BA Global Liberal Arts

In this module, students will begin their studies of the areas of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The module will use the city-spaces and urban life of London to begin to engage with cultures from these regions as they are transported and transformed as they find roots in this post-imperial centre.

This module introduces the idea of global liberal arts and the interdisciplinary programme at SOAS that brings together the Arts and Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences. Over ten weeks we will examine the conditions of being human in the ever-changing world. By applying a self-reflexive praxis, we will interrogate both our standpoints and our understanding of knowledge and knowledge production by engaging with critical theories as well as our own experiences as learners. Additionally, these critical theories provide an introduction to core concepts in the interdisciplinary fields of Global Studies, and Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, which you will encounter throughout the programme.

This module supports students with their transition to Higher Education. It delves into the study of Humanities, with a focus on questions concerning the colonial genealogy of Humanities and the ways of decolonising Humanities, and skills acquired in the various disciplines in the college. Students learn to identify and describe the skills they acquire in this module and during their studies in the Humanities. Students are introduced to research, reading, listening, writing, performance and communication skills through multiple disciplinary lenses, addressing the planetary questions of this age. They compare different disciplinary approaches and are encouraged to reflect on interdisciplinary approaches to studying the Humanities, grounded in different regions. This enables students to make more informed decisions in the designing of their individual educational journey. Students practice their skills and reflect on their skills through real-world projects, drawing on critical content from all disciplines in the College of Humanities at SOAS.

This course examines the political economy of development processes and the specific development policies and strategies undertaken in different regions and countries of the world. The syllabus is designed to provide insights on the historical evolution of development debates, and an overview of the elements of theory and policy that are especially relevant to the study and practice of development.

Comparative Growth: Theoretical Approaches offers an introduction to theories of economic growth and structural change with reference to major economies of Asia and Africa. It introduces students to issues of measuring development, growth trends, and debates on demographic factors, physical and human capital investments, roles of institutions, and the state and natural resources. The module is a co-requisite for Comparative Growth: Contemporary Debates and a prerequisite for Issues in Development Economics.

This module explores the history of humankind from the Paleolithic period to the globalized twenty-first century. It proceeds chronologically to understand how the world as a whole got to be the way it is while also exploring the process from different angles, allowing us to make comparisons between and connections among different parts of the world.

This module introduces some of the major musical cultures of selected regions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East through a focus on musical instruments. We explore what instruments can tell us about society, class, and gender; symbolic systems related to music; the histories of musicians and performers; creativity and the imagination; and the transformation of “traditional” musical systems in contemporary societies and global industries.

This course provides an insight into how society has been conceived of in different places and times.You will read a broad range of classic texts of social theory from ancient China and classical Greece to eighteen century Enlightenment and onwards to the birth of anthropology and sociology as academic disciplines. You will attain a sense of the long conversation of social thought that preceded and produced the discipline of social anthropology. And you will be introduced to the art and skill of interpretation.

In this course we explore social thought between, roughly, 1900 and 1960. We do so by studying a sample of the writings of influential social thinkers hailing from Europe, the Caribbean and China, and by situating these in their social, intellectual, and wider historical contexts. The age we look at was one of extremes - of imperialist domination and struggles for national liberation, of free-market capitalism, the Great Depression and protectionism, of communist revolutions, world wars, fascism and genocides, and of women’s suffrage, workers’ rights and the rise of the welfare state.

This module examines approaches to a number of metaphysical questions from both Global North and Global South traditions. Students will critically approach metaphysical arguments in a comparative way, emphasising the permeable, cross-cultural way of thinking about topics such as personhood, the nature of gender, and the relationship between normativity and nature.

This introductory module surveys the entire sweep of Africa's history, north and south of the Sahara, from the emergence of civilizations to the present day. Themes covered include Ancient Egypt and Nubia, Christianity and Islam in Africa, state and society in Sudanic and in Bantu-speaking Africa, slavery and the slave trades, colonisation and the postcolonial period.

