Liberal Arts at Queen's is a unique, exciting and challenging programme that allows students to immerse themselves in subjects that are vital to understanding our twenty-first- century world. Through innovative disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary study, students explore a range of contemporary issues within a programme which allows them the flexibility to pursue a discipline specialism or broader, thematic interests that are cross-disciplinary in nature.
Taking advantage of the internationally-renown expertise across the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, students explore different ways of approaching research, and consider various tools or sources that can be used to answer the pressing questions of their world in innovative ways. This might be through their discipline-specific training, or through blending the research approaches from multiple subjects to consider things in a new way. .
A Liberal Arts student is curious about the world and about different ways of thinking. With our study abroad and work placement opportunities, in addition to Masters-level teaching in fourth year, this degree is built with flexibility and future success in mind.
Liberal Arts at Queen's builds on the strengths of the multiple disciplines of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty.
Liberal Arts highlights
Global Opportunities
Students on the M.Liberal Arts programme benefit from a broad range of study-abroad and international placement opportunities, e.g. in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain. The Year/Semester Abroad is a significant learning and employability enhancement opportunity. This feature of our degree programme gives students the opportunity for personal development, and further develops communication skills and intercultural awareness. The challenges of living abroad come to be a unique (and unforgettable) stage in their own personal development. http://www.qub.ac.uk/International/International-students/Studyabroad/StudyAbroad/
Industry Links
We regularly consult and develop links with a large number of employers including, for example, BBC Northern Ireland, Ulster Television, and the Lyric Theatre. Given that Belfast is a regional capital with devolved powers, we encourage students to undertake placements in the high profile political and related institutions on our doorstep - for example in the Department of Justice, Equality Commission, Police Ombudsman's Office, the North/South Ministerial Council. The University also works closely with a number of arts sector institutions and partners including the Ulster Museum, Titanic Belfast, the Linen Hall Library, and the Arts Council.
World Class Facilities
Student benefit from research-led teaching and access to a range of world-class facilities, depending on their pathway.
Internationally Renowned Experts
In Politics, Professor David Phinnemore is an expert on EU Treaty reform and EU enlargement, which led to his secondment as an advisor to the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The fallout of the 2016 EU Referendum in the UK positions Professor Phinnemore at the centre of ongoing debates about 'Brexit' and its impact on the EU, Northern Ireland, and UK relations.
Student Experience
From Personal Tutors to peer mentoring, we work closely with students to ensure they are supported at every stage of their degree. Due to the core module at each Liberal Arts stage, our students tend to be closely-knit and know their Liberal Arts lecturers well. This ensures that, while they embark on different pathways in various Schools and subjects, they always have an academic contact to support their university career.
With Degree-Plus, students have the opportunity to burnish their academic achievements with employment-facing placements and projects.
A thriving cultural scene organised by our undergraduate and postgraduate communities, from the English Society and Poetry Proper to the Lifeboat and the Yellow Nib, makes studying at Queen's a unique proposition.
Students can work with our visiting Fulbright Scholars, leading US academics who spend a semester at Queen's each year; and, through the Heaney Centre, world-renowned and award-winning creative practitioners in the fields of poetry, prose and scriptwriting join us each year as Fellows of the Centre.
Global Opportunities
Students on a M.Liberal Arts languages pathway study or work abroad for 8 months or more in their third year. Students in Languages at Queen’s have specialised classes to prepare them for the Year Abroad and members of Language staff act as Year Abroad Officers. In addition to the benefits for oral competence, the residence provides a unique opportunity for immersion in the culture of their chosen country.
Students not on a languages pathway study abroad for the second semester of their third year.
Career Development
Students are offered opportunities to develop substantive knowledge and research skills through collaboration with Northern Ireland’s vibrant civil and community sector, through field trips, guest lectures, workshops, placements, research collaborations and volunteering opportunities.
Internationally Renowned Experts
On this programme you will be taught by academics who are internationally renowned experts at the top of their respective fields.
The Liberal Arts modules bring together academic expertise with industry leaders to really dig into how the knowledge built up on the programme can have ‘real world’ impacts.
As students on an undergraduate Masters, we encourage students to get involved in the multiple research centres which are pushing new boundaries at Queen’s. These include:
• The Centre for Sustainability, Equality, and Climate Action
• The Centre for Public History
• The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice
• The Institute of Irish Studies
• The Institute of Cognition and Culture
Career Development
In second year, students take a ‘Careers Placement’ module, working closely with QUB’s Careers Service experts in advance of their work placement.
World Class Facilities
The School of Arts, English and Languages is one of the largest and best equipped institutions in the UK working in the field of music and sound. Students have access to state-of-the-art audio resources including two dedicated computer suites, ten sound studios an equipment loan store and the world’s first Sonic Laboratory – a unique performance space capable of three-dimensional sound projection, all housed in the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). Our Music Building was built at the same time as the main Queen's Lanyon Building. It was originally the Students' Union and Canteen.
We have the beautiful Harty Room concert hall, The Old McMordie Hall teaching room, a large Lecture Room, smaller teaching rooms, a basement full of practice rooms, 2 recording studios and social spaces for students to meet.
For students interested in Drama and the performing arts, a lot of teaching happens in the Brian Friel Theatre, one of the best-equipped theatres in Belfast with a 120-seat studio theatre, rehearsal room, dressing rooms, green room and workshop. These are all housed in the Drama and Film Centre which also includes the Queen’s Film Theatre. https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/BrianFrielTheatre/
The McClay Library holds extensive collections relating to all subjects offered on the M.Liberal Arts programme, including History and Politics, Philosophy, Sociology, and English. Queen’s has built up a superb collection of books, manuscripts and periodicals over the past 160 years. It brings together wide-ranging library, computing and media services in a single location as well as offering study facilities suitable for quiet study and group work.
Student Experience
With Degree-Plus, students have the opportunity to burnish their academic achievements with employment- facing placements and projects.
A thriving cultural scene organised by our undergraduate and postgraduate communities, including the newly-organised (by our students) Liberal Arts Society. The wider cultural scene, including the Lifeboat and the Yellow Nib, makes studying at Queen's a unique proposition. Due to the multi-/interdisciplinary nature of their studies, Liberal Arts students have the opportunity to engage with it all!
Student Testimonials
'When I left school after my A-Levels, I had a lot of interests and I wasn't ready to settle on just one to pursue at university level. Studying Liberal Arts at Queens allowed me to explore a wide range of disciplines within the Arts, Humanities and Languages so that I could pick a major I was really passionate about, whilst also studying a selection of other, interconnected classes from across the schools to create a fully customisable degree.
The course pushed me to change my way of thinking, as being allowed to take different classes in different fields introduced me to lots of new ideas, and of course, lots of new people thinking them. On top of this, sharing a class with my fellow Liberal Arts students, all of whom were also studying a plethora of subjects in their own right, only added to this mixture of ideas and broadened my horizons. What's more, I left university after four years with an integrated Masters Degree! Looking back, I know I made the right choice in picking Liberal Arts at Queens.'
Jill Clerkin, M.Liberal Arts and French graduate 2022
Students take six modules: Understanding Now; one interdisciplinary module; two modules from their pathway; and a further two optional modules. The list of optional modules is subject to relevant A-Level or equivalent prerequisites (e.g. for language and music modules). However, students are free to choose from a range of interdisciplinary and pathway modules as well as other modules offered on single honours programmes in the Faculty. Please note that the precise modules offered as options may vary from year to year.
At the end of Level 1, students nominate their pathway. The pathways include: Anthropology and Paleoecology, Archaeology, Drama, Economics, English, Geography, French, Film, History, International Studies, Irish, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Portuguese, Sociology, Spanish, as well as thematic pathways such as Migration, Sustainability, Irish Studies, American Studies, Gender, Decolonisation.
Stage 2
In their second year students take: Uses of the Past; one interdisciplinary module; three modules from their pathway; and a further optional module. In addition they will take a Placement preparation module ahead of the Stage 3 Placement module.
Stage 3
Students take: Arts and Humanities in Contemporary Society; the Placement module; and one module from their pathway in Semester 1. Semester 2 is spent studying abroad at one of our international university partners. Please note that the precise modules offered as options may vary from year to year and may be subject to prerequisites.
For students on a language pathway, the whole of third year will be spent abroad on a study or work placement.
Stage 4
Students take: Incorrigibly Plural; the Dissertation module; and a minimum of one module in their pathway with two further modules either from their pathway or from optional modules. The pathway and optional modules will be drawn from the taught modules offered on the relevant MA programme(s). Students on a language pathway will take relevant language and cultural context modules..
Please note that the precise modules offered as options may vary from year to year and may be subject to prerequisites.
Arts, English & Languages Dr Cooper is a social and cultural historian of Ireland and the Irish diaspora, with a particular interest in gender, religion, and urban space. Sophie takes an interdisciplinary approach to her research - bringing together material culture, urban studies approaches, and histories of emotion – so really enjoys having the opportunity to work with colleagues from across different disciplines!
Professor in American Literature; Faculty Lead Liberal Arts
Arts, English & Languages Professor McGowan is Professor in American Literature with research and teaching interests in twentieth-century American poetry, contemporary American fiction, as well as in film (e.g. American Hitchcock). He also has wider interests in revolutionary America, the American nineteenth century, westerns, and American narratives of addiction and alcohol control. In the field of poetry, his teaching and research focuses on Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, the Middle Generation poets, and Mark Doty. Philip is President (2016-2024) of the European Association for American Studies (eaas.eu; @eaas_eu) and has been a member of the Executive Board of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society (fscottfitzgeraldsociety.org; @FSFSociety) since 2005
Contact Teaching Hours
Small Group Teaching/Personal Tutorial
3 (hours maximum) 2-3 at Stage 1; 2-3 at Stage 2; 2-3 at Stage 3; 2-3 at Stage 4
Large Group Teaching
6 (hours maximum) 2-3 at Stage 1; 3-4 at Stage 2; 3-6 at Stage 3; 2-3 at Stage 4
Personal Study
15 (hours maximum)
Medium Group Teaching
6 (hours maximum) 3-5 at Stage 1; 3-4 at Stage 2; 4-6 at Stage 3; 3-5 at Stage 4
Learning and Teaching
At Queen's, students work in an ambitious learning environment that embeds intellectual curiosity, innovation and best practice in learning, teaching and student support to enable students to achieve their full academic potential.
On the Liberal Arts degree we do this by providing a range of learning experiences which enable our students to engage with subject experts, develop attributes and perspectives that will equip them for life and work in a global society and make use of innovative technologies and a world-class library that enhances their development as independent, lifelong learners. Examples of the opportunities provided for learning on this course are:
E-learning:
Information associated with lectures and assignments is often communicated via a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Queen's Online. A range of e-learning experiences are also embedded in the degree, for example, through: interactive group workshops in a flexible learning space; IT and statistics modules;podcasts and interactive web-based learning activities; opportunities to use IT programmes associated with design in practicals and project-based work etc.
Lectures:
Introduce basic information about new topics as a starting point for further self-directed private study/reading. Lectures also provide opportunities to ask questions, gain some feedback and advice on assessments (normally delivered in large groups to all year group peers).
Personal tutors:
All undergraduates are allocated a Personal Tutor who meets with them on several occasions during the year to support their academic development.
Self-directed study:
This is an essential part of life as a Queen's student when important private reading, engagement with e-learning resources, reflection on feedback to date and assignment research and preparation work is carried out.
Seminars/tutorials:
Significant amounts of teaching are carried out in small groups (typically 10-20 students). These provide an opportunity for students to engage with academic staff who have specialist knowledge of the topic, to ask questions of them and to assess their own progress and understanding with the support of peers. You should also expect to make presentations and other contributions to these groups.
Supervised projects:
In final year, the year-long double weighted Dissertation module requires you to carry out a significant piece of research on a topic that you have chosen. You will receive support from a supervisor who will guide you in terms of how to carry out your research and will provide feedback to you on at least 2 occasions during the write-up stage.
Assessment
Details of assessments associated with this course are outlined below:
Assessments are designed to evidence your engagement with the learning objectives of each module, which will be advertised in advance of module selection. Modules are assessed variously through project work, individual and/or group presentations, as well as more traditional written essays and assignments.
The way in which students are assessed will vary according to the learning objectives of each module. Details of how each module is assessed are shown in the Student Handbook provided to all students during their first year induction. Assessments can include assessed presentations, group projects, and "learning logs" based on weekly reading.
Feedback
As students progress through their degree at Queen's they will receive general and specific feedback about their work from a variety of sources including lecturers, module co-ordinators, placement supervisors, personal tutors, advisers of study and peers. University students are expected to engage with reflective practice and to use this approach to improve the quality of their work.
Once you have reviewed your feedback, you will be encouraged to identify and implement further improvements to the quality of your work. Feedback is a key component in a student's continual, self-reflective learning on this degree programme.
Feedback may be provided in a variety of forms including:
Feedback provided via formal written comments and marks relating to work that you, as an individual or as part of a group, may have submitted.
Face to face comment. This may include occasions when you make use of the lecturers' advertised "Feedback and Guidance hours" to help you address a specific query.
Placement employer comments or references.
Online or emailed comment.
General comments or question and answer opportunities at the end of a lecture, or during a seminar or tutorial.
Peer and group feedback on core Liberal Arts modules where the learning experience is developmental, shared and supportive.
Pre-submission advice regarding the standards you should aim for and common pitfalls to avoid. In some instances, this may be provided in the form of model answers or exemplars that you can review in your own time.
Feedback and outcomes from practical classes.
Comment and guidance provided by staff from specialist support services such as Careers, Employability and Skills or the Learning Development Service.
The information below is intended as an example only, featuring module details for the current year of study (2024/25). Modules are reviewed on an annual basis and may be subject to future changes – revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year.
This module has two interconnected directions of travel:
i) focusing on the present, subject lecturers discuss how we understand the contemporary moment in its social, political, philosophical, cultural and intellectual contexts;
ii) the above is simultaneously informed by a backward glance that shows how learning in particular branches of the academy has developed over the centuries, and how arts and humanities disciplines currently configure our theoretical interpretation of the world
Each academic year, what is “Now” will obviously change, providing new contexts for discussions of how we use Understanding to explain the world.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will:
(i) have an overview of a range of approaches to understanding the contemporary world;
(ii) have an introductory understanding of the different disciplines they have encountered on the module;
(iii) understand a range of discipline-specific approaches to university level work in the arts and humanities;
(iv) differentiate between discipline-specific approaches to the subject;
(v) be able to link the module’s varied pedagogical approaches to their degree pathway.
Skills
(i) understanding of the diverse methods and approaches of arts and humanities subjects at university level;
(ii) capacity for appropriate problem-solving in relation to contemporary debates;
(iii) engaging in classroom debate and group work and fostering a stimulating intellectual environment;
(iv) producing engaged critical responses to the issues raised on the module;
(v) connecting the module’s multi-disciplinary focus to the concerns of their degree pathway
(vi) self-reflection on the learning process.
Economics is a challenging subject that has a very specific vocabulary. Yet most consumers of economic advice are non-economists. This has sometimes hindered the ability of economists to persuade the general public of their insights, and even to justify their societal function. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the debates preceding the 2016 Brexit referendum. This module aims to equip students with an ability to communicate complex economic arguments in ways that can be understood by wider audiences, beyond academia. In so doing, students will learn how economists persuade by unpicking the economics of the arguments presented by politicians, commentators and other public figures. They will learn how to use, and spot the abuse, of economic and financial statistics. They will learn first-hand how to write like a financial journalist or economic analyst. And they will also learn how to present their arguments like a political commentator.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding: Students should have a greater understanding of how economics is
communicated to diverse audiences. They should be equipped with the knowledge to critically evaluate
economic arguments presented in the media and elsewhere. They should have a better understanding of
key economic concepts that will be useful in their other economics modules. They should be familiar
with how key (macro-)economic indicators are constructed, presented and used in public discourse.
Intellectual skills: Students should be familiar with the arguments presented in controversial issues and
how they are presented in different media. They should be able to identify and use objective arguments,
critically evaluate the use of evidence in public discourse, and decide for themselves on the validity of
economic opinions.
Practical skills: Students should develop the necessary oral and written communication skills to be able
to function effectively as an economist. In particular, students should learn how to speak in public, for
different audiences. Additionally, students should learn about big data analysis and data visualisation
tools, e.g., as offered by software such as Excel.
Study skills: Students should develop the ability to independently investigate and analyse controversial
economic questions. They should develop the ability to read complex economic arguments in an
efficient manner, and then communicate these to others in simple ways
Skills
Module Aims
1. To acquaint students at an introductory undergraduate level with the skillset required to communicate their economic ideas to both economists and non-economists.
2. To help students to appreciate the purpose of economics as an academic discipline, and how academic insights can be used to improve our understanding of, and participation in, controversial public debates.
3. To provide students with an awareness of key concepts from the philosophy of science and the history of economic thought, and how these influence the way economists attempt to persuade.
4. To develop students’ ability to critically evaluate economic arguments written and presented by
journalists and other public commentators, including how to interpret data, weigh evidence, and draw independent conclusions.
5. To provide students with the requisite skills to identify and frame important societal questions.
This course will provide the base of technical skills and concepts required to work with sound successfully and efficiently in a technological environment. Core elements of sound synthesis, acoustics, and auditory perception will be presented in a minimally technical fashion to give all students the key concepts and terminology required to discuss music technology for the purpose of analysis and creative practice.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the module you will: (1) understand common visualisations of sound (waveforms and spectra), (2) have an overview of sound in technology, from generation, to propagation, to perception (3) be able to develop a piece of academic writing, (4) be able to engage with computer-based applications to demonstrate practical aspects of the fundamentals of sound.
Skills
Music and sound analytical skills. Academic writing skills. Computer-based application of these skills applied to creative work. Problem solving with code-based music production. Critical reflection skills.
Issues in Contemporary Fiction: Gender, Race, Ecology
Overview
This module examines a broad sample of recent fiction. In doing so, it raises a set of related questions: 1) whose contemporary experience does this literature address? 2) what economic or political factors lead to a shared sense of the contemporary? 3) how does modern fiction relate to these broader social forces?
The module has a three-part structure. Part 1 examines the ways in which contemporary fiction responds to and in turn shapes debates about gender and gender difference. Section 2 analyses literary treatments of race and the aftermaths of colonialism. The final section of the module explores the ways in which recent fiction speculates on our collective future especially in the context of climate change and the threat of ecological catastrophe and asks what if anything can be done in the face of this threat.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module students will have gained a general understanding of the theoretical and methodological issues that surround the study of contemporary literature. Students will have learned to subject a range of recent fiction to a technical or formal analysis. They will also be able to read texts in context and will have a basic understanding of the social, economic, and political forces that shape these contexts.
Skills
Students will learn to develop a) analytical skills b) methods of textual analysis c) an understanding of meta-critical issues d) a clear and succinct writing style e) oral presentation skills f) a capacity for independent inquiry g) an ability to collaborate and work in groups h) computer skills.
This physical geography module will examine the mechanisms and processes that drive the Earth system and the interactions between the various spheres – including the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The module will have a global focus, but will also provide regional and local examples of how the Earth system operates, interacts and changes across time and space to shape our climate, landscapes and environments.
Learning Outcomes
After completing the module students should be able to:
1) Develop a knowledge and understanding of the major processes that drive the various components of the Earth system and the interactions between them
2) Apply practical skills to collect, analyse and present a range of data relating to the Earth System
3) Develop the ability to critically analyse and interpret information relating to the Earth System
4) Develop skills in scientific writing
Skills
Scientific writing; statistical analysis; graphical presentation; primary data collection; secondary data collection; interpretation of geographical information; critical analysis; referencing.
This module offers detailed consideration of a range of contemporary writing in Ireland. The selected reading is generically diverse, with a particular focus on contemporary literary texts (defined as published within the past 5 years). Texts are chosen to highlight diversity in terms of authorship, representation and literary form. Indicative themes will be the role of place and of experimentation in writing; issues of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality; and the practice of literary reviewing today.
Learning Outcomes
· To introduce analytical and critical skills to reading contemporary texts drawn from a wide range of genres;
· To understand and evaluate current debates about the representation of social issues in contemporary writing
· To research and reflect upon the publication and reception of contemporary writing, including the practice of literary reviewing;
· To refine and develop your oral and written skills
· To promote collaborative work in relation to a specific task.
