competence.

Outline Syllabus

Texts studied on the course may vary, but will typically be organized around the topics of culture and class, gender, sexuality, race, imperialism and decolonization, and cultural resistance.

• Weekly Lecture and Seminar outline

  Week 1: Introduction: Approaches to ‘Culture’ and Judy Giles and Tim Middleton, ‘What is Culture?’

  Week 2 Approaches to ‘Understanding’ and Excerpts from Silvia Federici, Witches, WItch-Hunting and Women, and her lecture '‘Women, Witch-Hunting and Primitive Accumulation’', hosted by Culturgest

  Week 3 Culture and Ideology and Corey Robin, ‘Conservatism and Counterrevolution’ from The Reactionary Mind

  Week 4 Culture and the State and David Graeber, ‘Dead Zones of the Imagination’ from The Utopia of Rules, p. 45-82 , Interview with a representative Klett-Cotta, the German publisher of The Utopia of Rules.

  Week 5 Culture and Class /Voicing Class and Edouard Louis, Who Killed My Father

  Week 6 Voicing Blackness and Frantz Fanon, ‘The Fact of Blackness’, from Black Skin, White Masks

  Week 7 Voicing Gender and Excerpts from Hélène Cixous, Sorties; or Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera; or Audre Lorde, 'The uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism’ and ‘A Woman Speaks’ and ‘Power’

  Week 8 Voicing as Self-Enquiry: White Privilege and Richard Dyer, ‘The Matter of Whiteness’, and Peggy McIntosh, ‘The White Privilege Invisible Knapsack

  Week 9 Case Studies: Environmentalism and Ecocriticism and Arundhati Roy, ‘The Greater Common Good’

  Week 10 Case Studies: Cultures of the Extreme Right, Culture and Anti-fascism and Julia Ebner, ‘Redpilling for Beginners: Undercover with Generation Identity’, from Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists, Exhibition Peng! Kollektiv: AntiFa, Myth and Truth

• Language: This module is taught in English and all texts are available in English

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 60%
• Exam: 40%

DELC212: Society on Screen: The Language of Film

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

How do films deal with aspects of society like migration, environment, artificial intelligence and gender? Do they entertain viewers, instruct them, or both? In what ways do cinematic techniques play a part? This module explores connections between European and Latin American films and their socio-historical contexts. It also considers form and technique: the language of film. To these ends, there will be introductory lectures on cinema and society and on film aesthetics and content in the first week of the module. During the remainder of the module, the connections mentioned will be the focus of seminars and presentations within the four typical topic areas: the environment, gender, artificial intelligence and migration.

Educational Aims

Students view and discuss modern European and Latin American films which highlight the core topics. Lectures will situate the films in terms of the social and historical context of the period and countries in which they were made. Artificial intelligence, migration, the environment and gender, for example, are differently manifested in each of the countries studied. The course will explore the relationship between cinema, such issues and their representation. Students will acquire a broad understanding of cinema of the period (1960s-present) together with an ability to analyse, contextualise and compare varying cinematic representations of a number of themes, together with the techniques used in those representations.

Outline Syllabus

The module consists of two introductory weeks on form and society then four two-week strands on typically the following topics: migration, environment, gender and artificial intelligence. Each strand will be introduced with a lecture and followed by seminars on the set films.

The films mentioned here are indicative only. They are subject to change. The films listed here give you an idea of a typical syllabus and the kinds of films that are analysed: I’m Your Man/Ich bin dein Mensch (Maria Schrader, 2022), My Life in Pink/Ma vie en rose (Alain Berliner, 1997), Tony Manero (Pablo Larraín, 2008) and Dislocation (Jianxin Huang, 1989) and Land and Freedom (Ken Loach, 1995).

Assessment Proportions

• Essay(s): 40%
• Exam: 45%
• Clip Analysis: 15%

DELC215: Language and Identity in France, Germany, Spain and the Sinophone World

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module will introduce second-year students to the role that the language used by institutions plays in shaping individual perceptions of identity. It will provide them with a basic theoretical framework that allows them to understand the relationship between language and power as reflected in current language policies at regional, national, and supranational levels. It will enable them to recognise forms of prestige and stigma associated with varieties of the three main languages under study. It will therefore raise critical awareness of the portrayal and representation of linguistic variations in the media and in the sphere of literature.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Familiarise students with the linguistic realities of France, Germany, Spain and the Sinophone World.
• Introduce them to country-specific materials and provide them with a better understanding of regional and social variation.
• Provide students with a theoretical framework that allows them to understand discourses of power that revolve around the concept of nation.
• Increase their awareness of languages as instruments of social prestige and identity formation.
• Enable students to make cross-country comparisons involving three major national identities in Europe.
• Develop their critical perception of linguistic variation within their home country, and of the role of the media, films and literature in portraying national and sub-national identities.

Outline Syllabus

Topics to include:

• Language and Power: An Introduction Language.
• Nation and Standard: An Introduction.
• European language policies.
• German as a pluricentric language.
• Gastarbeiter language and policies.
• An Overview of the linguistic Situation of France: Regional Variations.
• Linguistic Diversity: A threat to French National Identity?
• The languages of Spain (Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician). Language attitudes in Spain.
• Beyond Europe: Language and Power in the Sinophone World.
• QA session.

+ revision sessions in Summer Term

Assessment Proportions

• Essay(s): 40%
• Exam: 45 %
• Written Commentary 15%

DELC216: Professional Contexts for Modern Languages

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: Only available to students with a UK passport or appropriate study visa.

Course Description

The module is designed to integrate employability into the languages curriculum so that graduate employment is not divorced from the actual subject content. The module will assist students in developing skills and competences specific to language in context study (such as archival work, advocacy for NGOs, teaching, translation, and work in the literary, broadcast, and media industries). It does this by introducing students to working in language-related professional contexts. It will expose students to real world perspectives through engagement with external organisations.

Educational Aims

This module will enable students to develop their learning and interest in relation to framing their linguistic and cultural understanding in a specific professional context. It will aim to develop students’ understanding of the research process in relation to the specific sector in which their placement takes place and reflect academically on their practical experiences.

The module aims are:

• To offer students a structured experience of working with external organisations on projects which enable them to develop their self-confidence in communicating with individuals, their use of target language, and allow them to develop their self-management and language skills
• To support language-related organisations through work placement, or research activities undertaken by students
• To develop students' understanding of how organisations work with the cross cultural or multi-lingual environment in which they operate
• To enhance students' ability to reflect on and articulate their personal, linguistic and cross-cultural skills
• To develop students' application of aspects of their linguistic and cultural knowledge already acquired through study to a workplace environment

Outline Syllabus

• Work placement activity:

DELC216 seeks to support students to apply their linguistic and cultural understanding in a specific professional context. Students will develop, reflect on and articulate the range of competences and the linguistic and cross cultural skills that enhance employability by working in language-related professional contexts and reflecting on key issues in relation to their placement organisation. Students will typically spend between 25-30 hours over a period of 10 weeks engaging with a placement organisation between January and March. Alternatively students may undertake a 'block' placement over a two to three week period during the Easter vacation (this will allow placements abroad). Students will receive some preparation for the module. This will consist of short interviews and the sourcing and confirmation of placements. For students undertaking schools placements, there will also be some training. Alongside the placements, workshops will provide guidance on placements and on reflective academic work. Students will share their experiences and learning with each other by means of end-of-module presentations.

4 Workshops

Weeks 11 and 12: Preparation for Placement:

• Self-assessment of students' skills, attributes and preferences, including exploration of linguistic and cross-cultural skills
• Exploration of business and professional skills in practice: self-management, communication skills in practice, problem solving and team working
• Contemporary issues relevant to language-related sector

Week 13: Preparation for Assessment:

• Introduction to social research – research questions, theory and methods
• Reflection in learning - writing reflectively and using learning logs.
• Undertaking a research project

Week 17: Progress Review Seminar: will provide guidance to students on the content and structure of their academic work including the research process, and provide formative feedback on their draft work.

Weeks 21and 22: Student Presentations

Assessment Proportions

• Presentation (Assessed): 20%
• Reflective Learning Log: 20%
• Placement Report: 60%

DELC217: Environmental and Medical Humanities

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: none

Course Description

The course aims:

To contribute to students’ understanding of the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines, such as medicine, the environmental sciences, psychology, and neuroscience;

To instruct students in the analysis of literary, filmic, and visual texts using interpretive frameworks developed in other disciplines;

To develop students’ awareness of theoretical debates on the value of cultural texts in other disciplines, such as philosophy, environmental studies, and medicine;

To enable students to appreciate how the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines has evolved over time;

To build students’ knowledge of the cultural contexts that shape narratives on subjects such as the environment, illness, health, and the human condition.

Educational Aims

The course aims:

To contribute to students understanding of the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines, such as medicine, the environmental sciences, psychology, and neuroscience;

To instruct students in the analysis of literary, filmic, and visual texts using interpretive frameworks developed in other disciplines;

To develop students awareness of theoretical debates on the value of cultural texts in other disciplines, such as philosophy, environmental studies, and medicine;

To enable students to appreciate how the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines has evolved over time;

To build students knowledge of the cultural contexts that shape narratives on subjects such as the environment, illness, health, and the human condition.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

Explain the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines, such as medicine, the environmental sciences, psychology, and neuroscience;

Analyse literary, filmic, and visual texts related to the environment illness, health, and the human condition;

Appreciate the consequences of theoretical debates in interdisciplinary fields of study that span the humanities and other disciplines;

Recognize how the relationship between the humanities and other disciplines, such as medicine, the environmental sciences, psychology, and neuroscience has evolved over time;

Situate narratives on subjects such as the environment, illness, health, and the human condition within the cultural and historical contexts in which they are embedded.

