Liberal Arts (Accelerated) BA (Hons)

Year two

• From Enlightenment to Romanticism (Summer School)  Core

From Enlightenment to Romanticism (Summer School)

(Core)

At the end of the Eighteenth Century, the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ began to give way to the ‘Age of Romanticism’. Enlightenment thinkers held that civilization could be perfected through the application of knowledge and reason, while the Romantics prioritized the emotions. This interdisciplinary module will explore the literary, philosophical and historical dimensions of this remarkable turning point in the cultural life of Europe. The nature of the Enlightenment, and the intellectual origins of the French and American Revolutions will be explored, as well as the course of those revolutions, and their effects on England as the so-called ‘Revolution Controversy’ of the 1790s.

20 Credits

• Liberal Arts Capstone Project  Core

Liberal Arts Capstone Project

(Core)

On this module you will complete a project demonstrating the varied and interdisciplinary learning you have undertaken during your studies. This may take the form of a dissertation, project work completed as part of an extended placement, or another output (e.g. film, audio output, website) as agreed with your supervisor. The project must make use of research at the forefront of the disciplines included within the programme.  

40 Credits

• Rhetoric, Dialogue and the Art of Persuasion  Core

Rhetoric, Dialogue and the Art of Persuasion

(Core)

This public philosophy module explores philosophy beyond the walls of academia, introducing you to ancient rhetoric as one means of understanding public discourse and to philosophical practices as another. You will reflect on these methods through both practice and theory while also using rhetoric to analyse and present speeches and engage in different forms of philosophical dialogue. The module will thus give you the transferable skills needed in any future profession.

20 Credits

• Think Tank  Core

Think Tank

(Core)

On this module you will develop your research and problem solving skills by identifying and engaging with a real world issue in order to prepare you for your third year work. In the first part of the module, you will study a range of appropriate research methods, which may include survey design, participant observation, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of survey data, oral interview techniques, close textual analysis, participant observation and digitisation. You will then apply these skills to investigate a particular social, political or academic issue in order to produce a report.

20 Credits

• Working with the Liberal Arts  Core

Working with the Liberal Arts

(Core)

This module combines a work placement with field trips to various cultural institutions such as museums, art galleries and cultural centres, publishing houses, theatres, memorials, archives, and public spaces, predominantly in London but potentially in other cities too. The intention is to witness first-hand how and why these various spaces engage with the themes that run through the liberal arts degree - including identity, power, representation, knowledge. More importantly the visits will provide opportunities to speak with those employed in different roles in these institutions (directors, curators, artists, conservators, technicians, editors, publicists, educationalists, archivists, for example) in order to find out more about potential careers in the liberal arts, but also to learn vocational skills relevant to careers in the field.

• Civil Rights in America, 1945-1993  Optional

Civil Rights in America, 1945-1993

(Optional)

This module encourages students to explore the origins, events and legacies of the Civil Rights movement in the US, from the Second World War through to the early 1990s. For the purposes of this module, the phrase ‘civil rights’ will be interpreted in the broadest sense, incorporating stories of radical labour activism, non-violent resistance, and militant challenges to the status quo of racial injustice.

The content of the module will be oriented around a series of autobiographies written by activists in the Civil Rights period. Students will therefore read first-hand accounts alongside key historiographical debates, and will consider the ways in which life-writing shapes historical narratives.

• Collective Memory and the Second World War Optional

Collective Memory and the Second World War

(Optional)

This module examines some of the main ways in which various national and other group cultures have remembered (and forgotten), commemorated and represented aspects of the Second World War. It is organised around the concept of ‘collective memory’.

More specifically, this means thinking about: the intellectual and cultural traditions that frame representations of the past; the ‘memory makers’ who selectively adopt and manipulate these traditions; and memory consumers who use, ignore or transform the artefacts of memory for their own ends.

• Creative Non-Fiction Optional

Creative Non-Fiction

(Optional)

This module will enable students to engage in a variety of narrative strategies practiced in the most popular and lucrative area of publishing; creative non-fiction. The student will develop a practical understanding of how to approach the memoir, autobiography, creative journalism and the non-fiction novel and story with integrity and originality.