Skills
At the end of this module students should have learned to: * Read and analyse contemporary writing using the techniques, vocabularies and approaches of current academic English studies; * Discuss, analyse and historically contextualise a wide range of complex, topical social and cultural issues in twenty-first century Irish literature and experience. * Work collaboratively with others in the preparation of a group presentation; * Work independently in researching and analysing contemporary writing; * Use a variety of texts and resources (academic journal articles, print reviews, supplementary websites and other kinds of media) in their discussion and writing about contemporary texts. * Understand the registers of different kinds of communication (blog or podcast; oral presentation; academic essay) and communicate effectively employing these different styles
The module provides a wide-ranging introduction to political developments in contemporary Europe. Following analysis of the nature and consequences for Europe of the Cold War, the module analyses some of the major political, economic and security challenges Europe has had to face since 1989 including the processes of economic and political transformation in Central and Eastern Europe as well as war in the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. Featuring prominently in the module are developments in the process of European integration with a primary focus on the EU, how it is organized and operates, what powers it has, the attitudes of selected states in contemporary Europe towards membership, and the effects of integration on them. In doing so, the module considers the origins and implications of the Eurozone crisis for European integration as well as public attitudes towards the process.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will
1. Understand the historical background to contemporary Europe;
2. Analyse critically selected major political developments and trends in Europe since the end of the Cold War;
3. Appreciate key concepts and understandings associated with the political organization of Europe;
4. Appreciate key concepts and understandings associated with the European Union as a political entity;
5. Analyse how the major European states have engaged with the European Union since 1957;
6. Understand public reactions to European integration.
7. Appreciate selected major political and security challenges facing contemporary
Skills
The module will develop students' analytical, research and communication skills; allow students to refine their essay-writing skills; and enhance their abilities to think critically.
The goal of this module is to provide an introduction to music from an 'educated' perspective: that is, an awareness of music as an art-form as it is practised in contemporary culture. This outlook would primarily relate to Western Culture, but would include an exploration of music in non-Western cultures - for instance, India and the Middle East. The relevance of historical practices as they relate to contemporary thinking would also be explored. Within Western Music, students would explore the vast range of musical practices ranging from music, which is intended to fuel consumerism (in which case a lecture would analyse music in advertisements) to mass market music (rock or film music) to the 'classical' tradition and its contemporary proliferation. The relationship of music and society would be a key component of the study and students would not only examine the influence of political thinking on the music of composers such as Finnissy, but would also look at the cultural significance of moments such as Jimi Hendrix's performance at Woodstock.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students will be able to:
• Understand the importance of listening to music from an educated perspective
• Understand the relationship between musical developments and wider trends within culture and society
• Understand the range of contemporary musical practices
• Understand the relationship between historical and contemporary practices
• Utilise this understanding in their own work
Skills
• Problem solving
• Communication
• Time Management
• Leadership
• Teamwork (social intelligence)
• Abstraction of thought
• Imagination
• Self-expression (emotional intelligence)
• Self-reliance
• Reflection
• Editing
• Proofreading
• Formatting
• Plotting outcomes
• Prioritisation
• Evaluating success
• Resource management
• Making decisions
• Independent thought
This module gives an introduction – historical, cultural and analytical – to western art music of the Early, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern periods.
Learning Outcomes
To give students an understanding of a variety of key repertoires within their historical and cultural contexts; to provide students with a clear, chronological account of developments in music.
Skills
SUBJECT SPECIFIC SKILLS:
Students will:
(i) Synthesise information from a number of both musical and musicological sources.
(ii) Presentation information in essay form.
(iii) Assess sometimes conflicting arguments.
(iv) Assess statistical information.
(v) Learn to appreciate creative and artistic development.
(vi) Listen critically.
(vii) Identify musical forms and compositional processes.
(viii) Reflect on learning in journal format
KEY SKILLS
Students will:
(i) Identify, analyse and solve problems by prioritising tasks, coping with complexity, setting achievable goals and taking action.
(ii) Work with information and handle a mass of diverse data and draw conclusions (analysis, attention to detail, judgement).
(iii) Apply subject knowledge and understanding from the degree pathway.
(iv) Possess high level transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, to communicate (both orally and in writing), influence, negotiate and resolve conflict.
(v) Demonstrate confidence and motivation to start and to finish the job, adaptability / flexibility, creativity, initiative, leadership, decision-making, negotiating and the ability to cope with stress.
(vi) Demonstrate critical evaluation of the outcomes of professional practice.
The module examines the development of the international system and raises questions about how and whether this system is changing in light of processes of globalisation. International relations theories which relate to state and territory, sovereignty and order will be introduced, as well as issues of war and conflict in its broader sense. World Politics also offers an introduction into specific global regions: Europe, Americas, Asia, and Africa
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will:
Critically follow world affairs and appreciate the historical background to contemporary developments
Demonstrate an awareness of the major currents in world affairs and foreign policy analysis
Pursue intellectual questions in a rigorous and academic manner, employing analytical skills and critical thinking
Develop intellectual skills including managing and prioritising knowledge on world affairs as well as organisational skills including demonstrating the ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments
Skills
This module will assist in developing students’ skills in a number of important areas. These include:
Intellectual skills
Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner
Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field
Professional and career development skills
Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing
Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment
Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon one’s own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development
Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance
Technical and practical skills
Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT
Organizational skills
Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information
Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear argument; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
Adventures in the History of Ideas’ is designed to introduce Stage One students, in English but potentially across AEL and AHSS (as an elective), to a range of social, historical, philosophical and moral concepts that have been central to the historical emergence and current predicaments of Western culture, broadly conceived. Students undertaking the module will be introduced to the historical and intellectual development of key concepts in the Arts and Humanities by means of the assessment of literary representations of, and responses to, them, from classical and Judeo-Christian literatures, via medieval and early modern texts, to Enlightenment, modern, postmodern and contemporary texts. Provision of a broad chronological understanding of the emergence, development and various crises of Western culture is an ancillary objective of the module: students will complete the module with a more nuanced understanding of cultural and historical periodisation and will be able to apply the interrogative modes they have encountered on the module to a range of thematic issues.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed a self-reflexive grasp of the historical development of Western culture, from classical Rome and Greece and the growth and influence of Christianity as an institutional and moral force, to the emergence of a variety of humanisms and their role in the beginnings of ‘Modernity’ and their subsequent crises of the 20th and 21st centuries. They will assess questions of human and non-human life and sexual and racial difference in a range of literary case-studies. They will be introduced to the politics of the historiography and periodisation of Western culture and to the role such intellectual mechanisms play in articulating and maintaining the supposed exemplarity of Western, European, ideas. They will have encountered texts not typically available to them elsewhere on the English curriculum.
Skills
Having completed this module, students will:
• have learned to examine critically their own intellectual ‘sacred cows’ and inherited assumptions;
• have been encouraged to practice the lateral application of critical practices to a range of ‘real world’ issues;
• have learned to read ‘secondary’/ ‘non-literary’ texts critically;
• have been gently introduced to the interrogative modes of critical and cultural theory’
• have learned to work collaboratively and assess one another’s work in peer review
This course introduces students to key concepts, movements and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of the Portuguese-speaking world. Throughout the module, a representative selection of primary and secondary texts from a range of historical periods and settings will be used to explore key issues and themes.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should:
- have acquired a basic knowledge and understanding of key concepts, movements and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of the Portuguese-speaking world;
- have developed an understanding of the complex inter-relations between a text and its historical context
- have developed critical skills through the study and analysis of relevant cultural texts (written and visual) and academic material;
- have acquired awareness of cultural diversity within the Lusophone world.
Skills
On successful completion of this course, students should have acquired:
• knowledge and understanding of the use of appropriate basic research tools;
• skills in critical analysis of cultural texts (written and visual) and academic material;
• the ability to write academic coursework using the required conventions;
• independent learning skills;
• the ability to begin to reflect on their learning progress
This module will introduce students to major sociological approaches for researching social developments surrounding digital and online technologies.
The lectures and the classes will introduce students to key theories, theorists, and concepts for understanding contemporary developments such as online communication technologies, social media, artificial intelligence, online surveillance, and automation of labour. Through these discussions, this module interrogates whether digital technologies have fundamentally altered the nature of ‘modernity’, and what features of contemporary society have changed or stayed the same.
This course will explore both theoretical and normative questions about whether digital technologies ameliorate or reproduce social inequalities and whether people have the capacity to change the world through engagement with – or rejection of – digital technologies.
Students will be encouraged to reflect critically on their own everyday use of technology and how their behaviour in turn shapes contemporary society. This will include questions surrounding the ‘information revolution’ and its effects on social relations at personal and institutional levels. Students will also be encouraged to examine evidence both supporting and challenging commonplace conceptions about the role of digital technologies on modern life.
Learning Outcomes
Students on this module will have the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of:
1. Key concepts and theories in sociology and social theory relating to the impacts of digital technologies in contemporary societies.
2. The potential positive and negative effects of digital technologies on the quality of life.
3. The consequences of digital technologies on online and in-person interactions and identities.
4. The social impacts of the so-called ‘digital divide’ in national and global contexts.
Skills
Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in the following areas:
• Find and select relevant information from print and electronic sources.
• Interpret theoretical arguments grounded in sociology of the internet and new media.
• Interpret and use existing reliable data to back up theoretical arguments.
• Develop and demonstrate critical and independent thinking skills.
• Develop oral skills through participation in lectures, tutorials and group discussions
• Develop an ability to write in a clear, structured and critical manner.
Course contents: This module aims to consolidate and develop the students’ existing written and oral language skills as well as their knowledge of Irish society and culture. It consists of three elements: a) a two-hour language enrichment session based on the National Syllabus for Irish Language Teaching at 3rd Level; b) a one-hour interactive class on grammatical accuracy, and c) a one-hour skills-based language workshop.
1. Language Enrichment (2hrs per week)
The ability to discuss a range of topics in Irish related to the student experience forms the core of this element. Topics include university life, careers, the Gaeltacht and language learning. Vocabulary and linguistic competence will be developed through a range of methods that may include: group discussion, oral presentation, creative writing, critical review, essay and report. A wide range of multimedia resources will be used to facilitate learning.
2. Language Accuracy (1hr per week)
The weekly class will focus on various aspects of Irish grammar with the aim of reinforcing knowledge gained at A-Level and providing a solid foundation for the future study of the language. Topics covered will include grammatical cases and nominal inflections, the verbal system, and sentence structure.
3. Language Workshop (1hr per week)
This weekly workshop will focus on the development of core linguistic skills required for negotiating a degree pathway in Irish (essay writing / referencing / study skills / presentation and communication skills / exam preparation / use and application of technology for academic purposes). These skills will be developed through interaction with a variety of guest speakers from the Irish language sector.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module should:
1. be able to demonstrate a level of fluency and accuracy in speech and writing, and a range of vocabulary and expression, so as to be able to discuss a range of issues related to their current lives with some variation in usage.
2. be able to read a wide variety of Standard Irish texts related to the course and identify specific information and ideas within them.
3. be able to demonstrate a good grasp of structures of the language covered in the module and their broader linguistic context and the ability to use appropriate reference works including dictionaries and grammars.
4. be able to organise and present a reasonably coherent argument in Irish relating to topics covered in the course, and present their knowledge and ideas in a range of formats and registers such as letters, essays, reports, blogs, etc.
Skills
On successful completion of the modules students should have developed the following range of skills:
Oral and written communication; IT and multimedia; improving own learning and performance; time management.
An introduction to fundamental logical notions such as validity and entailment, including an examination of the nature of critical thinking in argumentation. This introduction may include some treatment of elementary issues in the philosophy of logic, but will focus primarily on elementary formal symbolic logic (especially propositional but also predicate calculus), using natural deduction techniques.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will:
• Acquire at least a limited ability to practice symbolic reasoning at the most basic level together with a more discursive grasp of the basic notions of logic, and of standard examples of fallacious reasoning.
• Develop skills in analysis and communication
• Develop the ability to comprehend and some ability to formulate clear and extended arguments.
Skills
Intellectual skills
• Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments
• Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field
Professional and career development skills
• Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing
• Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning
• Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon ones own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development
• Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance
Technical and practical skills
• Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT
Organizational skills
• Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
• Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear argument; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
This course is designed to introduce students to social anthropology through a discussion of the key concepts in the discipline, and a consideration of the principles which underlie family life, kinship, sexuality and gender relations, and gaining a livelihood in different parts of the world.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students will have been introduced to social anthropology, and should be aware of how social and cultural differences constitute variations on a number of basic themes. Students should also be aware of the ways in which anthropology is useful for the understanding of their own society as well as for the understanding of others.
Skills
Skills in literacy, oral communication, the organisation of arguments, effective presentation of written work, critical reflection on one's own cultural assumptions and biases.
This course aims to delve into essential themes within the field of Comparative Politics, providing students with the tools to comprehend fundamental structures, institutions, and processes that underpin contemporary political systems. Through the application of the comparative method, students will gain insight into the dynamics of real-world politics. The initial lectures will establish a theoretical foundation for the comparative method, emphasising its utility as a means of understanding diverse political landscapes. Subsequent lectures will employ this method to examine various themes, including regime types (democratic versus authoritarian), systems of governance (global versus local), institutions, political organisations and outputs of public policy. Notably, the course adopts a broad approach by not confining itself to specific geographic regions; instead, it explores a diverse range of cases to underscore the usefulness and applicability of the comparative method across different contexts.
Learning Outcomes
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
- Understand the field of comparative politics and be familiar with the comparative method.
- Identify key debates in the field of comparative politics and extrapolate key questions of theoretical and societal relevance.
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of differences between political institutions, key processes and the outcomes they produce.
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of the key actors active in political systems and the dynamics of power underpinning their relationships.
- Understand the main methodological approaches used in the field of comparative politics as well as the major data sources.
- Independently apply basic concepts of comparative politics to cases beyond the ones reviewed in class.
Skills
Intellectual skills:
- Managing & Prioritising Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner.
- Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments.
- Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field.
Professional and career development skills:
- Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing.
- Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment.
- Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon one’s own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development.
- Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance.
Organisational skills:
- Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines.
- Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information.
- Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way.
- Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality of thought and argument and the ability to clearly support arguments in innovative ways.
The twenty-first century world that we all inhabit and its 'human geographies' is not just a product of the 'modern age'. Rather, the world as we know it today is the result of diverse social, cultural, political and economic processes, of both gradual change and of occasional revolutions, occurring over many centuries, and ongoing still. This module attempts to make sense of these human geographies of the modern world by analysing three important and interconnected geographical themes: specifically, (1) globalism, and past and present local-global connections between individuals and societies; and; (2) geopolitics and the changing relations between regions and nation states (3) the changing scales and practices of everyday life in a globalised world. In addition to developing your geographical understanding of the modern world, the module seeks to develop key study and research skills to prepare you for more advanced study in levels two and three.
Learning Outcomes
Identify the range of theoretical perspectives used in Human Geography. Understand how Human Geography can contribute to analyses of contemporary and historical societies. Understand why there is disparity in development across the world. Understand how and why people have sought to develop social theories and put these into practice. Understand the relationships between population, economic opportunities and resources. Understand how geographers have considered the relationships between nature, society and landscape. Realise how considerations of race and gender inform our understanding of culture.
Skills
Taught: Principles of Human Geography, how society & its variations over space can be and has been scrutinised & understood. Practiced: Essay writing, field observation and interpretation, library & individual study skills, written presentation of material.
This module is about theatre and performance as live events taking place on the material stage. This module will examine theatre and live performance by drawing on a wide historical and geographical range of theatre practices: from ancient Greece to the contemporary stage; from Ireland to South Africa and Japan. You will explore several key themes concerned with theatre’s role and relation to myth, ritual, conflict, memory, space and the body. Where relevant you will also attend a number of live performance which will be part of the curriculum.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, you should:
• be able to interpret and analyse theatre events as a complex matrix of relationships between texts, participants (spectators, performers), spaces, and the material, historical and cultural contexts of their production and reception.
• be able to identify and interpret the cultural frameworks that surround performance events, and with which these events engage and interact.
• be able to analyse, evaluate and interpret theatre and performance from a range of critical perspectives using a variety of theoretical frameworks.
• have developed critical, analytical and written skills through the submission of assignments.
• have developed essay writing skills and deepened their understanding of how written work is assessed.
Skills
Textual analysis; application of theory to practice in theatre-making; essay-writing skills.
This module will provide an introduction to the nature of sound, its properties and propagation and the tools used to professionally record sound and edit the resulting audio signals. Students will learn about the nature of sound, representation of sound as analogue and digital audio signals; microphone design and usage; the lines and interconnections used for distributing audio signals; and basic timbral and dynamic signal processing. Students will also gain practical experience of using professional microphones and portable recorders to make interior and exterior source recordings, and digital audio workstations for audio editing and balancing.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able:
(i) To operate a portable audio recording device and audio recording hardware in a studio context
(ii) To record speech and musical sound sources monophonically to broadcast quality standard
(iii) To edit speech and musical content in a digital audio workstation environment
(iv) To successfully troubleshoot issues with audio signal flow
Skills
(i) Numeracy and information and communication technology.
(ii) Creative thinking and problem solving.
(iii) Operation of hardware and software for creative studio applications.
(iv) Identify, analyse and solve problems by prioritising tasks, coping with complexity, setting achievable goals and taking action.
(v) Work with information and handle a mass of diverse data, assess risk and draw conclusions (analysis, attention to detail, judgement).
(vi) Apply subject knowledge and understanding from the degree pathway.
(vii) Possess high level transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, to communicate (both orally and in writing), influence, negotiate and resolve conflict.
(viii) Have the ability and desire to learn for oneself and improve one's self-awareness and performance, to uphold the values of lifelong learning and demonstrate emotional intelligence.
(ix) Demonstrate confidence and motivation to start and to finish the job, adaptability / flexibility, creativity, initiative, leadership, decision-making, negotiating and the ability to cope with stress.
(x) Demonstrate the knowledge and experience of working with relevant modern technology.
(xi) Apply and exploit information technology.
This module will explore the evidence for the mythology of the Celtic-speaking peoples from the earliest times as found in ancient and medieval sources in Ireland, Britain and the Continent with particular focus on Ireland. We will examine the evidence for early Irish ideologies, the native gods and the Otherworld. You will also study the nature of the surviving sources to enable you to assess their reliability and determine how they can be properly used for the study of early Irish and Celtic history and belief.
Learning Outcomes
A knowledge and understanding of the mythology and beliefs of Celtic-speaking peoples
Skills
Critical and analytical thinking; research; independent learning; time management.
Course contents:
This module aims to consolidate and expand on existing Spanish language competency by developing written and oral language skills, knowledge of Spanish and Latin American culture, and grammatical proficiency, to equip students with professional and employability skills in preparation for further study of Spanish. It consists of four elements designed to provide a comprehensive consolidation of Spanish language competence:
1. Language Seminar (1hr per week)
Seminar aims to develop students’ ability to understand, translate, and compose Spanish-language materials in a range of forms: text, image, audio-visual. Language will be engaged in context, guided by themes such as University Life, Culture & Identity, and Culture & Communication. Linguistic competence will be developed through a range of methods that may include: group discussion, translation, responsive and report writing.
2. Grammar Workshop (1hr per week)
Workshop designed to consolidate and enrich students’ knowledge and understanding of Spanish grammar and syntax. All major areas of grammar will be encountered, laying the foundations for future study of the language and its nuances.
3. Specialised Language Cursillo (1hr per week)
Cursillo offers language skills for special purposes providing career development, linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge important to work-related situations in different fields.
4. Conversation Class (1hr per week)
Conversation class is led by a native speaker of Spanish and compliments the content of the Language Hour. Students will meet in small groups to discuss, debate, and present on the main themes of the course.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the modules students should:
1. be able to read Spanish texts in a variety of forms and demonstrate a sensitivity to their detail and nuance in speech, writing, and when translating;
2. be able to produce Spanish texts appropriate to different requirements and registers;
3. be able to investigate, structure, and present a complex argument in longer pieces of written work;
4. be able to communicate using more sophisticated grammatical and syntactical constructions with a good level of accuracy (without basic errors).
Skills
On successful completion of the modules students should have developed the following range of skills: comprehensive dexterity using Spanish grammar; translation skills; text analysis; essay writing; lexicographical skills; report writing skills; IT skills; presentation skills; spoken language skills.
This course builds on the Mathematics taught at GCSE level or an equivalent level. It begins with a revision of basic algebraic methods. These ideas are then further developed to cover more advanced mathematical concepts including linear and non-linear functions; matrix algebra; single variable calculus and calculus of several variables. The course is taught paying particular attention to the solving of economic problems.
Learning Outcomes
On the successful completion of this module students will be able to:
1. Know what is meant by a function.
2. Use calculus methods to solve basic economic problems such as profit maximization.
3. Manipulate matrices, know when the inverse of a matrix can be calculated and be able to do the calculation.
4. Solve simultaneous equations using matrix algebra.
5. Use calculus to locate the maxima and minima for functions of several variables, both unconstrained and constrained in economic problems.
6. The transferable skills are problem solving, numeracy and the communication of mathematical concepts.
Skills
Mathematics has become the language of modern analytical Economics, as it allows economists to identify and analyse the general properties that are critical to the behaviour of economic systems. The aim of this module is to give students in Economics a basic working knowledge of the mathematics that is needed in the quantitative and non-quantitative level 2 and 3 modules.
This module introduces students to key concepts, movements and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. Spain and Portugal). It explores a selection of texts (literary and visual) from a range of authors and artists from the early modern period (16th / 17th century) to the present day. This course will give you a broad overview of the main historical events in Spain and Portugal from a cultural perspective.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students should - acquire a basic knowledge and understanding of crucial periods of peninsular cultural history - develop an understanding of the complex inter-relations between a text and its historical context - have an awareness of the distinct methods of cultural analysis and begin to apply these appropriately to a range of texts, written and visual.