Outline Syllabus

How are disciplines that focus on human culture approaching the critical problems facing our species, such as climate and environmental crisis or the challenges of health and wellbeing in ageing societies? What contribution can the humanities make to fields of knowledge often thought to belong to science, like our understanding of pain or wildlife conservation? Working at the intersection between the humanities and the biomedical and environmental sciences, students will examine the decisive role played by philosophy, history, literature, and the arts in creating and critiquing knowledge about the natural world and the human beings that inhabit it.

Assessment Proportions

• Essay 60%
• Oral 40%

The assessment utilizes two quintessential forms of expression and intellectual engagement in the humanities, the essay and the dialogue (oral exam). This choice of assessment is guided by the ambition of the module to give students a deeper understanding of disciplinary norms and boundaries. It also supports the module’s function in preparing students for further study in modern languages and other humanities disciplines by developing their skills in essay writing and argument for higher-level modules. Both the summative and formative assessment focus on one set of ideas and arguments, of which students will be able to develop their understanding progressively. The oral exam will take place once students have received written feedback on their essays. During the oral exam, students will be asked questions about their written essays. The examiners’ questions in the oral exam will focus on students’ arguments and their use of secondary sources. The oral exam will evaluate students’ ability to defend the arguments pursued in their essay and will gauge students’ responses against the module learning outcomes. Students will be prepared for the oral exam with activities in seminars.

DELC218: Thinking Queerness: LGBTQIA+ lives, identities and politics in contemporary thought and cultural production

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: none

Course Description

This module aims to:

- Equip students with the critical tools to analyse and apply aspects of queer theory in their writing and critical analyses.

- Encourage students to compare and contrast between different queer theories and concepts, and different LGBTQIA+ contexts.

- Facilitate the comprehension and analysis of key texts of queer cultural production in relation to queer theories and concepts.

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should be able to:

• Use their knowledge of queer theory and culture to approach contemporary queer issues.
• Compare and contrast between different queer theories and concepts, and different LGBTQIA+ contexts.
• Analyse key texts of queer cultural production in relation to queer theories and concepts.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores cultural and theoretical approaches to queerness and LGBTQIA+ lives, identities, and politics across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. It includes texts and artworks by philosophers, writers, filmmakers, and artists from the LGBTQIA+ community around the globe, asking how different queer voices and cultures have approached questions such as: What does it mean to be queer or LGBTQIA+ today? How are human experiences of gender, sexuality, and queer identity conceptualised and expressed? How do queer people stand up against oppression and violence, and how have they in the past? And: what might queer tomorrows look like? How do LGBTQIA+ people and communities imagine the future?

The module explores key theoretical approaches in queer theory, and gender and sexuality studies, typically spanning cutting-edge fields such as queer environmentalism, postcolonial queer studies, transgender studies, intersex studies, and the queer medical humanities. Theoretical approaches studied would typically include Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990); Jack Halberstam's and Susan Stryker's respective writing on trans identity and politics; Rahul Rao’s analyses of queer politics in postcolonial contexts; and Hongwei Bao’s Queer China (2020).

The module also explores artworks expressing queer and LGBTQIA+ identity, typically including works such as the French director Robin Campillo's film about HIV/AIDS activism, 120 BPM (2017); Moroccan writer Rachid O's novels about coming out; Argentine director Lucia Puenzo's film about intersexuality XXY (2007); Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s film about trans identity, A Fantastic Woman (2017); and queer cinema and literature from Chinese and Sinophone contexts.

Assessment Proportions

This module will be assessed by an exam (40%), a coursework essay (30%) and a mixed-media artefact (30%).

Assessment has been designed in this manner to ensure that students respond to and demonstrate knowledge of over 50% of the material covered on the course.

1.) The exam (40%) will ask students to write an essay in response to a question that they choose from a selection of questions (one question for each topic studied on the course).

2.) The essay (30%) will ask students to write an essay of 1800-2200 words in response to a list of suggested questions, or to develop their own question (having confirmed this title with the course convenor first if they have chosen to develop their own). The essay will be comparative in focus and will ask the student to respond to broader and more conceptual questions: the student must choose at least two texts or contexts studied in the module to compare and contrast.

3.) The multimedia artefact (30%) invites the student to respond to one of the critical or cultural contexts studied in the module through creative means. Here, they must develop a multimedia artefact comprising at least two media forms and accompanied by a short written introduction or commentary. For further detail on this assessment, students should follow the guidelines provided on Moodle.

DELC331: Transnational TV Crime Drama: Armchair Detectives, Crime, Cultures and Circulation.

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

During the course of this module, students will be introduced to key debates on how television shows are consumed both nationally and transnationally (including reception theory) [Fiske 2011; Bondebjerg 2016; McElory 2022; Mikos 2019; Haworth 2022], the appeal of crime dramas [Turnbull 2014 and 2018], and cultural translation (in particular the concept of domestication) [Venuti 1998]. These theoretical frameworks will be applied to the study of a minimum of 5 case studies (consisting of two or three episodes of a given series) covering each of the languages taught in DeLC. Each of the case studies will be devoted to the exploration of a particular theme. However, themes will always be relevant to more than one case study and during seminars students will be expected to bring in examples from other series (including British ones). Typically, themes and case studies may include but will not be limited to: the aestheticisation of crime and the sympathetic perpetrator (Narcos; The Hunter; Pablo Escobar); setting, local colour and exoticism (Inspector Montalbano; Tatort; Spiral); gender (Love me if you dare; Gomorrah); race and ethnicity (Lupin; Inspector Falke; Carlo and Malik) the Other (Astrid. Murders in Paris).

Educational Aims

This module provides students with:

• An introduction to the tropes of crime dramas.
• The necessary background information to reflect on the popularity of the genre (both nationally and transnationally).
• A knowledge of the key theoretical frameworks explaining how television shows are consumed.
• An understanding of crime and society in the countries of the languages they are studying.
• An overview of the main debates the potential of crime dramas to foster cross-cultural awareness when the shows travel to different countries.
• An understanding of the meaning of cultural translation and how this applies to the reception of crime dramas when the series cross borders.

Students who pass this module should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the key tropes of crime dramas (seminars and formative and summative assessment).
• Explain the popularity of crime drama with reference to the case studies or other series they may have watched (seminars and assessed pieces).
• Apply the key theoretical frameworks studied to the analysis of the case studies (seminars and assessment).
• Illustrate and discuss some the social issues affecting the countries of the languages they are studying with reference to some of the case studies or other shows they may have watched (seminars and assessment)
• Reflect on the potential of crime dramas to foster cross-cultural awareness when the series are watched abroad by providing examples from the case studies or other series they may have watched, including social medias commentaries and reviews of such series (seminars and assessed pieces).
• Describe the processes of cultural translation that may take place when crime dramas cross their original national borders by providing examples from the case studies or other series they may have watched, including social medias commentaries and reviews of such series (seminars and assessed pieces).

Outline Syllabus

• Understanding the appeal of crime drama
• Understanding transnational television: What facilitates the circulation of shows?
• Realism, setting and local colour. Nordic Noir vs Mediterranean Noir.
• The aestheticisation of crime and the sympathetic perpetrator.
• Gender and identity in crime drama
• Race and ethnicity in crime drama
• Neurodiversity in crime drama: destigmatising or stereotyping?

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

All the assessed pieces have been designed with both the subject specific and general learning outcomes in mind. Training will be provided during the course of the module (lectures and seminars) and through additional resources uploaded on Moodle. Students will also be encouraged to make use of some of the resources available through the library.

Formative

A 5-minute scene analysis: oral (individual or group work) to be delivered during class time and followed by a Q&A session.

Summative

A 15-minute group podcast on a topic relevant to the course but selected by the students --> 45% of module mark (the mark will be based only on groupwork).

A 2400/2600-word essay --> 55% of module mark.

DELC338: Spirits in the Material World: Cultures and Sciences

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None  

Course Description

This course explores relationships between the spiritual and the material within a broader context of the sciences in the humanities, spanning several languages and cultures from Asia to Europe to the Americas. Five two-week blocks cover Spirit and Matter, Speculative Fiction, The Post-Human, Philosophy, Art and Neuroscience, and Biomedicine and the Hospital. Sources come from multiple genres, such as speculative fiction, graphic novels, film, philosophical essays, and online talks. Focusing on diverse humanities perspectives and renderings of scientific benefits and harms, this module asks intriguing questions relevant to the twenty-first century human condition: Are science fiction writers contemporary shaman? Might genetic engineering lead to animals developing souls? What unseen matters and horrors can science fiction render visible and comprehensible? Where is AI taking humanity and are we already robots? How might the discovery of neuroplasticity entail both emancipatory and darker outcomes? In what ways do medical institutions pathologise, categorise, and control bodies and yet also offer possibilities for transformative queer and trans healthcare?

Educational Aims

The aim of this module is to:

• familiarize students with key concepts and theoretical issues related to relationships between the spiritual and the material within a context of the sciences in the humanities
• introduce students to perspectives and renderings of scientific benefits and harms in the humanities
• introduce students to a variety of forms of relationships between the spiritual and the material in different media, historical periods, languages, translations, and cultural contexts

Students who pass this module should be able to...

• Demonstrate a sound general understanding of the relationship between the spiritual and the material within a context of the sciences in the humanities
• Identify and analyse interplay between the humanities and the sciences in cultural products in a variety of media across different languages, cultures and periods
• Critically analyse and interpret the material discussed in the seminars, including the content of the material pertaining to perspectives on sciences in the humanities
• Identify relationships between the spiritual and the material and reflect on the importance of these phenomena to the work in question

Outline Syllabus

indicative seminar block schedule:

• Spirit and matter
• Dust
• Science Futures
• Transformations in Medical Science: Hospitals, Healthcare, Witchcraft
• Andrew Pickering's The Mangle of Practice: In what ways are spirits and materials "mangled" together?

