Politics and Sociology BA

As the first part of three key modules taken throughout your degree, Political Analysis 1 will introduce you to the study of politics as an academic discipline.

You will discover different ways to research the dynamics of different political worlds and acquire the foundational knowledge and skills needed to build, test and evaluate rigorous accounts of political problems. 

Throughout the module, you will learn through a combination of lectures and seminars. You will also undertake independent study to delve deeper into the case studies of political scandal and failure discussed each week. 

This module aims to introduce you to major interventions and advances in social theory in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on a variety of crucial theories of social relations, conditions, and processes, such as social conflict, exchange, power, and resistance, among many others

The module seeks to guide you in becoming familiar with, and in understanding the meanings of, the concepts, ideas, and arguments central to those social theories. 

Moreover, you will acquire and develop the skills necessary for researching, grasping, and communicating different theoretical conceptions of the social world. For this purpose, you will be supported in studying a selection of primary texts in social theory.

The module places emphasis on socio-theoretical innovations in explaining the problems and challenges posed by social reality as well as in imagining social change.

A series of lectures will provide expositions of the concepts, ideas, and arguments in the theoretical works at issue on the module. The corresponding series of seminars will support you and your fellow students in collaboratively deepening your knowledge and investigations of the theoretical substance and in sharpening your study and research skills.

A concept is a general idea about something. We use concepts all the time to make sense of the world. For example, we use the concept of a 'table' to describe a piece of furniture with a flat top and some legs to keep it stable. We also use concepts to make sense of our experiences and not just to describe 'things'. For example, we talk about a painting being 'beautiful' or a tyrant being 'cruel'.  

In this course, you will be introduced to a range of core concepts that inform the study of politics and international relations in the twenty-first century: politics, authority, power, democracy, rights, justice, freedom, nations, the distinction between refugees and migrants, and populism.  

You will discover how these concepts shape our understanding of the political world around us, and learn how to engage in conceptual analysis (i.e. how to argue about how we should understand each of these concepts). By the end of the module, you will have learnt to problematise and evaluate events, information, and academic literature, enabling you to successfully and critically use key concepts in political debate.

This module aims for in-depth investigations of decisive advances in sociology's theoretical inquiry into social relations, conditions, and processes. You will receive guidance in interpreting key concepts and ideas in a range of different contributions to social theory and in analysing the configurations of those concepts and ideas.

 

The module will support you in developing the skills to engage closely with complex primary socio-theoretical writings in order to understand, reconstruct, and articulate their essential logical steps and arguments. Moreover, the module seeks to encourage and facilitate critical assessments and discussions of the successes and limitations of different socio-theoretical works. It aims to foster a comparative perspective on the similarities and differences between the theories of society under inspection.

 

The module will enable you to recognise social theory's potential to help make sense of persistent problems and challenges posed by social relations and conditions as well as to help envisage ways of addressing those problems and transforming the social world.

 

A series of lectures will set out and scrutinises the conceptual configurations, inferences, and arguments presented in socio-theoretical writings. The corresponding series of seminars will provide an environment for you and your fellow students to collaborate in in-depth interpretations, analyses, and critical discussions of the course content and in honing your skills to reconstruct and compare a variety of socio-theoretical arguments

Social inequalities and social divisions are fundamental challenges and complex problems in modern societies. This module aims to develop your understanding of societal inequalities and divisions, and of societal debates and actions to challenge and transform societal discourses, relations and structures that underpin social inequalities and divisions. Drawing on multidisciplinary sociological and social policy perspectives and debates, the module will develop your understanding of the complexity of contemporary inequalities and divisions, and the range of political and collective actions required and pursued to address these. You will engage with theoretical, research and policy perspectives about the ways in which the distribution of resources, status, opportunities and life chances in society is associated with economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of inequality and division. You will learn about the ways in which collective actions, transformative social policies and societal activism seek to challenge these dimensions of inequality and division. 