Skills
Students should begin to - situate art and literature in their socio-political contexts - develop skills of critical analysis - develop essay writing skills - develop bibliographical research skills
This module aims to provide you with knowledge and understanding of European cinema and throughout emphasis is placed on relating its forms, structures, and contexts to a broader history of cinema, and film culture. The module also explores relations between a range of European films and Hollywood cinema, particularly in relation to the ways in which European film-makers have rejected and revered the dominance of Hollywood's narrative aesthetic and industrial practices. The module will consolidate and develop upon work covered in FLM1001.
Learning Outcomes
The objectives of the module are to introduce students to key ideas and approaches in film history and film criticism as they relate to the idea of non-Hollywood product.
This module provides an introduction to the principles and techniques used to reconstruct past environments and detect environmental change mostly during the last 2.6 million years, the Quaternary. It looks at the history of palaeoecology and the underlying theory and ecological principles that enable the interpretation of information from ancient deposits. The primary palaeoecological techniques and their limitations are described. Case studies show how some techniques have been applied to provide a range of palaeoenvironmental information.
Learning Outcomes
Students will acquire a knowledge and understanding of the principles of palaeoecology and will be able to understand the main methods used to reconstruct past environments.
Skills
Synthesis of information; Presentation of academic argument. Written self expression. Data interpretation and presentation. Library use. Website investigation. Time management.
This module will provide an introduction to modern literature in Irish. It will explore the cultural, political and social backdrop against which contemporary literature in Irish is being produced, and will focus on a selection of key themes and texts.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students will have acquired knowledge and understanding of modern literature in Irish and its cultural context.
Skills
Analytical and evaluative skills; development of ability in synthesis and analysis of diverse information, and construction of arguments in written form using appropriate sources.
Archaeology seeks to understand past human culture through the systematic study of material remains. This module serves as an introduction to the incredible scope of the global discipline of archaeology. Two seminars introduce contentious issues in archaeology and demonstrate differences of interpretation and approach by different scholars. Four practicals provide an introduction to key skills including archaeological site recording and the analysis of past material culture.
The module is divided into two parts. In Part 1 students will gain an introduction to different techniques and practical approaches used by archaeologists to learn more about the past. Lectures will explain how sites are located and excavated, how the discoveries are scientifically dated and what happens to the remains – environmental samples, human and animal remains and material culture – that are discovered. In Part 2 a collection of case studies have been selected from around the world – Borneo, China, Egypt, Italy, Russia, the Americas, amongst others – and will demonstrate how key archaeological discoveries have played a contribution in the understanding of key issues of the past.
Learning Outcomes
• To develop an understanding of the application of key archaeological concepts and methods
• To foster awareness of the scope of archaeological enquiry
• To build awareness of current issues and debates in global archaeology
• To instil an appreciation of the range of sources examined in archaeology
• To develop the ability of critically assessing competing hypotheses in archaeology
• To equip students with core study skills for archaeology
Skills
• Critical thinking and oral expression
• Critical thinking and written expression
• Time management and self-directed learning
• Structured academic writing
• Ability to properly cite references and to create bibliographies
• Ability to systematically undertake library research
• Ability to synthesise complex information
• Ability to undertake practical tasks
• Experience of working within a small group
• Observational skills
Building on the material covered in Broadcast Analysis 1, this module continues to develop the foundation of academic analytical skills and contextual knowledge for the BA in Broadcast Production. It covers further methods of analysing broadcasting and broadcast texts and their role in society, in cultural life, and for the individual. This provides the student with a range of avenues for developing their own future research as well as understanding academic material. It also continues to expand the student’s contextual understanding of the broadcast industries and a range of historical and contemporary broadcast texts, factual and fictional, radio and television, domestic and international.
Learning Outcomes
On completing this module, students should be able to:
• Understand key elements of the history of broadcasting and place broadcast texts and developments into this context
• Understand key concepts regarding the industrial and regulatory frameworks of broadcasting
• Understand and use key theoretical concepts in the analysis of broadcasting, both in broad terms and in relation to specific texts
Skills
• Textual analysis of audio-visual material.
• Applying critical concepts to texts.
• Critiquing critical concepts.
• Oral communication and argumentation (seminars).
• Written communication (assessed work).
• Time management.
• Independent research.
• Group work (seminars)
Course Contents
This module introduces students to key concepts, movements, literary and historical moments pertaining to the cultures, literatures and societies of Latin America. Throughout the module, a representative selection of primary and secondary texts from a range of historical periods will be used to explore key issues and themes. Themes will vary from year to year but may include: exploration, conquest, identity, borders, dictatorship, and migration.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students should:- acquire a basic knowledge and understanding of crucial periods of Latin American culture and history - develop an understanding of the complex inter-relations between a text and its historical context - have an awareness of distinct methods of cultural and historical analysis and begin to apply thses appropriately to a range of texts, writtren and visual.
Skills
Students should begin to: - situate art and literature in their socio-political contexts - develop an awareness of key historical trends - develop skills of critical analysis - develop essay writing skills - develop bibliographical research skills
This module offers Level 1 Students an introduction to major contemporary theatre practices and is intended to dovetail with the students’ work on DRA1001. The course will explore emerging and challenging strands of theory and practice from the early Twentieth Century to present day. Themes include Poststructuralist discourse, Gender and Queer Theory, Installation as Theatre and Hyperreality.
Learning Outcomes
Describing, theorising, interpreting and evaluating performance texts and events from a range of critical perspectives
Reading the performance possibilities implied by a script, score and other textual or documentary sources.
The capacity to analyse and critically examine diverse forms of performative discourse and their effects on representation in the arts, media and public life
Information retrieval skills, involving the ability to gather, sift, synthesise and organise material independently and critically evaluate its significance.
This module introduces students to the evolution of hominins in changing global environments, from primate origins to the beginning of settled societies. Lectures and practicals introduce the timeframes of changing environments in which people evolved, patterns of evolution, the appearance of our own species, dispersal throughout the world and the ancient beginnings of human impact on the planet.
Knowledge gained in the lecture course will be assessed by multiple choice tests and two written assessments. The practical programme will introduce skills in bibliographic and literature search, graphical display, and the analysis of research data relating to the investigation of early humans. Skills relating to the analysis and documentation of artefacts and stratigraphy and sedimentology will be introduced.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to
• Show an understanding of the environmental, chronological and cultural context for human evolution [assessed mainly by essay, but also CT and portfolio]
• Show an understanding of records of ancient humans and landscapes [assessed mainly by essay, but also CT]
• Demonstrate a knowledge of the key evidence and terminology relating to environmental and human evolutionary changes throughout the Quaternary [assessed mainly by CT]
• Show an ability to handle and present data, and to undertake basic statistical analysis [assessed by portfolio]
Skills
Skills
Subject-specific skills
You will be able to search, extract and use data from a range of academic literature. You will be able to use the MS Excel program to display, describe and carry out simple analysis of archaeological data, including basic statistics.
You will be able to analyse artefacts and document them photographically and by drawing.
Cognitive skills
You will be able to explain (i) the patterns and process of hominid evolution and (ii) the background pattern of global climate change.
Further details, including a full breakdown of Transferable skills and Module Guide example, can be found at the following link:
https://archaeology-palaeoecology-qub.com/gap1001-ancient-humans-landscapes/
The historical development of film has always been intrinsically linked to the development of new and innovative screen technologies. FLM1005: Screen Technologies serves as a guide to key screen technologies, which have shaped the screen industry. Adopting a broadly chronological structure, this module considers the genesis, impact, and significance of a certain body of screen technologies on the production and exhibition processes of film. Further to this, it considers the impact that technological development has had on screen language and audience engagement with the moving image. It also offers an engagement with key scholarship in this area to enhance the critical understanding of film as a cultural and technological form.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module, students should possess:
-Developed skills in the analysis and critical appreciation of visual texts
-Enhanced skill in critical writing, specifically regarding visual texts
-A basic understanding of the relationships between visual texts and their aesthetic contexts.
Skills
By the end of the module, students should have enhanced skills in:
1) the analysis of visual, aural, and written material
2) relating theoretical and historical issues to specific material
3) group work
4) time management and organisational competence
5) oral and written communication
This module will examine the role of language in politics and conflict in the broad historical context of Ireland and Scotland (and with particular reference to contemporary Northern Ireland). It will consider the many dynamics at play including the connections between language, power, and identity. Attitudes to monolingualism and multilingualism globally will be examined, as will the relationship between language and dialect, and the role of identity in the emergence, creation and maintenance of a language and distinct communities of speakers. The module will consider especially two major linguistic traditions: Irish and Scottish Gaelic, on the one hand, and Scots and Ulster Scots on the other. The primary emphasis will be on Irish and there will be a particular focus on debates and tensions around the role and importance of indigenous languages in contemporary society.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students will:
1. Appreciate the relationship between language and power, and the role of this in politics and conflict in a global context.
2. Understand the nature and extent of bilingualism and multilingualism in an international context and the impact of monolingualism on language maintenance.
3. Relate their understanding to the historical context of Ireland and Scotland.
4. Apply their knowledge to the question of language and conflict in Northern Ireland.
5. Understand the relationship between language and dialect, and the role of identity and human agency in the creation of ‘language’.
Skills
1. Possess key transferable key skills, particularly the ability to reflect deeply and communicate effectively (in writing).
2. Work with information, handle diverse data, and draw conclusions (analysis, attention to detail, judgment).
3. Demonstrate an ability to prioritise tasks and work to deadlines.
4. Improve confidence in written communication.
5. Develop self-awareness, and the ability to reflect on and evaluate feedback on written work.
The module engages in a close examination of three case studies: these may include The Fall of Rome, the Crusades, European colonialism and decolonisation, the Partition of India, and Genocide in Rwanda. Each has proven controversial not just because of the historical incidents themselves, but also the variety of historical interpretations that have been placed on them and the way these events are remembered.
Each case study provides an opportunity to discuss questions about the nature of historical truth, the method of writing history, and the contemporary importance of history. It challenges preconceptions about what “facts” are, and stimulates awareness of the diverse ways in which the past can be analysed. While each part of the module relates to a distinctive geographical region, the three case studies share common features in that their historical significance reverberates in the contemporary world and fashions the identities of nations and communities even today. The different sections thus complement each other to demonstrate the ways in which the past continues to shape the present and the role that history can play in either perpetuating conflict or conversely in promoting intercultural understanding.
Students are thus encouraged to compare the different historical case studies rather than study each discretely as they raise similar fundamental questions about how history is understood and practiced, and how events unfold, are written about, and eventually remembered.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be aware of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches that have been used to study the past. They should be able to demonstrate knowledge of case studies in a number of historical areas and, in doing so, be aware of the important links between empirical historical research and methodological/theoretical frameworks. They will be aware that different theoretical, methodological or ideological approaches can and do produce competing conclusions. They will become familiar with historical writing in a range of forms that take them beyond the textbook (articles, monographs, edited collection and - where appropriate - approved websites). They will also be introduced to the ways history is represented in other media, including cinema and literature. They will be introduced to different methods of disseminating history to scholars and the wider public, both written and audio-visual, and will produce their own public history output, as part of the assessment.
By the end of the module, they will have gained an awareness of the debates pertaining to the ways that these difficult histories should be taught, or represented in museums. In this respect, students will gain an awareness of how these events are represented or re/presented to the public. They will further gain understanding as to how narratives pertaining to these episodes continue in the contemporary world to shape how nations, “tribes”, religious communities define themselves in relation to “others”.
Skills
Students should develop skills in literacy; oral communication; the organisation of logical arguments; basic bibliographic research; effective presentation of written work.
This module provides students with basic study skills in Archaeology and Palaeoecology, to enable them to take ownership of their own learning process. While these skills are essentially generic, the examples and practical elements of this module are taken from the disciplinary fields of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, in order to make their relevance more readily accessible to students on relevant degree programmes.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the module, students will be familiar with common standards of good academic conduct and will be able to:
• Draft an essay plan
• Reference a range of different academic sources correctly
• Communicate and share ideas effectively
• Plan individual and team work effectively
• Manage their workload efficiently
Skills
• Essay preparation
• Presentation preparation
• Correct academic referencing
• Effective group work
• Time management
Excavation of an archaeological site; recording of stratigraphy and features; understanding the reasons for excavation. Daily attendance on an excavation approved by the department for a prescribed period (up to four weeks, normally in June) is required.
Learning Outcomes
Introduces students to one of the basic methods of acquiring archaeological data and studying the techniques involved.
Skills
Understanding the reasons for the methodology used on the excavation and experience in use of that methodology. Understanding and experience in recording the stratigraphic sequence uncovered.
This module introduces students to economic approaches to the study of organisations. The module examines:- why organisations exist in a market context; the role of the entrepreneur; buyer behaviour; production and costs; the pricing decision and game theory; how the firm makes profits; the firm as a focal point for a set of contracts; the principal-agent problem; growth and innovation; the macro-economic environment.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the module you will have acquired:
Knowledge and understanding:
Students will gain an understanding of both the textbook applications of theory and real world managerial practice. The course will cover standard topics such as demand and supply, production and cost, pricing decisions, market structures, mergers and vertical integration, R&D etc.
Intellectual skills:
Students will gain an understanding of how economists think and how to engage in economic analysis. They will also get some understanding of the economic techniques that are available to address business problems and the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques.
Practical skills:
Students will develop organizational skills, communication skills, presentation skills and word processing skills.
Skills
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the relevance of economic analysis to managerial decision making. Economics is central to understanding management and underpins many functional decisions, e.g., in marketing, finance, production and human resources.
The course covers basic statistics for economics, finance and accounting students and assumes no prior knowledge. The two main areas of statistics covered are descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The emphasis is on the application of the statistical techniques to problems relevant to these subjects.
Learning Outcomes
To enable economics, finance and accounting students gain a basic knowledge and understanding of statistical methods. To provide a background for higher level quantitative modules.
Skills
The student should be able to apply statistical methods to economic and business data and critically assess simple techniques.
A systematic introduction to ways in which history is used outside the university campus, including in museums and exhibitions, film, memorials and political discussion. The course will involve visits to local museums and students will get a chance to work together to pitch a new public history project. Previous projects have included public exhibitions, new museums or digital apps. The module focuses on the history of race, ethnicity, slavery, colonialism and anti-colonialism and their representations in pubic history.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the module should • Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the role of academic history within society; • Be able to present historical information systematically and in accordance with normal
academic practice; • Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of effective group work • Have identified a dissertation topic and be able to demonstrate an ability to place it in its broad historiographical context.
Skills
Working in groups; oral communication skills, public history theory.
The module introduces students to the visual presentation of quantitative data. By establishing a basic working knowledge of measurement procedures, data sources, and appropriate conventions in quantitative data visualisation, it introduces students to basic graphic functions in spreadsheet and geographical information system packages. Students will gain experience in the selection of appropriate graphics for different kinds of variables, in the construction of basic datasets from secondary data sources, and in the mapping of spatial data.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion students will be able to:
Understand how different forms of data visualisation are appropriate for different data types
Source and format data independently from online data repositories
Appreciate the implications of proper visualisation for clear communication
Perform basic spreadsheet calculations and visualisation functions
Produce basic maps and perform preliminary diagnostics using Geographical Information Systems Select from and appraise a range of data visualisation techniques
Skills
On successful completion students will have:
Proficiency with data analysis and visualisation packages (MS Excel and open source geographical information software)
Knowledge of online data repositories (World Bank, EuroStat, AMECO, OECD, Penn Tables) Appreciation of the history of, and public / political uses of, visual quantitative data
Critical thinking in the selection and use of appropriate visualisation methods
Experience of independent work through in-class and outside assessments
‘Themes and Issues in Social Policy’ will look at contemporary developments and trends across a range of social policy areas in the UK. It will encourage students to examine the various ways in which key social policy ‘problems’ have been addressed. The first half of the module will introduce students to social policy in a range of substantive areas such as education, employment, housing, crime, health and social care. The second half of the module will take a more focused approach by exploring the ways in which social policy has sought to improve the welfare and well-being of particular groups in society with respect to children and young people, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and older people.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
• Identify the different ways in which key social problems have been defined and explained;
• Outline policy measures which have been developed in response to a range of social problems;
• Demonstrate awareness of social policies aimed at groups in society and their implications.
Skills
Development of analytical and evaluative skills; independent learning skills; teamwork skills.
This course builds on the Mathematics taught at GCSE level or an equivalent level. The course is taught paying particular attention to the solving of economic problems and relating these to applications to the real world. There are two parts in the module.
The first part covers mathematical techniques required to solve applied economic problems. It begins with a revision of basic algebraic methods. These ideas are then further developed to cover more advanced mathematical concepts including linear and non-linear functions; single variable calculus and calculus of several variables.
The second part covers basic statistical methods used by economists and other social scientists. This will include data presentation, descriptive statistics, basic regression analysis, time series and elementary probability theory. Students will also be taught how to use Excel to perform basic statistical analysis.
Learning Outcomes
On the successful completion of the module students will be able to:
1. Know what is meant by a function.
2. Use calculus methods to solve basic economic problems such as profit maximization.
3. Use calculus to locate the maxima and minima for functions of several variables.
4. Use descriptive statistics to present data.
5. Know what is meant by a probability distribution.
6. Perform basic regression analysis and time series forecasting.
7. Exhibit transferable skills of problem solving, numeracy and the communication of mathematical concepts.
Skills
The aim of this module is to give students a basic working knowledge of the mathematics and statistics that is needed in the quantitative and non-quantitative level 2 and level 3 modules. The primary focus of the module is to provide the basic tools to solve practical, applied problems.
This module offers a broad introduction to key topics in English language. It lays the foundations for the systematic study of the language in all its diversity. Among the topics covered are: common beliefs about “good” and “bad” accents and dialects; phonetics, syntax and morphology; and the social, situational and geographical variation in language, with an emphasis on the history and development of the English language. Another important area of inquiry is how language works in cultural contexts and intersects with issues of power and gender. In summary, the module enables students to move beyond ‘common-sense’ ideas about language towards the academic and analytic perspective appropriate for university level.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will have become aware of the levels of structure which make up the spoken and written varieties of a language, the communicative functions of these levels, and of the relevant descriptive and analytical frameworks to analyse and describe them, with regard both to present-day English and to stages in its historical development. Students will also have gained the skills for the confident oral delivery of some of the issues and topics addressed on the Course.
Skills
While Units One and Two focus on theoretical and analytical concepts and frameworks, Units Three and Four provide case studies from ‘real-world’ contexts such as the media and the historical development of the English language, to which students will apply the skills they have gained in Units One and Two. The module incorporates online assessment for Units One and Two, which will account for 30% of the mark and will take the form of online exercises, to be completed by students in weeks 3-6. Units Three and Four will be assessed at the end of the semester as essay assignments, worth 70% in total. Students will write two essays of 1400-1700 words each: one essay will address the issues covered in Unit Three (35%), and the other essay will address the issues covered in Unit Four (35%).
This module is a core element for the BA in Music Performance and will also be taken by almost all BMus students. The module focuses on the study of solo performance and is open to musicians (vocal and instrumental) from all performance traditions. Teaching is a combination of one-on-one tuition by specialist university tutors and a weekly performance class.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students will be able to:
1. Give competent performances of music in their chosen specialism
2. Demonstrate good stagecraft
3. Exhibit technical attainment commensurate with Level 1
4. Demonstrate the capacity to perform to an audience
The module will introduce students to the principles of film form, narrative, styles and methodologies of film criticism. It will concentrate on American and British cinema and the examples drawn from these two very different cinematic industries will help increase and broaden knowledge of film and cinema, audiences and industries.
Learning Outcomes
The objectives of the module are to introduce students to key ideas and approaches in film history and criticism.
This module offers a general introduction to the discipline of sociology for those with no experience of studying sociology before. Its primary objective is to initiate students to sociological thinking. Sociology does not rely on our subjective experience and general ideas commonly shared withing the society (beliefs, customs, traditions, values, norms); its critical way of thinking and its methods allow us to discover aspects of social life that most people are unaware of. This will be done through a diversity of topics such as social class, suicide, race, gender, disability, globalisation, violence and other social phenomena. The module will provide a background for those intending to study sociology in the second and third years, but also acts as a stand-alone sociology course for those who do not intend to study it further
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module you should be able to:
Have a general understanding of the cncepts, approaches and theories available within the discipine of sociology.
Understand the effect of social norms and common sense on our perception of social life.
Apply a sociological way of thinking on a diversity of topics.
Effectively gather, retrieve and synthesise information to evaluate the key aspects of social life.
Skills
- To develop analytical and oral skills through participation in lectures and tutorials.
- To develop an ability to write in a clear, structured and critical manner utilising a wide range of source material.
- To be able to use information technology to gather, organise and evaluate information.
The module offers a general introduction to criminology and some of the key debates and topics in the subject. The first half of the course (weeks 1 – 6) introduces some essential background materials for those pursuing study in criminology including an overview of historical and contemporary crime and crime control, the workings of the criminal justice system, sources of information on crime and criminals and an introduction to some theoretical concepts in criminology. The second half of the course (weeks 8-11) introduces a number of key debates and issues in criminology – many of which can and will be studied in greater depth in second and third year criminology modules.