Assessment Proportions

(1) First assessment (25%) due towards the end of the module, which must be a reflection on the whole module. Students must do one of the following:

- A video presentation or podcast. The presentation/podcast should last 12 minutes for an individual, 20 minutes for a pair. Specific guidelines will be on Moodle.

OR

- A creative piece, for example an artwork, a song, a poem etc. again adhering to the specific guidelines on Moodle, accompanied by a 600-word commentary on the piece.

OR

- A learning journal of 1000-1200 words, covering all weeks of the course, using specific guidelines on Moodle.

OR

- An commentary of 1000-1200 words, according to specific instructions on Moodle.

(2) Second assessment (25%): an essay of 2000 words in length, from a list of five possible questions, one on each topic. This accounts for 25% in the final mark. The proposed essay questions will be published four weeks beforehand the submission deadline.

(3) In the written examination (50%) students will pick one question out of several options proposed and write an essay responding to the question. The questions will address the concepts and material discussed in the lectures and seminars.

DELC339: Introduction to Translation as a Cultural Practice

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

What makes a good translation and how do translations do good? This module helps you understand the practice of translation as it has evolved historically from the 18th century to the present across European and American societies. The materials we study include historical textual sources (philosophical essays on the craft of translation from French, German and Hispanic authors of the 19th and 20th centuries), representative fictional texts reflecting on translation processes, and contemporary documents from the EU directorate on translation, PEN and the Translators' Association. We will also make considerable use of contemporary online resources as exemplified by Anglophone advocates of intercultural exchange such as Words Without Borders. Our aim is to look at translation as both a functional process for getting text in one language accurately into another and a culturally-inflected process that varies in its status and purpose from one context to another. We will pay particular attention to the practical role that literary translators play within the contemporary global publishing industry and consider the practicalities of following a career in literary translation in the Anglophone world.

Educational Aims

the course aims to

• Make students aware of the diversity of ways of thinking about translation in different historical and cultural contexts
• Communicate an understanding of the contemporary Anglophone publishing industry and the role translation plays within it
• Support practical language-learning (actual translation carried out by all students on FREN/GERM/SPAN301) with an analytical discussion of this process.
• Encourage students to reflect critically on official and unofficial language policies and different forms of language activism in the EU and consider how these determine intercultural relations
• Encourage students to reflect critically on metaphorical uses of translation in a variety of literary and non-literary contexts and consider how these intersect with wider ideas of cultural exchange, ambassadorship, political activism.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Account for different conceptions of 'good' translation that have emerged in different cultural contexts and historical periods.
• Explain the practical circumstances of translation as a process within the contemporary Anglophone publishing industry and the role it plays in supporting intercultural exchange.
• Understand the practical and metaphorical uses to which translation is put in EU cultural policy documents.
• Formulate opinions on the use of translation as a metaphor for other processes of cultural mediation (adaptation, mediation, ambassadorship).

Outline Syllabus

Outline topics for the module include [a selection of 3-4 topics will be offered in any one year]: translation: the history of a term; EU translation policies; translation inequalities and the hegemony of English; contemporary metaphors of translation as adaptation and communication; literary translators as political activists; careers in translation.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%

• Presentation (Assessed): 15%

• Exam: 45%

Presentations: the students present on questions that interest them within each topic in such a way as to sustain group discussion in the class. This will ensure that the classes correspond to their interests, and that there is a formative element to this assessment exercise: in undertaking the assessment, they will get immediate feedback and be able to integrate the results in their further learning on the module.

This mode of assessment can also be used flexibly to include other ways for students to engage with external sources / events they may find which are relevant to the course and their interests.

The coursework essay (c. 2500 words) will be submitted when teaching is complete on the module. This will give students time to digest their thoughts and put them into structured arguments that draw on the full extent of the course.

In the written examination students will pick one question out of several options proposed and write an essay responding to the question. The questions will address the concepts and material discussed in the lectures and seminars.

DELC340: Autocrats, Caudillos and Big Men: Understanding Dictatorship and its Cultural Representation in the 20th Century

• Terms Taught:   Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits

Course Description

This module invites you to consider different ways in which the concept of dictatorship has been understood and critiqued throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.

We will be considering examples from a wide range of contexts to explore the differences between European dictators, the Latin American caudillo, the 'Big Men' of Africa, for example. We will draw on a range of theoretical and critical sources to deepen our understanding, including the work of Hannah Arendt, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria and Achille Mbembe.

The second major focus of the module will be the relationship between dictatorship and cultural production. How have dictators represented themselves in their writing, speaking and literature? To what extent have they controlled cultural production, and to what end? How, in turn, have they been represented by writers and film makers? What role do writers, artists or intellectuals play in evaluating and critiquing dictatorship?

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Encourage students to engage with the complexity of the notion of 'dictatorship'
• Make students aware of different meanings of 'dictatorship in different national contexts will be the relationship between dictatorship and cultural production. How have dictators represented themselves in their writing, speaking and literature? To what extent have they controlled cultural production, and to what end? How, in turn, have they been represented by writers and film makers? What role do writers, artists or intellectuals play in evaluating and critiquing dictatorship?
• Enable students to understand the contexts out of which dictatorships emerge
• Enable students to make informed comparisons between different authoritarian regimes
• Provide students with the critical tools to consider representations of dictatorship

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Engage with the complexity of the notion of 'dictatorship'
• Understand the various meanings of 'dictatorship in different national contexts
• Understand the contexts out of which dictatorships emerge
• Make comparisons between different authoritarian regimes
• Critically approach representations of dictatorship

Outline Syllabus

The module will be divided into four main sections:

Section 1: What is Dictatorship?

We will draw particularly on our core text by Ezrow and Frantz as we begin to think about what we understand by dictatorship in the 20th century. Then, by engaging with relevant critical and theoretical materials, we will consider the distinctions between totalitarianism, authoritarianism, single party rule, military and personalist dictatorships. We will discuss the political, material and ideological conditions that enable dictators to come to power, consider the structures they have put in place to establish and maintain their rule, and reflect on why so many dictators have clung on to power for so long.

Section 2: In the Words of Dictators

We will read extracts from speeches, political tracts and literary material produced by dictators in order to understand the relationship between discourse and power. How have dictators represented their political projects to the people? What is the importance of rhetoric to the dictator? What kind of language have they used? What is the role of ‘official literature’ in representing the regime to the people?

Section 3: Representing Dictatorship

We turn our focus here to how dictators have been portrayed in literature and film. We will consider the insights that cultural artefacts can give us into the workings of a regime, its extensive systems of patronage, and the question of corruption. We will examine the strategies adopted by writers and film makers in their portrayal of dictators and their regimes, and think critically about the role of the cultural artefacts produced.

Section 4: Cultural Critiques of Dictatorship

In this final section of the module, we will consider how writers, poets and film makers have critiqued dictatorship in their cultural production. What narrative strategies do cultural producers use to express their opposition to a dictator while writing under the control of the regime? What is the power of writing under an authoritarian regime? How does writing from a position of exile change the way in which writers critique dictatorship? Does the writing of the author reproduce the same structures he or she is trying to counter? In presenting a particular world view and by adopting a certain rhetoric, does the writer assume the role of dictator?

Assessment Proportions

Students will focus on a dictatorship of their choice, with guidance from the tutor if required. The student will treat this dictatorship as a case study (25%) for the purposes of the first piece of assessment, to understand how the regime functioned, what type of regime it is, and how it was sustained.

The second piece of assessment will be an essay (35%) based on the comparative literary analysis of two texts studied on the module. Students will be provided with a small selection of essay questions, from which they will select one.

In the written examination (45%) students will pick one question out of several options proposed and write an essay responding to the question. The questions will address the concepts and material discussed in the lectures and seminars.

Students will therefore be provided with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in their coursework in the examination, without significant overlap between the two.

DELC346: Transforming Thinking: From Philosophy to Neuroscience in French and Francophone Thought

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module maps diverse concepts and contexts in French and Francophone philosophy and thought, from the 20th century to today. The notion of transforming thinking will guide us: we will explore both how philosophy has transformed (and is still transforming) in French and Francophone contexts; and simultaneously how philosophy is itself transformative, having the power to transform us and the world around us. We will ask questions such as: What are philosophy and thinking, and in what ways do they transform? How have French and Francophone philosophers approached diverse issues and contexts, from gender and sexuality; to racism; to (post)colonialism; to the body, mind, and brain; to neuroscience, biomedical science, and healthcare? And: how does philosophy interact with other disciplines such as medicine, neuroscience, or technology to bring about transformations in the world?

The module typically includes Georges Bataille's notions of formless philosophy; approaches to decolonizing philosophy in Aim Csaire and Lopold Sdar Senghor; psychoanalytic approaches to the mind, from Jacques Lacan's concept of how babies thinking transforms in the mirror stage, to Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic notions of disgust and horror, to Frantz Fanon's psychoanalytic theories of racism; and contemporary writing at the intersections of philosophy, science, technology and medicine. These contemporary examples typically include Catherine Malabou's work on neuroscience and the implications of neuroplasticity for robotics and artificial intelligence; Jean-Luc Nancy's philosophies of heart transplants and quantum physics; Paul B. Preciado's exploration of trans identities between philosophy and biomedicine; and Isabelle Stenger's manifestos to transform our relationship with science.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Introduce students to key concepts, thinkers, and contexts in 20th and 21st century French Francophone philosophy.
• Allow students to compare and contrast between different concepts, ideas, and philosophical contexts.
• Encourage students to activate philosophical ideas and concepts in an interdisciplinary manner to approach and analyse real-life events and contexts (such as contemporary politics, LGBTQIA+ rights, movements like Black Lives Matter, responses to COVID-19, etc.), or to use philosophical and theoretical concepts to analyse artworks or critical contexts.
• Equip students with philosophical and theoretical concepts they can use in a comparative and interdisciplinary manner, activating these concepts across disciplinary boundaries and in relation to diverse critical contexts.

