Politics, International Relations and Modern Languages (Spanish)

Core Modules

Year 1

All languages we teach have a beginners' and post-A Level, and native speaker level pathway in Year 1, allowing you to study one language ab initio (intensively, from scratch). From Year 2 onwards all students take the same language modules, regardless of your Year 1 pathway.

• Introduction to International Relations

  This module offers a broad introduction to theory and history in international relations since 1870. You will look at a variety of different theoretical lenses, ranging from orthodox to critical perspectives, in order to understand events from the collapse of the Bismarckian European order and the origins of World War 1 to the contemporary War on Terror. Along the way you will also explore the origins and the end of the Cold War, decolonisation and the End of Empire, the rise of international institutions, humanitarian intervention and new security issues.

• Introduction to Politics and Government

  This module will introduce you to the academic study of politics and to the ‘real world’ of contemporary politics. As a foundational course, it will give you all the essential tools to understand the nature of politics and analyse the way different political systems work. You will be introduced to key concepts such as politics, power, rights, ideologies, democracy and representation, and will learn about the different actors, institutions and processes that make up politics today.

• Spanish Language: Culture and Translation

  The module develops students' command of both Spanish-English translation and critical analysis of Spanish-language material by exposing them to a range of source material which might include prose fiction, poetry, drama, film, graphic novels, multimedia and web content, and newspaper and magazine articles.

• Spanish Ab Initio Written I

  The module aims to develop reading and writing skills in Spanish. Classes use Spanish as much as possible and the module is assessed in Spanish. The module uses a blended approach: it is based on a beginners' coursebook with additional material on Moodle and as weekly hand-outs based on authentic material. Themes studied vary from year to year but are likely to include every-day life in Spain, an introduction to Spanish-speaking society and culture, regions and traditions.

• Spanish Ab Initio Oral I

  The module aims to develop speaking and listening skills in Spanish. Classes use Spanish as much as possible and the module is assessed in Spanish. The module uses a blended approach: it is based on a beginners' coursebook with additional material on Moodle and as weekly hand-outs based on authentic material. Themes studied vary from year to year but are likely to include every-day life in Spanish-speaking countries, an introduction to Spanish-speaking society and culture, regions and traditions.

• Spanish Advanced Written I

  The module aims to expand students’ ability to express themselves in accurate written Spanish. Major grammatical issues will be taught and/or revised, and students will work on a wide range of authentic material in Spanish to expand their vocabulary and range of expressions. Key linguistic features of the texts will be identified and discussed to improve the student’s language acquisition and analysis skills.  The module will be taught and assessed in Spanish.

   

• Spanish Advanced Oral I

  The module aims to expand students’ ability to express themselves in accurate spoken Spanish. Students will work on a wide range of authentic material in Spanish to expand their vocabulary and range of expressions and to introduce them to contemporary issues and culture. The module will be taught and assessed in Spanish.

Year 2

• Understanding the European Union: Politics and Theory

  In this module you will analyse the contemporary politics of the European Union and its institutions, amid the challenges of the triple crisis of economics, migration and Brexit. You will learn about the political history of European integration after 1949 and the contemporary theory of European integration. The first term will begin with an introduction to the European Union as a political system followed by an overview of the European Union's historical development. The second term will focus on contestation of the European Union and the theories that underpin this, in order to explain how the EU developed and the challenges that it faces. Topics will include Euroscepticism, party politics, public opinion, Brexit and EU-UK relations, and European Parliament elections. The theory sessions comprise of federalism, neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism and the new institutionalisms.

• Spanish II

  In this module you’ll learn to demonstrate good lexical and grammatical competence in the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Spanish. You’ll learn to understand and communicate effectively in Spanish across a complete range of tenses and will participate competently in conversation with a native speaker.

• Advanced Spanish Translation: Skills and Practice

Year 3

• Year Abroad

  You will spend the third year of your degree programme abroad, either studying, working, or both, based on your own learning preferences as well as your professional goals and interests. It is usually expected that you will spend at least nine months in a country where the native language is the same as the language you are studying. The Year Abroad allows you to expand and refine your existing linguistic competencies in the relevant target language alongside the development of intercultural competency and employability skills. The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures will support you in finding a suitable study or work placement, or you may explore opportunities independently. This year forms an integral part of your degree programme and will be formally assessed.

