Arabic and International Relations BA Honours

This module introduces you to both the issues and phenomena covered by International Relations and the concepts, tools and skills needed to study contemporary global politics. The module examines core concepts of international relations (International Society, Sovereignty, Anarchy, Power, the State, and Legitimacy) as well as addressing enduring problems in global politics (war, co-operation, capitalism, hierarchies of power and privilege, justice and human rights). The module also considers the post-Cold War context and evaluates narratives of the rise and fall of a liberal world order.

The module introduces the core theoretical knowledge, methodologies and fundamental skills required for the study of language and culture. This includes developing a sound understanding of key terms and concepts in addition to the skills needed to produce clear and competent written English in a range of registers and styles appropriate for undergraduate academic study. The module lectures emphasise the interconnectedness of the study of language and culture and introduce you to a variety of methodological approaches, including textual and visual analysis, semiotics, and adaptation. The lectures encourage you to think critically about the construction of meaning in different languages, cultural contexts, and media. 

The module presents students with an immersive introduction to the dynamic fields of international relations and law, elucidating how legal principles and international relations theories collectively shape today's global order. It delves deeply into the foundational principles, methodologies, and practical applications inherent in both disciplines, empowering you to understand the intricate ties between domestic legal systems and the global arena. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, you will investigate foundational theories of justice and their alignment with international relations concepts. The module further delves into the historical evolution of the international system, emphasising the important role played by legal regimes and international treaties.

Beginners and false beginners of Arabic will learn a range of language skills, cultural competencies and critical abilities to enable them to function with a limited degree of linguistic and cultural autonomy in Arabic-speaking countries and the learning environment. Language and culture are taught in an integrated way through task-based and enquiry-based approaches to learning. Students will achieve level A2 on the CEFR; cultural elements focus on key concepts. Proficiency levels provide an indicative framework only.

This module gives you the opportunity to understand the dilemmas and challenges of ‘doing politics’ in contemporary political life, encouraging active learning to enable and enact political change. The module foregrounds a series of political challenges facing contemporary political systems across the world – such as inequality, right-wing populism, authoritarianism, militarism, anti-migrant politics, political alienation, democratic crisis, the future of work, and the climate crisis. It focusses on political activism, participation, and campaigning as a way of ‘doing politics’. The module also draws upon insights and engagement with local and national organisations to encourage thinking about ways to address these challenges. The module will support you to develop your professional profile as ‘change-makers’ by enabling you to achieve the bronze level of the Westminster Award by embedding relevant activities within the programme and accredited skilled bases assessment. 

This module develops the practical and conceptual foundations of the translation process. In addition to language-specific translation seminars that focus on real-world texts of a gradually more complex but mostly factual and explicit nature, in the translation workshops, you will be introduced to a range of translation-specific skills, including IT skills as well as basic theoretical concepts as a means of identifying, understanding and resolving translation issues in a practical manner.

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.

In this module, post-beginner students of Arabic will learn a range of language skills, cultural competencies and critical abilities to enable them to function with a good level of linguistic and cultural autonomy in Arabic-speaking environments. Language and culture are taught through task-based and enquiry-based approaches with special emphasis on the promotion of intercultural understanding. You'll achieve level B1 on the CEFR; cultural elements focus on key events and ideas that have shaped the modern and contemporary Arabic world. Proficiency levels provide an indicative framework only.

This module introduces the study of concepts and practices of global security. It will encourage you to think beyond the traditional divide between international and domestic politics by considering global security as it plays out along a continuum of global and local spaces. Far from being exclusive to sovereign states, security concerns and aspirations have become global just as the practices of humanitarian intervention they inspire. At the same time, today more than ever, these are sustained by local practices and reflected in the very fabric of our everyday experience. The module will thus look at contemporary security at the level of the international, the global and the local.