Students who pass this module should be able to:

• Analyse and apply philosophical and theoretical concepts effectively and critically.
• Compare and contrast between different philosophical contexts and genres.
• Identify and apply key themes and contexts of French and Francophone philosophy from 20th and 21st century, recognizing how these concepts evolved over the course of the last 100 years and exploring their relevance to contemporary life.

Outline Syllabus

Introduction: Forming, deforming, and transforming thinking: Mutations of French and Francophone philosophy, from formless thought to plastic thought.

Block 1: Re-thinking the thinking body, mind, and brain: Formlessness, surrealism, decolonisation.

Block 2: Thinking with, against, and beyond psychoanalysis: from associations in the mind to connections in the brain.

Block 3:Plastic brains, heart-transplants, and techno-bodies: medicine, science, technology, and philosophy today.

Assessment Proportions

1.) (30% of final mark) A multimedia artefact combining at least two different forms of media, and accompanied by a written introduction or commentary, in which students explore or develop one of the key concepts and contexts studied on the course, articulating its importance and applications to a wider audience. For example, students might choose to relate a concept to broader contemporary cultural and socio-political contexts. They might also choose to develop a new idea or concept in the style of one of the thinkers. For further guidance on this, please see the details of this assessment on Moodle.

Students will be prepared for this particular assessment through discussions and creative tasks in seminars considering the ways in which contemporary French and Francophone thinkers articulate their philosophies in a variety of different ways and through different media. The contemporary philosopher Paul B. Preciado, for instance, combined philosophy, autobiography, poetry, and film in his work. Students will be invited to bring a poster of their ideas to the final seminar in week 10, and we will use these posters as a springboard to workshop students' ideas, develop how students might extend concepts and apply them to different contexts, and explore the different media through which students might articulate their ideas.

2.) (30% of final mark) An essay of 1800-2200 words, focusing on one topic. Essay questions are provided but students can also write own essay question (they must consult the course convenor if they choose to write their own essay question).

3.) (40% of final mark) An exam, in which students will choose a broad essay question or prompt which will ask them to bring together two other topics, texts, or authors studied on the course comparatively. They may not write on the same topic as was covered in either the multimedia artefact or the essay.

DELC349: French Modernisms and Mental Health

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None  

Course Description

This module explores the relations between French modernist literature and the rising power of psychiatry at the turn of the 19th/20th Century. Illustrated lectures will document how madness was domesticated, feminised, and exhibited by French pioneers in the history of psychiatry, while it has also been romanticised and dramatised as challenging psychiatry by major modernists. In seminars, students will reflect on ways in which literature, society, and medicine intersect through the study of illness narratives by Gérard de Nerval, Marcel Proust, André Breton, and Antonin Artaud. Discussions will include aesthetic issues and social debates such as: how these illness narratives allowed for more accurate representations of the relationship between mind and body; how the experimental forms of modernist texts serve their interest in mental states; what role the visual aspect of these narratives played in their composition and reception; and to what extent they can be considered as acts of social resistance. The four narratives studied will also provide key opportunities for students to reflect on the difficulty of distinguishing the pathological from the healthy, and to ponder with contemporary French critics the question of the authority to do so.

Educational Aims

• Provide students with an overview of the controversial history of French psychiatry;
• Develop students’ understanding of the crucial socio-economic and technological changes brought about by modernity at the turn of the 19th/20th Century;
• Introduce students to the works of major French modernists working across a range of art forms and media;
• Enable students to identify and discuss the key features of the 'illness narrative' as a genre;
• Train students to apply a variety of critical tools to analyse modernist writing, and build their capacity to engage with theoretical models;
• Provoke discussion on the relationships between literature, medicine, and society.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the cultural history of madness in relation to French modernity and modernism;
• Read and understand complex literary works in both French and English;
• Examine and critically compare the representational and narrative strategies of modernist texts;
• Analyse the gendering of madness in literary texts, using an appropriate range of theories and academic sources;
• Argue and weigh the political potential and limitations of literary texts that engage with madness and society.

Outline Syllabus

This module explores the relations between French modernist literature and the rising power of psychiatry at the turn of the 19th/20th Century. Illustrated lectures will document how madness was domesticated, feminised, and exhibited by French pioneers in the history of psychiatry, while it has also been romanticised and dramatised as challenging psychiatry by major modernists. In seminars, students will reflect on ways in which literature, society, and medicine intersect through the study of illness narratives by Grard de Nerval, Marcel Proust, Andr Breton, and Antonin Artaud. Discussions will include aesthetic issues and social debates such as: how these illness narratives allowed for more accurate representations of the relationship between mind and body; how the experimental forms of modernist texts serve their interest in mental states; what role the visual aspect of these narratives played in their composition and reception; and to what extent they can be considered as acts of social resistance. The four narratives studied will also provide key opportunities for students to reflect on the difficulty of distinguishing the pathological from the healthy, and to ponder with contemporary French critics the question of the authority to do so.

Assessment Proportions

• CWA1: seminar presentation 15%

  CWA2: essay plan (feed-forward) 0%

  CWA3: 2,500 word comparative essay 45%

  Exam: 40%

  The assessment is structured to ensure a maximum emphasis on formative support for the intellectual and academic development of students.

  Following two weeks of interactive lectures, each seminar will start by one or two students presenting their brief analysis of a short text written by the author to be discussed that day (15%), ensuring that the classes correspond to their interests, and providing classmates with knowledge of other works than the four primary texts on the module. Building on the analytical skills acquired through small group discussions and individual feed-forward sessions on their essay plans (0%), and using appropriate critical theories discussed in class, students will then comparatively analyse two of the primary texts in a 2,500 word essay (45%). The close textual analysis assessed through the oral presentation, as well as the comparative essay, will prepare students for the summer examination assessing both skills (40%).

  In the written examination students will pick one question out of several options proposed and write an essay responding to the question. The questions will address the concepts and material discussed in the lectures and seminars.

DELC356: Climate, Technology and the German Anthropocene

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: Language: this module is taught in English, but since primary texts are in German, a good level of German is required  

Course Description

German-speaking countries have, over centuries, gained a reputation for innovation in technology and engineering Vorsprung durch Technik, progress through technology, as the Audi marketing slogan boldly claims. But is it still viable, in an age of anthropogenic climate change, to see technology as a tool of progress? We might, in the context of our current predicament, also have much to learn from another strand of thinking in German-language culture, that which expresses a deep anxiety about technology and associates it with dark power, mystery and a loss of control. This unit examines the relationship between climate, technology and ideas of progress (or catastrophe) in German-language culture (visual art, film, poetry, prose, pop culture and everyday life), as well as situating this tension in a historical context. Alongside contemporary ecocritical theory, students may encounter poems from the anthology Lyrik im Anthropozn, the Swiss video game Mundaun, the TV show Dark, literary works by writers such as Ilija Trojanow and/or Gerhart Hauptmann, as well as cultural objects of their own and each others choosing.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Make students aware of contemporary critical debates around technology, cultural and environmental crisis and their relation to the German context.
• Introduce students to the body of theory around the concept of the Anthropocene and its applications for the analysis of German-speaking culture.
• Introduce students to the methodological apparatus of cultural analysis and its applications within the discipline of modern languages/German Studies

Students who pass this module should be able to...

• Understand key texts in the field of environmental humanities and Anthropocene theory.
• Relate these texts to cultural phenomena from the German-speaking countries.
• Contribute critically to debates about the relationship between technology and environment in the German-speaking context

Outline Syllabus

Weekly schedule (indicative)

• Object Lessons in the Anthropocene
• The Anthropocene: Promises and Pitfalls
• Sense of Place, Sence of Planet: Methodological Nationalism and the Environmental Humanities
• Tracing Entanglements: A Theoretical Toolkit
• Dyke
• Nuclear reactor
• Currywurst
• The Car
• Assessment workshop 1: Choosing an object for the Anthropocene Museum
• Assessment workshop 2: Shaping the essay and preparing for the oral exam

Assessment Proportions

Students will be assessed by means of:

- A portfolio comprising (a) the details, including images where applicable, of an object to be submitted as an exhibit in a (notional) Museum of the (German) Anthropocene (b) a short ‘visitor guide’ to the exhibit, explaining its history, context and resonance, aimed at a general audience (175-225 words). (20%)

- An essay of 1750-2250 words analysing their chosen object more fully in relation to the module themes and in the context of the exhibition as a whole, with reference to the critical and theoretical texts explored in the course of module. (40%)

- A ten-minute oral exam during which the student will be asked questions about their chosen object and its resonances on the basis of their written essay. (40%)

The assessment methods prioritise (a) student independence and self-directed learning, through the requirement that students select and describe their independently-chosen ‘exhibit’ for the notional museum we will construct in the course of the module; (b) collaboration and co-operation, in the sense that students are required (as part of the summative essay assessment) to relate their object to those selected by their classmates; and (c) the ability to write and communicate for a diversity of audiences, since the themes of the module resonate both within and beyond an academic context: students are encouraged to select an object which might serve as a means of communicating the core themes of the module to a wider public, and write about the object in different terms and for different audiences as well as discussing their object in a verbal discussion. .

The object-driven approach is in keeping with the methodology of cultural analysis and is also appropriate to theme of technology and the field of environmental humanities, which emphasises the agency of material objects. It should be noted that cultural objects, in the field of cultural studies, can be concrete (i.e. visual art, texts, films) or abstract (i.e. cultural practices, performances, traditions, spaces/sites). According to this conceptualisation, a Bratwurst, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Wagner’s Ring Cycle and climate protest actions are all cultural objects.

Students will be prepared for the viva with activities in seminars.