Year 4

• European Union Public Policy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of regulation in the European Union, including delivery of policy and administration. You will look at how the world's largest market operates, with a focus on EU public policy, including de-regulation, re-regulation, budgets and spending. You will examine the concept of the single market, the Euro and its crisis, justice, home affairs and counter-terrorism, the EU budget, agriculture, regional development, and social and environmental policies.

• Spanish III

  This module is taught entirely in Spanish and provides a variety of formal grammar lectures, written and oral classes. You’ll demonstrate lexical and grammatical competence in the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Spanish and will learn to understand and communicate fluently in Spanish across a complete range of tenses. You’ll participate in conversation with a native speaker and will learn awareness of key cultural aspects of the Hispanic world.

Optional Modules

Below is a taster of some of the exciting optional modules that students on the course could choose from during this academic year. Please be aware these do change over time, and optional modules may be withdrawn or new ones added.

Year 1

Optional modules in Spanish may include:

• Passion and Betrayal on the Spanish Stage
• Comparative Hispanic Culture

  The module provides a selective but wide-ranging introduction to culture in the Hispanic world from the 15th to the 21st century. It explores a broad range of cultural manifestations from different socio-historical contexts both independently and comparatively from a topic-based perspective. Materials may include plays, narratives, poems, paintings, sculptures, musical compositions and architectural works, while topics may be drawn from (but not be limited to) the following: ‘Discovery’, ‘Destruction’, ‘Subversion’, ‘Self-fashioning’, ‘Power’ and ‘the Body’.

• Spanish Language: Culture and Translation

  The module develops students' command of both Spanish-English translation and critical analysis of Spanish-language material by exposing them to a range of source material which might include prose fiction, poetry, drama, film, graphic novels, multimedia and web content, and newspaper and magazine articles.

• Culture and Identity in Latin America

  Students on this module will be introduced to some of the most important literary, visual and cinematic works from twentieth century Latin America. The works from selected writers pertaining to the Latin American Literary Boom will feature on this module, as well as some of the Nobel Prize winning poets from Latin America. Students on this module will be provided with samples of the artistic wealth (both in styles and techniques) from artists across the Latin American continent. Attention will be paid to the question of identity as reflected in the cinemas of Cuba and Mexico; two of the most important film industries from Spanish speaking America.

• Text and Image In The Hispanic World
• Visual Cultures: Visualising Cuba

Year 2

• Democracy in Britain

  Democracy in Britain explores the theory and practice of modern British politics. It’s designed primarily to familiarise students with the ways in which British democracy has evolved, how it operates today and some of the challenges that confront it. You’ll gain knowledge of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the political system and you’ll learn about how and why the system operates in the way it does, the quality of contemporary democratic governance and key features of political behaviour in Britain. The first half of the module will focus on the character, development and institutions of Britain’s ‘traditional’ democratic system. The second half will focus on dynamic elements of British democracy, including political parties and party competition, political and especially voting behaviour, and attitudes towards democracy.

• Contemporary Political Theory

  This module concerns the theories underlying discussion of political problems and issues today. Examining a range of key ideas and the thinkers who have developed them, the module will consider what lies at the roots of contemporary debates about laws, policies, protest, and resistance, and it will it enable you to make sense of these debates. Topics covered will likely include liberty, equality, human rights, punishment, democracy, gender, race, multiculturalism and cultural hegemony, civil disobedience, resistance and political violence – as well as other issues in domestic and international justice. Throughout, the module aims to show how abstract theories have practical relevance, and conversely how questions about what states, citizens and other actors ought to do are illuminated by thinking about them theoretically. In general, it offers a broad survey of political theorising today.

• International Political Economy

  This module examines the relationship between states and markets, power and wealth, in International Political Economy (IPE). You’ll be introduced to the key concepts and theoretical debates in IPE. It tackles issues such as the globalisation of trade, finance, and production, the continued problems of development and democratic governance in the world economy, and emerging questions surrounding global flows, networks and spaces. You’ll explore the history of regimes, crises, and competing theories of political economy from the nineteenth century to the present day. Throughout the module the emphasis is on how political institutions operate in international politics to regulate the creation of wealth, and who benefits from these arrangements.

• War and Security in World Politics

  This module provides a comprehensive overview of Security Studies as a field of International Relations. You’ll start by examining the issue of security and key security issues and then move on to look at more general theories of security and how these have changed, especially in an age of terrorism. The second half of the module will focus on the sub-field of military innovation studies as states around the world renew their focus on conventional/hybrid warfare and defence spending rises. It will explore the defence reforms of major powers including Britain, China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the USA. We will examine the content and sources of change in defence policy, including changes to the objectives of defence policy, military procurement, force structures, and military doctrine. The module will analyse the extent to which these reforms have helped states concerned to deliver defence and security policy and the factors which facilitate effective innovation, emulation and adaptation within military organisations. It also explores the challenges that states face in mobilising societies to face contemporary security threats.