Learning Outcomes
1. Critically evaluate the term ‘crime’ and the historical evolution of crime and our responses to it.
2. Critically apply criminological thinking to our understanding of crime and criminal justice processes.
3. Identify, find and evaluate a range of criminological sources especially (but not limited to) academic sources (books, journal articles) and official and other statistics on crime and criminality
Skills
1. To develop analytical and oral skills through participation in lectures and tutorials.
2. To develop an ability to write in a clear, structured and critical manner utilising a wide range of source material.
3. To develop the ability to find and evaluate academic materials in the area of criminology.
4. To be able to use information technology to gather, organise and evaluate information.
This module allows students the chance to enrich their understanding of historical methods, theories and themes via a closely defined case study. Students will choose from a range of course offered by History staff and will study one topic in detail. Each course is designed as a significant area of study in its own right, and as a means of developing in depth some of the issues of historiography and method that students will encounter over their course of studies in History at Queen's.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be aware of the range of approaches that have been used to study the past. They should be able to demonstrate knowledge of a particular historical case study and how it has been debated amongst historians. They should also be aware of the links between historical research and methodological/theoretical frameworks.
Skills
Ability to think critically, reason logically, and evaluate evidence; develop communication skills, both written and oral; an ability to work independently; the ability to use and interpret a range of sources.
This module allows students to study a closely-defined area of history. They will choose from a range of courses offered by History staff and will study one topic in detail. Each course is designed as a significant area of study in its own right, and as a means of developing in depth some of the issues of historiography and method that students will encounter over their course of studies in History at Queen's. Particular emphasis is placed on essay writing at university level.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should be aware of the range of approaches that have been used to study the past. They should be able to demonstrate knowledge of a particular historical case study and how it has been debated amongst historians. They should also be aware of the links between historical research and methodological/theoretical frameworks.
Skills
Ability to think critically, reason logically, and evaluate evidence; develop communication skills, both written and oral; an ability to work independently; the ability to use and interpret a range of sources.
An introduction to some fundamental philosophical problems arising from theories of human nature in the western philosophical tradition, and to the methods which philosophers use for solving them, including techniques of sound reasoning and argument. Topics covered will include the soul, personal identity, free will, God and evil, and life after death (among others). Reference will be made to the ideas and arguments of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume and Kant.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this introduction to the nature and range of Philosophy, students will have developed a familiarity with the ideas of a number of important philosophers and a sense of the principles of sound and effective reasoning and argument.
Skills
KEY Intellectual skills, e.g., critical analysis, creative thinking, problem solving; communication skills, e.g., oral, listening and written; improvement of learning and performance; managing information. EMPLOYABILITY Research and communication skills (written and oral), independent learning (organising and prioritising ideas), critical/independent thinking. SUBJECT SPECIFIC Listening/analytical/literacy/presentation skills; textual analysis; the comprehension and formulation of extended and cogent arguments; the ability to participate in a tolerant and supportive learning environment.
Us And them: Why do we have ingroups and outgroups?
Overview
Drawing theoretically on both cognitive and social anthropology and utilizing a wide range of case studies, from personal passions for particular sub-cultures of music and sport to national politics in Northern Ireland to global divides of religion and class, this module will introduce students to social groups.
We will explore what makes human social groups different from those of other animals, psychological explanations of group commitment, and anthropological literature on symbols, rituals, and politics to examine how particular social groups are created and sustained and how some individuals become willing to fight and die for their fellow group members.
Learning Outcomes
Be able to describe and consider the implications of:
1) The importance of social groups for individuals.
2) How group identities and traditions are created.
3) How groups continue from generation to generation.
4) The similarities and differences between national, religious, sporting, class, and interest groups.
5) How groups can convince individuals to die for them
6) Why intergroup prejudice and conflict is so common.
Skills
The module will help foster the students’:
Ability to consider the findings of multiple disciplines in addressing questions of human society.
Ability to present ideas clearly in both oral and written formats
Ability to research and analyse material from multiple disciplines
Ability to debate and defend arguments
Ability to engage in civil discourse about strongly held convictions
Ability to prepare concise and focused presentations
'Understanding Northern Ireland: History, Politics and Anthropology'
Overview
This level 1 module will use a variety of historical, political, sociological and anthropological perspectives to look at key issues relating to Northern Ireland. The course will provide an overview of the history and politics of the state of Northern Ireland. It will use anthropological understandings of ethnicity and nationalism to examine how Unionism and Irish Nationalism developed. It will look in detail at the various political solutions which have been applied to ‘the Province’, with a particular focus on the Peace Process. It will examine the realities and legacies of the conflict since the signing of the 1998 Agreement. It will explore the development of cultural and political 'traditions' examining, in particular, change and continuity in Irish society.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should
•be aware of how to utilise a range of disciplinary approaches (historical, political, sociological and anthropological) in helping to develope an understanding of division and conflict within Northern Ireland.
•be aware of how to examine how contemporary political communities use the past to construct traditions, ideologies and identities.
•understand how to explore the role of history in understandings of Northern Ireland.
•To develop a broad understanding of the politics of the state.
•understand and look at key contemporary issues in Northern Irish society.
•be able to assess and highlight various research approaches to Northern Ireland, and to explore how academic work can be applied.
Skills
Students will acquire skills in understanding written material, skills in weighing evidence and skills in debating controversial topics. The ability to read material, weigh judgements and engage with the topics being discussed. They should also develop oral presentation skills, essay writing skills and skills in accessing and analysing information, research evaluation. They will also gain experience of coping with controversial topics.
The module offers a general introduction to Social Policy as an applied academic subject. Students will be encouraged to take a broad perspective on how social policies are implemented by examining political, economic and social perspectives on human needs and wants. The second half of the course introduces social security, taxes, benefits and their implications for citizenship. The course offers a useful entry point to Social Policy; piquing students’ interest in core theories and principles which they will explore in more detail in second and third year social policy modules.
Learning Outcomes
• To introduce students to theories, concepts and principles underpinning social policy.
• To provide an applied understanding of the implications of tax and benefits systems for human well-being.
Skills
Development of analytical and evaluative skills; independent learning skills and academic writing skills.
A World on the Move:Historical and Anthropological Approaches to Globalization
Overview
This modules provides an anthropological introduction to the study of globalisation, using comparative case studies from the contemporary and the historical record, and outlining links with perspectives in the field of history. Among the issues discussed are: global and local linkages in a world of economic, cultural and political connectivity; cultural convergence and the expression of cultural difference; migration, refugees, trafficked people, tourism; diasporas, the idea of home and national borders; transnational family networks in the contemporary world; global and local regimes of power and resistance.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, student should be aware of the complex ways in which globalising forces have influenced people's everyday experiences in different socio-cultural settings and changing historical contexts.
Skills
Students should develop skills in literacy; oral communication; the organisation of logical arguments; effective presentation of written work; and teamwork.
This course will address central themes connected with social, economic and population geography. It will introduce and examine a range of economic, social and demographic processes operating across different scales. These will be illustrated through real-world examples that link with some of the urgent challenges that face our world today. The course will also explore contributions human geography can make to governmental and non-governmental policy development.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, you should have attained an understanding of key concepts, approaches, examples and policy issues associated with contemporary social, economic and demographic processes. This should enable you to: identify the key concepts used by geographers interested in those processes; understand a diversity of perspectives found in social, economic and population geography; undertake bibliographic searches of a wide range of academic and non-academic texts; read and critically appraise a wide range of source materials; describe and evaluate key policy issues associated with course material; construct and deliver sustained reasoned written arguments on these issues; work independently and in groups to evaluate approaches and issues.
Skills
Skills
(T: taught; P: practiced; A: assessed)
Discipline-specific skills: plan, design & execute independent research & study (TPA); combine &
interpret different types of geographical evidence such as texts, visual images, maps, & qualitative &
quantitative data (TPA); recognise moral & ethical issues in geographical debates & enquiries (TPA).
Key skills: abstracting & synthesising information (TPA); assessing contrasting ideas, perspectives,
explanations & policies (TPA); developing a reasoned argument (TPA); independent thought &
self reflection (PA).
Employability skills: learning & study (PA); written communication (TPA); motivation, empathy,
insight & integrity (PA); self-awareness & self-management (PA).
This module examines the later prehistory of Europe, from the beginnings of settled farming society in the Near East (c. 10,000 years ago) to the European Iron Age and the dawn of historic times (c. 50 BC). Geographically, the scope of the module spans across Europe and the Mediterranean, from Russia and the Levant to Ireland and Spain. The material and ideas presented provide an important base for subsequent modules on the history and prehistory of Europe, Britain, and Ireland, setting a chronological scene against which to understand the emergence of complex human society.
Two themes run through the course: human adaptation to change (climate, environment, food, technology, social structure) and the emergence of different cultural responses through time and space (such as settlement, economic strategies, material culture, art, burial, status, trade and ethnicity). Prehistoric archaeology is interested in recording how humans deal with change over time and in understanding how to measure time in the remote past through a variety of chronological methods (14C and dendro-dating, other scientific and material culture-based dating techniques). Later prehistoric archaeology also examines the origins of new technologies and social structures, such as domestication of plants and animals, metals, writing and urban life, and seeks to understand the many factors that trigger change and development.
The aim of the course is to provide students with an introduction to the major themes of study and the principal issues of European prehistory. It includes many of the classic sites and cultures that typify the early history of the continent, and some of the theories and models that have resulted from their study.
Learning Outcomes
- A broad understanding of the development of human societies in Europe from c. 10,000 years ago to the 1st century BC.
- An understanding of the nature and range of the archaeological record.
- An awareness of the complexities and limitations of archaeological interpretation.
- An awareness of present debates and controversies in prehistoric archaeology.
- An understanding of the multi-disciplinary nature of archaeology, the wide variety of sources, and evidence on which modern archaeology draws, e.g. environmental, historical and ethnographical.
Skills
- Critical thinking and oral expression.
- Time management and self directed learning.
- The ability to write structured academic style essays, presenting clear unbiased arguments.
- Ability to cite references and create bibliographies.
- The ability to undertake library-based research, making full use of bibliographic sources.
- Critical analysis of competing hypotheses of text and other media.
- Critical synthesis of diverse information.
This module introduces students to a range of methods and approaches used in analysing broadcasting and broadcast texts. It also covers a range of key study skills for the degree. Students will consider core issues, methods and contexts for analysing media, as well as developing a broader awareness of broadcast texts, familiar and unfamiliar, and a deeper engagement with the students’ own viewing and listening practices. The academic material and the contextual material will also be of use to students in their reflective essays for practical modules.
Learning Outcomes
On completing this module, students should be able to:
• Place broadcast texts into a range of appropriate contexts.
• Understand and use key theoretical concepts in the analysis of broadcasting, both in broad terms and in relation to specific texts.
• Demonstrate core study skills such as performing research and presenting writing at an appropriate level.
Skills
• Textual analysis of audio-visual material.
• Applying critical concepts to texts.
• Critiquing critical concepts.
• Oral communication and argumentation (seminars).
• Written communication (assessed work).
• Time management.
• Independent research.
• Group work (seminars)
The goal of this module is to provide training in essential practical musical skills with particular emphasis on musical composition. The compositional process is explored across a wide range of practices including the use of traditional notation, graphic scores, studio assisted composition, improvisation and performance. Various compositional strategies will be explored and developed through weekly assignments. These assignments may contribute practically or conceptually to a final composition project which will be submitted in score, or performed and/or recorded at the end of the module.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students will be able to:
• Generate, manipulate and organise musical materials
• Manage people, musical resources, formal schemes, and symbolic musical representations
• Utilise strategies for productivity in speculative musical practice, and apply these strategies beyond immediately musical contexts
Skills
The module will stress transferable skills involving processes of discrimination, selection, organisation, recontextualisation, performance and strategic thought. Critical evaluation, resourcefulness, imagination, collaborative making and individual motivation will be enhanced by participatory, hands-on learning.
This module aims to introduce students to the broad field of political theory and philosophy, a necessary and integral component of the study of politics generally. Taking a contemporary approach to the subject, the module stresses the vital importance of theoretical enquiry for understanding, analysing, and criticizing everyday socio-political life. Students are therefore introduced to key concepts and problems in the study of politics, including the meaning of democracy, the fraught relation between the individual and society, and the contested nature of power and political authority. In exploring these themes, students come to an appreciation of the complexities surrounding our everyday notions of democratic rule, freedom, justice, citizenship, government, and power.
Learning Outcomes
Students should acquire an understanding of a number of ways of conceptualising and analysing critically key aspects of political life. On successful completion of the module they will have demonstrated capacities for reading texts in contemporary political theory and exploring the implication of these writings for practical politics.
Skills
Analytical and conceptual skills. The ability to argue cogently in oral and written communication.
Foundations of Economics 2 is the title of our new Level 1 semester 2 CORE (Curriculum Open-access Resource for Economics) module for non-specialists. It builds explicitly on material covered in Foundations of Economics 1 in semester 1. CORE is the result of a huge global collaboration to change the way introductory economics is taught; to ensure it is student-centred and motivated by real-world problems and real-world data. Many students studying for degrees in other disciplines are drawn to economics so that they can develop their analytical skills and also engage with policy debates on issues such as environmental sustainability, inequality, the future of work, financial instability, and innovation. But, when they study economics, they find that their introductory course is arid and theoretical, and designed primarily for students who want to study the subject as their major. The result is that students from other disciplines often find themselves studying a quantitative and analytical economics module that is only minimally social in content and downplays the insights of other disciplines, or a social or business oriented module that gives them little training in modelling, or in quantitative scientific methods. In contrast, this module draws on the work of the global CORE team to offer students who are not specialist economists an in-depth introduction to economics and the global economy that is both analytical and real-world. The module focuses throughout on evidence on the economy, from around the world, and from history. It is motivated by questions — how can we explain what we see?
This module is targeted at UG students who are not taking economics as a major subject but who want to develop their analytical skills and learn how to use economics to understand and articulate reasoned views on some of the most pressing policy problems facing our societies.
The course content will be drawn primarily from the following units from the textbook The Economy:
9. The Labour Market: Wages, Profit and Unemployment
13 Economic fluctuations and unemployment
14 Unemployment and fiscal policy
15 Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy
16 Technological progress, employment, and living standards in the long run
A selection of (two or more) capstone units drawn from The Economy will also be covered:
17 The Great Depression, golden age, and global financial crisis
18: Globalization—trade, migration and investment
19: Inequality
20: Environmental sustainability and collapse
21: Innovation, intellectual property, and the networked economy
22: Politics, economics, and public policy
Learning Outcomes
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Understand the reach of economics and its place in the wider social sciences; understand how to interpret relevant evidence and apply relevant economic theory to help answer a variety of economic and social questions; understand how to critically evaluate the application of models in economics to real-world questions and policy issues; understand key aspects of the historical development of the global economy and its contemporary nature.
Skills
Subject-specific skills
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Develop/enhance subject-specific skills including the ability to construct arguments and exercise problem solving skills in the context of real-world economic and social questions; the ability to construct, interpret and critically evaluate economic models of behaviour; the ability to apply economic models and concepts to real world questions; the ability to understand, evaluate and commentate on the economy and on economic and social policy.
Cognitive and transferable skills
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Develop/enhance generic cognitive and transferable skills, including: problem solving, logical reasoning, independent enquiry, critical evaluation and interpretation, self-assessment and reflection, synthesising information from a variety of sources, written and verbal communication, organisation and time management.
This module is designed as an introduction to creative writing, and will cover the three main creative genres: poetry, prose fiction, and scriptwriting. The focus throughout will be on the rules of successful creative writing, both generally and in relation to each kind of writing’s specific requirements. The module will be split equally between reading and writing: a series of set texts will be used as a platform for discussing what each literary form requires, technically and aesthetically. Students will then be expected to emulate these forms in their own writing exercises. There will be a heavy emphasis on standard grammar, stylistic clarity, accuracy of language, and proper presentation of work.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module you should have gained an understanding of the problems posed by a range of different creative texts and the strategies employed to overcome them. You should also have learned to write according to strict criteria governing both subject matter and execution.
Skills
To familiarise students with the technical and aesthetic rules of a wide spectrum of texts from a practice-based perspective; to enable students to experiment with various literary forms in order to discover their own strengths (and weaknesses) as writers.
This module is envisaged as introducing students to literary interpretation as conceived by English studies at university level. It aims to provide students with critical skills and technical vocabulary necessary to study poetry and prose for the rest of their degree. The module focuses on a small selection of texts designed to help students make the transition from the critical strategies used at A-level to those of academic English. In turn, the two sections of the module include contributions from the Heaney Centre and creative writing colleagues and the mode of assessment will allow for reflective development of writing skills through resubmission of formative writing for summative assessment.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module students will have learned to read and analyze poetry and prose using the techniques, vocabularies and approaches of contemporary academic English studies. They will have made the transition from reading and writing at A-level, having learned the research skills and critical terminologies necessary for the close, contextual reading of prose and poetry and writing about both genres in a suitably academic register. They will be equipped to undertake advanced study of literary works in semester two modules.
Skills
Students will learn to develop: critical and analytical skills; methods of textual analysis appropriate to the genres of poetry and prose; writing and research skills appropriate to degree-level English; oral presentation skills; independent study skills; and an ability to collaborate and work in groups; the ability to read and prepare for weekly lectures and tutorials.
Beyond the Hexagon: French language, politics and culture in a global frame
Overview
This module will introduce students to key areas of contextual studies in French, ie. literature, culture, the visual arts and linguistics. There will be two 'strands' within the module, and across the two stands, students will be introduced to all four areas. The core material will include both French and francophone texts, film, images and data. Each strand will form a coherent whole in terms of both teaching and assessment.
Learning Outcomes
Students will acquire an introductory knowledge of key fields in French Studies, notably literature, culture, the visual arts and linguistics. They will acquire key skills in how to approach these fields in preparation for optional modules in Levels 2 and 3. They will further acquire skills in time management, written and oral communication, and skills in marshalling complex information and constructing an argument.
Skills
Skills in how to approach and analyse texts, images and data for future work in literature, the visual arts, linguistics; skills in oral and written communication; skills in marshalling large amounts of data and structuring an argument; skills in time management.
Foundations of Economics 1 is the title of our new Level 1 semester 1 CORE (Curriculum Open-access Resource for Economics) module for non-specialists. CORE is the result of a huge global collaboration to change the way introductory economics is taught; to ensure it is student-centred and motivated by real-world problems and real-world data. Many students studying for degrees in other disciplines are drawn to economics so that they can develop their analytical skills and also engage with policy debates on issues such as environmental sustainability, inequality, the future of work, financial instability, and innovation. But, when they study economics, they find that their introductory course is arid and theoretical, and designed primarily for students who want to study the subject as their major. The result is that students from other disciplines often find themselves studying a quantitative and analytical economics module that is only minimally social in content and downplays the insights of other disciplines, or a social or business oriented module that gives them little training in modelling, or in quantitative scientific methods. In contrast, this module draws on the work of the global CORE team to offer students who are not specialist economists an in-depth introduction to economics and the global economy that is both analytical and real-world. The module focuses throughout on evidence on the economy, from around the world, and from history. It is motivated by questions — how can we explain what we see?
This module is targeted at UG students who are not taking economics as a major subject but who want to develop their analytical skills and learn how to use economics to understand and articulate reasoned views on some of the most pressing policy problems facing our societies.
The course content will be drawn primarily from the following units from the textbook Economy, Society, and Public Policy:
1 Capitalism: affluence, inequality, and the environment
2 Social interactions and economic outcomes
3 Public policy for fairness and efficiency
4 Work, wellbeing and scarcity
5 Institutions, power, and inequality
6 The firm: employees, managers, and owners
7 Firms, customers, and markets
8 The labour market: unemployment, wages, and profits
9 The credit market: borrowers, lenders, and the rate of interest
10 Market successes and failures
11 Government, citizens, and public policy
12 Banks, money, and central bank policy
Learning Outcomes
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Understand the reach of economics and its place in the wider social sciences; understand how to interpret relevant evidence and apply relevant economic theory to help answer a variety of economic and social questions; understand how to critically evaluate the application of models in economics to real-world questions and policy issues; understand key aspects of the historical development of the global economy and its contemporary nature.
Skills
Subject-specific skills
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Develop/enhance subject-specific skills including the ability to construct arguments and exercise problem solving skills in the context of real-world economic and social questions; the ability to construct, interpret and critically evaluate economic models of behaviour; the ability to apply economic models and concepts to real world questions; the ability to understand, evaluate and commentate on the economy and on economic and social policy.
Cognitive and transferable skills
Successful completion of the module will enable students to:
Develop/enhance generic cognitive and transferable skills, including: problem solving, logical reasoning, independent enquiry, critical evaluation and interpretation, self-assessment and reflection, synthesising information from a variety of sources, written and verbal communication, organisation and time management.
This module will introduce students to key areas of contextual studies in French, i.e. literature, culture, the visual arts and linguistics. There will be two 'strands' within the module, and across the two strands, students will be introduced to all four areas. The core material will include both French and francophone texts, film, images and data. Each strand will form a coherent whole in terms of both teaching and assessment.
Learning Outcomes
Students will acquire an introductory knowledge of key fields in French Studies, notably literature, culture, the visual arts and linguistics. They will acquire key skills in how to approach these fields in preparation for optional modules in Levels 2 and 3. They will further acquire skills in time management, written and oral communication, and skills in marshalling complex information and constructing an argument.