This module introduces students to the history of the part of the world that was profoundly influenced by the Chinese cultural sphere through a gendered lens. Chronologically, it covers the periods of early state formation and the rise of the first unified empires, the centuries of political and religious plurality of the first centuries of the common era, and the heyday of Chinese civilization following the 'reunification' in the Sui/Tang and the social and economic transformations of the Song dynasty. We will look at this history through the experience of women from different walks of life and study how women were represented in different kinds of texts, from the Classics to biographies of exemplary women and tales of the strange. This perspective will provide a focused and engaging way to learn about the ideological foundations and hierarchical and patriarchal social structures that supported the expanding Chinese states.

This module is an introduction to the history of the late medieval, early modern and modern era Middle East. It begins roughly around the time when Islamic empires became the dominant powers in the region and explores thenceforth the political, social, and cultural developments up to the present. While the module is structured around events that are primarily of military and political nature, it gives ample importance to the broad social and cultural currents, as well as the circumstances of everyday life as shaped by the former. Throughout the semester, we will also (re)visit, question, and complicate some of the main concepts and debates, such as modernity and the decline thesis, that have informed the field in the past decades.

As it was a century ago, Southeast Asia as a region continues to be one of the hotspots of great power rivalries. Much of the world’s trade runs through the region, it is on the fringe of the Chinese economic power-house, and is a major focus of the US pivot back to Asia. As a result, longer term historical developments and shorter term regional developments have important implications for the balance of world power. Even so, these developments remain poorly understood by world policymakers. This module examines the region’s historical emergence from 1830 to the present, roughly two centuries, with a focus on explaining how its intersection with the prevailing global forces has shaped the region as it exists today.

Japanese manga and anime, as well other popular products, have firmly taken hold of global popular culture. In addition, Japanese food, such as sushi and bento have become a staple for many busy people in London and elsewhere in the world, leading to the image of Japan as a cool country with great food. The Japanese government has therefore proclaimed the Cool Japan initiative in the effort to brand Japan and lift it to the public consciousness around the world. However, many of these images are formed by the media, some within Japan, some outside of Japan. Looking at Japan via the various channels of its consumption – manga, anime, media and food – this module aims to analyse how the various aspects of our ‘imagination of Japan’ come together, working outhow some of our stereotypes are formed. It will enable student to understand how the concept of ‘Japan’ came about. Students thinking of writing an ISP on popular culture/media or any other topic in relation to the topic of the module in their final year are strongly encouraged to enrol in it.

This module aims to offer a broad understanding to the study of Africa in the world. Students will be able to gain insight into the key themes, debates and concepts of the changing continent. 

Key themes will include: Continuity and Change, Culture, Society and Communication, Translocality, Boundaries and Borders, Migration and Trade, Conceptions of Africa as Physical, Cultural and Social Space. We will look at different perceptions and representations of Africa, and at connections and intersections between Africa and the wider world. Taking the continent as a starting point, we will explore both global connections and specific regional, sub-regional and local contexts. Our discussion will be informed by a range of sources and in particular by scholarship from Africa.

This is the first of a pair of modules that introduce students to some of the major topics and approaches in the study of East Asian civilization, from prehistorical times to the early modern era.
Taking a thematic approach, East Asian Civilizations A addresses the key issues of prehistory, rulership, religion, the world of sinographs, and otherness in China, Korea, and Japan. Together, these units give students a grounding in some of the major commonalities and intersections that exist across East Asia through to the early modern period, while also allowing them to see how local dynamics and priorities affected social and cultural forms in each state.

The second of a pair of modules, East Asian Civilizations B continues with a thematic approach to the study of premodern East Asia, with units on Buddhism, warfare, and gender, law, and hierarchy. The structure of the module encourages students to compare the civilizations of China, Korea, and Japan so that they can see their commonalities and intersections as well as identify the particularities of each that arose from local contexts.

This module introduces students to key topics in global linguistic diversity, enabling students to put into a global context the language, region or culture that their degree programme focuses on.

This module is designed to enhance students' understanding of cross-cultural representation in film and animation. The module focuses on contrasting the perspectives of filmmakers from the Global North and South. This approach provides an in-depth look at how these different viewpoints shape portrayals of the Global South.