• Modern Political Thought

  This module introduces students to major political thinkers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including the works of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, and Douglass. The module will introduce you to the themes, argumentative strategies, and critical interpretations of these thinkers, and critically assess these interpretations against the texts themselves. It also aims to show how study of these thinkers illuminates contemporary discussion of freedom, pluralism, sovereignty, and legitimacy, even where no reference is made to them.

• Introduction to Political Communication

  The purpose of this module is to provide a broad overview of how citizens, politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and governing periods. The first part of the module will focus on the production and consumption of political news, while the second part will address campaigns and their effects as well as focusing on contemporary debates in political communication, including ethical issues. While the module will cover key aspects of political communication in the United Kingdom, the focus will be mostly comparative across countries. Seminars are centred on practical activities that allow students to apply the knowledge presented in the module to contemporary real-world examples of political communication in action. Examples include analysis of political speeches, advertisements, candidate debates, campaign strategies, and news coverage of political issues.

• Government and Politics of the United States

  This module introduces institutions and politics of the United States. It offers a thorough grounding in the empirical and theoretical literature on American politics. The module covers the Constitution, Congress, the Presidency and federal bureaucracy, separation of powers, federalism and state governments, the Supreme Court, elections, political parties, the media, and interest groups. By the end of the module, you’ll be prepared to engage knowledgeably with American political news and to tackle advanced modules in American Political Development and/or US Foreign Policy. This is a good all-round introduction to one of the world’s most influential democracies.

• Politics Outside the West

  This module is a key bridge between the first year modules in comparative politics and international relations and the third year modules in the politics of Africa, China, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. It is designed to equip you with a critical understanding of the most important features of the history of international development which build the foundations of our modern world: the transition from empires to states, colonialism, de-colonisation, and the subsequent post-colonial political issues facing the Global South. This means you don’t necessarily learn about politics “outside the West”, as if it’s a phenomenon separate from the West, but, instead, develop ideas of politics and international relations from the vantage point of the Global South, including its prominent political thinkers.

• 20th-Century Mexican Visual Arts and Film

  During the module attention will be devoted to analysing samples from early Twentieth century Mexican visual arts. Students will study the Mexican Mural Movement and will analyse the work of its most prominent members. Attention will be paid to the works of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. The first part of this module will also cover the photographic works of Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tina Modotti, Mariana Yampolski, Araceli Herrera and Graciela Iturbide. During the second part of this module students will be introduced to some of the most significant cinematic works from Mexico’s century of filmmaking. Students will analyse some of the most important filmic genres from a wide range of directors and periods in Mexican cinematic history. On this module students will be introduced to some areas of film theory and will learn how to apply theoretical concepts to a reading of Mexican visual arts and films.

• Rebels, Revolution & Representation in Latin America

  On this module students will examine the ways in which critical historical moments in Latin America have been represented visually in a global context. We will explore how political unrest in Latin America has been memorialised by both filmmakers and photographers, with the aim of re-thinking how global imaginaries concerning the rebel and revolution have been constructed in film and photography.

• Constructing Identity in Contemporary Spanish Film

  In this module students will study films from the last twenty years in Spain. The films selected will in different ways express representations of identity in Spain. We will explore issues such as national and regional identities, linguistic diversity and national identity, Spanishness, cultural memory, history on screen, urban versus rural experience, cultural diversity, immigration and the portrayal of gender within new family paradigms.

Year 4

• European Union Foreign Policy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of the European Union's foreign relations, focussing on political, security and economic impacts. You will examine its international role, looking at the Common Foreign and Security Policy, its relationship with NATO, the USA and Russia, its connection to immediate neighbours in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, and its role in global trade negotiations.

• Power and Money in the European Union
• Politics and/or International Relations Dissertation

  The dissertation offers you the opportunity to pursue independent research in a topic of your own choosing with the support of an academic supervisor working one-to-one with you. You will develop your own research question and research strategy, explore the scholarly debates surrounding your topic, and advance your own thesis that interprets or challenges the way your topic has been understood. You are encouraged to use a variety of quantitative or qualitative methods and theoretical approaches as appropriate to the field you are exploring.

