Gain an understanding of late 20th-Century Britain by exploring some of the key themes in its social and cultural history during the period c.1979-1990. You will develop skills in working with primary and secondary sources, and the ability to communicate ideas effectively.
Develop an understanding of early 20th-century British history by exploring some of the key themes in social and cultural history during the period c.1900-1950. You will hone your skills in three key areas: identification and engagement with secondary sources, identification and analysis of primary sources and the ability to communicate ideas both orally and in writing.
This module covers the key movements for political change in the British Isles over the period from the Wilkesite protests of the 1760s to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Your studies will encompass movements such as those mounted by Christopher Wyvill?s Yorkshire Association, radical movements for universal suffrage such as Chartism and violent action against the state and its functionaries such as the Despard Conspiracy, and revolutionary movements, including Irish Republicanism.
Study an overview of the main themes of gender history from the late 19th-century to the end of the 20th century, and how cultural constructions of gender identity have changed over that time. You will tackle broad themes such as work, sex, family life, war and politics, and gender in `Western' society (broadly defined as Western Europe (including Britain), North America and Australasia).
Engage with a comparative perspectives by considering the connections between revolutionary upheavals in North America, Europe and Latin America. This module will emphasise the ways these revolutions were linked and what they had in common. You will explore a number of key themes including race, political relationships, national identity, class and gender through which to evaluate the similarities and differences between revolutions in America, France and Haiti.
This module will cover themes of change in European history during the `Age of Revolutions', namely the period between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the completion of national unifications in Italy and Germany by 1871. You will focus on the development of new political ideologies, the impact of economic and social and economic change, the advance of communications technology, cultural conflict, and reflections of all of these themes through the art and architecture of the period.
Explore the ideological challenges posed by communism and fascism to liberal democracy in the 20th century. In particular, you will focus on the `Age of Extremes' (1918-1991), in which authoritarian ideologies of the left and right embraced mass politics and offered alternative visions of social and political organisation that directly challenged the hegemony of the liberal-capitalist order. This module will enable you to question the usefulness of totalitarianism as a concept to understanding this era in history.
Study how labour in the British empire was extracted by coercive means through four main case studies: slave societies in the Caribbean, colonial Indian indentureship, slavery at the Cape between the 17th and 19th centuries and forced labour in West Africa during the interwar and World War II period. You will examine the development of slave systems and other mechanisms to compel colonised people to work, the economic and ideological rationale behind transitions to enslaved labour, the ways in which slaveholders, planters and overseers controlled workers and the many ways in which workers resisted their bondage. This module also considers the creation of new identities and cultures amongst slaves and other unfree labourers, the different experiences of men and women, and the rise of British anti-slavery from the 18th up to the mid-20th century.
Engage with historiographical debates which challenge long-held historical assumptions of an imperial/metropolitan divide. You will examine the role of the empire in British social, political, cultural and material life and how the relation between metropole and colony was experienced and expressed in everyday practices, such as consumer culture and popular entertainment. You will use a wide range of primary sources including visual, media and literary material. This module will explore and problematise how the empire is presented and preserved today by encouraging you to reflect critically on how histories, objects and perceptions of empire are presented in the 21st century in institutions where collections of empire are displayed.
Examine the origins, implementation and aftermaths of genocide by engaging extensively with historiography and contemporary debates about victims and perpetrators, the `grey zone? of resistance, collaboration and survival, and particularly the politics of remembrance. This module will also encourage you to critically examine why past genocides, such as the Nazi Holocaust, have assumed such importance in contemporary society. You will engage with debates about the politics of commemoration requiring the use of theory and empirical evidence and consider the language and history of remembrance in relation to genocide.
Develop your historical research skill set through online lab sessions in which you will apply your learning from lectures. You will explore how to create a website using a content management system, how to use digital libraries such as JSTOR, how to use apps to understand specific landscapes of enquiry over time and the possibilities presented by virtual reality for research and research communication.
Study how different media, including visual art, material culture and literary fiction, shaped and interpreted the modern British landscape. Reflecting recent trends in social and cultural history, you will look at the history of material forms, from water to electricity, and of the senses through which the environment has been apprehended. You will then consider the conservation and the place of landscape in contemporary policy-making.
Explore issues of context - what it is, where it comes from and what its relation is to other forms of information. You will develop strong research skills by taking a theoretically informed approach to contextual study of literature.
Gain an understanding of 'postcolonial' literature and the conceptual and critical vocabulary you'll need to read and analyse texts from formerly colonised regions of the world.
Explore key features and phenomena of literature in the 18th century. You'll study topics such as the rise of the novel form, the development of the Gothic, and the early Romantic movement in Britain. Focusing on new literary emergences, this module will explain these in historical terms as you draw on key theoretical and critical debates on the period.
Study a selection of literature of the 20th century and examine how people wrote about some of the key events of the period, such as WWI, WWII, post-war austerity and the Cold War. You'll understand key terms such as modernism and postmodernism. You'll consider texts that focus on the idea of alienation and dystopia and the place of the individual in society. You'll also explore why writers of the period turned to imagining the future in order to express their concerns with the present moment.
Explore and unpack the idea of 'black' writing as a complex notion by studying texts published in Britain over a long historical period. You'll practise effectively communicating critical insights into the historic marginalisation of black voices in English (especially British) literature, and/or understand the importance of such voices, past and present, in contemporary society through working on simulated 'live-briefs'.
Understand the way that humanities disciplines and skills intersect with a range of professional working contexts. You will complete 36 hours of live-brief learning to gain first-hand experience of planning, delivery and evaluating a professional working brief set by an industry partner organisation. You will work as a group across 10 weeks alongside a tutor to design, deliver, present and evaluate the brief to industry standards. As well as conducting a reflective case study of your brief, you will complete a CV, cover letter, LinkedIn profile and undertake a recorded mock interview.