This course introduces selected popular music cultures of the world, examining case studies from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as diasporic and globalised styles. Each lecture will introduce: representative musical styles with their characteristic sounds, instruments and forms; the cultural contexts within which they have developed; relationships between music and global and local forces including political power structures, gender, nationalism, tourism and globalisation; the roles of musicians and those working in music industries; circumstances surrounding musical performance, recording and dissemination of music.

This module will explore genres such as the oral epic, the graphic novel, puppet theatre, and internet literature with particular attention to the ways that texts interact with other forms of expression from music and dance to the visual arts. Each of the stories studied will be presented in its cultural context, and connections between cultures will be interrogated in an effort to solidify conceptions of the universal and the local.

This module is primarily designed to introduce students who have no background in Film Studies, or in analysing cinema, to the vocabularies used to understand and analyse film language. The module will thus focus on the close reading of specific films – from the early days of cinema, just after its invention in 1895, to the present – so as to deconstruct and analyse their technical, visual, aural and spatial features. While it will be inevitable that we look at certain European and North American films – particularly when analysing ‘mainstream’ film language – we will put the emphasis on our regional film expertise to introduce students to important films from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and also the Soviet Union and Latin America.

Based around the three broad themes of Religion, Trade and Empire, this module examines a series of individual objects in context from across Asia and Africa to explore the role of material and visual culture in understanding the history of global connectivity. Each case-study will demonstrate the transmission of ideas, motifs, materials, objects and people within Asia and Africa and in interaction with Europe, over around 1500 years from the 2nd-3rd to the 18th centuries CE.

Building upon Global Arts: connected histories (to 1800)(Term 1), this module develops an understanding of the arts of Asia and Africa from the 19th century to the present, encompassing the period when many regions were impacted first by European colonialism and later by nationalist and postcolonial movements.

Alongside studying individual objects, art historians also examine the spaces, locations, institutions and contexts within which they may be seen and evaluated. This module will introduce the many contexts of use for objects, including the religious, social and material circumstances in which a 'work of art' was created and used.

This module is the compulsory skills track element of the second year of the Global Liberal Arts programme. It builds on the theories learnt and skills gained in the first year. We will critically engage with key concepts in a liberal arts education, including coloniality?of power, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, nation and nationalism, borders and migration, by studying texts from a range of disciplines. You will then be given support and training to explore how you can apply these theories and approaches to answer a range of questions and contexts that go beyond the classroom and link them to everyday experiences. This will be conducted in individual and group assignments, which will conclude in both an essay and be collected in a mixed media portfolio, will provide you with ample opportunity to gain research, presentation and writing skills that will serve as a base for their dissertations in year three. Additionally, we will study specific topics (e.g. London’s colonial heritage) through the lens of interdisciplinarity, and explore and practice different possibilities of communicating research output through new media, like podcasts, vlogging, blogging, social media, and creative practices, like creative writing, photography, sketching etc.?

Possibilities to publish outstanding output through SOAS channels will be open to interested students.

Syllabus:
1) Coloniality and the question of decoloniality in education
2) Epistemologies and practices of anti-colonial/anti-imperialist resistances
3) Questioning communities and nations: patriotism and nationalism
4) Questioning borders and examining migration

The purpose of this module is to familiarise students with the main debates in gender and development and to introduce new ways of conceptualising the field, critiquing the concept of gender as generally applied in development, and also development itself. We will study issues relevant to gender and development not usually included within the development paradigm, like the coloniality of gender. We will also discuss how the gender binaries came to be so pervasive globally. Gender here is viewed as a set of normative behavioural prescriptions that apply to men as much as to women and men and masculinities will be treated as an integral part of the field alongside women and femininities. Gender is also understood not simply as an issue of individual male-female relationships but as inherently political.

What is migration? Is this the “age of migration”? What is Diaspora and what challenges do diasporic communities bring to modern political constructions such as the nation-state, national “imagined” communities, citizenship and their associated metaphysics of sedentarism? This module explores these issues by critically engaging with the ways in which migration and diaspora have been understood historically and in modern and contemporary times.