• US Foreign Policy - History

  This course provides third-year undergraduate students with a highly advanced knowledge of the key concepts, history, themes and contemporary issues in US foreign policy. This course will familiarize students with theoretical explanations of US foreign policy, historical and contemporary American thinking on international affairs, the structure of foreign policy making in Washington DC, as well as some of the major challenges facing contemporary American policy-makers. The reading list for this course is extensive, and you will be expected to work diligently to accomplish the course aims.

• Young People's Politics

  The module opens with an introduction and asks What is Young People’s Politics? It then branches out to consider youth, citizenship and democracy, exploring the theoretical and empirical issues that define citizenship in contemporary democracies, focusing on issue that particularly effect young people (especially those raised in the Youth Citizenship Commission). The focus is extended to youth participation in politics, primarily Electoral Politics (e.g. voting, party membership). We will question how and why youth participation in electoral politics has altered. Why did it decline so rapidly after 1997? We will then explore youth participation in politics further by looking at new forms of participation, asking: how has youth participation in non-electoral forms of politics changed in recent decades? What is distinctive about youth participation in politics (e.g. Pattie et al. 2004). Do these changes strengthen or weaken democracy? This leads us to a focus on new values and lifestyles (e.g. increasing prominence of post-materialist concerns versus consumerism). We will question how have changing values and lifestyles impacted upon political participation amongst young people? To what extent are these changes distinctive?

  We will then move on to examine a new state and consider how the relationship between the state and the citizen (and young people, in particular) has changed in recent years (e.g. developments in the welfare state and public services – in particular, youth-focuses services - and in notions of rights and responsibilities e.g. welfare-to-work)? We will ask how has this impacted upon young people’s engagement in politics and society? We then move on to a new democracy, considering how political responsibility has changed/been undermined in recent years (in particular, the transfer of political power to the EU, the international level and NGOs and the changing nature of news media). We will explore what opportunities young people have (or have lost) for engaging in this democracy. The course develops a focus on reform, the Supply-Side (focusing on issues raised by Power Inquiry and Youth Citizenship Commission) and evaluates measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to make electoral politics more attractive to young people. We then propose further measures to improve the situation. The focus on reform continues with the Demand-Side (focusing on education/citizenship education, and the recent International Civic and Citizenship Education Study study). We will evaluate measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to reengage young people in civil society and/or electoral politics. We will again propose further measures to improve the situation. Our final focus will be on young people's politics beyond the UK, looking at how the disengagement of young people in politics has developed (e.g. the US Civic and Political Health of the Nation Report). We will consider how this has been addressed in other countries, proposing lessons that may be drawn by the UK.

• Leadership, Power and the British Prime Ministership
  The course’s primary purpose is to provide students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British prime ministership. It will help students to evaluate the problems of leadership in an advanced industrial democracy and to critically evaluate the performance of those holding executive office. The course will cover both the institutional characteristics and development of the office of prime minister, the organisation and structure of the political executive and the prime ministership’s relationship with other key actors, such as ministers, parliament and the media. The course will also engage with claims about the ‘personalisation’ and ‘presidentialisation’ of British politics. At the same time, the course is designed to introduce students to a more focused range of literature and to develop students’ own awareness of the political-science research process. To this end, it will encourage students to confront issues of conceptualisation and measurement through class activities, as well as highlighting the problems and pitfalls of taking models and frameworks of analysis from other systems and applying them to the British prime ministership.
• Visual Politics

  There is an urgent need for critical examination of the role of visual media in politics. Many argue that ‘the power of images’ has policymakers, journalists and citizens spellbound. For others, thanks to media technologies it has never been easier for ordinary people to create, disseminate, play with and contest political images. This course examines the role of visual materials and practices in politics and international relations. Students will become familiar with research traditions in the discipline of Politics and IR that engage with visual media, how they conceptualise and conduct research, and the limitations of those traditions. The first half of the course covers core problems and theories and the second half covers methods and case studies. The course is comparative, examining how visual media have operated in different historical eras of politics and across policy issue areas. Assessment by way of traditional essay and online visual story (via Storify) will enable students to demonstrate their understanding of the course content.

  The course is structured as follows and opens with an introduction to visual political communication and moves on to explore producing Images; consuming Images; images, identity and power; and political icons. The course then examines quantitative and qualitative visual methods; environmental politics; welfare politics; nuclear politics; and global crises.