DELC362: Sex, Politics and the State in Modern Spain

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: none

Course Description

-to introduce students to cultural output (literature and film) that explores women’s experiences in (post-)War Spain and train them to evaluate how these texts dialogue with contemporary debates

-to hone students’ knowledge and understanding of Spain’s political history and to familiarise them with trends and shifts in gender discourses and sexual politics

-to enhance students’ theoretical awareness, particularly in relation to scholarship on gender, victimhood, and trauma, and develop and further Spanish language skills through engagement with primary texts

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should have and demonstrate:

-a sophisticated understanding of historical context and feminist, gender, revolutionary, and reactionary politics in modern Spain

-an in-depth critical understanding of key theoretical frameworks and how they dialogue with set texts, broadening critical and methodological awareness

-the ways in which set texts characterise and subvert literary and cinematographic trends, recognising the interface of history, politics, and culture

Outline Syllabus

The inception of Spain’s Second Republic (1931-39) revolutionised gender and sexual politics. Women’s social and political capital was inflected by state, radical, and reactionary discourses, as conceptions of womanhood and ‘femininity’ mediated ideological cleavages. In the aftermath of the Nationalists’ victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), hundreds of thousands of women were incarcerated by the Francoist regime (1939-1975), targeted for their support for the political left, trade unions, anti-fascist activism and, also, for resisting hegemonic gender norms, through infidelity, lesbianism, clandestine abortions, or prostitution. In Sex, Politics and the State, students will interrogate the sexual and gender politics of rebellion, revolt, and oppression in modern Spain, drawing on thematic areas that continue to resonate in present-day debates, including feminist politics, commercial sex, sexual(ised) abuses, political violence, and reproductive justice. By focalising contemporary Spanish literature and film (1996-2012), students will interrogate how Spain’s tumultuous political landscape (1936-1975) manifests in popular culture, cultivating a firm grasp of the historical context and key theoretical frameworks, specifically in relation to sexuality, gender, trauma, victimhood, memory, and violence.

Assessment Proportions

-CWA Essay (60%), 2250-2500 words: Students will devise a comparative critical analysis that engages with at least two of the set texts, drawing on theoretical frameworks and relevant scholarship as appropriate. Feedback from the report will inform and develop their essay, allowing for supervised progression throughout the course.

-Exam (40%), 2 hours: Students will respond to one question from a range of comparative and text-specific options. Comparative questions will invite students to make connections across different texts and themes studied throughout the course, while text-specific options will assess a nuanced understanding of the material and its cultural and socio-political context. Students must answer on different texts than those discussed in their essay.

DELC364: Latin America and Spain on Film: Violences and Masculinities

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

Violence is a consistent feature of the cinemas of Spain and Latin America. The vast majority of violent acts in Latin American and Spanish films are carried out by men, raising specific concerns about the representation of links between men and violence on film. This module looks at key motifs as well as broader themes such as the absent patriarch and depictions of the male body. Students will examine representations of different kinds of violence, including structural, psychological and political violence. You will be expected to discuss the connections made between these and the masculinities with which they are associated. To this end, theoretical support will be given throughout towards current ideas about masculinities and violence in both sociology and cultural studies.

Educational Aims

The aim of this module is to provide students with a grasp of both the historical contexts for violence and masculinities as they are depicted in Spanish and Latin American film as well as an understanding of theoretical approaches which can help to enrich analyses of such violence and evolving masculinities. The course seeks to pluralise violence so that it is understood by students as physical, non-physical, criminal, psychological, structural and invisible. Masculinities will always be considered in the plural. Another aim is to ensure students have the terminology to discuss such contexts and approaches in relation to specific films in a coherent and intellectually appropriate framework.

Students will first be required to view films in historical contexts which highlight key themes in the selected films. Students will be encouraged to observe and analyse structural violence, criminal violence, gender violence and political violence in these films and to understand their relationship with such categories as hegemonic, protest and patriarchal masculinities. Such violence(s) and masculinities will not only be contextualised historically but also approached through theories on aesthetics, film reception, gender and ideology. In this way students will be able to approach questions concerning the 'invisible' nature of domestic violence, violence as a means (or not) of providing 'cheap shocks' and different aesthetic approaches towards the depiction of state violence.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to...

• contextualise Spanish and Latin American films by placing them in their appropriate historical settings and by understanding the relationship between those historical settings and the films concerned.
• apply their historical contextualisation with an understanding of theories of violence and masculinities.
• analyse these films with due reference to the cinematic contexts for each country (eg. censorship, strength of film industry, availability and sources of capital etc.), using appropriate film terminology and critically engaging with existing interpretations of the corpus of films.
• present material on film, learning to juggle effectively stills, secondary sources, dialogue and their own analyses.
• examine cultural products or texts in socio-historical contexts.

Outline Syllabus

There will then be 8 weeks of study of four separate strands, each strand consisting of two weeks study of two films. The strands are: Structural Violence, Crash Cinemas, Gender Violence, Boys and Men. The second hour of the second week of each strand will consist of presentations by students either individually, in pairs or in groups of three.

In a typical year, the films concerned will include Memories of Underdevelopment (Cuba, 1968); La frontera (Chile, 1991); Amores perros (Mexico, 2000); Abre los ojos (Spain, 1997); Camila (Argentina, 1984); Te doy mis ojos (Spain, 2003); City of God (2002) and El espinazo del diablo (Spain, 2001).

The films are in Spanish or Portuguese with English subtitles. The vast majority of secondary texts are in English and the teaching is also in English.

Assessment Proportions

Essay(s): 40% Presentation (Assessed): 15% Exam: 45%

Presentations will be delivered by individuals, pairs, or groups of 3. In pairs and groups, each student will receive the same mark in order to encourage teamwork in the preparation process. Students will be required to deposit their powerpoint presentation on Moodle.

Feedback for both essay and presentation will follow current departmental practice. Presentations will be recorded (audio only) and students will be sent feedback by email. The feedback will contain two to three paragraphs of prose. The essay will focus on one submodule which must not be the submodule they have studied for their presentation. Written feedback will inform revision for the exam.

In the written examination (45%) students will pick one question out of several proposed options and write an essay responding to that question. The questions will address the concepts and material discussed in the lectures and seminars. Students must choose a question on a topic they have not studied in either their presentation or their CWA essay for DELC364.

FREN233: Shaping Contemporary France: Moments and Movements

• Terms Taught: Full Year module
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

‘Shaping Contemporary France: Moments and Movements' provides students with awareness of the ‘must-know’ historical moments as well as political and aesthetic movements that have shaped French and Francophone cultures, while systematically enhancing their skills of cultural analysis in diverse media. The course will hone their close-reading skills, yet also provide a broad awareness of French modernity through a thematic approach that casts back to key nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century texts, songs, and films that have come to define French contemporary society.

Through the topics of ‘Resistance, trauma, and memory’; ‘Colonies and conflicts, identity and alterity’; ‘The postmodern condition’; and ‘Digital art and society,’ the module takes students on a journey through key moments and movements across two centuries of French cultural history, encountering along the way some of the most radical thinkers, writers, filmmakers and creative artists that make the intellectual tradition of France so distinctive. From plays to popular songs, students will experience a stimulating range of cultural forms and be equipped with the skills to reflect critically on them as expressions of France's multi-faceted, nuanced societies.

The main aim of the module is twofold: to build students' reading knowledge of French while giving them a flavour of the rich cultural output that has defined the Francophone realm over the past two hundred years.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Develop students' knowledge and understanding of the written and spoken French language
• Introduce students to key concepts and methods in the interpretation of different kinds of text in their socio-historical context
• Enable students to engage with a history of ideas and forms focused through a series of significant moments and movements
• Develop students’ abilities to independently research, write, and present creative work
• Develop students’ abilities to participate actively in class and small group discussion

Assessment Proportions

100% coursework

CWA1: 750 word commentary on creative work* OR 1500 word comparative essay (Mich): 35%

CWA2: Learning Journal on sub-modules 1 and 2 (Michaelmas): 10%

CWA3: feed-forward session on essay plan (Lent, optional): 0%

CWA4: Learning Journal on sub-modules 3 and 4 (Lent): 10%,

CWA5: 2,500-word essay (Lent/Summer): 45%

*Students are to work on a creative response to material covered in Michaelmas. Examples of pieces may include but are not limited to: audio-visual work, i.e. videos, recordings, animation; collage; drawing or other art work, e.g. graphic fiction/comic; musical piece; creative writing; interviews; performances; quiz. The creative work must be accompanied by a 750 word summary of how their piece responds to the course material.

GERM233: Shaping Contemporary German-Speaking Europe: Moments and Movements

• Terms Taught: Full Year module
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

'Shaping Contemporary German-Speaking Europe: Moments and Movements' provides students with awareness of the ‘must-know’ historical moments as well as political and aesthetic movements that have shaped German-language culture, while systematically enhancing their skills of cultural analysis in diverse media. The course will hone their close-reading skills, yet also provide a broad awareness of German modernity through a non-chronological, thematic approach that casts back to key nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century texts, moments, and movements.

Through the four themes of Myth, Magic, Money and Minor Identities, the module will introduce students to key works by, for example, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Thomas Mann, Irmtraud Morgener, r and Sharon Dodua Otoo. This module thus takes students on a journey through moments and movements across two centuries of German-language cultural history, encountering along the way some of the most radical thinkers, writers, filmmakers and creative artists that make the German-language intellectual tradition so distinctive. Students will experience a stimulating range of cultural forms and be equipped with the skills to reflect critically on them as expressions of multi-faceted, nuanced societies.

The main aim of the module is twofold: to build students' reading knowledge of German while giving them a flavour of the rich cultural output that has defined the German-speaking realm over the past two hundred years.