This course will chart the dominant features of this scholarly territory by familiarizing students with major issues and controversies in immigration research and by examining empirical cases in Africa, the GCC, and East Asia.

Hip Hop inspires strong opinions, whether in culture war debates or among urban youth born in the digital era. It is the music of grass-roots activists, but it is also big business. It is often described as a primarily lyrics-driven genre, but its best songs are condensed histories of migration and labour trauma that play out at the level of melody. This module considers how it came to be that this genre, born of post-industrial urban decay but gestated through decades of Afrodiasporic conceptions of versioning, has come to dominate not only the Music industry, but academic discussions of youth culture. Through consideration of Hip Hop’s history, pre-history, and global reach, we draw broader conclusions about migration and diaspora, ethnicity and gender, nation and place, all of which hide in plain sight embedded in musical style.

This course offers a historical and contemporary exploration of the important roles played by film festivals in defining, validating, exhibiting, distributing, and (increasingly) producing global cinemas. While it introduces students to the inner workings of the oldest and largest international film festivals, it takes a critical postcolonial approach to the analysis of festivals worldwide and focuses in particular on the treatment of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American films and filmmakers on the circuit.

This course will explore the deconstruction and reconstruction of philosophy from ‘the margins’, primarily examining epistemological arguments about the nature and form of knowledge, truth, subjectivity, and power (and their intersections) from perspectives traditionally marginalised by mainstream philosophy.

The philosophy of language is the branch of philosophical inquiry concerned with questions related to the nature, use and limits of language as a medium between language-users and between them and the world.

Do words merely describe non-linguistic things in the world, or does language have more to do with expressing intentions, vulnerabilities, and the like? This module looks at a range of Anglo-American, critical theoretic, and African takes on language - with particular attention devoted to language's interrelations with a range of power dynamics.

Students will learn how these various perspectives stand in conversation with each other, how the analysis of language has been linked to and conditioned by metaphysical commitments, and how language's imbrication with power buttresses different self-understandings of the aim of philosophical discussion.

This module provides theoretical, practical and historical training in decolonising the study of the arts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It equips students with decolonising tools and perspectives needed to establish and articulate their intellectual position within the study of the arts.

This course, which brings into undergraduate Year 3 an MSc course, is the only such course on this side of the Atlantic and the only other such course outside Columbia. It brings a properly political scientific appreciation of postwar, independence and post-independence thought in Africa as enunciated by leading political figures and public intellectuals.

The course focuses on Mughal rule in north India within the context of the Muslim World. Using the political developments in India from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries as guiding lines for the discussion, the course will examine some of the main political, social, and religious institutions and processes in the Mughal Empire and their role in shaping state and society in South Asia.

This module is an introduction to the literary history of Iran and Persian poetry and the different schools of poetry, as well as the major genres related to the mediaeval period, from its origins to c.1500. A selection of poems by well-known poets of the genres of epic, romantic, didactic, spiritual & mystical writing will be read, and discussed.

This module will examine the historical development of African philosophy focusing on the two key periods or phases: the precolonial period and the postcolonial period of African philosophy as well as the key approaches and trends within these periods.

It will also examine the primary concerns and key themes in African metaphysics, African epistemology and African ethics. The module will also explore some other aspects of African philosophy such as African political philosophy, African existentialism, African feminism, African philosophy of difference and disability.

This module introduces students to some of the most prominent themes of East Asian mythology. From mythical culture bearers and warring monkey kings to mischievous fox spirits and perfidy sensing goats, we will examine the origins of various myths, their sources and evolution over time, as well as their historical and cultural significance.   

This module introduces students to the major aspects of contemporary Middle Eastern fiction from the 20th and 21st century through the theme of race, gender and resistance. It will look at how resistance is expressed in relation to violence, freedom and humour in the fictional world and expressions of where resistance has failed. It will introduce students to postcolonial studies to anchor contemporary critical race and gender critique within literary studies. It will also engage with freedom-fighting narratives as well as intersectional identities of resistance where race, class and gender (among others) come together.