• American Political Development
• The Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe

  This course introduces students to key developments and topics in the politics of post-communist Russia and Eastern Europe. Part I of the course focuses on how communist legacies and modes of post-communist transition shaped the region’s different political systems. Students will engage with current academic debates on Europeanisation processes in Central and Eastern Europe and the specific post-communist trajectory of Russian domestic politics. Part II explores key topics in contemporary post-communist politics, such as for example: transitions to capitalism, inequality and corruption; elections and the peculiarities of post-communist party systems; nationalism, the politics of memory, and minorities; communist and post-communist gender politics; political participation and grassroots politics; and the latest scholarly debates on the perceived democratic backsliding of the region. The course foresees a strong component of student participation, with student-led case-study presentations, comparison-oriented class discussions on the weekly theme, and two substantial pieces of assessed coursework. By the end of this course students will have a nuanced understanding of post-communist politics in the region and will be able to compare both within the region and with countries outside the region.

• Political Theories of Freedom

  This module critically examines different theoretical understandings of freedom, together with their strengths and limitations. It falls into two parts. Part 1 examines liberal understandings of freedom, and part 2 looks at contrasting non-liberal and republican accounts. It does so by considering the contributions of important recent and contemporary political theorists. From the liberal tradition these include Berlin, Hayek, Hirschmann and Gray. From the non-liberal tradition, writers will include Taylor, Honneth, Pettit and Skinner. Animating the discussion of these figures is the apparently simple but ultimately complex question of whether political freedom is a matter of the ability to act unimpeded by others, or whether it requires forms of social activity.

• Politics of the Law and Rights

  This course describes and analyses the many ways in which politics affects the law, and in particular the decisions made by judges on top courts.
  It looks at some of the big divides between legal systems in their attitudes to judges and judicial discretion, and the different rights which judges are asked to guarantee.
  It looks at different ways in which judiciaries vary, from more to less active, more to less independent, and more or less collegial or confrontational.
  It also hints at advanced debates in political science about the study of judicial behaviour, in particular the kinds of explanations offered for why US Supreme Court Justices decide the way they do -- and whether these explanations travel outside the United States.
  The course is targeted at final year undergraduates doing either Politics (in combination with other subjects).
  Over the term, Politics students will get a grounding in the analysis of judicial decisions. Conversely, law students will get a grounding in techniques of political analysis applied to the courts.
  Because the course is an advanced (i.e., third year) course, there will be no set text. There will however be a selection of essential readings for each week, which will include (in every other week) two chosen cases which demonstrate the week's topic in two different jurisdictions.

• Comparative Political Leadership

  Party leaders, and their public image, are increasingly considered important for a party’s electoral success, for the smooth running of government and for regime legitimacy. Perhaps the most important variable for successful politicians is their ability to effectively communicate and connect with their audiences. This module will show you the techniques most frequently used by politicians, communicators and speechwriters to effectively deliver their messages in different contexts and settings. You will analyse how these techniques have been used by the greatest leaders in the world to justify their regimes. By the end of the module you will be able to evaluate leadership styles during and after elections and design communication strategies that will deliver political messages effectively.

   

• Military Change in the 21st Century

  Defence budgets comprise a significant proportion of national wealth, while decision-making in defence has profound implications for the lives of citizens in the country concerned, as well as people at the receiving end of military operations. Military power also forms a central dimension of states’ power and influence in the international system. However, the post-Cold War era has witnessed significant variation in the extent to which states’ defence reforms have delivered a strategic advantage, with a number of cases of inappropriate or faulty military innovation and/or emulation.
  This module analyses the content and sources of change in defence policy during the post-Cold War era. It will focus on changes to the objectives of defence policy, military procurement, force structures and doctrines of the world’s major military powers, including the US, China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, India and Pakistan. In doing so, it will analyse the extent to which these reforms have helped the state concerned to meet its central security challenges.
  The course will be informed by the insights of political science and IR approaches to the sources of military change. These approaches include neorealism, neoclassical realism, bureaucratic politics, organisation theory, strategic culture, organisational culture and public policy approaches. In its examination of the sources of military change, the course also looks at the factors which facilitate effective ‘bottom-up’ learning and adaptation within military organisations.

• Radical Political Theory I: Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche

  This module aims to introduce students to key questions and arguments concerning the relationship between identity, power, meaning and knowledge, through close examination of texts from GWF Hegel, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. It should lead students to appreciate critiques of modern Western societies and their values, which not only underpin recent “postmodernist” or “post-structuralist” thought but also form crucial theoretical elements in debates about gender, multiculturalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, new social movements, etc., across the social sciences. It aims to develop in students the ability to critically reflect about the nature and scope of politics and ethics through engagement with texts that have sought to provide insights and new ways of thinking about these realms.