Three key themes will guide your module learning: inequality, justice and injustice; inclusion and exclusion; and local and global relationships. Engaging with these themes, the module will explore a range of sociological, political and social policy issues with module delivery tailored each year to the School's/Department's research expertise providing students with cutting edge learning based on the module team's specialist and current research and policy fields. Each year the module will explore several substantive topics and issues including, for instance, social welfare and social justice; childhood, family life, care and intergenerational relations; migration and transnational relations; crime and criminalisation; the digital world and risks; and decolonisation and neo-colonialism. The module builds on the Semester 1 Part 1 Social Inequalities and Division module to develop students' understandings of the causes, nature and extent of inequalities and divisions in contemporary society; and debates and actions concerned to promote equality, justice and inclusion.

This module aims to interrogate the role of gender and sex in shaping world politics. To do this, it asks how notions of masculinity and femininity shape our institutions, how gender might influence the political problems we prioritise and whose voices are taken seriously in developing responses to these problems. 

Students will answer these questions through the study of the politicisation of sex, the relationship between gender and violence, how current practices of gender are shaped by colonialism and a range of other timely topics that shape the world today. 

The module will allow students to develop an understanding of different approaches to gender, be introduced to key concepts from feminism and queer theory, learn to apply these ideas practically to a set of case studies and debate what the future of gender is in world politics. 

You will be introduced to the key concepts and debates that have shaped British politics with an emphasis on history, institutions and culture.

Each lecture will focus on a specific element of British politics, with subsequent and linked seminars providing an opportunity to deepen this knowledge by looking at critical case studies or official reviews.

This module provides key employability skills and practice based knowledge through a focus on the theory and practice of political decision-making processes and the challenges of implementing policy.

Global political economy (GPE) is a field of study that investigates the interaction between political and economic forces in contemporary and historical capitalism. You will consider key mainstream and critical theories.

You will be introduced to major processes of trade, production and exploitation, sketching the power relations of the global economy by using examples of contemporary production in different industries. You will also consider how the political economy of race, class and gender have structured the global economy through histories of colonisation and decolonisation, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century.

During this module, you will be introduced to political theory as a distinctive way of thinking about politics. You will engage with some of the most influential and renowned thinkers from the history of Western political thought, critically analysing questions of power, justice and legitimacy.

Through the study of seminal texts, you will be challenged to evaluate historical responses to political questions and thereby start doing political theory for yourself. You will also develop a deeper understanding of various concepts that can be applied to your analyses of contemporary issues throughout the degree.

This module will introduce students to key international relations concepts and discussions. Students will be able to understand, analyse and reflect on some of the most pressing issues in the international arena including:

migration

climate change

poverty and global inequalities

sexual violence

armed conflict

This introductory module will equip students with the tools to continue engaging with more in-depth theoretical and empirical international relations discussions as they progress through their studies.

The content of this module will build upon your understanding of sociological theory by encouraging you to explore its relevance to key themes and issues in contemporary society.

The course will explore major theoretical works in critical social theory, feminist social thought, the critique of colonialism, and cultural theory. In order to foster your understanding of social theory, you will study the application of core ideas and concepts to substantive issues in modern contemporary society, including the problem of class, gender relations, race, and order and conflict. 

Overall, you will gain a critical understanding of the importance and use of modern and contemporary social theory.

An important skill for the study of  politics and international relations is the ability to effectively collect, analyse and evaluate reliable and robust evidence about real-world political phenomena. A good grounding in methods for collecting qualitative data can allow you to both make more sense of (and critically engage with) the research literature, and to carry out your own independent research, enabling you to address your own questions about the political world. Political Analysis 2 will introduce you to a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying political phenomena which will give you the skills you need.

In the course of the module, we will look at:The principles of effective research design in politics and IR - how to set up your research to answer your questions effectively and reliablySources of qualitative and quantitative data for politics and international relation researchMethod for collecting qualitative dataHow to code and analyse qualitative dataAnalysing trends and associations in political data;Using quantitative data and regression analysis to evaluate theories about real-world politics.

Building on the module taking in the first year, you will have the opportunity to learn how to apply the practical tools needed to collect and independently analyse data.

