Culture, Environment and Social Change BA Honours

This module is central to the course, supporting transition into university study, individual development, and course planning. you'll meet their Academic Tutor every week in a small group. The module brings together learning from across the course and introduces and develops academic skills. You'll work on questions and concepts in culture, environment, and social change, prepare coursework, and reflect on feedback received in other modules. 

This module provides a foundational introduction to the key themes of the course. It explores how human societies and cultures are shaped by their environment and have, in turn, impacted progressively more and more upon the world you live in. It informs understanding of how those processes also shape wider social and cultural challenges. The module is taught in two parallel strands, each of which addresses the central topics of Land, People, and Culture across a variety of different scales. You will explore the histories, forms, and structures of human-nature relationships over the course of modernity, and the unequal role that historical forces such colonialism and capitalism have played in shaping societies and environments across the Global North and South.

The module introduces you to critical and cultural responses to these issues, providing a conceptual introduction and exploring a range of cultural media including literature, visual arts, cinema and TV. In addressing these areas, the module will facilitate the development of key skills in critical and creative thinking and communication of ideas. The themes of the module will be taken up, and developed in complexity, in the 40-credit core modules at Levels 5 and 6.

This module introduces the study of contemporary and ancient material culture and examines its meaning in social, political and historical perspectives. You'll acquire skills of object analysis and visit London galleries and museums to apply them. You'll examine the social and cultural lives of objects, and how their meaning changes depending on their context and use, by assessing their production, the impact of trade, war and migration on their circulation, and their provenance and politics of ownership and access.

Since the French Revolution protests have been among the key drivers of the course of modern history. Using a wide variety of case studies in different settings this module addresses: when and why do protests occur; who protests and for what reasons; the different ways in which protests are expressed, from anarchy to terrorism; how far the nature of protests has changed over time; why some protests succeed and others do not.

The module concerns the relationship between law and social media. It considers the social impact and effect that social media has on our everyday life and questions the extent to which law is capable to regulate it and protect its users. In doing so, it engages with broader social, economic, political and cultural aspects of social media and the effect you have on society at large.

The module engages with relevant case studies and introduces the available regulatory frameworks and policy changes for the regulation of social media. The module covers a range of different subject areas, such as privacy, cyberbullying, psychology of trolling, civil and criminal penalties, revenge porn, defamation, advertising regulations, and intellectual property right. Finally, it engages with the ongoing debates, policies and government initiatives that aim to recognise and introduce greater responsibility on the part of the social media platforms.

This module introduces students to institutions and governance at the local and global level. It begins with a focus on the nation-state as the foundational unit of political organisation. Students will explore and compare political systems and institutional arrangements across different states, including unitary and federal systems, and examine the evolving role of local and regional governance. Building on this foundation, the module then expands to consider governance across scales, from national to supranational and global levels. It introduces key global governance organisations and frameworks, prompting critical reflection on how power is distributed and exercised in the international system. Students will analyse how the global power structure - shaped by institutions, rules, norms, and regimes - affects the capacity of states to defend their sovereignty and pursue their interests. The module employs the comparative method to examine how different states navigate these constraints and opportunities, and assesses the implications for global order and governance in the 21st century.

This module provides an introduction to Intercultural Communication. It draws on theory from a range of disciplines to help you better understand the complexities of communicating with people from other cultures. You'll be helped, using intercultural theorists, to become more aware of how culture influences you and others, and to reflect on how it affects the ways you communicate and act. The module then aims to develop your ability to cope with these complexities.

Teaching and learning takes place in small groups, with you meeting your tutor on a regular basis. The content of the tutorials is partly tailored to the needs of the group, and partly used to develop a wider synoptic engagement with the degree as a whole (working towards the final year dissertation), nurturing research and study skills as well as skills relevant to the future workplace. In addition to the development of general and specialist study skills, the tutorials will focus on ethnographic methodologies and handling and presenting data. 

Building upon the work done at Level 4 on Land, People, Culture, this module provides you with an advanced understanding of environmental and social justice disputes and the cultural, theoretical, and disciplinary discourses through which you are mediated. The module is divided into two year-long strands: Histories and Cultures of Environmental and Social Justice, and Justice in Practice and Theory.  

The first strand identifies key sites of historic and contemporary environmental and social justice struggles and examines how such contexts are informed by, remembered in, and influential upon different cultural media, including literature, journalism, museums, and film. The second strand examines the disparate ways in which justice has been conceived of in practice and theory in diverse historical, theoretical, and disciplinary contexts. Taken as a whole, the module encourages you to explore the social and epistemological contingency of all conceptions of justice and the differential impact paradigms of justice may have on real lived experience.

This module begins from the position that issues of social, environmental, and resource equity cannot be separated from digital culture and the politics of big data. The module introduces you to the link between data and social and environmental issues through exploration of how data is gathered, analysed, presented, and stored. You'll acquire basic practical skills in these areas while also engaging with critical perspectives to develop a reflective understanding of how data can be used to inform policy, activism, and creative responses. You'll learn how data can be used to both reproduce and to contest social inequalities.

This module examines both the impact of climate change on cultural expression, and of cultural texts on our attitudes towards the environment. To facilitate these two perspectives, the module intersperses weeks on contemporary climate fiction (cli-fi) with weeks on other, broader texts, from ancient to modern: theatre, visual art, music and cinema. The module will equip you with an ecocritical vocabulary and the facility and opportunity to employ that vocabulary across a range of media and forms.