• Foundations in Middle East Politics

  The course surveys political systems, movements, conflicts and trends in the contemporary Middle East. It explores the international and regional context of current problems and conditions, including the process of state formation, variations in regime consolidation and state-society relations, regional rivalries and conflicts, the Islamist challenge, the political economy of development, and democracy and civil society. The course begins in the Autumn term with a consideration of comparative analysis and cultural interpretation, and a general survey of the region’s religious and ethnic-cultural diversity. It then reviews the political and historical background of the contemporary Middle Eastern states system (the birth and spread of Islam, the Ottoman Empire, and the construction of the states system that succeeded it). The course moves on to explore the region-wide political, socio-economic, and ideological developments after 1945. In the Spring term the course focuses on the Arab-Israeli wars and other regional conflicts, Islamic beliefs and practices, the Islamist challenge, and recent events.

• Global Health Policy

  Since the turn of the millennium, global health has received dramatically increased attention, both as an emergent academic discipline and in terms of heightened policy salience. This course serves as an introduction to the global health policy environment, synthesising findings from a range of disciplines, such as political economy, epidemiology, and public health. It examines the constellation of health actors involved in policy formulation, including international organisations, governments, public-private partnerships, non-governmental organisations, philanthropic foundations, and commercial actors. It tackles key contemporary policy debates surrounding the health effects of, for instance, rising economic inequalities, global trade, and austerity politics. Students are also taken through approaches to effective policymaking encompassed in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of policy responses to global health issues. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on how health policies, systems, and outcomes are influenced by the so-called ‘social determinants of health’—the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that operate at both national and transnational levels.

• Politics and Government of Africa

  This module examines theoretically and empirically the evolution of politics and statehood in “sub-Saharan” Africa since the 1960s. It examines the material institutions, resources and capacities of states, alongside ideas of political authority and the imagination of statehood. It particular, the module explores how states have been realised through a web of relationships, including Africans’ relations to the colonial state and its legacies, the way relations between state elites and societies have evolved since independence. Many theoretical approaches have evolved to address the issues of African politics. Not all are helpful – and that includes those developed both in the West and Africa itself. The module will critically examine some of these approaches while assisting students to develop their understanding of the politics of the continent using a variety of materials alongside academic literature, including fiction, film, music, and art.

• Politics of South Asia

  The politics of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh - are central to understanding some of the themes at the core of modern politics: poverty and development, security and warfare, migration and transnationalism, decolonisation and postcolonialism, the international economy and globalisation. This module deals with the social and political development of these countries since independence from British rule in 1947. We will analyse issues including caste politics, the role of religious violence and the place of women in politics and society. Sources will come from a range of disciplines – politics and IR, history, sociology, anthropology, novels and films. We will study regional cooperation and conflict including the troubled relationship between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and their nuclear status. By the end of the module you will have a specialised understanding of the major social, economic and political developments in the region.

   

• Social Diversity and Political Representation

  This module examines the contemporary literature on social diversity and political representation. It introduces students to theories of representation, debates over women’s and other group’s interests. It applies these frameworks to consider why social diversity in our parliaments might matter and what difference – symbolic, substantive and affective – sex, gender, ethnicity, disability and other demographic characteristics make to elected political institutions, the policy process, political outcomes, and healthy democracies. Discrete topics include theories of representation and the link between the general public, political actors and the media; descriptive representation in national legislatures and executives with a focus on gender, ethnicity and disability; strategies for increasing descriptive representation; the media’s representation of political (gender, ethnic and disabled) minorities. The module will introduce key theoretical research on political representation; introduce current empirical research regarding participation and representation in electoral politics; and examine extant empirical and theoretical literature on representation across its various dimensions: descriptive, substantive and symbolic, and to introduce newer research on other forms of representation.

• Parliamentary Studies

  This final-year half module offers students the opportunity to obtain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British parliament and its place in British democracy. It will help students to evaluate the work and role of Parliament and parliamentarians, appreciate ongoing debates about contemporary legislative practice, and engage critically with previous academic scholarship in this area. It will also help students to develop their own awareness and experience of conducting research.
  The course covers Parliament’s development and place in the British political system, its internal organisation and operation, and the work and behaviour of individual Members of Parliament. It is co-taught with officials from Parliament, who will provide students with practical and vocational teaching about the work, processes and business of Parliament based on their own experiences.
  The course will be delivered through 9 weekly three-hour sessions, each of which will be organised around a lecture and a variety of complementary seminar activities, including discussions, debates and practical exercises. Most of the third hour each week will be set aside to supporting students with the assessment. The tenth week will involve a visit to Parliament: this is partly to see parliamentarians in action, and partly to enable students to collect additional material for their research report.