Through the study of a selection of classical texts and exploration of contemporary approaches to the study of politics and international relations, this module offers you the chance to enrich your disciplinary knowledge and understanding. By exploring the points of contact and departure between political thought and theories of international relations you'll gain an understanding of the diversity of theory and its role as a key source of innovation.

The module offers a thematic introduction to governance practices in European countries and the European Union (EU). It covers constitutional and institutional resources of governance in a multi-level Europe and explores the executive, legislative and judiciary powers; elections and electoral behaviour; interest representation, and new governance challenges. The module is placed in a contemporary context and developments of topical relevance are explored, including EU enlargement, the rise of populism, economic governance; and relations between Europe and the wider world.

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.

The module will offer students an in-depth engagement with postcolonial perspectives to the study of changes in global politics at local, national, regional, and international levels. How have various thinkers and leaders from different parts of the world sought to question the eurocentrism of the dominant theories and concepts in Politics and in International Relations? What are the various ways in which we can understand the pluralist, asymmetrical and inconsistent experiences of different cultures, societies, and polities in contemporary post-colonial times? What does postcolonial politics actually imply? Key concepts and issues of politics and IR will be examined from different critical perspectives while highlighting the structuring role of ideas and practices of imperialism, colonialism, orientalism and decolonial resistance. The module begins with a conceptual overview of colonialism and coloniality before turning to a critical survey of regions within the ‘post-colonial’ world, highlighting how politics reflects continuities and discontinuities of colonialism. The module offers a critical appraisal of global multipolarity and the centrality of colonial legacies in shaping a changing world.

This blended module – which combines lectures, workshops, and online student-to-student collaboration – introduces professional language transposition skills relevant to the communication of current affairs in an increasingly globalised and digitised world. You take ownership of learning, choosing the topics studied and how to manage the synchronous online sessions. International collaborations develop interpersonal and organisational skills, as well as interlingual, intermodal, and intercultural competences. The module prepares you for the year abroad and, for those not going overseas, enables language practice in authentic, professional settings, such as subtitling, voiceover, and interpreting.

This module focuses on key cultural developments that have impacted the Arabic world through the analysis of pertinent cultural artefacts. It considers the development of each cultural and linguistic area over time up to and including the present day. To do so, the module will identify and focus on cultural artefacts that include text, objects, and audiovisual media such as – but not exclusively – literature, film, individual testimonies, political material, music, museum pieces, and artwork. The module aims to support students’ language learning through the study of these artefacts in the target language. It will also introduce students to key concepts relevant to their culture of study, such as gender, sexuality, race, class, language, and society, thereby developing their research, analytical, and critical thinking skills.

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 criminalization 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. 

The Final Year Project offers you a choice of three pathways to complete an independent project. (1) The Professional Transcreation Project pathway provides the opportunity to work on a professional brief, creating materials for an organisation's expansion into new markets, with a focus on localisation and transcreation processes. (2) The Translation Project pathway prepares you for translation in a professional context through the completion of an extended translation as well as a critical commentary. It is available to any student who began their studies at Level 4 as an intermediate or proficient speaker of their language of study. (3) The Dissertation pathway offers you the opportunity to propose, research, and write your own project in the form of an extended essay on any topic related to your language and/or culture of study. You are supported in your chosen pathway through the development and application of skills needed for your project, via pathway-specific workshops and tutorials. Additionally, you will be further guided in your own work by your own project supervisor.

This module considers the international dimensions of ethics and how these can be understood through contemporary developments in global politics. It examines how ethical judgements are critical to our understanding of international politics and considers the ways in which ethical frameworks involve important questions of political judgement at the local, national and global level. The emphasis is on the practical dimensions of ethical judgement in international relations, including questions of political violence, terrorism, climate change and international environmental politics, war and peace, LGBT politics, gender violence, globalisation and global inequality. You'll work both individually and collaboratively in examining the tensions between ‘order’ and ‘justice’ within the global space(s) of world politics.