This module provides a broad and generic introduction to the legal protection of human rights offered at the national, regional (African, European, and Inter-American) and international levels. The module introduces you to the historical development of the legal protection of human rights along with introducing the legal frameworks for the protection of human rights in place at the national (UK), regional (African, European, and Inter-American) and international (UN) levels. For instance, the module will explore how an individual whose rights are violated can access justice before national and international human rights courts and mechanisms.

In this module you will examine how those in positions of power use language to create narratives, values and beliefs held by different groups of people in the world. You will explore how language found in the public space reflects values and conventions and how this can change across different societies. The module focuses on the role and purpose of different kinds of social institutions and analyses the means through which they maintain their identity in the international public space and the language they use to do so. You will be shown methods of reading between the lines and how to evaluate the success or otherwise of their communications. This will also be applied to the specific languages you are studying through seminar sessions.

This module introduces you to the key debates and concepts that have been central to the formation of current understandings of memory, and its relationship to culture, history, and representation. Sample topics include slavery and its contemporary legacies; the Holocaust; and 9/11.

Practices of inclusion and exclusion are increasingly put at the centre of politics, affecting the way we approach sovereignty, participation, democracy, and liberalism. The module unpacks the methodological issues that such practices ingrain, engaging with broader debates about borders, antagonisms and affected communities. It draws on a range of contemporary cases (from the rise of the far right to sexual politics in the Trumpocene, race, and the criminalisation of citizenship) to identify and map the forms, conditions and legal contexts that determine whose voice will be heard and whose will not. Throughout the module, special attention is given to discourse analysis and strategies for socio-political reform.

This module involves an extended piece of research work. You'll pursue a topic of your choice with individual supervision from a tutor. Supervisors will support your choice of both medium and content of the Project. Workshop sessions will support your development of the Project, including sessions on research, writing, and presentation skills. The Project can have a practical and/or theoretical focus, and the final piece can be presented in your choice of medium, for example as a long written piece, a video essay, an educational resource pack, ethnographic study, or a media campaign. Level 6 of the Employing Humanities course is also embedded in this module.

Building on the core modules at Levels 4 and 5, this module will explore Contemporary Ideas and Challenges relating to Culture, Environment, and Social Change. The module is designed to be flexible in nature so that theories and topics can be altered on a yearly basis in response to changing global and scholarly developments. As with the previous core modules, the syllabus is divided into two sections: Ideas, which foregrounds particular theoretical perspectives relating to environmental and social justice, and Challenges, which examines key issues in contemporary society in relation to cultural and critical texts. The topics will be offered in six-week blocks and you'll have the opportunity to choose four subjects on each of the strands from the options available.

This module encourages you to consider how to provoke, argue, and advocate for social change. Drawing on the principles of social justice, and covering issues such as the environment, poverty, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, education and activism, this module equips you with critical knowledge and practical experience for taking on local and global challenges as effective change makers. In mixing discussions of key critical works with special guest talks by recognised practitioners and practical workshops, the module explores imaginative, insurgent, and disruptive strategies in the form of direct action, art, literature, media campaigns, and archives for addressing todays pressing social problems and initiating radical change in an increasingly globalised world.

This module explores the sources, theories, and principles of public international law, as well as the role of international law in regulating relationships between states and between states and other actors within the international legal system. The module incorporates traditional and critical perspectives on international law, examining the subject in its historical and contemporary political context. Throughout the module, overarching themes are explored, including the effectiveness of international law and contemporary challenges to its traditional framework. The focus is on the foundational aspects and principles of international law, utilising case studies to explore relevant themes and issues.

This module introduces students to new ways of thinking about and practising governance in an age of crisis. We address new problems: the Polycrisis; the Anthropocene; risk and complexity. We study new approaches: adaptation; displacement and disavowal; and modes of ungoverning. We engage with new practices: of disaster response; climate governance; and post-conflict governance.

In the first part of this module, you'll explore a range of contemporary socio-cultural issues through readings by key theorists and commentators. Indicative topics include mass culture, privilege and intersectionality, cultural appropriation, public culture, bodies in public space, digital culture and surveillance, national culture, citizenship and immigration, and working culture. You'll examine how these issues manifest in everyday life as well as in contemporary art, film, literature, music, and popular culture. In the final part of the module, you'll be supported in developing an individual project in which you critically analyse a cultural issue and a chosen cultural object. This project is assessed through a linked presentation and essay.

Across the globe, gender is a key principle of social organisation which defines the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in both domestic and public life. Gender is fundamental to ideas about social order and power. Protest is a vital force for political and social change, particularly for changing conversations about gender. As such, this module considers the relationship between gender and protest. In particular, it considers the importance of protest in shaping both popular and theoretical constructions of gender across a range of cultural contexts, including, but not limited to, Latin America, East Asia, and Europe.

This is a work experience placement associated with employment with an appropriate employer that you as a graduate might eventually join, such as a small or large business, an arts organisation or a subject-based placement in a school.

Assessment consists of a portfolio which you'll complete. You'll need to source your own placement. Support is provided via three face-to-face teaching sessions: one introductory session, one session focused on the assessment, and one drop-in session to discuss work towards the assessment. You are also strongly encouraged to make full use of the support offered by discussing your placement and coursework with the module leader during the semester. In cases where you are unable to secure a placement by the end of the first week of the semester, or where a placement has fallen through, the University will support and facilitate a change in module.