• Freedom of Expression: Concepts and Controversies

  Issues of free speech are amongst the most contentious in current political debate. The module aims to give you an in depth understanding of the nature, value and limits of freedom of speech, from the perspective of normative political theory. It is not a course in the law of free speech, nor about the free speech situation in any particular country. Though the module touches on both the latter, the aim is to enable you to understand the values, norms and principles at issue in contexts where free speech is promoted, regulated, limited or denied- especially contexts where that choice is contentious. You will be encouraged to look beyond the headlines to explore the rich and varied academic scholarship on free speech, and to offer critical analyses of that scholarship. By the end of the module, you should be able to interrogate your own and others’ intuitive reactions in controversial cases of e.g. hate speech, and to develop a reasoned, nuanced approach to these issues.

   

• Latin American Politics

  This module is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the major themes of contemporary Latin American politics and, consequently, democracy and political development. Although the module does not assume that you already have knowledge of the region, you are expected to be familiar with basic concepts of comparative political analysis. While the module stresses the political aspects of the developmental process, its objective is to show the linkages between economic, social, cultural, and political variables - both at national and international levels.

   

   

• Defence and Security Governance
• The Political Economy of Racial Injustice

  Who wins and loses in the economy? How do racial and gender inequalities persist because of the way we buy homes, pay tuition, or govern banks? This course studies the ways that inequality and unfreedom are sustained in institutional arrangements and everyday practices. We study how the organization and governance of the economy has played a role in limiting access for women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. We study the history of the global economy but with an attention to the kinds of domination and exploitation that made “progress” possible for some.

• Narrative in World Politics

  “Whose story wins?” has become a popular phrase in politics. This module introduces students to the role of narrative communication in world politics. All political institutions and organisations in all countries have no choice but to communicate. They use this communication to offer direction, on any policy sector or about the identity of the nation or community. Narrative is essential when facing difficult pasts and generating accountability. Narrative is a form that institutions and organisations now invest in. Narrative provides a sequence of events that can generate a feeling that politics should move in a certain direction. Projecting a narrative is difficult in politics because not all parties or supporters will agree with that narrative. Yet this opens up forms of disagreement and conflict that allows us to identify and explain how core political dynamics unfold, including authority, legitimacy, and memory. It also helps students explain fundamental questions in International Relations: they will be able to explain the role of narrative in generating how cooperation or conflict, producing alliances or enemies, and creating expectations about how problems can be solved.

  Students will be asked to consider narrative in different historical moments, from different countries, and in different policy sectors. They will explore how digital media now allow citizens to produce and share their own narratives – digital storytelling has become central to many activist and citizen-led movements.

  The module also covers a range of theories of narrative in politics, specifically around a spectrum from ‘thin’ rationalist approaches that largely focus on narratives as ‘roadmaps’ used by political elites to ‘thick’ studies that use feminism, race and ethnicity, and formal linguistics as lenses. With each theory introduced, the students will also learn what methods different approaches entail. This helps students with their final year dissertation.

• Radical Political Theory II: Critical Theory and Poststructuralism

  This module aims to introduce students to key questions and arguments concerning the relationship between identity, power, meaning and knowledge, through close examination of texts from Theodor Adorno, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari. It should lead students to appreciate critiques of modern Western societies and their values, that not only form part of the philosophical movements of critical theory and poststructuralism but that in turn have informed crucial debates about gender, multiculturalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, new social movements, etc., across the social sciences. It aims to develop in students the ability to critically reflect about the nature and scope of politics and ethics through engagement with texts that have sought to provide insights and new ways of thinking about these realms.

• Why and How People Vote

  The way in which people participate in politics is fundamental for the way political systems function. In classical and contemporary theories of democracy, political participation is seen as a way to protect private interests of citizens while simultaneously making sure that good government is practised by political leaders. It is, therefore, not di cult to guess why scholars of politics and international relations have and have had an interest in the question of how and why people come to participate in politics.
  As the primary mechanism with which to implement the principle of popular sovereignty, electoral participation in particular has received attention of academics, policy makers and the media. Once the polling station doors close, the first two questions asked are usually how many people turned out and what did people vote? In this course we will deal with these questions extensively. More generally, this course focusses on the various ways in which individuals directly or indirectly influence political choices at various levels of the political system. It examines the relationship between voters and political parties, and considers the theory and practice of how electors decide whether to vote (or not) and for whom to vote.
  The module contains both a theoretical and an empirical component. Students will be encouraged to assess the evidence for competing explanations of political behaviour through readings drawn from research on countries across Western Europe and North America. Besides an understanding of the main theories and main questions in the field of political behaviour, the course will provide students with a thorough understanding of how to conduct systematic empirical research and critically appraise it.