Educational Aims

The module aims to:

• Develop students' knowledge and understanding of the written and spoken German language
• Introduce students to key concepts and methods in the interpretation of different kinds of text in their socio-historical context
• Enable students to engage with a history of ideas and forms focused through a series of significant moments and movements
• Develop students’ abilities to independently research, write, and present creative work
• Develop students’ abilities to participate actively in class and small group discussion

Assessment Proportions

100% coursework

CWA1: 750 word commentary on creative work* OR 1500 word comparative essay (Mich): 35%

CWA2: Learning Journal on sub-modules 1 and 2 (Michaelmas): 10%

CWA3: feed-forward session on essay plan (Lent, optional): 0%

CWA4: Learning Journal on sub-modules 3 and 4 (Lent): 10%,

CWA5: 2,500-word essay (Lent/Summer): 45%

*Students are to work on a creative response to material covered in Michaelmas. Examples of pieces may include but are not limited to: audio-visual work, i.e. videos, recordings, animation; collage; drawing or other art work, e.g. graphic fiction/comic; musical piece; creative writing; interviews; performances; quiz. The creative work must be accompanied by a 750 word summary of how their piece responds to the course material.

MCS.101: Transformations: From Mass Media to Social Media

• Terms Taught:
  • Full Year only
  • Michaelmas Term only
  • Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits:
  • Full Year course - 10 Semester Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 4 Semester Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 6 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits:
  • Full Year course - 20 ECTS Credits
  • Michaelmas Term only - 8 ECTS Credits
  • Lent / Summer Terms only - 12 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

In this module, you will consider competing definitions of the terms ‘culture’ and ‘media’, engage with a wide range of academic writings on culture and media, and analyse a diverse range of cultural material from different media including: television, films, photography, newspapers and magazines, video games and the world wide web. You will explore the ways in which our identities, aspirations, beliefs and value systems are shaped by the cultural environment in which we live.

Educational Aims

This module aims to enable students to:

• Identify and explore a range of theoretical approaches to the study of culture, media and communication
• Employ key theoretical and critical approaches in the analysis of various media texts, particularly visual and popular cultural texts
• Develop analytical and critical skills in relation to theoretical texts and media texts and practices
• Develop understanding of the audio, visual and verbal conventions through which sounds, images and words make meaning
• Develop understanding of the ways in which people engage with cultural texts and practices and make meaning from them
• Develop understanding of the narrative processes, generic forms and modes of representation at work in media and cultural texts
• Develop an understanding of the material conditions of media and cultural consumption, and of the cultural contexts in which people appropriate, use and make sense of media and cultural products
• Develop an awareness of how media products might be understood within broader concepts of culture.
• Have a critical appreciation of the complexity of the terms culture and media
• Understand the ways in which identities are constructed and contested through engagements with culture
• Understand how social divisions play key roles in modes of representation in media texts
• Have opportunities for the development of a range of transferable skills that include: working as a member of a team; written and oral communication skills; and foundation skills in Audio visual and ICT technique
• Develop a range of independent research skills, presentation skills and organisational/time management skills

Outline Syllabus

Blocks will present and examine themes such as:

• Key perspectives in Media and Cultural Studies (definitions, concepts, themes, examples)
• Popular and everyday cultures
• Visual culture
• Mediation and technology (from mass to digital media)
• Representation, ideology and politics
• Consumer culture
• Resistant cultures and subcultures
• Media audiences
• Embodied cultures
• Fashion and style

In these blocks, students will be introduced to the complex relations between cultural forms and practices, media technologies and constructions of class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, national identity, and age. Students will look at how culture is a domain of contestation and the ways in which media are bound up with asymmetrical forms of power. As part of the programme, students will undertake a group project with the guidance of their seminar tutor, exploring a topic covered on the course involving the production of a cultural artefact (poster, website, photographic collage/album, film etc.).

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 60%
• Exam: 40%

MCS.210: Digital Cultures

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Two semesters of sociology.

Course Description

This course explores the question of how information and communications technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives. The aim of the course is to develop an appreciation of the range of experiences affected by digital media, including the progressive expansion of life online and the increasingly intimate relations between life online and offline. We’ll explore global divisions of digital labour; the rise of the military entertainment complex; e-waste; social media, social movements and hactivism. The course will consider the new possibilities that the changing social infrastructure of digital technologies afford, while also learning to look at the rhetoric and practices of the ‘network society’ with a questioning and critical eye. Throughout the course we’ll be attentive to issues of gender, race and other marks of ‘sameness and difference’ as they operate among humans, and between humans and machines.

Educational Aims

This course aims to give students:

• A better understanding of sociological analysis of information cultures and on-line sociality
• Familiarity with key theoretical debates on cybercultures
• Improved skills in reading and applying various theoretical approaches to information cultures
• Improved skills and confidence in contributing effectively and positively in academic debate

Outline Syllabus

The course has four parts: introduction, identities, communities and transnational contextualising. These themes will introduce you to some key debates on information cultures in Western societies.

• Introduction (weeks 1-3): The first three weeks will be dedicated to looking at the history and the development of concepts such as cyberspace, cyberbody, virtuality and life on-line.
• Identities (weeks 4-6): The next three lectures will look at the ways gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality are constituted on-line.
• Communities (weeks 7-8): These two lectures will look at the ways a sense of community can be created, negotiated, disrupted or ruined in various forms of on-line interaction.
• Transnational contextualising (weeks 9-10): The last two weeks will contextualise internet cultures in a transnational perspective.

Assessment Proportions

• Dissertation: 80%
• Written Assessment: 20%

or

• Coursework: 50%
• Exam: 30%
• Written Assessment: 20%

MCS.224: Media and Visual Culture

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Two semesters of sociology.

Course Description

Everyday life is often described as bombarding us with images, and contemporary culture is therefore frequently understood as a visual culture. But what do such statements actually mean? How far is our culture a visual culture? What role does media play in a visual culture? How is vision linked to practices – including representation, the gaze and embodiment – of power and inequality? In what ways might these practices be challenged or resisted? Does vision only involve seeing, or is visual culture multi-sensory? This course will introduce theories and practices that have addressed these questions.

Educational Aims

The aim of this module is to introduce and examine recent and ongoing themes in Media and Cultural Studies and Sociology. It will provide students with an opportunity to:

• Compare and contrast competing and complementary critical perspectives on vision and visuality, media and culture;
• Develop a sophisticated understanding of theories and practices of visual culture;
• Express, discuss and debate complex ideas and abstractions in a confident and coherent manner;
• Develop a sophisticated understanding of studies of visual culture.

Outline Syllabus

This module will cover topics including:

• The relationship between vision and knowledge;
• The gaze and power (eg the gaze as gendered and raced);
• Media, representation and identity;
• Technologies of vision;
• Material practices of vision;
• Vision as multi-sensory.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 75%
• Group montage: 25%

MCS.303: Social Media and Activism

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Five semesters of sociology; two may be from cognate disciplines such as anthropology or social psychology.

Course Description

Pro-democracy revolutionaries, internet freedom hackers, feminist mediasmiths, anti-capitalists, anti-corporate globalization activists, racial equality actors, indigenous rights workers, data leakers, and others use the internet to distribute their ideals and organize their social movements. In this fast-paced, participatory, and creative module students will execute their own social movement. This hands-on course invites students to work together and design, implement, and reflect upon their own political campaign. Each week we will discuss social movement theories and student social movement experiences to better understand how social movements form and use communication technologies. Students will interrogate their efforts to make political change through two group presentations, group website creation, group social media use, group video production, and a group-written annual report

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Explain how the basic architecture of the internet and the affordances of social media impact the organization of social movements;
• Understand the role of the nation state in internet policy
• Explain how business expectations for the internet and social media help or hinder the development of social movements.

Outline Syllabus

The module sessions cover the background and overview of the internet as a socio-technical system and looks at some of the tensions and contradictions that structure the cultural and politics of the internet. The module draws on specific, often ethnographically informed, cases of cultures using the internet in forms of political actions.

This module will include weekly topics that draw from the following:

• Who Built the Internet
• Hippies Built the Internet
• Hackers Built the Internet
• Reinterpreting the History of the Internet
• Cool Start-Up Work
• Geographies of the Internet
• Digital Labour: You are working while you are on Facebook?
• The Social and Ecological Cost of Convergence
• Politics or Profit of Platforms
• What the Internet is Hiding From Us
• Myth of Digital Democracy
• Leaks and Spins: WikiLeaks
• Anonymous and Hackivist
• The Internet and Arab Spring Revolutions
• Occupy Movement and Media
• Pirate Culture, Twitter, Hacktivist, and WikiLeaks

Assessment Proportions

• Practical: 50%
• Presentation: 20%

PPR.245: The Politics of Race

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: At least one entry-level course in politics.

Course Description

The module aims to prompt students to think critically about the relation of race and politics. It examines both how we should think of race theoretically and comparatively, and introduces students to practical issues surrounding the politics of race in various national and international contexts. Students will leave the course with a solid foundation in thinking about the reciprocal influence of politics and our ways of thinking about race.

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should be able to...

- explain, compare, and contrast the role that race plays in various national and international political contexts;

- demonstrate critical awareness of the ways in which the notion of race is used for political purposes;

- understand, discuss and critique various notions of race;

- demonstrate knowledge of the relation of race to other social categories.

- apply this knowledge to case studies in different socio-economic and political contexts.

Outline Syllabus

Race has played a central role in shaping the political agendas of many nations around the world – and has acted both as a mechanism of political exclusion and as a form of politicised identity. In this module, we critically examine the notion of race, and its connection to other identities like gender, ethnicity and class. We examine the role race has played, and continues to play, in the determination of domestic policies and in the relations between states. We look at the way in which race is politicised and de-politicised and consider the nature of various forms of racism in politics and society.

Taking a broad narrative arch from “race” to “post-race,” this course pursues three interconnected approaches to the subject: 1.intersectionality in that we analyse not only the multiple and shifting functions of racial classifications, but connect them to other forms of differentiation such as gender, class, sexuality, geography, the environment, and more; 2.interdisciplinarity in that the problem of race takes us directly to historical and ongoing processes of defining the human being and, as such, if we are to take race and its politics seriously, we need approaches from philosophical, historical, sociological, international relations literatures; and 3.the topics of each week together constitute an extensive toolkit of lenses through which to think about race, racism and the contexts of slavery, colonialism, exploitation, rebellion, expression, resistance and much more.