This course offers a transdisciplinary look at contemporary cultural products and cultural modes of production in South and South East Asia. Combining the theoretical framework of British Cultural Studies (Hoggart, Hall, During) with the post-colonial discourses that have underpinned the study of culture in South and South East Asia, the course will explore how particular cultural practices in both regions relate to wider systems of power as embodied in belief systems, ethnicities, caste, national and transnational politics, language, and gender. Working from non-essentialist views of culture as constantly changing sets of practices and processes, the course will seek to introduce the students to reading/readings of cultural texts and use these exercises as engaged approaches to a critical understanding of the cultures of both regions, as well as the continuities and discontinuities between them.

Democracy and Authoritarianism in Asia

This module delves into the complex regime landscape of Asia. From burgeoning democracies to firmly entrenched authoritarian regimes, the module explores the historical, cultural, and socio-political factors that shape the region's diverse governance structures. Through comparative study, students will analyze how different Asian states have navigated their paths between democratic ideals and authoritarian governance in order to situate Asian cases within broader theories.

The course  provides a nuanced understanding of political development across the varied experiences of India, Pakistan, China, Japan, South Korea, and various Southeast Asian states. Through the study of political theories, historical trajectories, external influences, and contemporary challenges, students will learn to contextualize the dynamic interaction between democracy and authoritarianism broadly defined. 

Drawing on a rich array of sources, including scholarly articles, historical documents, and multimedia content, the module encourages students to assess the strengths and weaknesses of different political systems and the theories that illuminate them. The coursework is designed to encourage a critical evaluation of the complex interplay between democratic aspirations and authoritarian tendencies in specific empirical contexts.

WEEK 1. INTRODUCTION TO DEMOCRACY AND AUTHORITARIANISM
- Overview of political theories and concepts related to democracy and authoritarianism.

WEEK 2. COLONIAL LEGACIES AND POLITICAL EVOLUTION: REGIME TYPES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
- The impact of colonialism on political structures and institutions with a focus on the full spectrum of postcolonial regime variation in Southeast Asia

WEEK 3. DEMOCRACY (AND DEMOCRATIC AUTHORITARIANISM) IN SOUTH ASIA
- Analyzing the development and challenges of democracy in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

WEEK 4. AUTHORITARIANISM (AND AUTHORITARIAN REFORM) IN CHINA
- Exploring China's political trajectory and its impact on governance and society.

WEEK 5. DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA
- Comparative study of democratic practices and challenges in Japan and South Korea.

WEEK 6. THE MILITARY IN ASIAN POLITICS
- Assessing the influence of military institutions in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

WEEK 7. POLITICAL PARTIES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN ASIA
- Tracking the interaction between political parties and social movements in Taiwan.

WEEK 8. RELIGION, ETHNICITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN ASIA
- Exploring the role of religious and ethnic identities in shaping human rights debates across Asia.

WEEK 9: POLITICS, MEDIA, AND THE (DIS)INFORMATION AGE IN ASIA
- Understanding the ways in which media drives both democratic and authoritarian trends in Asia.

WEEK 10: THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY AND AUTHORITARIANISM IN ASIA
- Speculating on future trajectories and challenges for governance in the region.

This module introduces students to fundamental concepts and approaches in the study of the links between language and society. Using numerous examples, students will learn about the interplay of language with social factors such as class, gender, ethnicity and age, including how language varies and changes.

This module embrace those frameworks but also challenge their limitations for understanding the history of the non-western world and the interconnectedness of global history. This module challenges students to explore new research methods, as they need to think creatively about source materials that can shed light upon the histories of regions about which there are often few historical records.

This module explores gender in historical perspective, combining a general introduction to gender history with a case-study based on the specialisation and research expertise of the tutor. The module provides a detailed introduction to the positioning of history as a discipline vis-à-vis gender studies.

The course is designed to equip students with a broad range of theoretical and practical approaches to the study of museums. It examines the strategies and practices by which museums interpret, organise and display objects – especially non-Western objects – within diverse cultural contexts.