• Crime and Punishment in London, 1700-1900 Optional

Crime and Punishment in London, 1700-1900

(Optional)

On this module you will be introduced to the changing nature of crime and its relationship to society in eighteenth and nineteenth-century London. You will consider different ways of categorising and explaining crime, the relationship between poverty and criminality and urban geography, and the social and cultural manifestations of criminal ‘underworlds’.

In addition, you will cover responses to crime, in particular the kinds of punishments handed down, the public discourse and moral panics related to crime, and efforts to police and control the city, particularly the formation of a modern police force and changes to the criminal justice system. You will also be encouraged to reflect on how the study of crime can contribute to broader understandings of nineteenth-century society and culture.

The records available through the Old Bailey Online will be exploited not only as a way of studying crime itself, but for their value as sources on the history of class, gender and sexuality.

• Cult Media and Identity  Optional

Cult Media and Identity

(Optional)

Film and media's role in representing various identities will be applied to aspects such as costume, the body, and the consumption and reception of media texts, with a particular focus on film and television examples. A particular focus will be on the differing theoretical approaches to identity and the concept of ‘self’. In addition, a focus on participatory cultures, fandom and cult media will be highlighted.

• Digital Illustration Optional

Digital Illustration

(Optional)

An advanced understanding of the intersection between digital and hand-drawn artwork is a key skill for modern designers. This module will require students to explore the integration of digital imaging skills with older, traditional art and design practices such as drawing, collage and montage in order to develop an advanced understanding of how images can be constructed to represent and give meaning to concepts and feelings.  

• Disney and Animation  Optional

Disney and Animation

(Optional)

The module will begin with an insight into the Disney theme parks and their relationship with the ‘real’ America that surrounds them. Students will then develop a thorough understanding of the historical evolution of animation, including the centrality of Disney to narrative and technological innovations in this mode of moving image, as well as an understanding of the varying aesthetic and formal qualities at play in other animation products.

• Eighteenth-century London: Writing the Metropolis 1700-1832  Optional

Eighteenth-century London: Writing the Metropolis 1700-1832

(Optional)

You will study the growth of the world’s first ‘mega city’ by looking at the writing produced in and about it during the ‘long’ eighteenth century.

The module aims to enable you to read a number of literary works within the context of the metropolis as it was during the period 1700-1830, and to encourage you to reflect on the synthesis between historical/geographical environments and the texts that arise from them and come to define them.

• Great Southern Land: A History of Australia  Optional

Great Southern Land: A History of Australia

(Optional)

This module explores the political and cultural history of Australia from its earliest origins to the start of the 21st century.

• Imagining the Ottoman Empire Optional

Imagining the Ottoman Empire

(Optional)

This module will use an examination of key historiographical debates in modern Ottoman history writing to explore both topics from Ottoman history, and ideas concerning the nature of history/the past, and narrations of the past. Such debates will include the “decline thesis”; the influence of nationalism on (re)constructions of the Ottoman past; the theory that Islamic states are traditionally despotic, static, and fundamentally and qualitatively different to European states; and the idea that the Ottomans were inward looking and obscurantist.

Primary sources will be extensively used in the module and subjected to critical analysis. The impact that audience, function and the wider context against which a text was produced and consumed has will be examined. We will look at how interpretative contexts influence readings of primary sources and secondary histories of the Ottoman Empire.

• Journalism  Optional

Journalism

(Optional)

An introduction to writing news journalism in print and online. This module considers the role of news in society, and aspects of the research and production of short and longer news pieces. Emphasis is placed on mastering the strict, clear style of news-writing, researching a publication's voice and readership, and the possibility of journalism as a career.

• Liberating Histories  Optional

Liberating Histories

(Optional)

This module explores key questions about knowledge, truth, power and politics in relation to representations of the past. It looks at some of the main critiques of academic history practices. It looks critically at the epistemic assumptions used to justify conventional history’s claims to authority over the past. It also discusses how other forms of past-talk have been – and continue to be – used to challenge dominant discourses, practices and institutions in the present.

• Liberty or Death: The French Revolution  Optional

Liberty or Death: The French Revolution

(Optional)

The French Revolution continues to shape our lives in innumerable ways, from the way we do politics to our art and literature. It gave birth to the modern nation-state and the modern restaurant, our concepts of left and right and the very idea of a national anthem. Yet the Revolution remains a subject of intense and passionate historical debate.