Assessment Proportions

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION (1350-1500 words) - 40% (deadline is end of term) - ASSESSED

ESSAY (2250-2500 words) - 60% (end of module, deadline is beginning of the first week of the following term) – ASSESSED

These writing tasks will be linked to two formative tasks which will not be assessed – a short essay plan (one A4 page, maximum 500 words) and a small group/paired word presentation in class (maximum 10 minutes). Care will be taken to consider concerns of students who are not comfortable with presenting in front of others. For students who are unable/uncomfortable or unwilling to do a presentation, I can arrange for them to meet with me individually to do a one to one presentation but I would be emphasising that presenting within class would be linked to their learning outcomes – which also focus on building their skills which will be very important in the workplace.

The formative assessments seek to sharpen and develop student writing, build their knowledge of the topic, improve their presentation and group work skills, and provide greater opportunities for formative feedback. The linking of summative assessment to formative assessment has been highlighted to be important and useful in teaching and learning pedagogies.

PPR.251: Islam: Tradition, Community and Contemporary Challenges

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: At least one entry-level course in religion.

Course Description

This module examines the historical formation of Islam; its renewal movements past and present; and modern reform discourses on gender, politics, and law. The aim is to gain an understanding of continuities and discontinuities in the Islamic tradition in relation to religious authority, theology, politics and contemporary practice. Some of the topics studied include: the formation of Shari'a (Islamic law); competing Sunni and Shi'i orthodoxies; the rise of radical political movements and global Jihad; Islamic feminisms; Islam and the West; and Islam in Britain. The module offers a strong foundation for more specialised study in second and third year courses.

Educational Aims

The module aims to:

• Survey and critically examine the main themes, key concepts, debates and approaches to the study of Islam in the modern world.
• Develop an analytical and interpretative framework within which to situate modern Muslim discourses on tradition and reform in a historical context.

Outline Syllabus

Topics studied will typically include:

• The Prophet: Muhammad as messenger, leader and exemplar
• Revelation: The Quran as event, text and doctrine
• The Community : Caliphate, Sunni orthodoxy and alternative visions
• The Juristic Tradition: Jurisprudence, sharia and normative Islam
• Key issues in modern Islam:
• Islamic Reform: Early reform, the challenges of modernity and modernist reformers
• The Islamic Revival: Islamism and the Islamic state
• Islamic feminism and liberal Islam
• Salafism and jihadism in a global age
• Islam in Europe: Religious identity, Islamic activism and the representation of Islam

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

PPR.261: Exploring Global Religions

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only 
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: At least one entry-level course in religion.

Course Description

The course will begin by introducing concepts of politics, religion and values and using contemporary case studies to illustrate how they operate and interact. It will highlight and illustrate the deep-seated role of values in both politics and religion.

The first half of the course will then introduce classic theories and concepts of politics, religion, and values. The second half of the course will apply the theories and concepts critically to a series of historical and contemporary case studies chosen to ensure topicality as well as historical breadth and a global spread. These might include, for example, the rise of European nation states (how politics, religion and values worked together), Culture Wars in the USA, religious politics in India since the 1990s, and controversies over religion and schooling worldwide.

The course will conclude by considering integrating theories that make sense of the convergence of politics, religion and values (e.g. theories of ‘civil religion’, ‘new social movements’, ‘identity politics’ and ‘values-based politics’). The course will end with methodological reflection on the nature of the methods that have been in play during the course, and on combinations of methods for studying PRV. There will be plenty of room for student input and choice of cases in this module, and the entire course will be interactive and encourage students to integrate learning from other parts of their studies. It will provide a good theoretical basis for them to do so.

Educational Aims

The module will provide students with the skills, knowledge and confidence to:

• Recognise and analyse texts from several disciplines, demonstrating awareness of their different perspectives and uses, and ability to assess the strength of competing approaches and interpretations.
• Formulate evidence-based opinions verbally and in writing and communicate clearly, with the written and spoken word. Develop confidence and skill in analysis and discussion, and deepen critical skills.
• Improve analytical, written and verbal skills through course reading, essay-writing, and workshop discussions.
• Discuss and analyse empirical cases, by identifying salient aspects for analysis, theories that can be deployed, and disciplinary approaches that can be used.
• Deepen disciplinary understanding and also show how disciplinary perspectives may need to be challenged by other disciplines, thus building an interdisciplinary awareness.

Outline Syllabus

Politics can be defined as involving the legitimate exercise of coercive power, religion as involving the control of symbolic power. Both also involve values. Values have to do with what is perceived as good for the individual and society. Values can be expressed in norms, symbols, narratives and action. They shape identity and help bind people together and set them apart. By understanding politics, religion and values as overlapping categories, we can attain a fuller understanding of each. The course will begin by introducing concepts of politics, religion and values and using contemporary case studies to illustrate how they operate and interact. It will highlight and illustrate the deep-seated role of values in both politics and religion. The first half of the course will then introduce classic theories and concepts of politics, religion, and values. The second half of the course will apply the theories and concepts critically to a series of historical and contemporary case studies chosen to ensure topicality as well as historical breadth and a global spread. These might include, for example, the rise of European nation states (how politics, religion and values worked together), Culture Wars in the USA, religious politics in India since the 1990s, and controversies over religion and schooling worldwide. The course will conclude by considering integrating theories that make sense of the convergence of politics, religion and values (e.g. theories of 'civil religion', 'new social movements', 'identity politics' and 'values-based politics'). The course will end with methodological reflection on the nature of the methods that have been in play during the course, and on combinations of methods for studying PRV. There will be plenty of room for student input and choice of cases in this module, and the entire course will be interactive and encourage students to integrate learning from other parts of their studies. It will provide a good theoretical basis for them to do so. Typical areas of study will include:

• the concepts of politics, religion and values and issues of their interrelations
• theories of politics
• theories of religion (substantive and functional)
• theories of value (deontological, consequentialist, teleological, relational)
• case studies examining the growth of modern European nation states (how politics, religion and values work together), Culture Wars in the USA (clashing binary clusters of politics, religion, and values), Religious politics in India since the 1990s,
• theories of the convergence of politics, religion and values (e.g. theories of 'civil religion', 'political religion' and 'alues-based politics')
• theories of the clash of politics, religion and values (e.g. 'social identity theory', theories of religious violence)

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

PPR.287: Protest Politics: Social Movements and Countercultures

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: At least one entry-level course in politics.

Course Description

This course will familiarize students with the politics of protest, the social and political significance of countercultures, theories of social movements, and the ways in which movements either implement or prevent social and cultural change. Relevant political philosophies will be introduced, as well as the core ideas informing, for example, the women’s movement, the peace movement, and the environmental movement. The course will also examine the practice of protest, introducing, for example, protest art, music, and acts of civil disobedience.

Outline Syllabus

The course will be divided into three parts: (1) protest politics in the 1960s and 1970s; (2) social movement theory; (3) contemporary social movements. (1) This part will provide some of the foundation historical background to important movements, such as the environmental movement, the women's movement, and the peace movement. (2) This part of the course will examine some of the key contemporary theories about why social movements emerge, how they grow, how they differ, and why they decline. (3) The final part of the course will examine several contemporary social movements in detail (e.g. Extinction Rebellion; Occupy; Hong Kong protests).

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

PPR.337: Society & Politics in Latin America

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer Terms only.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: You must have undertaken relevant previous studies in Politics.

Course Description

• an overview of politics of populism
• the role of the Latin American left in shaping the public discourse
• democracy and dictatorship
• the emancipatory role of religion
• the culture of everyday violence
• politics of dependency and development
• political economy of migration and the role played by external actors in shaping its cultural
• economic, social and political identity

Outline Syllabus

Indicative outline syllabus:

• Week One - History & Politics
• Week Two - Religion and Society
• Week Three - Migration & Mass Movement
• Week Four - Culture and Violence
• Week Five - Regional Integration
• Week Six - The Big Players (ABC & M of LA)
• Week Seven - Islands in the Stream (Politics of the Greater Caribbean)
• Week Eight - Foreign Policy
• Week Nine - China in LA
• Week Ten - Evolving L. America (D, P&D)
• Week Eleven - Revision & Recap

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

PPR.366: Conspiracy Theories in Politics and Society

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites:
  • Previous study in this subject area is required

Course Description

Course Description: Who killed John F. Kennedy? Did the moon landing really happen? Is Covid-19 caused by the erection of 5G network masts? Factual answers to such questions are easily accessible. And yet many people eschew documented facts in favour of conspiracy theories, which explain events and complex phenomena with reference to nefarious forces and alleged hidden machinations of powerful actors. Such narratives are nothing new, but they used to be regarded mostly as a curiosity rather than a serious subject of research. Today communities of conspiracists are no longer considered so benign. As they thrive online, they attract increasing interest of scholars and policymakers, who study their digital influence, their links with political movements and their status as participants in democratic public spheres. This Special Subject introduces students to the developing body of research on the origins, spread and the political and social effects of conspiracy theories, including multidisciplinary work seeking to explain why people embrace conspiracies, what (if any) are the harms of such beliefs, what insights can we draw from the study of historical conspiracies (19th and 20th century) and what is the relationship between conspiratorial thinking and other political beliefs.

Educational Aims

Subject Specific: Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

This module aims to:

• Introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of conspiracy studies;
• Elucidate key concepts (e.g. post-truth, New Dark Age, radical transparency, paranoid style etc.)
• Explore a selection of historical and contemporary conspiracy theories;
• Foster the understanding of their historical, cultural, political and social significance;
• Challenge simplistic perceptions and encourage a nuanced analytic approach to the role of conspiracists in the public sphere;
• Develop the ability to recognize the varieties and dynamics of conspiratorial thinking in contemporary politics and assess their impact and significance.