Skills
Skills in how to approach and analyse texts, images and data for future work in literature, the visual arts, linguistics; skills in oral and written communication; skills in marshalling large amounts of data and structuring an argument; skills in time management.
This modules aims to provide students with little or no previous knowledge of French with the grammatical, written, and spoken language skills necessary go further in the study of French. It will also equip them with professional and employability skills complimentary to their studies. It consists of:
1. Language Seminars (3 hours per week)
Seminars will equip students with the knowledge and understanding of grammatical constructions (both basic and more complex) and syntax required to use the French language independently in written and spoken form. Language skills are practiced in a range of activities: grammar exercises, reading, spoken and listening comprehension, translation, expressive and descriptive writing. All major areas of grammar will be encountered, laying the foundations for future study of the language and its nuances.
Seminars also introduce students to language in context. Students are exposed to new vocabulary, expressions and nuances of use through reading, translation and writing exercises based on sources from the Francophone world.
2. Conversation Class (1hr per week)
Led by a native speaker, this class develops students’ listening and speaking skills in French. The content from seminars is deployed in a range of practical scenarios likely to be experienced in French -speaking countries.
Learning Outcomes
This modules aims to provide students with little or no previous knowledge of French with the grammatical, written, and spoken language skills necessary go further in the study of French. It will also equip them with professional and employability skills complimentary to their studies. It consists of:
1. Language Seminars (3 hours per week)
Seminars will equip students with the knowledge and understanding of grammatical constructions (both basic and more complex) and syntax required to use the French language independently in written and spoken form. Language skills are practiced in a range of activities: grammar exercises, reading, spoken and listening comprehension, translation, expressive and descriptive writing. All major areas of grammar will be encountered, laying the foundations for future study of the language and its nuances.
Seminars also introduce students to language in context. Students are exposed to new vocabulary, expressions and nuances of use through reading, translation and writing exercises based on sources from the Francophone world.
2. Conversation Class (1hr per week)
Led by a native speaker, this class develops students’ listening and speaking skills in French. The content from seminars is deployed in a range of practical scenarios likely to be experienced in French -speaking countries.
Skills
On successful completion of the modules students should have developed the following range of skills: A comprehensive dexterity using French grammar; Translation skills; text analysis; essay writing; lexicographical skills; report writing skills; IT skills; presentation skills; spoken language skills.
This module is an introduction to moral philosophy, requiring no prior acquaintance with the subject. The module is topic based. In the first half, we will investigate some major theories of morality – systematic accounts of what makes something morally right or wrong. In the second half, we will look at the application of these theories to some practical issues, including abortion, the treatment of animals, and our duties to those in the developing world.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of a number of theories in moral philosophy; explain the relevance of these theories to some key issues in applied ethics; converse and write with critical authority about the ideas of a number of important philosophers; demonstrate the principles of sound and effective reasoning and argument; show tolerance for different and challenging ideas.
Skills
Students should develop skills in literacy, analysis, and communication, and the ability to comprehend and develop clear and extended arguments.
The course examines major themes in historical archaeology in a global context. It examines the ways in which material evidence is used to understand societies of the historic period, from the birth of Christ to the present day. It will examine the use of historical sources in the study of the past, archaeological approaches to myth, religion, the growth and collapse of Empires, archaeologies of conflict, warfare and propaganda. Students will gain understandings of how to challenge historical paradigms through the use of material evidence, and examine current debates in historical archaeology worldwide.
Learning Outcomes
To introduce students to the study of the physical remains of historical periods globally within context.
To challenge their preconceptions of the historic period and the application of archaeology.
The course provides a background to understanding the major developments and debates in historical archaeology in recent decades.
Skills
Introducing students to assessing the evidence of the material remains of the past against the documents.
Evaluating the power and truth of the images popularly associated with historical periods globally.
This module is designed for students who have no previous knowledge of the Portuguese language. It aims to introduce students to the basic areas of grammatical usage and essential vocabulary, putting them into practice through oral, listening and written exercises.
It consists of four elements: a) a one hour language session that introduces you to basic areas of grammatical usage; b) a one hour tutorial that puts into practice the grammatical knowledge gained through written and oral exercises etc.; c) a third language tutorial which concentrates on developing students’ writing skills in Portuguese; and d) a fourth language session that is designed to allow students to practice their oral skills in Portuguese, using the grammar and vocabulary acquired in the first two hours of language teaching.
1. Grammar Class (1h per week)
The weekly class will focus on various basic aspects of Portuguese grammar with the aim of introducing students to basic areas of grammatical usage and providing a solid foundation for the future study of the language. Topics covered will include the construction of gender and number, pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, adjectives, and simple tenses.
2. Grammar Workshop (1h per week)
This weekly workshop will test students’ ability to put into practice the grammatical knowledge gained in the previous hour through written, aural and oral exercises. Topics include daily routine, physical and psychological description, academic life, the family and home. Vocabulary and linguistic competence will be developed through a range of methods that may include: group discussion, oral presentation, and translation.
3. Writing Practice Workshop (1h per week)
This weekly workshop will link to the two previous sessions, focusing specifically on the development of core linguistic skills required for writing in Portuguese. Vocabulary and linguistic competence will be developed through a range of exercises that may include: reading/listening and comprehension, translation, creative writing, and interview.
4. Oral Class (1h per week)
This weekly session is designed to allow students to practice their oral skills in Portuguese, using the grammar and vocabulary acquired in the first two hours, through structured role-plays and exercises. This hour will also include some listening exercises
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module should:
1) be able to demonstrate acquisition of knowledge about and understanding of basic aspects of Portuguese grammar;
2) be able to communicate basic concepts in the target language in written and oral form;
3) be able to distinguish between different registers of written Portuguese and varieties of spoken Portuguese;
4) be able to demonstrate understanding of and the ability to evaluate and analyse a range of language and cultural material
Skills
basic linguistic skills in the target language, both in written form and orally; knowledge and understanding in the use of language-learning tools;
time-management skills;
team-working skills;
ability in and understanding of the use of appropriate basic research tools; presentation skills related to an academic setting;
report-writing; reflective learning skills; independent learning skills
This module aims to provide a general introduction to doing sociological research, through a critical engagement with landmark studies. C. Wright Mills’ idea of a ‘sociological imagination’ provides the framework for evaluating the quality of key pieces of research, exploring the connections between how they are defined, carried out and written up. The module covers a range of research methods, as they are employed in studies of important aspects of social life, such as racism, drugs and urban life, love and technology, social networking, education and masculinity and violence. The module also provides an in-depth introduction to the theoretical character of sociology by introducing classic perspectives shaping the discipline.
Learning Outcomes
Provide a general introduction to the practice of sociology and the evaluation of sociological research; a background for entry into second year sociology; and knowledge about inequality in society.
Skills
Critical evaluation of sociological studies; introduction to sociological analysis; public speaking and writing skills
This module introduces students to audio mixing in the software domain. Advanced signal flow, audio signal processing and balancing of audio sources are considered in the context of mixing both for music and screen. Students will be introduced to mixing workflows using industry standard digital audio workstation software. Topics covered include mix evaluation; balancing and spatial presentation; timbral and dynamic control; mix depth and acoustic context; and mix automation. Students will also develop technical listening skills to enable the aural identification of timbral, dynamic and spatial changes to individual components of a larger multitrack mix.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate critical awareness of current industry practice in the area of audio mixing for music and screen
2. Demonstrate the application of workflows for audio mixing using industry standard audio software
3. Demonstrate the capacity to explore software solutions to problem solve audio mixing challenges as they arise.
4. Demonstrate a critical ability to make informed creative decisions in the creation of audio mixes for music and post-production contexts
5. Demonstrate the capacity to aurally identify changes to audio processing in the context of a multitrack mix
Skills
1. Practical, analytic and critical thinking skills
2. Critical listening skills
3. Capacity for self-direction and an ability to work independently
4. Ability to problem solve and explore creative solutions to audio mixing challenges
5. Written and verbal communication skills
6. Specific knowledge of key current audio mixing workflows
This module aims to consolidate and develop the students existing written and oral language skills and knowledge of French and Francophone culture, equip them with professional and employability skills and prepare them to go further in the study of French. It consists of four elements designed to provide a comprehensive consolidation of French language competence:
1. Language Seminar (1hr per week)
Seminar aims to develop students ability to understand, translate and compose French language materials in a range of forms: text, image, audio-visual. Language will be engaged in context, guided by themes such as University life, Culture and Identity and Culture and Communication. Linguistic competence will be developed through a range of methods that may include: group discussion, comprehension, translation, responsive and essay writing.
2. Grammar Workshop (1hr per week)
Workshop designed to consolidate and enrich students' knowledge and understanding of French grammar and syntax. All major areas of grammar will be encountered, laying the foundations for future study of the language and its nuances. It focuses particularly on developing competence in the key area of translation into French.
3. Professional skills (1hr per week)
The class focuses on language skills for special purposes and contains two strands: Language for Business and Language for Law. Both provide linguistic and socio-cultural knowledge important to work-related situations in different fields.
4. Conversation class (1hr per week)
Conversation class is led by a native speaker of French and compliments the content of the Language hour. Students will meet in small groups to discuss, debate and present on the main themes of the course.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the modules students should:
1. Be able to read French texts in a variety of forms and demonstrate a sensitivity to their detail and nuance in speech, writing and when translating.
2. Be able to produce French texts appropriate to different requirements and registers.
3. Be able to investigate, structure and present a complex argument in longer pieces of written work.
4. Be able to communicate using more sophisticated grammatical and syntactical constructions with a good level of accuracy (without basic errors).
Skills
On successful completion of the modules students should have developed the following range of skills: comprehensive dexterity using French grammar; translation skills; text analysis; comprehension; essay writing; lexicographical skills; report writing skills; IT skills; presentation skills; spoken language skills
What is to be done? Sustainability, climate change and just energy transitions in the Anthropocene
Overview
The module will comprise three distinct sections:
1. Section one will introduce students to the module and set the context for a study of environment and sustainability in the context of the Anthropocene;
2. Section two will focus on key issues such as society’s dependency on fossil fuels and associated socio-ecological conflicts; and
3. The third section will concentrate on pathways towards sustainability, using complex systems thinking to help integrate students’ appreciation of the contributions of diverse disciplines. In doing so, this module will introduce students to some of the most significant problems facing our world and offer alternative individual and institutional pathways to a more sustainable future.
Breakdown of lecture/tutorial topics
Section One
Society-environment interactions
Risk society
Welcome to the Anthropocene
Is climate change a ‘wicked’ problem?
Climate change mitigation & adaptation
The politics of our personal/ political responses to the Anthropocene
Section Two
Carbon captured? Carbon lock in & our dependency on fossil fuels
Extractive industries
Sustainability politics and policies
Social conflicts and the environment
The organisation of ‘sustainable degradation’
The mythic lure of techno-optimism
The impact of neoliberalism or transnational global environmental negotiations and law making
The political economy of lobbying and capture
Section Three
Just Energy transitions x 2
Renewable energies, people and place
Rethinking Economics and Rethinking prosperity x 2
Post-growth rethinking beyond GDP/GNP, critical approaches to wellbeing
Creativity, envisioning and Developing sustainable communities and societies
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module, students will be able to:
-Understand key concepts such as the ‘Anthropocene’, socio-technical transitions, just transition, environmental and climate justice, energy democracy;
-Articulate key socio-ecological issues such as enclosure of common natural resources, carbon lock-in, sustainability policy formation;
-Analyse society-environment interactions in the context of unequal resource distribution and inequality in both a global and national context;
-Offer a cultural political economy analysis of anthropogenic climate change and just energy transitions;
-Critically evaluate the concept of sustainability/sustainable development;
-Confidently integrate a variety of disciplinary perspectives and bodies of knowledge within the arts, humanities and social sciences and between the latter and natural science and technological studies;
-Formulate their own conceptualisation of desirable and realisable low and post-carbon energy futures;
-Utilise learning technologies to deepen their learning process.
Skills
Ability to work with other people;
Ability to work across and integrate different disciplinary perspectives on the same issue;
Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner
Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments *
Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and in creative and innovative ways and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the fields of study
Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning
Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment
Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon ones own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development
Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance Technical and practical skills
Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT Organizational skills
Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information.
Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality of
Anthropologists have analysed how people with different cultures' express themselves in a variety of ways through sound, text and image. Who is involved in specific expressive practices, who controls these practices, and which media are emphasised by different groups? Can textual, verbal, musical and material forms of expression be communicated across cultural boundaries? How do processes of cultural translation affect their meaning and impact on different lifeworlds? In this module, we will explore performative genres including musical activities and rituals; language-based forms of expression and processes of visual and material expression around artworks, objects and film documentation.
Learning Outcomes
Students should have acquired a basic understanding of key issues relating to the performative dimensions of cultural expression through a comparative analysis of ethnographic studies pertaining to sound, text and image. Students should be able to discuss how anthropology has approached expressive cultures and understand a range of cultural differences between themselves and others in this arena. The module should prepare them for further study in the fields of performative, textual and visual analysis.
Skills
Students should develop skills in literacy; oral communication; the organisation of logical arguments; effective presentation of written work; critical reflection on their own cultural assumptions and biases; and teamwork.
Self-awareness and its importance in relation to career choice including work-readiness and skills audits.
Local and International Labour Market Information, where to find it and how to research job markets and career development opportunities eg international experiences.
Participation in a group based LMI research exercise to be presented to the wider group covering sector areas of interest as agreed by the students.
Personal career choice and action planning supported by one to one Career Consultations bespoke to individual student-identified opportunities.
Workshops on CVs, application forms, interview skills and psychometric testing to ensure an understanding of the recruitment process in its entirety.
An assessment centre group work activity delivered by an employer.
Self reflection/career action plan.
Learning Outcomes
Students will –
Become more aware of their career aspirations and how to achieve them;
Develop knowledge of undergraduate and graduate opportunities both locally and internationally;
Understand the skills required to compete effectively for placement and graduate jobs in the future;
Report on the various labour market information related to their degree pathway;
Develop practical experience of presentation skills, team work activities and research and analytical skills.
Skills
The module equips students with a solid understanding of the job market and the careers inherent within it.
Students will acquire more self-knowledge through undertaking self-awareness exercises, personality tests and a work-readiness audit leading to career decision-making and self-actualisation.
Students will have an opportunity to be mentored by Career Consultants who will support and coach the students in achieving their career aims.
Students will develop practical experience of presentation skills, team work skills, research and analytical skills from the LMI Group Research Project Presentation and will further develop team work, analytical, negotiation and communication skills through the assessment centre activity.
This module engages students with the multiple ways society and academic study use, understand and interpret the past. With contributions primarily from the disciplines of Anthropology, English, History, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology, this module will, in part, capitalise upon debates concerning legacy issues and the aftermath of conflict that form central co-ordinates of contemporary Northern Irish political and social debate. it will also provide students subject-specific expertise in relation to how we understand the past and its importance in the development of historical, literary, and philosophical interpretation.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will:
(i) understand the multiple ways we can use and interpret the past;
(ii) demonstrate a range of discipline-centred conceptions of the past;
(iii) explore ways in which the module’s concerns relate to their degree pathway;
(iv) engage with material, oral, textual and visual versions of the past;
(v) differentiate between discipline-specific approaches to the subject.
Skills
(i) understanding a range of critical thinking approaches
(ii) incorporating learning into discussion of issues and texts;
(iii) comparing different disciplinary approaches to the question of the past;
(iv) engaging in classroom debate and fostering a stimulating intellectual environment;
(v) producing engaged critical responses to the issues raised on the module;
(vi) connecting the module’s multi-disciplinary focus to the concerns of their degree pathway;
(vii) self-reflection on the learning process.
This module will introduce and explore a number of films drawn from a range of global production contexts, in particular those outside of Europe and North America. Students will consider films in relation to theoretical issues of national identity, ethnicity, globalisation and hybridity, alongside more pragmatic issues of production, distribution and exhibition. Films studied may include examples from Brazil, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Senegal, Algeria, and Israel/Palestine.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the module, students should be able to demonstrate:
1) a broad knowledge of a range of film production contexts outside of Europe and North America
2) an understanding of the various critical and theoretical approaches to world cinema/s
3) an understanding of the relationships between cinema, identity, and globalisation
4) the ability to analyse and evaluate films produced outside of Europe and North America
Skills
1) Critical thinking skills
2) Analytical skills
3) Skills of rhetoric and argumentation
4) Presentation skills
5) Written, verbal, and visual communication skills
This module introduces Level 2 undergraduate students to the distinctive challenges of acting for musical theatre: namely, sustaining a character, sustaining relationships between characters, and sustaining the overall dramatic narrative while singing. Through a combination of studio-based practice, rehearsal, performance and critique, students will learn how the core tasks of dramatic acting can be integrated with vocal technique to produce the unique performance genre of musical theatre, In so doing, students will gain practical knowledge of the history of musical theatre and its formal evolution over time. Key works of musical theatre to be studied will likely include West Side Story (Bernstein/Sondheim, Oklahoma (Rodgers/Hammerstein), Guys and Dolls (Loesser) and She Loves Me (Bock/Harnick).
Learning Outcomes
• to acquire knowledge of major types of musical theatre across a range of periods and styles (eg, quasi-operatic, naturalistic)
• to perform scenes and songs from canonical works in the musical theatre repertoire
• to enhance skills in performance analysis, peer-to-peer discussion, and self-reflection
• to enhance skills in research-informed theatrical performance
Skills
Collaborative and practical work, leadership, team-building, giving formative feedback to peers, responding appropriately and creatively to formative feedback from peers and module convenor, research and analysis, written communication, oral presentation.
The nature of broadcasting is changing. Online platforms, emerging modes of distribution and new digital technologies are re-wiring established media cultures, transforming traditional media production and distribution systems and introducing new media networks (internet, mobile devices). This module explores aspects of this techno-cultural transformation, through both a practical exploration of the form and by considering critical debates exploring the power, force, significance and form of a series of new media texts, artefacts and systems.
The module situates practices in an environment that is ceaselessly evolving and explores new technologies such as virtual reality, immersive media and interactive documentary. This module offers a practical introduction to a range of software authoring tools widely used within the media and an exploration of disruptive new technologies as they emerge.
Learning Outcomes
On completing this module, students should have acquired and be able to demonstrate:
1. Critical awareness of how broadcast is evolving and of digital media systems as innovative cultural forms;
2. Systematic understanding of current debates in the field of new media around aesthetics, use, distribution, medium theory and form;
3. Comprehensive understanding of debates around technology, culture and determinism;
4. Critical evaluation of interactive media practice;
5. Applied Experience and engagement through practice in the area.
Skills
The module will equip students with the necessary production skills and theoretical frameworks to explore and deliver projects that move away from linear production processes. This grounding will provide students with basic authoring skills, it will give them the capacity to develop their skills in line with emerging broadcasting and media production techniques and will equip them to think critically about the forms and contents of contemporary media systems and media systems that originate online and reside natively on the web.
The module examines key critical issues in so-called “non-fiction” filmmaking. Many major filmmakers, periods and movements which have come to constitute the documentary tradition as we know it today will be identified, and discussed, examining how the formation of the various modes of documentary filmmaking are partly historical but more importantly, conceptual. In particular, the module will interrogate the commonplace notion of documentary as a specific kind of film preoccupied with truth and social reality. And yet, every representation has within it elements of the subjective, the fantastic, the unconscious and the imaginary just as every fiction has elements of the document within it. The module will study films that play at the border of fiction and non-fiction rather than assume a distinct category like ‘documentary’ to be elaborated.
Learning Outcomes
1. Advanced skills in the critical analysis of documentary forms, genres and contexts
2. An understanding of critical approaches to the study of documentary film, particularly in relation to the role of documentary in other artistic practices;
3. An understanding of the interplay between notions of fiction and documentary;
4. An understanding of the visual, audio and verbal conventions through which images, sounds and words make meaning;
5. Advanced skills in written, oral and visual communication.
Skills
Organising and synthesising of a range of formal and historical materials
This module explores key concepts in cultural and political geography.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students will have attained:
- an advanced understanding of key topics and themes in cultural and political geography.
- the intellectual capacity to critique, compare and defend different texts in cultural and political geography
Skills
On successful completion, students will have acquired skills including (T taught, P practiced, A assessed).