In this interdisciplinary module, we explore how solidarity has been understood, practised, and contested across the globe. From Cuban solidarity for African liberation struggles to cross-species solidarity in climate activism today, we explore the possibilities of solidarity in action. In doing so, we will look at the wide-ranging impact that solidarity has had from individual survival to regime change. Taking a critical approach to the topic, we will also explore situations in which acts of solidarity can amplify forms of exclusion and injustice.

Intense and ongoing debates over oppression shape contemporary politics. The key to these debates are disagreements over what constitutes oppression, how it functions, and how it can be resisted.

During this module, you will explore the strategies and legacy of movements that resisted specific forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, homophobia, class-based oppression and violence against non-human animals. To do this you will learn about movements like the Haitian Revolution, Black Lives Matter, Pride, #MeToo, and the 504 Disability Rights Sit-in.

You will be introduced to the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand and analyse modern oppression and resistance.

This module will introduce you to a range of core theoretical frameworks in order to understand, analyse and evaluate the complex relationship between digital media and social change. You will focus on two key aspects of the relationship between digital media and social change. 

Firstly, you will examine purposeful activist use of digital media to create social change, investigating how new possibilities for participatory communication have been exploited by activists to contest inequalities. Topics you might cover include influential social movements, such as #BlackLivesMatter, to environmental influencers on Youtube and Instagram.

During the second half, you will analyse the large-scale social, economic and political changes created by the internet. This will include assessing the new forms of participation that have been created as audiences become producers, as well as the new forms of surveillance and inequalities that are entangled with these developments. 

This module will support you in developing the critical skills needed to discuss and unpack contemporary scholarship, providing vital scaffolding for your final year dissertations.

Crime, and the process of criminalisation, are major features of all societies. Since the nineteenth century, sociologists have developed a range of criminological theories to explain 'criminality'.

During this module, you will review the historical development of a range of theoretical approaches to the study of crime and consider how sociologists have studied the primary institutions of social control. You will also investigate and discuss the contribution of the sociology of crime to issues of contemporary significance using a case study model of learning.

By the end of the module, you will appreciate the importance of a sociological approach to crime and criminalisation, and be able to apply criminological theories in order to understand some of the most pressing and topical crime problems of today.

This module will present you with a 'sociological perspective on social policy' to provide a macro perspective on contemporary social and economic transformations in the UK and globally. Particular emphasis will be placed on the challenges posed for social policy theory and practice, as well as the potential to imagine alternative social policy scenarios.

Some of the issues you will consider include: globalisation, neoliberalism, falling fertility and ageing societies, precarious labour markets and migration, and mobility. You will be encouraged to take a comparative and international/global perspective, emphasising not only the perspectives of International Organisations, but also the challenges faced by other types of welfare regimes. 

The module will equip you with a deep understanding of key socio economic challenges faced by postindustrial societies while also reflecting on how these challenges are received and responded to by Global South countries. You will also develop your skills in policy report writing, an essential tool most will use in their professional careers.

During this module, you will critically examine the growing body of sociological and other literature concerned with men and masculinities. The content you will cover will locate this growth of interest within the context of the feminist movement and subsequent writings/critiques of masculinities and patriarchy.

You will be supported and encouraged to connect the covered topics to wider scholarship on gender relations. Some of the key case studies that you will explore include men in sport, men and media, men and health/well-being, men and feminism, as well as men and sexualities. Methodological and epistemological issues involved in the study of men and masculinities will also form part of this module.

This module will also introduce students to the new skill of vlogging, which they will be supported to develop for their assessment.

This module explores the meaning of 'race' and migration in various social and political contexts. It aims to develop an in-depth understanding of sociological theories of 'race', racism and migration through an exploration of the development of 'race' as an ideology, as a concept influenced by history and politics, and through its relevance in the contemporary context. The module examines how ideas about race and migration help to shape and determine social and political relations. It also explores the role of race and migration as major sources of social divisions and how racism operates in the reproduction of structural inequalities. These issues are explored through sociological theory, as well as policy and practice areas such as theories of racialised identities, immigration regimes, education and criminal justice.

In this module you will explore the political dynamics that underpin the organisation of capitalism.