Educational Aims: General: Knowledge, Understanding and Skills

This module aims to:

1. Foster an inclusive environment for presenting ideas in a group setting;
2. Develop confidence about engaging with interdisciplinary work;
3. Develop the ability to lead discussion and synthesize insights;
4. Develop research, critical thinking and analytic skills through weekly reading assignments and two pieces of coursework (Week 5 and Week 10);
5. Provide the opportunity to discuss and analyse work at the intersection of academic research, journalism and popular culture.

Outline Syllabus

Topics may typically include:

1. Theoretical approaches to conspiracy theories
2. Conspiracy theories in history
3. Paranoid Style
4. 20th century case studies
5. Conspiracy theories in popular culture
6. Conspiracy theories and the Internet
7. Post-truth and information warfare
8. The political impact of conspiracy theories
9. The societal impact of conspiracy theories
10. Future directions in conspiracy theories

Assessment Proportions

• 100% coursework (1 x 2000-word essay and 1 x 3000-word essay)

PPR.368: Decolonisation, Race and Empire

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: No pre-requisites given

Course Description

This module uses cases studies to highlight how adopting a decolonial, interdisciplinary and critical approach can enable a greater understanding of contemporary issues. Unpacking the legacies of slavery, colonialism, racism and empire can be a means towards promoting social justice and gaining insights into topical and contested themes ranging from migration and climate change to security and geopolitics.

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should be able to:

1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of decolonisation, race and empire and how this influences contemporary socio-economic and political issues.
2. Apply this knowledge to case studies in different contexts.
3. Explain, compare, and contrast the role that decolonisation, race and empire play in various local, national and international contexts;
4. Articulate their own position in relation to their own and others' ideas with respect to the role and relevance of decolonisation, race and empire, and incorporate it into academic and scholarly analysis.

Outline Syllabus

This module uses case studies from across the world to provide an insight into the role and relevance of decolonisation in the contemporary world, by examining the legacies of slavery, racism, colonialism and empire. The emphasis is on foregrounding the voices and experiences of citizens and communities from the Global South and unpacking the role that western European nations have played and continue to play in politics, economics and state-society relations in large parts of the post-colonial world. By using critical pedagogy and an interdisciplinary lens, the module highlights how various identities of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and religion intersect in different historical contexts to produce diverse outcomes. These outcomes are examined in relation to various current and emerging themes ranging from climate change and sustainable development to migration, borders and human rights to artificial intelligence, security, geopolitics and social justice. Over ten weeks, students critically examine these themes through the topics which will typically include:

Introduction, history, principles, and practices associated with decolonisation and race

Theories and intersectionality (Race, Class and Gender in particular)

Historical Context of colonialism and racism - Transatlantic Slavery, Empire and Western Europe

Central and North American context

African Context

South Asian Context

East Asian, Australian and New Zealand context

Middle East context

South American context

Caribbean, British and Lancaster context

Assessment Proportions

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION (1350-1500 words) 40% (deadline is end of term) - ASSESSED

ESSAY (2700- 3000 words) 60% (end of module, deadline is beginning of the first week of the following term) - ASSESSED

These writing tasks will be linked to two formative tasks which will not be assessed – a short essay plan (one A4 page - maximum 500 words) and a small group/paired word presentation in class (maximum 10 minutes). Care will be taken to consider concerns of students who are not comfortable with presenting in front of others. The formative assessments seek to sharpen and develop student writing, build their knowledge of the topic, improve their presentation and group work skills, and provide greater opportunities for formative feedback. The reflective report will involve reflections on the content of the presentation, the process and its link to the broad themes of the module and contemporary issues in politics and society. The linking of summative assessment to formative assessment has been highlighted to be important and useful in teaching and learning pedagogies.

PPR.392c: The Ethics and Politics of Communication

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS Credits
• Pre-requisites: You must have undertaken relevant previous studies in Philosophy.

Course Description

This module critically explores a range of key topics in the ethics and politics of communication. In the first half of the course, we begin by an introduction to some basic concepts in linguistics and philosophy of language – especially to do with the practical side of communication. We then focus on (a) how certain kinds of communication can bring about ethical change (e.g. making something permissible); (b) upon whether lying and other kinds of deception are permissible, and if so, when. In the second half we turn to some broadly political issues: whether political lying is justified in a way that everyday lying is not. We consider three domains where freedom of communication is both important and contentious: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom on social media, including the challenges posed by "content moderation".

Educational Aims

These Seminar options are mounted specifically to provide work at an advanced level for third year single and combined major students. Special Subject classes run as seminars: the tutor convenes the group and suggests reading but does not lecture. Students are required to attend special subject seminars regularly. Each seminar group member takes their turn in making a presentation to the seminar, and it is the presentation that forms the basis for the seminar discussion. It also forms the basis for the submitted written coursework. In recent years, special subjects have included Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Hannah Arendt; Leibniz; feminist ethics; Aesthetics; Nietzsche.

The aims are to take participants' knowledge of philosophy and skills in philosophising to advanced levels. In particular, to give participants

• advanced knowledge and understanding of a particular philosophical topic
• experience of close philosophical study, led by a tutor who has an active research interest in the topic being considered
• experience of how to benefit from working in a small study group

Assessment Proportions

• Dissertation: 100%

SOCL310: Migration, Citizenship and Belonging

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Five semesters of sociology; two may be from cognate disciplines such as anthropology or social psychology.

Course Description

'Belonging' to a nation is widely seen to be as 'natural' as 'belonging' to a family or a home. This course undermines assumptions about national belonging by introducing students to a range of theoretical approaches and debates. How are the nation and national belonging socially constructed? How is the nation defined? Who belongs, who doesn't? What are the impacts of migration on definitions of the nation? In turn, how is migration enabled or constricted by national borders and boundaries?

The module focuses on nation formation in relation to migration. It will explore what everyday practices, discourses, and policies reveal about the ways we think about, and inhabit, the nation and migration? Although we will focus on the example of Britain, the issues raised will be of interest to all students concerned with the effects of nationalisms and ideas of belonging and entitlement, which many countries of the contemporary world are presently debating in the context of the 'Age of migration' (Castles and Miller 1998).

Examples of topics covered include: ‘We the people’ – the forging of nations; the racial state; gender, sexuality and the nation; migration, citizenship, and integration; language as border control.

Educational Aims

This course aims:

• To introduce sociological issues surrounding the concepts of nation, migration and multiculturalism
• To develop an understanding of discourse analysis
• To introduce questions of power and politics surrounding the processes of identity formation

Outline Syllabus

Lecture topics include:

• 'We the people': the forging of nations
• A country idyll
• Migrant belongings and transnational connections
• Consumer culture, diversity and 'eating the other'
• Multiculturalism and the hybrid nation

Assessment Proportions

• A compilation of short reflective pieces (approx. 1500 words): 30%
• One Essay (3000 words): 70%

SPAN233: Shaping Contemporary Spain and Latin America: Moments and Movements

• Terms Taught: Full Year module.
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS credits
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

'Shaping Contemporary Spain and Latin America: Moments and Movements' provides students with awareness of the ‘must-know’ historical moments as well as political and aesthetic movements that have shaped Spanish and Latin American culture, while systematically enhancing their skills of cultural analysis in diverse media. The course will hone their close-reading skills, yet also provide a broad awareness of Hispanic modernity through a thematic approach that goes back to key Golden Age, nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century texts, moments, and movements.

The modules on the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro), Historical Memory, Revolutions and Dictatorships will be based on Spanish and Spanish American texts, both visual and literary, from the period of empire through to the present day, highlighting themes such as power, resistance, trauma, gender, ethnicity and nation. Writers, artists and filmmakers will be studied in their historical and cultural contexts, with due regard to any relevant global trends such as imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, democracy, neoliberalism and nationalism. This module thus takes students on a journey through six centuries of Spanish and Latin American cultural history, encountering along the way some of the most radical thinkers, writers, filmmakers and creative artists that make the intellectual tradition of Spain and Latin America so distinctive. Students will experience a stimulating range of cultural forms and be equipped with the skills to reflect critically on them as expressions of Spain and Spanish America's multi-faceted, nuanced societies.

The main aim of the module is twofold: to build students' reading knowledge of Spanish while giving them a flavour of the rich cultural output that has defined the Spanish-speaking realm over the past seven hundred years.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Develop students' knowledge and understanding of the written and spoken Spanish Language
• Introduce students to key concepts and methods in the interpretation of different kinds of texts in their socio-historical context
• Enable students to engage with a history of ideas and forms focused through a series of significant moments and movements
• Provide students with an outline of the major political, social and cultural events of Spanish history since the time of the Spanish Empire
• Develop students' capacity to reflect on the connections between and the interpretation of those political, social and cultural events
• Encourage students to reflect on the relationship between historical and contemporary societies
• Develop students’ abilities to independently research, write, and present creative work
• Develop students’ abilities to participate actively in class and small group discussion.

Assessment Proportions

100% coursework

CWA1: 750 word commentary on creative work* OR 1500 word comparative essay (Mich): 35%

CWA2: Learning Journal on sub-modules 1 and 2 (Michaelmas): 10%

CWA3: feed-forward session on essay plan (Lent, optional): 0%

CWA4: Learning Journal on sub-modules 3 and 4 (Lent): 10%,

CWA5: 2,500-word essay (Lent/Summer): 45%

*Students are to work on a creative response to material covered in Michaelmas. Examples of pieces may include but are not limited to: audio-visual work, i.e. videos, recordings, animation; collage; drawing or other art work, e.g. graphic fiction/comic; musical piece; creative writing; interviews; performances; quiz. The creative work must be accompanied by a 750 word summary of how their piece responds to the course material.