Sovereignty is a core principle that structures international relations, both as a discipline and as a field of study. Sovereignty however, remains contested in how it is enacted in a postcolonial and globalized world. Significant transnational issues shape sovereignty, such as neocolonial relations, global finance, and counterinsurgencies. Sovereignty is distributed unevenly and hierarchically, and many sub-state nations struggle for representation, justice and recognition. Through an exploration of a range of case studies this module provides you with a critical understanding of sovereignty. We will explore communities that straddle various territories, such as the Kurds, we will explore how border communities shape state security politics, such as the Uyghurs and struggles over land and recognition in settler-colonial spaces, such as Palestine and Canada. This module provides you with a global and decolonial understanding of sovereignty, as a principle that has always been contested and enacted unevenly in international relations.

This module is designed for final year students. Students will learn a range of language-specific structures and skills, cultural competencies and critical abilities appropriate to this level which will enable them to function with linguistic and cultural autonomy in an Arabic-speaking environment. Language and culture are taught through task-based and enquiry-based approaches with special focus on intercultural understanding. Students will achieve upper B2 (post-beginners without year abroad) or C1 (post-beginners with year abroad) on the CEFR; cultural content focuses on contemporary topics and issues. Proficiency levels provide an indicative framework only.

The module examines continuity and change in foreign policy making and diplomatic theory and practice in a world characterised by simultaneous processes of integration and fragmentation. It evaluates state and non -state actor external policies and assesses the diplomatic strategies and negotiation techniques you employ. The module focuses on agency: the formulation of foreign policy and the adoption and employment of diplomatic tools and instruments and negotiation techniques in pursuit of security, prosperity, environmental and humanitarian objectives. It considers the possibility of a sustainable diplomacy and foreign policy.

This module explores various forms of cultural and political representation from the Arabic/Chinese/Francophone/Hispanic worlds, according to your chosen language. In particular, it examines core themes and issues, such as identity, belonging, and social movements, that are pertinent to the culture of study, considering how local, national, and transnational landscapes have influenced these issues. The module will develop your knowledge of key concepts and theories relevant to the culture of study and encourage the analysis of a wide range of texts, including, but not limited to, literature, film, popular culture, documentary, non-fiction, art, and other visual images.

The way that we talk tells us something about the way we interact with the world around us; it also explains to a certain extent the behaviour of those who see and hear us. Why, for instance, are some types of multilingualism seen as 'good' ('Trump’s grandchildren can already speak Mandarin, aren’t they clever'), while others are seen as 'bad' ('Spanish should be abolished in American primary schools')? In the sorts of contexts that we live in, society is structured in such a way that it benefits those who talk a certain way ('Speak the Queen’s English to get on in life'), and systematically disadvantages others who do not talk a certain way ('You’ll never get anywhere talking like that'). This has consequences that affect us as individuals, and language as a whole. In this module on multilingualism, you'll be asked to interrogate these processes. The module will introduce seminal texts that provide the analytical framework for exploring languages and language use in very disparate societies and cultures. At the same time, the module has a strong practical component: you'll draw on a range of empirical data (both quantitative and qualitative), as well as your own lived experiences, in order to model the relationships between language and society. In the lectures and language-specific seminars, there will be a particular emphasis on the interface between language use and ideologies, policy, the media, education and wider socio-political and cultural formations.

This module concentrates on the politics of development in the Middle East, investigating the extent to which this region has been structured by international and global political economy as opposed to domestic factors. The module examines significant debates and issues in state formation, political regimes, economy and society, particularly considering the legacies of imperialism and the impacts of neoliberalism on the regional dynamics of development. It investigates the politics of critical national resources such as oil and their implications for the state, economy and society. We look at the main political forms and forces, including the authoritarian ‘rentier’ state, pressures for democratisation and liberalisation, and the rise of political Islam. The final part of the module focuses on conflict, intervention, and popular struggle, reflecting on perspectives on future development in the region.

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.