Year 1, Component 01

This module provides an introductory overview to the field of heritage and museum studies and explores some of the conceptual, political and ethical issues faced by those working within and researching in the area of heritage and museums. The module defines heritage, discusses how heritage is officially recognised, and presents the instruments that are used to interpret, protect, and communicate heritage, at local, national, and international levels. It also introduces the main aspects of museum studies, explains how the definitions of museums has changed through time and how this definition affects how we preserve and present heritage today. This module will introduce you to the history of heritage and museum management and will lay the foundation of some of the conceptual, political and ethical issues of the heritage and the museum field. It defines heritage as a process in which people makes sense of the past, in the present and for the future and how the aims of heritage and museum management changes according to the heritage process and its contexts.

The world does not have disciplines; it has problems. What's more, the most important problems we face - problems like climate change, migration, sustainable economic production, democratic governance, and so on - cannot be solved with the tools of any single discipline. Such problems require collaborative, creative, and interdisciplinary approaches, and this module introduces students to this type of interdisciplinary thinking. Students will learn how to approach complex problems by drawing on theories and methods from multiple disciplines, learning how to think flexibly and work with others to find creative solutions to real-world problems.

This interdisciplinary module explores the rich diversity of ways of knowing the world. We examine different frameworks of knowing that have characterised and shaped human societies historically and today.

Why did industrialisation first occur in Europe, not China or India? How did economic growth lead to the Industrial Revolution? What impact did two world wars have on the global economy? Explore the process of economic change and development from the sixteenth-century to the present day.

Why do states sometimes go to war? What conditions can promote peace and international stability? When are states able to form cooperative agreements to promote trade, combat terrorism, or address climate change? Explore issues in international relations which help address complicated questions concerning cooperation and conflict between countries. 

What rules affect political action? You explore how institutions and the rules they enforce, for example voting under a specific electoral system, affect political and economic outcomes, and whether these are ultimately only second-best solutions to collective action.

This is a module in political theory. We read critics of ‘Western’ and liberal political thought, including readings from class, race, gender, and disability theory. Central to Western political theory is the social contract tradition, which suggests that the exercise of political power is justified by the popular consent of the people. The readings this term argue that the contract is not consented to by everybody (‘we the people’) but between just the people who count, and so hides the ugly realities of oppression and domination. We will discuss how purportedly universal ideas of reason, freedom, and equality, excluded many people. GV151, which teaches the development of western political thought, is recommended as a prerequisite.

Is the advice of historic political writers like Machiavelli still relevant for politicians today? Do we have a moral obligation to obey the law even when the law is unjust? Would it be preferable to live in anarchy? And where does the idea of human rights come from? In GV151 we study some classical texts in the Western tradition in order to understand how moral and political ideas have shaped the institutions that govern our lives today, and how they can help us make sense of current politics.

Want to learn Spanish from scratch? And spend four weeks abroad during the summer? Build your language abilities, so you can read short stories or novels in Spanish, as well as articulate your ideas verbally or in writing. Undertake a research project, in Spanish, on a topic of your choosing.

Want to learn Spanish from scratch? And spend four weeks abroad during the summer? Build your language abilities, so you can read short stories or novels in Spanish, as well as articulate your ideas verbally or in writing. Undertake a research project, in Spanish, on a topic of your choosing.

How can we use psychoanalytic theory to understand film, literature and television? What is culture and can it contribute to our understanding of psychoanalysis itself? Examine work by Freud and Jung, as well as more contemporary perspectives, through the lens popular culture.

City space matters to criminology: it is the physical and symbolic locus where crime and disorder take place, where social conflicts manifest and aggravate, where social control and resistance to it are exercised, and where broader harms and suffering are produced. This module examines local responses to the governance of crime, seeking to understand conceptions of urban ‘disorder’ by attending closely to how communities experience rapidly changing and expanding city environments. The course contrasts public experiences of crime and crime control in the context of highly securitised, enclaved, and surveilled urban spaces in London, Karachi, Maputo and other unequal global cities. Drawing on theories and methodologies from criminology, sociology, and urban studies, the course asks you to consider the possible futures of public and private urban landscapes in the context of rapid urban development.

Does the media make people violent? Objectify women? Tell you what to do? Study the modern media as a social terrain, order of communication and domain of ideas, using examples from cinema, photography, newspapers and TV. Examine popular debates and consider practical methodologies for undertaking media research in the future.