• Identity, Emotions and Trauma in International Politics

  The transnational spread of populist movements has demonstrated, perhaps more clearly than ever, that international politics is not always a fully rational field. Populist or nationalist leaders like Donald Trump in the US, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, and Vladimir Putin in Russia have all revived historical grievances and identity claims to justify foreign policies that deviate substantially with what existing rationalist theories of International Relations (IR) like neorealism and neoliberalism might predict. How can we explain their rise and the changes they bring to international politics?
  Over the last two decades approaches within the constructivist and postmodernist traditions of IR scholarship have increasingly turned to concepts and ideas traditionally excluded by the discipline: identity, emotions and trauma. But while these concepts offer potential explanations for many otherwise confounding international phenomena, their inclusion requires new theoretical insight. Can IR theory simply analogize from individual identity, trauma and emotions to macro-level national or state identities, traumas and emotions? Can nations and states truly be thought of as possessing the same experiences as individuals and, if so, do these group phenomena behave similarly to how they do in human beings? How do these factors interact with other interests in foreign policymaking?

• Ethnic Politics and Ethnic Conflict

  Ethnic identities can play an important role in politics. In some states, voting decisions, political representation and the distribution of state resources are viewed through an ethnic lens. Ethnic relations can also become contentious and in some civil conflicts, armed groups mobilize support and recruit fighters along ethnic lines. This course examines the role that ethnic distinctions can play in political life, contestation and conflict. The first part of the course will focus on the origins of ethnic identities and their political salience. The second part will focus on ethnic politics and consider issues such as ethnic representation in government, ethnic voting and the ethnically biased distribution of resources. The third part will focus on ethnic conflict and the role that ethnic grievances and identities can play in collective violence.

• Conflict in Latin American Literature

  This module explores, compares and contrasts representations of social and political conflict in a range of 20th-century Latin American literary texts. It considers conflict in literature critically with regards to and in the context of some of the following: revolution, racial difference, social inequality, economic exploitation, exile, urban violence and historical memory. It provides students with a basic understanding of the historical background and trajectory of some of the most relevant socio-political movements and events in the continent in the module of the century.

• Journeys of Discovery in 20th- Century Spanish American Literature
• Devotion, Deceit, Desire: Literature of the Spanish Golden Age

  This module introduces students to a range of important texts and authors, both canonical and non-canonical, from early modern Spain and France. Yet it does so through a selection of outsider figures – characters whose aberrant or idiosyncratic identity, outlook, or behaviour sets them at odds with their society. The characters on this module thus challenge some of society’s most deeply entrenched but often unwritten codes – of reason, gender, decorum, sexuality, class, and religion – and can thus offer important insights into the workings and values of the society whose norms they transgress. As we shall see, though, the treatment of such figures can vary widely. Whereas the outsider’s departure from the norm is often apparently ridiculed or censured, it can sometimes be celebrated or rehabilitated – whether by other characters within the fiction or by the literary work itself. Indeed, the period’s fascination with marginal or transgressive characters and behaviour betrays throughout a deep unease about the validity of its own norms and standards.

• Horror Cinema in the Hispanic World

  On this module students will explore the horror genre by exploring a broad range of films made in Spain and Latin America. Following an introduction to horror filmmaking, we will analyse texts in relation to horror’s numerous subgenres (gothic, physiological, psychological, science fiction, zombie etc.) and will learn both how to identify different types of horror film as well as to situate them in the history of horror filmmaking.

• Contemporary Mexican Cinema

  On this module students will learn how to identify some of the traits of contemporary Mexican cinema, a period of filmmaking which has been recognised as one of the most fruitful in cinematic history. The films selected for analysis on this module will be examined within the context of contemporary Mexico: an era rife with socio-political unrest. We will learn how political corruption, social violence and the recent Drug Wars have shaped the narratives of the films we will explore, and how these issues have dictated the emergence of new filmic genres. Students will learn about how youth culture and its manifestations are explored in film and will be able to place the films studied in their socio-historic contexts.