You will study major issues within the global economy, ranging from the contested rise of neoliberal globalisation to the gendered and racialised patterns of work, production, inequality, and (financial) crises. You will investigate the history and contemporary operation of capitalism as a mode of production, and examine how capitalist social relations affect individuals, communities, states and the environment.  

The module will provide detailed knowledge of the political economy of capitalism and expose you to the tools to critically analyse it. You will become more familiar with cross-disciplinary methods as the module draws on a wide range of scholarship drawn from (International) Political Economy, Sociology, Geography and History. Finally, through a critical media analysis assessment, you will  analyse current real-life developments with the help of theories and concepts.

You will explore key debates in political theory and their implications for current political practice. 

You will have the opportunity to engage in: debates surrounding justice and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies; disputes over the meaning of democracy and their implications for how we choose our leaders; discussions about different ideas of freedom of speech, and what 'hate speech' is; and to explore controversies around multiculturalism, in particular its impact upon women. 

Overall, this module will help you become well-equipped to identify and evaluate the competing values that lie behind so many of our current political controversies.

Throughout the module you will examine a series of key contemporary challenges to international security.

You will engage in debates about the changing nature of security, analyse some of the causes of conflict and the development of new security threats, and understand the key ways in which states and non-state actors shape and respond to these threats.

You will explore a range of approaches to gain a theoretically-informed but policy-relevant understanding of security-related issues in the twenty-first century.

Drawing on current examples and comparative references, you will explore social and ideological constructions of social problems and the role of the state and other agencies in responses to them. This module is team taught which means sessions are delivered by a range of leading experts on different social problems.

Some of the key concepts and themes in social policy and practice that you will cover include inequality, justice and fairness, individual versus collective responsibility, and welfare versus social control. The content of this module mainly focuses on major contemporary issues, including welfare and work, housing and homelessness, and community participation.

By the end, you will be equipped with the necessary critical perspective and skills to understand and explore social problems.

Autocracies and Democracies is motivated by a series of fundamental questions about regimes, their emergence, survival and collapse. How do we define and measure regimes? What explains the emergence of democracies? Are there any conditions that facilitate their consolidation and survival? Is there something that can explain the collapse of democracies? How do autocracies come about? Can autocracies survive in the long run, and if so how?

The module highlights the complexities involved in defining and measuring regimes, helping students think about the trade-offs involved in making different conceptual and empirical assessments. It looks at various theories and modes of transition to democracy, and the challenges of building and trying to sustain democracies. It distinguishes between different types of autocracies, analyses some of the tools autocrats use to stay in power, and examines factors that can destabilize them.

The module evaluates the theories related to autocracies and democracies through the use of empirical evidence, with a key aspect of the module being the use of comparisons as a way to think analytically. Students are encouraged to engage critically with the approaches used and apply real-world cases to the questions under investigation.

Migration has been receiving more attention in international politics. This module analyses migration using a world politics lens. It will provide students with the concepts and theories - as well as the historical, contextual and critical skills - needed to understand international migration from different perspectives. It will discuss migration and problematise migration concepts and categories such as forced migration (asylum and internal people displacement), statelessness and citizenship, border control/security, labour migration, migration diplomacy, family migration and environmental migration. It will also approach case studies including the Migration and Asylum Policy of the European Union, migration politics in Latin America and the USA-Mexico border among others.

For this module, you will conduct a supervised research dissertation on an agreed topic with guidance and support from a dissertation supervisor, drawing on the culmination of knowledge and skills you have gained throughout your degree.

You will meet with your module tutor and peers in five two-hour interactive lecture-workshops to prepare you to submit a formal 1,000 word research proposal, undertake individual research and produce a 8,000 word dissertation.

You will also undertake four individual supervision sessions with your dissertation supervisor where you will plan out your research process, set objectives, and you can discuss your progress and receive feedback.

This module examines welfare state support and services for children, parents and families, informed by sociological and social policy theories, concepts and research. Adopting a comparative approach, the module critically reviews different approaches to, and configurations of, welfare state support and services for children, parents and families across the UK and Western/Northern European welfare states. Four policy and provision domains are examined, namely cash support for children and families; childcare and early years' services; parental leave and work-family balance policies; and child welfare and family support services.