This module takes the specific topics of health, well-being, embodiment, resilience, human relations to the environment and questions of climate change and views and analyses them through the lens of culture studies. The module is team taught by lectures with expertise in language-based cultural studies with reference to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, whose research and teaching incorporates a focus on areas of health and well-being such as HIV-AIDS, cancer, Covid-19, public health discourses and their relation to difference cultural perspectives on embodiment. The module interweaves these concerns into the study of the need for human resilience in response to current global crises, first and foremost among which are questions of environmental destruction and climate change. The module concludes with an emphasis on the need for cross-cultural communication and intercultural understanding for global collaboration to find effective solutions to the problems of our times.

This module will examine a range of genres and forms, and aims to provide students with an insight into motif and interpretation of love and loss by looking at specific selection of texts in English translation (in poetry and prose) by different authors from across the regions of Africa, the Middle East, South and South East Asia, from the ancient times to the present day.

This module examines themes and notions of 'modernity' in the Korean cultural context, through a syllabus which considers issues surrounding representation, identity, landscape and memory in Korean literature and film. It aims to provide students with the skills to read, analyse and understand Korean literary works and films against past and present socio-historical contexts and critical discourses.

This module will give students the opportunity to experience what it is like to work in their chosen industry, while developing their employability and graduate career prospects. It will allow students to acquire greater knowledge of the industry of their choice and enable them to explore and experience its practices. Students will apply some of what you have learned on their programme and reflect upon their career aspirations.

Important note: This module is offered on a first come, first served basis. In term 1, students have to engage with the SOAS Careers team to find a suitable internship for their degrees. Only upon the successful completion of this task, students will be invited to take this module in semester 2 of their degrees.

The course is designed to explore themes – around the emergence of the cultural industries, the commodification of art and culture and the potentialities of digital culture – that are relevant across Media, Music and Arts and Archaeology, and to bring together expertise from each department in a team-taught course. It will give students an overview of the history and scale of the global cultural industries and how they intersect with politics, the economy, and ideas of the self and of community. It will use case studies drawn from across SOAS regions to ground the course in specific examples that address transnational and localised framings.

This module allows students to synthesise their learning in a single project that demonstrates their fulfilment of the programme’s learning outcomes. It integrates their academic knowledge with experiences beyond the classroom and combines their developing knowledge, skills, and personal interests. The project is conceived, designed, and carried out independently, with support and supervision.

This module builds on foundational knowledge and skills acquired in earlier years of study, focusing on the practical application of critical thinking within and beyond academia. This module encourages students to critically reflect on their own perspectives and contributions to academic discourse and societal engagement, culminating in a collaborative group project that addresses pressing global issues. Students engage in workshop-style sessions to identify theoretical approaches and project topics, reflecting on necessary skills and knowledge for project development. This practice-based learning style aims at addressing contemporary societal challenges, utilising diverse perspectives and disciplines. Simultaneously, students gain enhanced critical thinking and collaborative work skills. This is Liberal Arts in action!

This module is concerned with the ways the mind and mental illness are understood in different cultural contexts. We explore the cultural and historical shaping of Western psychiatry and its interaction with other diagnostic and healing traditions. Are psychiatric diagnostic categories like depression or PTSD universal or culturally and historically specific, bound to particular notions of mind, body or spirit? Is Western psychiatric knowledge imposed on other societies through Global Mental Health, or does the expansion of evidence-based treatments address a critical ‘treatment gap’? Is the globally rising diagnosis of mental disorders a consequence of new stressors, undiagnosed conditions or the medicalisation of ordinary sadness and coping responses? The module uses ethnographic research, cultural psychiatry and anthropological theory to explore such questions. It will probe the universality of psychiatric knowledge, and examine how illness classifications are the result of political and epistemological struggles, both on local and global scales.

This course explores the intersection and social construction of race" and gender through an anthropological lense. The course emphasises the lived realities of race and gender and how these have been shaped by cultural, historical and economic power relations. At the same time, we explore how the categories of race and gender have been the object of scientific discourses and technologies of control. A special focus is given to the ways in which anthropology has contributed to and been complicit in histories and experiences of oppression, empire and colonialism. By looking at whiteness as a system of power that undergirds gendered ideologies and privileges, the course critically analyses knowledge practices and the representation of race and gender in science and media."