You will consider the historical significance of this period by examining the following questions: Why did the Revolution happen? What was new about the regime that emerged after 1789? What role did ordinary men and women play in events, and how did their lives changed? Why, ultimately, did the Revolution lead to terror, war, and dictatorship?

• Magazine Design  Optional

Magazine Design

(Optional)

The ability to effectively create pages that combine large quantities of copy, with well proportioned, and sensitively handled images, is a core skill for any successful graphic designer. This module will build upon the fundamental principles covered in Layout and Design at Level 4. It will consider a variety of areas of magazine publishing and provide a conceptual overview of important theoretical concerns in order to analyse issues such as the construction of contemporary gender, class and ethnicity, and how these issues intersect with design concepts.

• Making History Work  Optional

Making History Work

(Optional)

This module sets out to equip you with a clear understanding of how the skills you develop in their History degree can be applied in real commercial settings. With its focus on helping you to develop and execute specific work-based projects, it aims to increase your confidence in the workplace, and help you to identify and articulate your own skill-base and career goals.

Through the module, you will become familiar with the professional opportunities associated with a history degree, and specifically with opportunities and challenges in heritage and history-related industries. You will also be encouraged to think creatively about the opportunities they have to apply their subject-specific skills in non-History environments.

• Motion Graphics  Optional

Motion Graphics

(Optional)

This module will build upon the techniques and concepts covered in Motion Graphics I and further develop the student’s capability to create animated content that is capable of taking advantage of a range of complex objects and behaviours in both 2d and 3d space. Students will learn to master all aspects of the virtual multiple camera and lighting setups, understand the nature and use of parameter behaviours and use a variety of native and imported assets to visually communicate using image, sound and narrative.

• Multimedia Production  Optional

Multimedia Production

(Optional)

This module will build upon ideas discussed at Level 4 to further the students’ understanding of a range of concepts and practical skills relating to the creation, production and editing of a short media product. They will operationalise this enhanced comprehension of the necessary skill set required by key personnel within a production team. They will focus upon areas of pre-production, shooting, editing and finishing to deliver a media product in a timely and budget-conscious manner.

20 Credits

• North American Cinema  Optional

North American Cinema

(Optional)

This module explores the history of Hollywood as a dominant mode of production together with subordinate modes of production. Areas of study include the studio system and the Paramount decree; New Hollywood and independent cinema; key genres such as film noir, melodrama and action-adventure; classification and censorship; distribution, exhibition practices and film festivals; and African-American cinema.

• Paradox of Horror  Optional

Paradox of Horror

(Optional)

This module investigates ‘the paradox of horror’ - why audiences of horror cinema find films which are designed to shock, disgust and frighten so entertaining, enjoyable and appealing. The module will also focus on marketing strategies and the ways that horror filmmakers and distributors use online social media channels to engage audiences.

• Screen and Script: The Codes and Structures of Film and Television Narrative Optional

Screen and Script: The Codes and Structures of Film and Television Narrative

(Optional)

This advanced screenwriting module aims to develop skills in the areas of critical analysis and creative writing. The module will apply theoretical approaches to moving image narrative and language, enabling students to explore and analyse a variety of film styles and examine the potential of specific content in writing for a visual medium. It will then explore the practices of scriptwriting as related to film and television.

• Sound Design  Optional

Sound Design

(Optional)

This module is designed to underscore the importance of sound design and sound editing for film, drawing on elementary skills developed in Digital Production and Multimedia Production.

• Writing Adaptations  Optional

Writing Adaptations

(Optional)

The aim of this module is to offer students an examination of the relationships between texts in different creative media, and specifically to develop students' critical and creative skills in considering the relationship between the printed word and film/television, with particular emphasis upon the techniques and processes of adaptation. Source material included for consideration in the module will include short stories, novels, comics/graphic novels, non-fiction and video/computer games. Adaptations from page-to-screen as well as from screen-to-page (novelisations, tie-ins, spin-offs, etc) will be examined.

• Writing Poetry Optional

Writing Poetry

(Optional)

The module aims to develop the students' range of skills in writing poetry and to increase their knowledge and understanding of contemporary poetry in its widest context. It aims to consider the whole creative process, from conception to completion, through various levels of analysis and drafting.