Platforms and digital technology corporations now double up as the data industries, especially with their focus on data accumulation, storage, management and governance. Similarly, the emergence of data annotation and labelling firms in countries in the Global South, the rise of data centres across countries, and the emergence of governance frameworks that enable or regulate these industries make them important entities to be studied.

Through this module, you will acquire an understanding of datafication, its infrastructural and commercial dimensions, all of which undergird the development of the data industries. 

You will learn how to critically analyse the experiences of human labour and work, as well as sustainability in the context of the data industries in diverse contexts. You will also gain more experience in comprehending policy, governance and regulatory developments in relation to these industries.

This module will introduce you to the growing field of organised crime studies. This rich area of research encompasses many disciplines from criminology and sociology to history, economics and politics. At the heart of organised crime studies are attempts to understand how, why and when illicit marketplaces are created and sustained and the roles of various actors within these markets.

You will have the opportunity to explore how governments and law enforcement agencies have tried to respond to organise crime by investigating a range of case studies specific to illicit marketplaces. You will also analyse the role of the media and the influence of popular culture on the way organised crime is defined and understood.

By exploring the primary literature, which covers the historical and contemporary developments in organised crime, you will be equipped to engage with sociological debates surrounding the development of this type of criminality, particularly its (alleged) increasingly transnational nature over the past two decades.

During this module, you will gain deeper insight into how we study protests and movements and their impact on social change. 

The content will take a historical overview, tracing the development of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of social movements, matched with historical and contemporary case studies of movement from around the world. 

By focusing on what functions movements play in society, as well as how they have been studied, you will become equipped with the tools to both analyse movements, and engage with sociological debates surrounding larger questions of inequality, identity, democracy and social justice.

Despite the increasing secularisation and rationalisation of society, evil is still an all too familiar term. For some it invokes images of devils, demons and witches, for others criminals, terrorists and murderers. Moreover, the debates on the 'social evils' of poverty, prostitution and alcohol are continually recycled for each generation.

This module will introduce you to a sociological approach to evil. You will develop your own innovative case-studies of evil in combination with published research. Throughout, you will be asked to explore the ontology of evil, examine how evil is explained and accounted for, investigate the consequences of evil, develop an understanding concerning the representation of evil and assess the aetiological precedents for that representation, and, ultimately, critically determine the role evil has within society.

This module explores the importance of studying whiteness in order to understand racism as a system of power relationships. You will learn about why the construction of whiteness has become a key focus in debates about race and ethnicity, and critically examine some of the key themes to emerge in this field of study.

Some topics you will explore include the historical origins of 'white studies' and the representations of whiteness in literary and visual culture. You will also examine the racialised, classed and gendered boundaries of whiteness and explore the relevance of space and place to understanding the operation of racialised power and privilege.

You will gain awareness of racism as a global issue of inequality and injustice and enhance your understanding of barriers to inclusivity. You will apply the knowledge gained from the module to a topic of your choice.

The relationship between technology, digital media and ideas of 'race' is far from straightforward. Unpicking it requires us to interrogate how and why technologies are designed. It also compels us to ask how, and with what effect, race and racial difference are depicted in contemporary representational media. In this broad ranging module, we place an emphasis on literature from sociology, critical media and Science and Technology Studies and situate highly contemporary examples in a longer history of the race/technology interface. Students will be equipped with the critical tools to consider how, why and with what consequence race becomes enfolded into the technologies and media that comprise our everyday lives.

The module explores approaches to theorising and studying intimacy and personal relationships. Beginning with the Individualisation thesis and its critics, the module will go on to explore recent moves towards conceptualising personal relationships in terms of embeddedness, relationality, intimacy and linked lives. Students will also explore a range of substantive topics within the field including memory, genealogy, material culture and home, marriage and sexuality, responsibility and care, and friendship.

You will be introduced to queer theory in order to discuss the role of different media in how gender and sexuality are constructed, represented and expressed.