Subject specific:
1) Understand the key topics and themes in cultural and political geography (T; P; A);
2) Analyse and examine the theories and debates that surround the changing nature of cultural and political geography (T; P; A);
3) Evaluate the historical contexts of cultural and political geography (T; P; A);
Cognitive skills:
1) Managing and prioritising knowledge: to identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; to manage such information in an independent manner (T; P; A);
2) Analytical thinking: to identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject- specific arguments made by others; to construct independent arguments (P; A);
3) Critical and independent thinking: to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field (P; A);
4) Abstract and synthesise information from a range of different geographical sources (T; P; A)
5) Marshall and retrieve data from archival, library and internet resources (P; A)
Transferable skills:
1) To think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, display originality of thought and argument. (P; A);
2) Written and oral communication (P);
3) Clear organisation of information: to show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify and analyse the key features of the information (P; A);
4) To use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments (P; A)
This module introduces students to the intellectual arguments and counter-arguments of the period known as the Age of Enlightenment, running through the long eighteenth century and embodied in its literature. As an increasing emphasis on rationality as a means to human understanding came to challenge earlier forms of social and political legitimacy, attitudes to self and identity; science and religion; gender and sexuality; politics and government were significantly reformulated from the eighteenth century onwards, with literature and the arts reflecting and participating in the broad historical movement that this shift in thinking represented. We will introduce and debate some of these key ideas of the Enlightenment (or of the various forms of Enlightenment) in relation to the development of generic categories and poetic forms over the period. The module will be organized around a series of texts and debates implicated in significant cultural and historical developments such as the growth of individualism, consumerism, ideas of political liberty and rights, and of the nation and its overseas empire. The module will include selections of poetry and prose (including literary forms such as the periodical essay, life writings, the political pamphlet, and the novel) to be read in relation to contextual, literary-theoretical, and historical considerations. We will also examine revisionist responses to the Enlightenment, reflecting the interests of contemporary authors seeking to represent the marginalized or silenced voices of the period such as those of women, labouring classes, slaves, and colonial others.
Learning Outcomes
Students completing this module will have gained, through their engagement with literary texts and genres, an understanding of major Enlightenment ideas and their impact on historical development. They will be able to read and contextualize literature of eighteenth century in particular with regard to such ideas, and to discern their significance for contemporary literature and society. They will be able to distinguish and appreciate a diversity of genres and texts characteristic of the period, and to read and interrogate such genres and texts in a critical way. They will be introduced to major digital resources giving them the skills that will enable independent research should they wish to progress further in this area. Students will be equipped to debate political, religious and social issues in an informed way with regard to the emergence of such controversies, and their continued development in modern forms. Students will also be able interrogate constructions of the Enlightenment and to deconstruct its various claims from contemporary perspectives critical of its legacy for the modern world.
Skills
Students who have completed this module will be able to:
• Analyse literary texts with regard to the major intellectual debates and forms of knowledge generated by Enlightenment thinking.
• Debate various religious, social and political issues produced in literature relating to Enlightenment.
• Demonstrate research skills with regard to the use of digital platforms such as Eighteenth-Century Collections Online and British Periodicals with regard to the exploration of such topics.
• Show an understanding of formal and generic developments in literature with regard to intellectual history.
• Examine the ways in which literary texts are implicated in the emergence of dominant understandings of political and social discourses.
• Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.
This module introduces students to the literature and culture of the period 1900-1930, with a focus on the literary movements grouped under the term ‘modernism’. These literary texts will be examined as complicated and ambivalent responses to the experience of modernity. Students will cover key figures of British and Irish ‘High Modernism’, including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot, alongside American modernists and writers of the so-called ‘middle brow’. Particular attention will be paid to the historical contexts in which these texts were produced, and on their conditions of publication and consumption. These contexts include: the aftermath of the Great War; gender politics, from the New Woman to Suffrage and beyond; the politics of race; terrorism and violence; queer sexualities; urban decay and urban development; the relationship between cultural centres and peripheries; poetry and its publics; American cultural politics; media, and the rise of youth cultures. More broadly, the modules will explore theories and manifestations of ‘modernity’, examining the challenges of modern technologies and social formations to literary practice.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the literature of modernity. They will be able to read a variety of texts from the period 1900-1930, including novels, poems, short stories, novellas, and periodical essays. Students will be able to read these texts in relation to a number of contexts, including political, social, and cultural developments. They will also develop the skills to read these texts with an eye to their formal complexity and ingenuity, tying this experimentation to the dynamic social contexts to which they responded. Students will be introduced to a number of digital resources that will encourage their independent research into the periodical publication of modernist works. Moreover students will be able to interrogate a number of dominant critical frameworks, including: those that have, until recently, elevated modernism above the broader literary culture of the period; those that diminish the influence of Victorian literature on modernism.
Skills
Having completed this module students will be able to:
• Analyse modernist literature in both a historical and critical context.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complex relationship between formal literary innovation and social transformations.
• Examine the relationship between ‘high’ cultural forms and the so-called ‘middle brow’ works of the period.
• Explore how literary texts challenged dominant understandings of race, gender, and class.
• Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.
• Demonstrate advanced research skills, in particular the use of digital platforms to explore the nature of modernist periodicals.
This module focuses on Shakespearean drama as a theatrical script: that is, words intended to be spoken in performance before an audience and not as dramatic poetry to be read or studied as such. In both its workshop format and its critical writing assignment, this module is centred on Shakespeare in performance.
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes for this module include: knowledge of the key components of Shakespearean performance and the processes by which it is created and realised; an understanding of how to read Shakespearean texts and how transitions from page to stage may be effected; the ability to contribute to the creation of Shakespearean performance through an understanding of appropriate performance vocabularies, techniques, crafts, structures and working methods; the ability to engage in appropriate independent research, whether investigating past or present Shakespearean performances or as part of the process of creating new performance.
Skills
To aid closer reading of both text and performance; to aid interpretive abilities; to encourage creative interpretations in the student; to aid directorial and performance abilities.
In this field course you will explore a variety of contrasting landscapes within the Mediterranean, with particular reference to Mallorca, researching the human and physical dynamics that have shaped them. Module topics will include: evidence for past environmental change, its impact and contemporary challenges; physical processes of landscape evolution, including weathering, erosion, coastal processes, and the impacts of climate change; understanding the nature of urbanisation and impact of tourism; critiquing cultural politics of environmental change, heritage and social identity; reflecting on sustainable alternatives. Project work will provide you with an opportunity to gain valuable experience collecting data, the use of ArcGIS StoryMaps, as well as data analysis and interpretation in relation to significant scientific debates and policy issues.
Learning Outcomes
Students enrolled in this module are supported in attaining the following learning outcomes:
- Gain experience and skill in the principles and practices of desk-based and field-based investigation, including methods of data collection, techniques in data analysis, the interpretation of field data in the context of wider academic scholarship and the presentation of findings;
- Gain experience in working as part of a project team, managing a project, collaborating and supporting one another on online platforms (Miro, Teams, ArcGIS) and working to an agreed timeline;
- Demonstrate an organised approach to the design, execution and writing up of field research projects;
- Gain experience in writing up research findings and presenting them in a variety of formats, including presentations, reports and StoryMaps;
- Gain an understanding of the dynamics that account for change in the physical and human environments of the field study locations.
- Gain experience in assessing the evidence for long and short term environmental change.
- Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the nature of the relationships and processes that shape the physical and human geography of the field study locations
Skills
Key skills
• The ability to think and argue critically and undertake problem solving
• The ability to undertake self-directed learning
• The ability to work collaboratively on a project within a group, taking part in managing the project, supporting one another and working towards an agreed timeline.
• Development of reflective skills with regard to module-related tasks and personal fieldwork experience.
Subject related skills
• The ability to communicate geographical ideas by evidenced written, oral and visual means
• The ability to apply specialised techniques or approaches to the collection and analysis of geographical information
• Landscape (human & physical) interpretation
Employability skills
• Groupwork, leadership and time-management skills
• Project planning and oral skills
• Report writing, data synthesis and presentation skills
We are all familiar with people who have recently been quickly catapulted to the heights of fame and public attention. The status of such individuals is often associated with wealth and public exposure, and the rise of mass media makes it much easier for them to gain publicity and recognition instantly, across the world. But has it always been this way?
This module will examine the career and legacy of Charles Dickens, who was first recognised for his extraordinary creativity, in producing the works of literature for which he is best known. He was also, however, a careful and intelligent manipulator of his own public image, to the extent that the catchphrase ‘the man who invented Christmas’ survives to this day. By carefully scrutinising Dickens through fiction, journalism, letters, advertising, biography, photography, and film, students will come to understand just how ‘constructed’ this Victorian superstar was; they will also understand how the means he, his publishers, agents, and advisors, and his inheritors employed to develop and maintain his public image serve as forerunners for the phenomenon of celebrity culture in our own day.
Indicative set texts & other media:
Lee Barron, Celebrity Cultures: An Introduction (Sage, 2015)
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Ralph Fiennes, The Invisible Woman (DVD 2013)
Bharat Naluri, The Man Who Invented Christmas (DVD 2017)
Michael Slater, Charles Dickens (Yale UP, 2011)
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the history of celebrity, and the role it has played in shaping cultural values. They will be able to read and engage critically with key Dickens novels from the 1830s-1850s, as well as with his journalism and letters. They will also be able to examine and perform critical assessments on other media that feature Dickens as the central figure, including film, photography, and advertising. Students will be able to analyse and interrogate the ways in which various media project the idea of celebrity in light of their target audiences, and will be able to assess the effects of the strategies employed.
Skills
Having completed this module you will be able to:
• Analyse Dickens’s literary texts in both historical and critical contexts.
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the meaning of ‘celebrity’ and the role it has played in shaping cultural values
• Examine how textual and visual media have had an impact upon the development of celebrity
• Explore the construction of the author as a complex amalgam of creative ability and targeted media manipulation
• Demonstrate how celebrities become brands in their own right, and are used in marketing to promote products and services
• Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research.
• Demonstrate advanced research skills, in particular the use of digital platforms to explore the nature of celebrity culture
Havoc and Rebellion: Writing and Reading Later Medieval England
Overview
From the Black Death to the Uprising of 1381; from the usurpation and murder of King Richard II to the Oldcastle Rebellion of 1414; from the rise of the Lollard heresy to the Wars of the Roses – how did late medieval writing, from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Langland’s Piers Plowman, and Gower’s Vox Clamantis, to the work of a range of anonymous poets, dramatists, and chroniclers, respond to several decades of tumultuous social and cultural change? This module introduces students to the vibrancy and vitality of a crucial period in the history of English writing, and it explores the methodological challenges of reading literature historically. Students will engage with key historicist readings of the period’s literature and will consider literature in its material circumstances with reference to online facsimiles of key manuscript books, as well as the museological presentation of the period’s material culture. The key genres, conventions and preoccupations of the period will be explored in relation to the explosive social mobility that followed the devastation of the Black Death. The module will conclude on the eve of the coronation of Henry VIII, when it was assumed that the political and religious tumult of the ‘calamitous fourteenth century’ had finally been settled.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of late medieval literature and culture (c.1370-1509). They will have learned to address the challenges of reading literature in its historical contexts, and become familiar with the central tenets of historicist critical practice. They will have learned to interrogate critically the re-presentation of texts and artefacts from the Middle Ages in online archival and museological contexts. They will have learned to reflect critically on the idea of the Middle Ages itself and on questions of historical periodisation in general.
Skills
Having completed this module students will be able to:
• Analyse late medieval literature, paying attention to the relationship between texts and contexts assumed by historicist modes of reading.
• Demonstrate understanding of the complex relationship between literary forms and socio-political transformations.
• Situate the literature of this period in the contexts of its influence on literary ideas and modes of transmission, such as authorship and printing, that will be of critical importance to later periods
• Demonstrate enhanced digital capabilities, both in terms of using digital repositories and in working collaboratively on a digital project for assessment.
Experimental Popular Musics will discuss varied topics including experimental pop music cultures, disco culture, as well as techno and electronic dance music cultures.
Learning Outcomes
The course aims to (1) revisit the social reciprocity between music and everyday life, (2) examine the role of social discourses and practices in constituting a musical experience, and vice versa, (3) reflect on the social nexus, economy and technology of music production and consumption, and (4) develop an understanding of music as culture and as a social force of producing, representing and shifting both individual and collective identities.
Skills
(1) Critical listening, (2) Critical reading and writing, (3) Intellectual and cultural awareness, (4) Finding and communicating creative solutions, (5) Team work, (6) Organisation and collaboration, (7) Leadership and initiative.
Is the media a cause of crime? Does media depiction simply reflect public interests and attitudes, or help to shape them? Does media representation of ‘crime’, ‘criminals’ and criminal justice impact penal and social policies? These are some of the questions this module will debate through drawing on theory, research and illustrative media examples. Examining both ‘factual’ and ‘fictional’ representations of crime and justice, the module examines the extent to which media representation reflects reality, and impact on attitudes, emotions and behaviours. You will also learn skills in media analysis and apply these in your own small project.
Learning Outcomes
1. Understand how abstract arguments about ideology, law, order, and disorder relate to fictional representations of crime.
2. Evaluate the media’s role in constructing ideas about crime and criminality.
3. Draw upon and engage with critical debates concerning moral panics, crime legends, and media effects.
4. Understand and be able to employ a range of techniques used to carry out analysis of the media.
Skills
1. Demonstrate an improvement in their ability to communicate abstract, theoretical arguments, in both oral and written work.
2. Operationalise theoretical concepts and debates by carrying out research on the media.
3. Synthesise analysis of media texts and theoretical argument.
4. Develop research and organisational skills by using library e-journals and other online resources such as Lexis-Nexus.
5. Conduct content and narrative analysis of media sources.
This module aims to map the world of the Anglo-Saxons through their language, literature and material culture. Students will learn about the heroic past and values of the Anglo-Saxons, magical rituals and prognostications, and systems of faith and beliefs. A fascinating range of texts and genres from the period (c. 7th-11th centuries) will be studied in relation to their cultural context and audience. These include: heroic poetry; elegies; riddles, charms and prognostications; historiography; and biblical writings. Students will engage with selected texts in the original language and consider issues of literary interpretation and translation. They will also be introduced to concepts of authorship, gender, genre, time, health, self, otherness and religion. Students will become familiar with the basics of Old English literary and religious vocabulary and acquire a working knowledge of the Old English manuscript tradition.
Learning Outcomes
To introduce the study of Old English; to introduce the world of Anglo-Saxon literature and culture.
Skills
Having completed the module, students should have acquired the basics of Old English grammar and poetics, the ability to translate and discuss critically selected Old English texts and to relate texts to their cultural and historical contexts.
This course introduces students to the main theories of crime and deviance. It takes a historical approach to exploring the main developments in criminological theory.
Learning Outcomes
To introduce students to key criminological theories and sociological theories of deviance. To illustrate the historical development of criminological thought.
Skills
Demonstrate competence in critically evaluating criminological arguments. Display ability to write informed,literate essays.
In this module we cover several perspectives pertaining to deeply divided societies and the unique challenges such conflicts face. We discuss, compare, and contrast cases such as Northern Ireland, South Africa, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Israel-Palestine while also discussing other cases from around the globe. Understanding deeply divided societies’ internal and external dynamics and effects is at the core of this module. It covers domestic causes and effects of identity-based conflicts, their regional embeddedness, and their effects on global politics.
Throughout the semester, students will learn to appreciate a range of dimensions throughout the conflict cycle, from claim making (violence, political competition), through strategies for conflict mitigation (institutional reform, societal cohesion, international involvement) and opportunities for conflict management (power-sharing, secession).
More specifically, we will investigate the challenges of reforming state institutions, their relationship with the governed, and international recognition of domestic claims to power and regime legitimacy.
Learning Outcomes
• Identify and explain the phenomenon and unique features of deeply divided societies
• Applying theoretical arguments related to such key features and the different processes deeply divided societies go through to both historical and contemporary cases
• Evaluate debates amongst scholars who represent different theoretical perspectives
• Comparing and contrasting cases of deeply divided societies from other types of conflicted societies
• Comparing and contrasting between cases of deeply divided societies
• Acquire a deeper and complex understanding of key topics in the study of deeply divided societies (T, P, A)
• Attain a better understanding of several theoretical traditions in International relations and comparative politics and the way they help us identify, examine, and understand deeply divided societies (T, P, A)
• Have the ability to critically analyse and formulate view on central debates and controversies in the study of deeply divided societies (T, P, A)
• Have the ability to compare and contrast between historical and contemporary cases of deeply divided societies (T, P, A)
Cognitive:
• Develop analytical thinking (P, A)
• Develop critical thinking (P, A)
• Apply theoretical concepts to real-life events (P, A)
• Synthesise information from various sources (P, A).
• Collect, sort, criticise, and analyse data (T, P, A)
Transferable:
• Communicate clearly both orally and in writing (P, A)
• Construct evidence-based arguments (P, A)
• Display originality of thought and argument (P, A)
This module will introduce students to key aspects of British politics, focusing on institutions and elections and voting. The module will provide students with an understanding of the main institutions of the UK (Parliament, the executive, devolution), the parties and party systems of the UK, and elections and voting behaviour. The module will allow students to use the skills developed in PAI2043 Studying Politics in the study and analysis of elections and voting in the UK. The module takes a contemporary and practical approach and will develop the students’ analytical, statistical, and writing skills.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, students will be able to identify the key institutions and players in British politics and to identify and define the major issues in British politics. Moreover, students will be able to appreciate and explain the major changes in British politics that have taken place over time. Students will be able to locate and engage with data relevant to past and contemporary British politics.
Skills
Intellectual skills
• Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner
• Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments
• Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field
Professional and career development skills
• Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing
• Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance
Technical and practical skills
• Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT
Organizational skills
• Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
• Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
• Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality of thought and argument and the ability to clearly support arguments in innovative ways
This module examines the development of prose fiction in English from the later seventeenth century to the early nineteenth century. This is the period in which the novel emerged in its recognisably modern form, establishing itself as an important genre within literary culture. It was also an era of generic experimentation, as writers debated the nature of the novel, took the form in new directions, and grappled with earlier modes of writing in prose, such as romance and picaresque, allegorical and fantastical fiction. In this module, we explore the variety of prose fiction published during this period: from romance and amatory fiction, through works of realism and social comedy, to the sentimental and Gothic modes that emerged in the later eighteenth century. These works engaged closely with contemporary social, cultural and political issues, and we will consider texts that address topics such as travel and empire; science and civilisation; marriage and gender; crime, morality and the state of the nation. By considering these works in their literary and cultural contexts, the module both highlights the diversity of fiction written during this era and charts the early history of the novel up to the sophisticated narratives of Jane Austen.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed higher-level knowledge and understanding of prose fiction during the period 1660-1820. They will be able to identify the different kinds and modes of fiction published during this period, including romance and amatory fiction, works of realism and social comedy, the sentimental and Gothic modes. They will be equipped to assess critical arguments concerning the ‘rise’ of the novel as a distinctive literary genre during the ‘long’ eighteenth century. They will also be able to situate this body of fiction more broadly within its literary and cultural contexts. On completing the module, then, students will be able to articulate the key types of fiction in English during the period up to (and including) Austen, theories about the novel’s emergence as a literary form, and the engagement of these works with a range of contemporary issues.
Skills
Having completed this module students will be able to:
• Analyse works of prose fiction published during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, in terms of genre, technique, and social and cultural contexts
• Demonstrate understanding of the variety of forms, modes and styles within fiction during this period, and the pre-history of some of these ways of writing
• Adjudicate critical and theoretical ideas regarding the ‘rise’ or emergence of the novel genre during the period up to Austen
• Demonstrate understanding of the particular issues explored within this body of fiction - from issues such as marriage and travel to concerns about crime, morality and empire
• Demonstrate transferable skills in the forms of group discussion, written communication, and individual research
Liberal values in Europe, as elsewhere, are coming under serious threat, driven by identity politics designed to exploit societal divisions. The historical link between liberalism and diversity in Europe, and the extent to which one can negotiate and accommodate, if not facilitate the other, holds the key to sustainable, coherent and peaceful societies. The module provides an overview and critical analysis of minority protection offering engagement with issues underpinning national politics, law and societal processes in Europe. Using a critical approach to contemporary politics, this module provides:
- a historical analysis of state formation and nation building in Europe with context of religious wars and political revolutions, including the (re-)conceptualisation of basic concepts and terms such as territoriality, sovereignty, state, nation and citizenship;
- reassesses primordial views on ethnicity/nationality and language & religious identities and provides a sociologically informed political lens to reconcile the requirements for political unity, obligations to international law and ensure social cohesion for the culturally diverse society;
- examines the liberal and national ideological framings of equality protection in liberal-democratic regimes and the number of mechanisms from voting rights to proportional representation in state bodies, forms of cultural and territorial autonomy and federalism to engage with the challenges of the ongoing re-nationalisation in all parts of Europe.
This module will help students interested in European politics, human and minority rights, governance and nationalism, and politics of diverse societies to understand the origins of and anticipate political developments of their increasingly diverse societies.
Learning Outcomes
- Place issues of governance in diverse societies in the context of domestic and European political and legal obligations to ensure equality of all citizens;
- Contrast the differential impact nation-state building had in different parts of Europe on diverse resident populations and reflect on the role of European integration on political process;
- Ascertain importance of diversity and equality as guarantee for societal stability and peace in and around Europe
- Understand and be able to reflect critically on the impact accommodation and support for minorities has on the likelihood of conflict in contemporary Europe
- Communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in written form on issues relating to equality and diversity in contemporary Europe
- Pursue intellectual questions in an academic manner, using analytical skills and critical thinking to develop transferrable skills
Skills
Intellectual skills
- Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner
- Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field
Professional and career development skills
- Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing
- Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning
- Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon ones own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development
- Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance
Technical and practical skills
- Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT Organizational skills
- Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
- Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information
- Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear argument; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
This module examines the interface and inter-relationships between politics, philosophy and economics and draws on the disciplines of political economy, political theory and moral philosophy, and political science to provide a comprehensive account of these relations. Particular topics covered will vary from year but may include, for example:
issues in classical political economy
the relationship between political ideology and economics,
the history of economic thought,
how democratic institutions interact with the economy and the notion of public goods.