The content will trace activist and academic origins of the word 'queer' and explore queer (self-)representations in mainstream and alternative media, such as newspapers, films, zines, blogs, social media and dating apps. You will also investigate how different representations promote or challenge the binaries of male versus female, masculine versus feminine, and heterosexual versus homosexual, as well as how they promote gender and sexuality transnationally.

This module will enable you to think critically across a range of social sciences disciplines. It will introduce you to different methodologies and provide a grounding in interdisciplinary social science research.

Algorithmic systems, AI, machine learning and other data-driven technologies are transforming society. They are having wide-ranging effects which are far from straightforward. Their use results in harms as well as benefits, and algorithmic systems and AI feed into and are fed into by inequalities.

You will critically interrogate claims that AI, automation and algorithms will simply lead to a better society. You will be asked to explore the negative effects of related change and the ways in which algorithmic and AI systems are not experienced equally by all. Throughout, you will review theoretical literature on AI-in-society and on algorithmic culture, focussing on high profile accounts of their social consequences in areas such as education, welfare, social care, big tech and the media.

By the end of this module, you will have gained a systematic knowledge of contemporary and advanced level debates relating to algorithms and AI.

Sex workers across the globe often experience stigmatisation, marginalisation and criminalisation. Drawing on a large and growing body of international scholarship, you will be introduced to the complexities and diverse realities of sex work.

You will engage in content that explores the various sex markets, gendered differences in the buying and selling of sex, violence, exploitation and trafficking, sex worker-led activism and resistance, and the regulatory modules used across the globe to govern sex industries.

By the end of the module, you will be equipped with a critical understanding of a range of theories and concepts that help to make sense of the social, cultural, and legal dimensions of sex work.

You will explore the social implications of digital technologies in health, considering what these mean for our experiences of health and illness as patients and as citizens, for the work of health care professionals, and for the provision of health care.

During this module, you will investigate a range of contemporary developments, such as self-tracking and gamifying health, telemedicine and care at a distance, health information on the net, electronic patient records, illness, death and dying on the web, and health activism and online patient groups.

Across the topics of investigation, you will consider questions about the changing representations and cultures of health and illness, whether we can all be medical experts now, who has responsibility for health, how we relate to health care professionals, the commodification of health data and the relative benefits for state and industry. 

New technologies and new scientific knowledge make powerful claims about `human nature’ that are reconstructing how we understand ourselves. At the same time, they also give us new potential to reshape our bodies and brains. This module aims to critically engage with these developments using concepts from a number of sociological traditions. Can biology tell us anything meaningful about social interaction or racial and gendered differences, or about ability and disability? What are the criteria by which we determine ‘the human’ and who decides what these shall be? Does our psychology have an evolutionary basis? How are the boundaries between humans and machines changing? What is the human impact on the environment? Should we use new technologies to enhance ourselves? The module will provide students with the opportunities and tools to grapple with these and other important questions.

'Party Politics' offers an in-depth examination of various issues related with parties, looking at their characteristics as well as their interactions. The module is motivated by a series of fundamental questions about parties and party systems. How and why do political parties emerge? What characterises different party families? How do parties run campaigns, and how effective are they? How do parties compete during elections, and what determines the kind of coalitions we get in government? Why do some political systems have few parties, while others many? Why do some parties appeal to voters by promising particular programs, whereas others use clientelist methods to mobilise electoral support? The module is empirical in nature, trying to evaluate theories related to party politics through the use of evidence. You will be encouraged to think critically about the approaches used and apply real-world cases to the topics under investigation. A key aspect of the module is the use of the comparative method as a way to think analytically and make inferences. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of empirical methods to take the course.

Millions of people across the global north lack adequate access to food. You will look into the drivers and experiences of hunger in these countries, and the responses in place such as the work of charities and food banks.

During the module, you will ask and debate whether different responses are effective for ensuring everyone has adequate access to food. You will investigate the role of welfare states and food systems in driving hunger and how food, health, and social security policies shape food experiences and environments. You will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to measuring and understanding hunger, such as analysing data collected by governments and hearing the voices of peoples' lived experiences.

By the end of the module, you will be practiced in the skills and knowledge to think critically about the different responses to hunger across the Global North. You will also be given the space and support to explore what effective solutions to hunger could look like.