Post-war economic development project,
Modernity and conceptions of development
Debates about the concept of the rational actor
Freedom and economic life
Distributive justice
Libertarian ideas about the relations between the market and politics
The idea of ‘market society’
Workplace democracy
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will:
• Have a familiarity with some of the key debates in classic political economy and moral and political philosophy concerning economic power, the economy as a political creation and the relationship between the state and the economy; freedom and economic relations
• Be able to apply these concepts and debates to questions of economic development, the ethical implications of contemporary development trajectories and to current policy issues;
Skills
Students will develop the ability to think critically and philosophically about economics and the economy, while placing it in its appropriate political context.
Students will be able to communicate ideas to others in coherent and concise, written and oral form;
Students will be able to think analytically, critically and logically about a range of important contemporary social issues.
The history of the interwar period in Europe is a familiar story to many, with the rise of Stalin and Hitler forming the central pillars of the narrative. This module offers a new perspective on this period, exploring issues that enable comparisons, as well as highlight contrasts, between the histories of various European states and peoples. It is:
- thematic, not chronological, in structure, though it clearly has a first part focused on the 1920s, and a second on the 1930s
- geographically de-centred – we are as likely to discuss Italy and Spain, as Germany and Russia
- organised in a way that suggests the Spanish Civil War was both the central epic of our period but also the culmination of interwar social, political and cultural struggles
- focused on social and cultural aspects of the period, as much as political and economic – we are as likely to discuss gender and art, as fascism and communism
- based on wide-ranging and in-depth reading, including fictional works and films read as texts
- aimed at those who want to go beyond men with moustaches, who enjoy the unusual and the quirky and like to go off the beaten track in their history studies
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to demonstrate:
- a good knowledge of the political regimes and their ideologies which were established in Europe during this period
- an understanding of the economic forces at work between 1919 and 1939 and their implications for various European societies
- an understanding of the outlook and experiences of various sectors of European society, including ethnic minorities and women
- familiarity with primary sources from this period and with relevant secondary materials and historiographical debates
- the ability to identify and select information relevant to the topic area from a variety of sources
- the ability to analyse and evaluate evidence and argument
- the ability to present your own arguments in essays, using appropriate evidence to support your views
- the ability to work effectively within a group, making appropriate contributions to discussions, debates and tasks, as well as contributing and presenting a group presentation
Skills
- to provide students with an understanding of European history between 1918 and 1939, in the context of previous and later historical developments
- to acquaint students with a variety of historical sources from this period including official documents and the press, films and images, as well as with secondary materials and historiographical debates
- to promote the development of key skills required to study history effectively
Nationalism has been a key factor in African history since the late 19th Century. How has it emerged, under what forms, how has it evolved, when and how did it become a mass ideology, and what happened to it after the independence of African states in the second half of the 20th Century? This module offers a critical look at these themes, focusing on ideas, cultures and the politics of nationalism and liberation. The module considers different theories and articulate their discussion to a consideration of diverse case studies, e.g. Ghana, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa.
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the module should
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the history of Africa in the late 19th and 20th centuries;
• Be able to develop critical arguments about nationalism, liberation and the non-Western world;
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of essay writing, archival work, and oral presentation.
Skills
Critical writing; archival research; oral presentation.
Archival research will be kept to a minimum, in an archive in Belfast or online. The oral presentation will be a presentation of archival material to be used for the second essay.
This module explores the linguistic history of English from prehistoric times to the present day. Adopting a chronological approach and working always with reference to texts, it traces the development and use of the language through varieties of Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English and Present Day English. The key topics of the course, applied to each of the periods studied, are (i)internal features, examining underlying grammatical characteristics; (ii)external features, with particular reference to vocabulary; and (iii)transitional and sociolinguistic features, considering the social context of language change, paying attention to changing practices in language writing.
Learning Outcomes
This module should provide an informed understanding of the history of the English language and of language change, with reference to social and cultural factors; to increase students' analytical and descriptive abilities, enabling them to engage in linguistic analysis of texts from different periods and with different writing conventions.
Skills
Students who complete this module should be able to deomonstrate knowledge and understanding of the historical development of English, relating language to its socio-cultural context, and they should be able to apply that knowledge and understanding to particular texts, using analytical and descriptive skills.
Northern Ireland’s peace process, the legacy of conflict and enduring divisions present a range of ongoing challenges for politics and society. Drawing on expertise from across the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics – combined with that of relevant practitioners, where possible – this interdisciplinary, team-taught module will examine a range of thematic challenges with respect to conflict, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, community relations, public representations of the past, and democratic governance. Rooted in the case of Northern Ireland, the module will also routinely consider broader comparisons with other cases and possible generalisation to other cases. It will be structured into three main parts. First, it will critically engage with Northern Ireland’s past. What were the underlying sources of division, and what can we learn about the complexities and nuances of identity over time? Second, it will explore how the past continues to interact with contemporary Northern Ireland. How is this past represented and understood in today’s public history landscape? Is it possible for Northern Ireland’s contested past to be publicly represented in ways that promote mutual understanding? Can Northern Ireland now be characterised as a ‘post-conflict’ region? Finally, the module will look ahead. Does the current political settlement represent a sustainable form of governance for the region? What do internal developments, such as demographic change, and external challenges, such as climate change, mean for Northern Ireland’s future? By critically engaging with these interrelated themes through relevant disciplinary perspectives, this module ultimately seeks to better understand contemporary Northern Ireland, the history that has shaped it, and the future directions that are possible.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module the successful student should be able to demonstrate in assessed essays, coursework and tutorial contributions:
- A familiarity with a range of topical issues and debates in Northern Ireland, including their historical roots, their contemporary political significance, and their relevance for the region’s future;
- An understanding of the Northern Ireland conflict and the peace process, including the factors that contributed to both;
- A critical appreciation of the challenges associated with conflict transformation, peacebuilding, community relations, public representations of the past, and democratic governance in a divided society from a variety of disciplinary perspectives in the humanities and social sciences;
- Awareness of the role that arts, culture, heritage and public engagement with the past can play in reducing political and social divisions;
- A heightened sense of the complexity of identity, politics and place in Northern Ireland.
Skills
Intellectual skills
• Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge; manage such information in an independent manner;
• Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments;
• Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field.
Professional and career development skills
• Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing;
• Teamwork: ability to work with others in a team, negotiate conflicts and recognize different ways of learning;
• Diversity: ability to acknowledge and be sensitive to the range of cultural differences present in the learning environment;
• Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon ones own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development;
• Time Management: ability to negotiate diverse and competing pressures; cope with stress; and achieve a work / life balance .
Technical and practical skills
• Information Technology: demonstrate the knowledge and ability to use contemporary and relevant ICT.
Organizational skills
• Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines;
• Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information;
• Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear argument; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way;
• Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality of thought and argument and the ability to clearly support arguments in innovative ways.
The study of the Classical idiom through analysis of selected chamber and piano music by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert. The course will define the basic elements of Classical harmonic language and deal also with longer-range formal thinking.
Learning Outcomes
Students should acquire a working knowledge of the harmonic idiom, textures and structural thought of the music of the Classical era.
Skills
SUBJECT SPECIFIC SKILLS
Students will develop the skills of:
(i) Precise observation.
(ii) Discrimination between surface detail and more fundamental procedures.
(iii) Identification of Classical harmonies.
KEY SKILLS
Students will:
(i) Identify, analyse and solve problems by prioritising tasks, coping with complexity, setting achievable goals and taking action.
(ii) Work with information and handle a mass of diverse data and draw conclusions (analysis, attention to detail, judgement).
(iii) Apply subject knowledge and understanding from the degree pathway.
(iv) Possess high level transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, to communicate (both orally and in writing), influence, negotiate and resolve conflict.
(v) Demonstrate confidence and motivation to start and to finish the job, adaptability / flexibility, creativity, initiative, leadership, decision-making, negotiating and the ability to cope with stress.
Modern American Fiction: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality
Overview
This module introduces students to some of the key American novelists, contexts and critical issues associated with the modern era, roughly interpreted as the first half of the twentieth century (c.1920-1950). It does not ignore the orthodox intellectual approaches to the era, namely that of the modern or modernism and how the representative fiction of the era sought to find new forms and languages suitable to the task of interrogating this modernity. However, rather than rehearsing old debates about national particularity, the “melting pot” and US exceptionalism, the focus of this module is the ways in which exemplary African-American, female, working class and gay novelists, as well as their white, male counterparts, sought to undo and re-write narratives of identity and belonging according to particularities of race, class, gender and sexuality. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between narratives of affirmation and negation (or ‘noir’). The module examines these axes of difference as multiple and overlapping, rather than mutually exclusive; hence the focus is on the narrative, formal and linguistic complexities thrown up the re-making of American fiction through the related and diverging prisms of class and race, for example, or gender and sexuality, or even in terms of race, gender, class and sexuality. A repeated concern of the module is whether or to what extent we can use US fiction of the era to trace and interrogate wider social and political challenges to dominant/normative understandings of the United States, modernity, capitalism, and national identity. The set texts reflect this heterogeneity in terms of the writers to be studied and in terms of the diversity of styles, forms and genres that make up American fiction of the era.
Learning Outcomes
Having completed this module, students will have developed an appropriate knowledge and understanding of modern American fiction (c. 1900-1950). They will be able to identify the ways in which representative novels of the era interrogate the modern era and the complex relationship between literary form, popular culture and modernism as organizing concepts. They will also be able to examine and reflect upon the complex ways in which dominant and singular narratives of national belonging are untold and reimagined according to the related and overlapping categories of race, class, gender and sexuality – and the implications of this for an understanding of “American” fiction. They will be able to offer close readings of this fiction according to its use of literary form and language and its thematizations of the urban, the modern, “noir”, capitalism, gender and sexuality and race and class. On completion of the module, students will be able to reflect upon the usefulness of fiction of the era to contest received or orthodox accounts of US political, social and economic life and potentially to intervene in this life for affirmative and/or politically progressive ends.
Skills
Having completed this module students will be able to:
• Analyse modern American fiction paying attention to theoretical/conceptual and contextual issues and develop close critical readings of a diverse range of fiction.
• Demonstrate understanding of the complex relationship between literary forms and socio-political transformations.
• Think about the synthesis and weighting of different, sometimes competing interpretations of literary texts.
• Reflect on the usefulness of race, class, gender and sexuality as organizing categories to interrogate the exemplary fiction of the era and its thematizations of US identities.
• Demonstrate transferrable skills in the forms of critical thinking, group discussion, written communication, and individual academic research
• Demonstrate digital literacy skills required to make a digital map, using relevant software programmes, relating to one of the set texts.
Lectures will offer case studies that illustrate how the fame of a person or a creative work can be manifested and measured in different cultural and temporal contexts. Assessments develop writing, critical, research, and bibliographical skills. Students select a person or work to research. For the first project, students develop and present a bibliography on their chosen subject using electronic resources and a standard bibliographical method; included is a report that outlines their research technique and evaluates the results of the searches. Students will develop writing and critical skills through a critical review of a book related to their chosen subject. For the final project students will write a blog post on their chosen subject.
Learning Outcomes
Students will learn how to write clear and fluid prose, directing their assessed work to specific purposes and identified audiences. Students will develop skills which will make them more effective critics (of musical performances and written texts in different formats). Students will learn how to source bibliography and develop an awareness of professional standards for its presentation.
Skills
SUBJECT SPECIFIC SKILLS
Students will:
(i) Develop critical skills as applied to listening, reading and writing.
(ii) Develop writing skills, directed towards different formats and specific audiences.
KEY SKILLS
Students will:
(i) Identify, analyse and solve problems by prioritising tasks, coping with complexity, setting achievable goals and taking action.
(ii) Work with information and handle a mass of diverse data, assess risk and draw conclusions (analysis, attention to detail, judgement).
(iii) Apply subject knowledge and understanding from the degree pathway.
(iv) Possess high level transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, to communicate (both orally and in writing), influence, negotiate and resolve conflict.
(v) Demonstrate confidence and motivation to start and to finish the job, adaptability / flexibility, creativity, initiative, leadership, decision-making, negotiating and the ability to cope with stress.
(vi) Demonstrate the knowledge and experience of working with relevant modern technology.
(vii) Apply and exploit information technology.
(viii) Demonstrate critical evaluation of the outcomes of professional practice.
This module on International Organizations offers an introduction into the multilateral global security architecture. The core focus of the module is collective security. The module IO thus will deal with international law, collective security, regimes in international security and International security organizations. The United Nations system forms the core of the study. Peacekeeping, peace enforcement, peace building and the ‘outsourcing’ of core collective security tasks to regional players will dominate the sessions of the module. Core military interventions by international organizations will be analyzed. The module thus will deal with military interventions by the UN, NATO, CIS/CSTO, EU and core security and mediation tasks by the CIS, SCO and OSCE. The new policy agenda of energy security will be tackled by studying resource control: The NPT regime, the IAEA and oil and gas regimes thus will be scrutinized at the end of the semester. The major aim of the module is to outline the ‘institutionalized’ world order of today – with its hierarchies, cleavages and contradictions. The module is wedded to a strategic studies approach to IR.
Principles of Business in Arts, Cultural and Creative Industries
Overview
This course is designed for Stage 2 students in all Creative Arts disciplines (Drama, Film & Broadcast, Music & Sonic Arts) to introduce and explore key elements in the ‘business’ of creative work: the planning, management and delivery of cultural and creative projects, events and/or activities. As part of an interdisciplinary class and with elements of independent group work throughout, students will share their knowledge from their own programmes and gain new insights to the crossover of skills and opportunities and the benefits of multidisciplinary teams.
The course runs in two parts. The first half of the course will introduce students to the unique planning and delivery challenges of cultural and creative work with students’ active engagement in observing or putting the theory into real-life practice. In the second half, students will work through one of two options (subject to availability): to work in teams to enhance, deliver and evaluate a programmed event or activity with a cultural business; or to undertake independent field research in the development of an event or activity proposal for a cultural business.
Assessment will be principally based on reflexive journaling and some practical assessment of their participation (the production of a short-form report or plan).
Part 1 will be delivered mainly through classroom lectures, seminars and discussions on the different functions of management and planning in the arts, cultural and creative industries.
Part 2
Subject to availability in any given year, students will choose one of two strands for Part 2 of the programme. Activities offered in these strands each year will be selected in discussion between Subject Leads of Creative Arts and relevant staff in creative centres on campus, enabling students to access contemporary events and knowledge relevant to their studies.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, students are expected to be able to:
1. Recognise common features and approaches to planning and delivery of arts, cultural and creative activities, events or projects
2. Express improved understanding of the industry context of their chosen discipline, recognising influences, norms and constraints on creative and cultural business
3. Articulate how increased understanding of creative business might influence their own creative or industry practice, their future study and professional development.
4. Understand the collaborative and team-based nature of arts, cultural and creative industries planning and delivery.
Skills
The completion of this course will support the following skills:
• Reflective & reflexive thinking
• Evaluation and observation
• Report and/or proposal writing
• Practical skills in event/project management/planning
• Teamwork and collaborative working
This module will explore the relationships between film and sound, examining how the aesthetic, historical and cultural significance of film sound practices have been understood in the context of evolving technologies.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the of module, students should be able to demonstrate:
1) The ability to undertake the close critical analysis of sound in film.
2) The ability to link sound practice to sound theory.
3) An understanding of the ways in which sound technology affects film aesthetics.
4) An awareness of the social and cultural significance of sound in film.
Skills
1) Critical thinking skills
2) Analytical skills
3) Skills of rhetoric and argumentation
4) Presentation skills
5) Written, verbal, and visual communication skills
This module presents key theories and concepts in the study and analysis of popular genres in the media. Students will examine a range of factual and fictional genres, interrogating the ways that they have been defined, interpreted and used by producers, broadcasters and distributors, audiences and academics.
This will support students in developing their skills in analysing media productions, as well as when taking genre into consideration for their own practical work in other modules.
Learning Outcomes
On completing this module, students should be able to:
• Identify popular genres
• Understand and apply the basic concepts of genre analysis
• Understand key interpretations of popular broadcast genres
• Assess, interrogate and challenge such interpretations in relation to specific texts and / or groups of texts
• Analyse broadcast texts through the lens of genre theory
Skills
• Textual analysis of audio-visual material.
• Applying critical concepts to texts.
• Critiquing critical concepts.
• Oral communication and argumentation (seminars).
• Written communication (assessed work).
• Time management.
• Independent research.
• Group work (seminars).
In this module, you will read and analyse a selection of key, early medieval Irish myths and sagas including The Cattle-Raid of Cooley and the Tale of Mac Dathó’s Pig. You will be taught how to properly contextualise and critically analyse selected tales and explore recurrent themes such as love, gender, kingship, greed and war. We will see how medieval authors projected their own lives and beliefs back onto the ancient past, created their own history and sought to influence society around them.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the module, the students should possess knowledge and understanding of:
• a selection of tales from early Ireland
• the early Irish ideology of kingship and its reflection in the literature,
• issues of masculinity and femininity in saga literature
Skills
This module will develop students’ capacity to
• analyse historical literary texts and situate those texts within their historical and cultural context
• identify contemporary concerns within medieval texts
• identify suitable resources from a reading list
• plan their own study and learn independently
• communicate ideas fluently in an appropriate register
Over 85% of the population of Brazil lives in cities. In this module, students will explore and engage with a diversity of Brazilian urban configurations, spanning cities of different sizes in different regions of the country (as well as, potentially, cities outside of Brazil in which Brazilian migrants have established a presence). Students will be
introduced to and learn how to analyse varied practices of the occupation and representation of Brazilian urban spaces by their inhabitants and visitors in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which might include verticalization, auto-construction, migration, mapping, tourism, datafication, performance, events, protest, and commerce/trade, as well as different cultural forms such as film, literature, art, music, digital culture and so on. The module will also foreground diverse perspectives on the city informed by attributes such as race and ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. Previous knowledge of the Portuguese language and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world are not required.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will be able to: * Critically analyse a range of occupations and representations of Brazilian urban spaces informed by an awareness of their specific features as well as the historical, social, cultural, geographical, and political contexts in which they are undertaken * Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of twentieth and twenty-first century Brazilian urban configurations, grounded in an interdisciplinary approach to the topic and the ability to engage with a range of social and cultural formations * Argue at length and in detail about an aspect of the topic, supporting the argument with evidence from relevant social and cultural material and with opinions from secondary literature.
Skills
On successful completion of this module students should have demonstrated: - Interpretive and analytical skills through the critical analysis of varied examples of Brazilian urban occupations and representations - Organisational and time management skills through their use of non-contact time to effectively prepare for and meet deadlines for classes and assessments - Oral and written communication skills through participation in class discussions and completion of coursework assignments - Independent study skills through identifying and making appropriate use of relevant secondary materials - The ability to formulate independent views and their effective expression and deployment in verbal and written form - The ability to combine a variety of IT skills in researching and reporting on a topic (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Internet, etc).
Harry Belevan has written that the Fantastic mode of literature is revolutionary because it created a new type of reader, one attuned to the limits between reality and unreality in a text. With this in mind, this course begins with a reflection on the practice of close analysis in order to develop the tools of active reading that will allow a proper engagement with the rich tradition of lo fantástico in Latin America. Students will then learn how the Fantastic has been theorised by critics, before using this knowledge as a lens through which to explore a range of texts by some of Latin America’s most important cultural icons (e.g. Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar) and exciting new authors (e.g. Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enriquez).
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
• Provide a close reading of both image and text using a range of critical terminology
• Discuss and identify the most common characteristics of the Fantastic mode in literature and film
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the work of important, 20th century Latin American artists
• Argue at length and in detail about an aspect of the topic, supporting the argument with evidence from the text and with opinions from secondary literature
Skills
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
• Identify own areas of strength and interest
• Closely analyse the subtleties of a written text
• Undertake independent research
• Time management and working to deadlines
• Adopt a critical approach to the selection and organisation of a large body of material in order to produce a written argument of some complexity
• Extract relevant information for presentation and discussion based activities.
• Demonstrate ability to combine a variety of IT skills in researching and reporting on a topic (Word, PowerPoint, Internet)
Alexander The Great and the Creation of the Hellenistic World
Overview
An analytical survey of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern history from the conquest of the whole of Balkan Greece by Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, to the emergence of successor kingdoms within Alexander’s conquered territories after his death in 323 BC. After an introduction on sources and methodology, the course proceeds chronologically. Topics receiving special emphasis include: the rise, and the ultimate triumph, of Macedon over the Greek city-states; Alexander’s war against Persia and subsequent conquests; the fragmentation of Alexander’s empire after his death; and events in Sicily and the West (including the expansion of Rome in Italy).
Learning Outcomes
To apply objective historical methodology to a period of alleged decline in Greek history.
Skills
Skills of analysis and evaluation, in particular the organization and interpretation of widely scattered and fragmentary source material.
Spanish Memoirs and Autobiographies of the 20th Century
Overview
This module will focus on Spanish 20th century memoirs and autobiographies. Particular attention will be paid to the republican, francoist and democratic periods. The analysis will aim to situate this genre within the contexts both of literature and history of contemporary Spain.
Learning Outcomes
To introduce students to the autobiographical genres in relationship to Spanish society and politics. To enhance their capacity in dealing critically with literary and historical texts.
Skills
Literary analysis, writing of essays, presentation techniques, use of bibliographies, use of the Web.
• Songwriting nuts and bolts
• Recording Techniques/ Using the studio for writing
• Creativity with Sounds and Technology
• Creative Writing
• Crossing art forms
• Visiting songwriters
• Building portfolio
• Fortnightly assessments
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module students will be able:
(i) To apply a range of compositional and lyrical techniques to individual song-writing
(ii) To critically evaluate existing repertoire and learn from the song-writing of others
(iii) To demonstrate creativity in the use of technology and sounds in song-writing
(iv) To use the studio as a tool in song-writing
(v) To engage in crossing art forms in the song-writing process
(vi) To engage in the process of registering, marketing and publishing original songs
On completion of this module students will be able:
(i) To apply a range of compositional and lyrical techniques to individual song-writing
(ii) To critically evaluate existing repertoire and learn from the song-writing of others
(iii) To demonstrate creativity in the use of technology and sounds in song-writing
(iv) To use the studio as a tool in song-writing
(v) To engage in crossing art forms in the song-writing process
(vi) To engage in the process of registering, marketing and publishing original songs
On completion of this module students will be able:
(i) To apply a range of compositional and lyrical techniques to individual song-writing
(ii) To critically evaluate existing repertoire and learn from the song-writing of others
(iii) To demonstrate creativity in the use of technology and sounds in song-writing
(iv) To use the studio as a tool in song-writing
(v) To engage in crossing art forms in the song-writing process
(vi) To engage in the process of registering, marketing and publishing original songs
Skills
Students will:
(i) Possess high level transferable key skills such as the ability to work with others in a team, to communicate (both orally and in writing), influence, negotiate and resolve conflict.
(ii) Display interpersonal sensitivity, global and cultural awareness, moral and ethical awareness and being able to adjust behaviour accordingly.
(iii) Have the ability and desire to learn for oneself and improve one's self-awareness and performance, to uphold the values of lifelong learning and demonstrate emotional intelligence.
(iv) Demonstrate confidence and motivation to start and to finish the job, adaptability / flexibility, creativity, initiative, leadership, decision-making, negotiating and the ability to cope with stress.
(v) Demonstrate critical evaluation of the outcomes of professional practice.
(vi) Reflect on and evaluate their own practice.
The module focuses on the consolidation of technical skills in composition and on the development of an individual approach to composition. The module is aimed both at students who wish to progress to a Year 3 portfolio, and those who wish to gain further experience of composition-based skills that may be utilised elsewhere (teaching, arranging, media, etc)
Learning Outcomes
The module gives a deeper insight into compositional activity, both through study of existing work and in the application of technique learned. There is also some opportunity for practical experimentation through workshops.
Skills
The student acquires intellectual confidence through the decision-making involved in original composition, and applied skills through meeting the demanding standards of presentation required in practical contexts..
This Level 2 module introduces French postwar Film Noir and Crime Fiction. It will contextualize this cultural production within historical circumstances and trends of the period, such as American influences on French Culture, Existentialism, 'Leftism' and 'Néo-Noir'. Aesthestics of the 'Noir' genre will be studied through a variety of Media, including Film, Novel, Comics and Posters. Among the themes discussed will feature Depiction of the City, Slang ('argot') and Modern Morals.
Learning Outcomes
Students should, after completion of this module: have acquired an awareness of the relation between commercial culture and artistic culture; have gained an understanding of the process of reception and assimilation of foreign cultural products; be able to analyse how art forms converge in a cultural phenomenon such as the 'Noir'; be able to analyse different kinds of documents and draw upon relevant primary and secondary sources in order to present structured, cohesive arguments in oral and written form; have developed transferable skills in group work, time-management and in the use of Powerpoint.
Skills
Textual analysis skills; written and oral expression skills; critical analysis.
Through a series of lectures and practicals, this module will provide students with a flavour of some of the leading techniques and proxies used to reconstruct past environments. Lectures will present an overview of the methodological principles and applications, showcasing relevant scientific studies to illustrate the potential of the techniques. A field trip and practicals will provide students with hands-on experience, including coring, stratigraphic recording, proxy identification and analysis, and sample preparation. Relevant statistical and graphical techniques to interpret fossil proxy time series and put them onto secure time-scales will also be introduced. The practicals are intended to give students a taster for a range of palaeoenvironmental techniques that could be employed for their Level 3 dissertations.
Learning Outcomes
By completing this module, students will:
-obtain a greater understanding of past events of abrupt climate and environmental change, -obtain a greater understanding of how these events have been reconstructed from a range of fossil evidence, -be aware of the potential and limitations of fossil proxy evidence in informing us about environmental change, and -be able to put current climate change into a longer-term context.
Skills
Subject-specific skills
Hands-on experience with the most important proxies, produce and interpret fossil proxy diagrams, work with relevant software Cognitive skills Students will be able to assess, interpret and evaluate evidence from fossil proxy deposits for past events of abrupt climate change.
Transferable skills
Students will be able to use different pieces of software, and write succinct summaries of research.
This module examines a range of materials that includes: literature, textiles, and films/documentaries that explore the impact of social change, technology, and industry on the natural world in Latin America. Using the framework of environmental justice ecocriticism and moving from paradisiacal descriptions of Spanish America in the early colonial period to the protest movements of the 21st century, we will discuss how these genres may highlight the plight of local communities by using the arts (in their broadest sense) as a form of protest. The course will follow a theme of the four elements as part of the reflection on the interaction with the natural world: fire, air, earth, water.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students will:
• Demonstrate understanding of the general concepts of environmental justice ecocriticism and the application of this theory to text and image/film.
• Demonstrate understanding of a range of major environmental issues facing Latin America in a global context and based on a particular historical trajectory.
• Demonstrate understanding of and ability to work with the different approaches in text, textile, and film that seek to challenge and inform the reader/viewer of the social impact of environmental changes.
Skills
On successful completion of this module students should have developed a range of transferable and subject-specific skills:
• Research skills (locating relevant materials, organising material, use of databases and reference techniques)
• Independent thinking: analysing a variety of ideas and ability to address these ideas within the framework of an independently-constructed argument; implementation of research skills.
• Critical analysis: active reading, argument building.
• Written expression: analytical dexterity, fluency and coherence.
• Oral expression: presentation skills, clarity, succinctness, communication of argument.
• Creative expression through textile management.
Students should develop knowledge of twentieth-century social history through a case-study of Belfast. By conducting their own interview, and analysing those conducted by the other members of the group, students should develop a working knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of oral history as a research method and thus enhance their understanding of the broader methodological issues posed by research in modern social history. They should develop team-working skills (through collaborative research on their chosen topic), as well as their capacity for independent learning (through the conduct of one-to-one interviews and the transcription and analysis of those interviews). Oral presentational skills will be developed through reporting on work-in-progress in seminars. The module will, therefore, significantly enhance many of the skills related to the types of employment to which history graduates aspire, i.e. team-working, interpersonal skills, the ability to synthesize large bodies of information, and the compilation of written reports.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should have acquired the following skills:
Team-working (through collaborative research on your chosen topic)
A capacity for independent learning (through the conduct of one-to-one interviews and the transcription and analysis of those interviews).
Oral presentational and interpersonal skills will be developed through reporting on work-in-progress in seminars and by carrying interviewing.
The ability to synthesize large bodies of information
The ability to compile professionally prepared written reports.
Skills
Taking Recording History should enable students to:
develop skills in the collection and analysis of primary sources
gain experience of project management
develop research skills
gain experience of pitching project ideas in a non-academic context
develop experience of the professional compilation and presentation of research results, including footnoting, referencing
An exploration of linguistic varieties of contemporary French, including regional variation, the role of socioeconomic status, age, gender etc and varieties of French spoken outside France.
Learning Outcomes
A detailed critical understanding of linguistic varieties of contemporary French, including phonological, syntactic and lexical variation.
Skills
Marshalling and synthesising diverse material; critical awareness; skills in written and oral expression, and in linguistic analysis.
This is a skills based course, which looks at how theatre and drama techniques may be used in an educational setting as both an aesthetic encounter and a learning tool. In experiencing the key techniques of the practice, students will also examine its history as a form and the theoretical principles on which it is based. Students will work in groups to devise and deliver a drama workshop in a real school setting targeted at Primary, Key Stage 3 or GCSE Levels.
Learning Outcomes
Students will acquire an understanding of the practice of theatre-in-education in a national and international context
Students will acquire a basic competency in the practices and techniques of theatre-in-education
Students will acquire an understanding of the history and techniques of process drama.
Students will acquire a basic competency in some of the techniques used in process drama
Understanding 20th Century Mexico through Art, Film and Literature
Overview
This module introduces students to key moments in Mexican history and cultural production through the study of art, film and literature.
The module will introduce students to a selection (typically three or four) of the following topics:
The Mexican Revolution
The Rights and Experiences of Indigenous Populations
1968, the Mexico Olympics, Student Movements and Tlatelolco
Migration, Border Crossing and Border Culture
The Zapatista Uprising
Mexico’s Dirty War
Mexico City becomes a mega city
Inserting women into Mexican history
NAFTA, maquiladoras and femicide
Communism, Fascism, and the Spanish Civil War exiles in Mexico
Workers’ Movements and Workers’ Rights
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the course, student should:
• Be able to demonstrate an understanding of a selection of key moments in 20th century Mexican history
• Understand how cultural production (art, film and literature) has responded to a selection of key moments in 20th century Mexican history.
• Be able to use their knowledge of the set texts to construct an argument on a given topic.
• Understand individual texts and the contexts and critical debates surrounding them.
• Have demonstrated the ability to read and understand works of fiction and academic criticism in Spanish.
• At an advanced level students should have acquired an appreciation of the complex relationships and dialogues between texts and reality.
Skills
On successful completion of the course, student should be able to:
• Articulate ideas and arguments in written form using evidence from primary and secondary literature as appropriate
• Prepare presentations and handouts suitable for a specified purpose or audience
• Interpret texts in different media using appropriate critical vocabulary and terminology
• Be able to recognise and explain nuance and ambiguity in texts
• Adjust their writing style for different purposes
• At an advanced level students should be able to point out shortcomings in scholarly literature and analysis
• Read complex texts in Spanish
Building on skills acquired at Level 1, this module aims to develop more advanced language skills in spoken and written language. Students will be required to take on increasingly complex tasks which require them to be aware of and use different written and spoken styles and registers. Task will promote linguistic, sociolinguistic and cultural awareness at a more advanced level. The module will contain the following elements:
1. Text-based class – (1 hour a week).
This class will focus on developing skills in reading, writing, literary and non literary translation. Students will be required to read and respond to texts which deal with current issues in Spanish speaking countries in Europe and Latin America.
2. Translation into English Workshop ( 1 hr per week)
Students will develop their ability to respond to a range of source text types of an appropriate level of difficulty, grouped according to the course themes. They will also develop editing skills and improve their expression in English. Study of Spanish grammar in context will be embedded into the class.
3. Oral class ( 1 hr per week)
This class will encourage students to develop their skills in spoken language with an emphasis on being able to communicate information and a point of view and on eliminating basic errors from spoken language as well as developing fluency in spoken Spanish
4. Cursillo ( 1 hr per week)
This class will focus on preparing students for the year abroad and on highlighting and developing the professional skills which students develop as a result of studying Spanish at degree level
There will be an extra hour of language tuition for ex-beginners
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the modules students should:
1. be able to demonstrate a level of fluency, accuracy and spontaneity in speech and writing, and a wide range of vocabulary and expression, so as to be able to discuss a range of complex issues.
2. be able to read a wide variety of Spanish texts (fiction and non fiction) and identify important information and ideas within them.
3. be able to demonstrate a good grasp of structures of the language covered in the module and identify and use appropriate reference works including dictionaries and grammars.
4. be able to organise and present a coherent argument in Spanish relating to topics covered in the course, and present their knowledge and ideas in a range of formats and registers
Skills
On successful completion of the modules students should have developed the following range of skills: Translation skills; text analysis; essay writing; lexicographical skills; report writing skills; IT skills; presentation skills; spoken language skills - including practical language knowledge for living and working abroad
This module aims to build on foundational skills developed at Level 1, placing these within the wider context of performance and theatre production. Lectures and workshops will be themed around a menu of key skill areas and students will select from these according to their specialist interests. The module will provide an understanding of the evolution of the philosophy and practice of actor training in terms of the cardinal figures in the field.
Learning Outcomes
During the course of this module you will develop an understanding of the theory and practice of selected modern acting techniques and an overview of approaches to acting from Stanislavsky and Meisner. You will also explore a practical interaction with another actor in performance.
Skills
You should have developed your teamworking, communication and problem-solving skills to a high level.
This module will explore the relationship between Drama and mental health regarding the historical development of both subjects and their interrelationship in contemporary healthcare practice. Students will analyse key theories and practices in Drama by variously engaging with both canonical and contemporary plays that engage with mental health and its vicissitudes. Students will be trained in key aspects of acting that pertain to the on-stage performance of the interior life of characters constructed for performance. Students will have the opportunity to work with staff who engage with mental health in various subject areas across QUB and local health and social care trusts. Students will engage with the intersection between aesthetic performance and professional training in health and social care to gain a unique insight into how dramatic art can impact positively on mental health.
Learning Outcomes
In completing this module, students should be able to demonstrate, where appropriate, knowledge and understanding in a range of the following areas:
• critical awareness of research methodologies and methods used to investigate Drama and mental health;
• a range of key components of performance within Drama to include: ideational sources, body, space, image, sound, text, movement, environment;
• applications of performance in educational, community and social contexts and pedagogical perspectives as appropriate to Drama education;
• the use of group processes in the creation of work including working collectively, co-creation and hierarchical and non-hierarchical structures;
• the interdisciplinary elements of drama and how to apply appropriate knowledge, concepts and skills from other disciplines.
Skills
Students will be able to demonstrate the following:
• engaging in performance and production, based on acquisition and understanding of appropriate performance and production vocabularies, skills, structures, working methods and research paradigms;
• describing, theorising, interpreting and evaluating performance texts and events from a range of critical and technical perspectives and using appropriate subject-specific vocabularies;
• analysing the role which drama may play in contributing to debates on mental health;
• questioning the ethical implications and appropriateness of performance work to ensure activities are undertaken in safe and supported environments for specific audiences and participants.
Students will have the ability to:
• work in planned and improvisatory ways, to anticipate and accommodate change, ambiguity, creative risk-taking, uncertainty and unfamiliarity;
• operate and think reflexively, creatively, critically and technically to develop ideas and construct arguments;
• effectively lead, facilitate, participate, and problem solve within team working contexts;
• recognise situational and interpersonal factors and how these can be effectively accommodated to facilitate productive working relationships;
• articulate ideas and communicate information comprehensibly in visual, physical, oral and textual forms;
• critically use information retrieval skills, involving the ability to gather, sift, manipulate, synthesise, evaluate and organise material.
This Level 2 Film Studies and Production module aims to introduce students to the importance of animated feature films, through a specific focus on the American animation industry. The module will cover the history and development of American animation through a series of case studies to engage with recurring themes, artistry and the digital revolution. Students will also be introduced to key directors and studios that have influenced and defined the contemporary landscape of the American animation industry, such as Walt Disney, Pixar Animation Studios and DreamWorks Animation. Students will gain broader insight into the trends of popular cinema and the industrial processes of mainstream animation.
Learning Outcomes
On Completion of this module, the learner will be able to demonstrate:
1. a clear knowledge and understanding of the contemporary history and significance of the American animated film industry;
2. an ability to evaluate the narrative, aesthetic, and cultural challenges to dominant animation production studios and practices;
3. critical awareness of how animated film forms and genres relate to concepts such as the still, the moving image, the frame, animism, and utopia;
4. Enhanced understanding of the visual, audio and verbal conventions through which animated images make meaning;
5. Enhance skills in written, oral and visual communication.
Skills
In taking this module, the learner will acquire and enhance their skills in:
• Critical thinking
• Visual Analysis
• Research
• Written and oral presentation
This module introduces students to the extraordinary diversity and achievement of Irish literature, from the Act of Union in 1800 to the late twentieth century. The module is chronologically structured, and places particular emphasis on situating texts in their wider historical contexts, as well as developing their relations to broader European movements and traditions. Encompassing poetry, fiction, and drama, the module considers a range of themes, such as romanticism, gender, the gothic, cultural nationalism, the politics of modernity, liminality and exile, and northern perspectives on an Irish tradition. Writers studied will include W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module the student should have an ability to set Irish literature in its historical context; an ability to make connections between differing genres of Irish writing; an ability to scrutinise the politics of Irish writing.
Skills
On completion of this module you should have an ability to set Irish literature in its historical context; an ability to make connections between differing genres of Irish writing and an ability to scrutinise the politics of Irish writing.
The American political system is in many ways exceptional and has throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries exerted an increasingly global influence. Peoples worldwide have looked to America as an example of a resilient democracy, based on that peculiar combination of egalitarianism and liberty, community and individualism of which Tocqueville and others so highly spoke. The American republic has since its inception claimed to represent universal aspirations to democracy and freedom. Since the very beginning, however, a triumphal account of American democracy and its liberal tradition has coexisted uncomfortably with institutions of slavery and racial segregation, persistent inequalities and controversial ‘foreign entanglements’. American democracy has endured, yet it is often criticised for what it has become.
The American Civil War was the bloody resolution to a national deadlock over slavery and states’ rights but did not end institutional discrimination. Victory in World War II entrenched America’s role as the world’s leading military and economic power, from which emerged a prosperous middle-class society but, in turn, also tumultuous social change that would eventually result in historically high levels of polarisation. American wealth has dominated the global economy but coexists with high levels of socioeconomic inequality and widespread marginalisation, intensifying scrutiny of the country’s claim to being a democratic exemplar. While American ‘exceptionalism’ still underpins national politics, increasing socio-cultural, political, economic and ideological divisions pose a serious challenge to American democracy from within.
Learning Outcomes
This module is a survey course, introducing students to the American political system and current debates about democracy in America. Students will acquire an understanding of the key institutions of the American political system, its origin and evolving dynamics. Students will become familiar with contemporary debates on the nature of democracy and the democratic process in America, including controversies surrounding a range of socio-economic developments and related policy processes.
Skills
This module will assist in developing students’ skills in a number of important areas. These include:
Intellectual skills
• Managing & Prioritizing Knowledge: identify relevant and subject-specific knowledge, sources and data; manage such information in an independent manner
• Analytical Thinking: identify, understand, interpret and evaluate relevant subject-specific arguments made by others; construct independent arguments
• Critical & Independent Thinking: ability to think critically and construct one’s own position in relation to existing and ongoing debates in the field
Professional and career development skills
• Communication Skills: ability to communicate clearly with others, both orally and in writing
• Self-Reflexivity: ability to reflect on one’s own progress and identify and act upon one’s own development needs with respect to life-long learning and career development
Organizational skills
• Efficient and effective work practice: demonstrate ability to work efficiently to deadlines
• Clear organisation of information: show efficiency in the organisation of large amounts of complex information and the ability to identify, describe and analyse the key features of the information
• Organisation and communication: demonstrate ability to use evidence to develop logical and clear arguments; show aptitude for the effective use of information in a direct and appropriate way
• Enterprising thinking: Demonstrate ability to think and argue in novel and enterprising ways, to display originality of thought and argument and the ability to clearly support arguments in innovative ways
This module introduces students to the drama of the English Renaissance. It explores texts by a wide range of authors, including Shakespeare, Cary, Marlowe, Middleton, Rowley and Webster and examines the forces working on drama in the early modern period. Lectures will provide an introduction to the dramatic form, close readings of the set plays, and readings in relation to contemporary issues such as nationality, authority, desire, religion, sexuality, gender, strangeness, race, identity, social standing, fantasy, magic and taboo.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this module, students should have learned how to study dramatic form and how to relate a text to its context. Through class discussion and formative assessments, you should have further developed your oral and written communication skills.
Skills
To familiarize students with the range of drama produced during the English Renaissance; to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to undertake Renaissance modules in Stage 3.
The module introduces students to the area of policing and explores the main theories, concepts and debates in this field. The first half of the course begins by exploring the origins of policing, the relationship between policing and broader social factors, police work, police culture and concerns about police accountability and legitimacy. The second half of the course will examine the cost of policing, the use of performance indicators, policing controversies, the globalisation of policing methods and the increasing privatisation of policing. In particular, the experiences of Northern Ireland, Britain and Ireland will be used to highlight the importance of these topics.
Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate a knowledge of relevant theories, concepts and debates within policing.
2. Critically analyse policing practices.
Skills
1. To develop analytical and oral skills through participation in lectures and tutorials.
2. To develop an ability to write in a clear, structured and critical manner utilising a wide range of source material.
3. To develop the ability to find and evaluate academic materials in the area of policing.
4. To be able to use information technology to gather, organise and evaluate information.
5. To develop the ability to work independently and in collaboration with others.