Cancel culture, identity politics, the war on woke… How should we make sense of the so-called 'culture wars' that are transforming politics?

Throughout this module, you will examine this topic from a global and historical perspective, investigating the contemporary politics of culture wars that are found worldwide, and the tensions that have existed in one form or another since the dawn of modernity. Topics you will study include the rise of the global right, the transnational backlash against LGBT+ rights, and how social media has shaped contemporary politics. 

As a group, we will take a step back from the commotion, scandal and outrage to trace the historical lineages of culture wars across global politics.

You will examine what circumstances political violence is deemed legitimate or illegitimate, approaching your investigation as an empirical question of power and politics. 

You will have the opportunity to explore a range of related topics, such as the distinction between civilians and combatants, the use of violence in war vs peace time, terrorism, torture, domestic and family violence, and police brutality. 

The key areas you will address are: when is violence treated as legitimate in the world; who gets to determine this; and how and when do the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence change?

The topic is women and gender in the Middle East is a prevalent theme in popular culture. The image of Arab women or LGBTQI community members as the victims of Arab men are only two of many images to which most people have become accustomed through the media.

There is widespread ignorance concerning the lives, struggles and achievements of Arab women and LGBTQI identifying and non-identifying persons living in the Arab world. Often Arab is understood as also meaning Muslim, with Arab and Muslim incorrectly being used interchangeably. During this module, you will examine the focus on Arab-Muslim women and identify what this tells us about current politics and power relations. You will investigate how images of Arab/Muslim women are used to justify certain policies and maintain certain discourses and truths about both Arab/Muslim women and Western women. 

This module will also give you the opportunity to learn feminist self-reflective research techniques to look inwards and examine yourself as a researcher. Through a self-reflective journal you will learn how to use your own experiences to speak back to the readings and gain a deeper understanding of the readings that is not just based on critical analysis but also your own embodied knowledge. 

Through theoretical, historical, self-reflective and political study, you may gain a deeper understanding of how to assess power relations and be able to analyse how gender functions in different knowledge/power structures and discourses.

Throughout this module, you will explore the key debates surrounding what we owe to animals politically. You will discuss the main debates in animal ethics and ask how they affect political practices, norms, institutions and policies. 

Particular attention will be paid to the tensions between animal welfare and other political values and goods, enabling you to explore controversial policy debates such as animal experimentation, animal agriculture, conservation and the use of animals for entertainment.

Overall, you will investigate and debate the implications of taking animals seriously for current political practice.

Conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) was once overlooked and ignored by policymakers. Now eliminating CRSV and sex and gender based violence features on the policy agendas of numerous international organisations, especially the United Nations. 

Throughout the module, you will undertake three key tasks: an examination of what sexual violence is, why it occurs and why it is so widespread; an assessment of the international efforts to prosecute and prevent sexual violence in armed conflict, and explore the various long-term consequences of sexual violence in armed conflict for individuals, communities, and processes of reconciliation.

You will have the opportunity to discuss what can be done to prevent CRSV (and its numerous violent consequences), explore what it is like to conduct research into CRSV, and undertake case study analysis including designing recommendations for a policy audience.

Corporations are ubiquitous, affecting everything from mundane individual consumption choices, to the investment decisions of both weak and powerful states. Importantly, their authority extends beyond the economic sphere and into the political, as they shape and execute policies and outcomes for some of the world's pressing problems.

Drawing upon international relations, political economy, and global governance literatures, you will analyse the corporation theoretically and empirically by drawing upon a diverse range of case studies from environmental sustainability and development, to war-making and peacekeeping. 

You will have the opportunity to explore the multifaceted political roles of corporations, learning to critically reflect on their implications.

During this module, you will study some of the key moments in British political, economic and social history since the year 2000.

You will explore particular incidents over this time, such as the Iraq War, the Global Financial Crisis, austerity, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. You will also study recurring themes in British political history, such as the centralisation of political power, globalisation, quality, and the political economy of growth.

You do not need to have studied British politics before if you wish to take this module. Studying this module can enhance your analytical and communication skills, as the delivery of the course is centred around the development of groupwork.