Historical Linguistics.

The climate crisis is clearly one of the primary existential threats facing the human species. But how we understand the roots of the climate crisis, its current and future impacts on world politics, and its possible solutions, is inherently contested terrain. Nothing less than the future of life on earth, and competing conceptions of the ‘good life’ and how we should organize our societies, is at stake. This course will investigate the global politics of the climate crisis, starting with scientific debates regarding the possible severity of climate change (how bad could it get?), and then moving through questions about climate governance, the political economy of climate change, the energy and food system transitions, migration, geoengineering, possible global futures, and activism. We can hardly hope to exhaust such a complex topic in the span of 10 weeks. Instead, we will cover some key topics and hear from a wide range of perspectives. The goal will be to give students a basic grounding in the science, politics, and economics of climate change; to enable them to critically engage with a multiple perspectives on the key causes and possible solutions to the climate crisis; and to help them think through its implications for their own lives and futures.

The objective of this module is to provide students with a firm understanding of financial global markets. The module will focus on topics including the role of finance in economic development, the relevance of different financial system structures, and the European Monetary and Economic Union.

This team-taught module will bring together different scholars from across the arts and humanities to consider at an advanced level the impact of digital technologies, such as digitisation, translation or artificial intelligence, on various aspects of human life when they are digitised: language, translation, arts, memory, history and its preservation, authenticity and “fakeness”, religion, pilgrimage, archives, structures of knowledge and information management, and others. Drawing a strong humanities foundation, the module will enable students to consider the impact of digitality on the human in a sophisticated way, without reducing/overlooking the implications of digital transition or falling foul of digital exceptionalism.

This School of Arts unit combines curatorial training with an exploration of key debates in the theory, history and practice of curating art, music and media in a global context. The course includes a series of off-site visits in galleries and arts institutions during which students will meet curators and engage with current perspectives on curating in London. Students will study the histories and debates of curating through a close reading of seminal exhibitions, manifestos and texts, and will cover themes including collecting and display, postcolonial exhibition practice, representation and the ‘other’, curatorial initiatives in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, curating sound and music, and the use of archives and digital technologies in curating. Throughout the course, students will work on group projects to develop practical and conceptual skills for curatorial research, and will end the course by producing an exhibition proposal. The course will appeal especially to students interested in pursuing a career in the arts sector.

This module traces the history and politics of Palestine and the Zionist movement, within a regional and international context, from the late nineteenth century to the present. It examines Palestinian and Israeli understandings of the past and present through primary sources, scholarship, and cultural production. The module seeks to understand how and at what costs Israeli and Palestinian political institutions and nationalisms have been constructed and analyzes British and US involvement in the conflict. Key themes to be introduced and explored include imperialism, settler colonialism, nationalism, Orientalism, violence, anticolonialism, and revolution, all as understood by a variety of actors involved in the region.

This course is about the economic structures, institutions and policy challenges in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The course starts with a broad economic history of the region and goes on to address the emergence of the economic structures, resource endowments, and political economy institutions of the modern Middle East. The course highlights the specificities of the political economy of the region in a global cotext and covers selected aspects of economic policy in the contemporary period in these countries. The contemporary nature of the problems facing the MENA countries are addressed throughout the course.

This module is about cultural and social change in Africa in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It covers the entire continent, north and south of the Sahara, as well as considering the cultures of the African diaspora. The aim to is explore African cultures and societies across the established divide in the continent's modern history between the era of colonial rule in the first half of the twentieth century and that of renewed African sovereignty from around the 1960s. A range of social changes are examined, but the focus will be on the history of popular and visual cultures, including artistic production in the fields of music, dance, theatre, film and plastic art. A central concern is to think about the historical processes that have shaped contemporary society and culture today.

The module gives students a good general introduction to Contemporary African Literature(s) and to demonstrate to them some of the ways in which creative writing in the form of prose narratives, the novel, poetry, drama, etc help create an understanding of the socio-cultural, economic and political issues that define life and existence on the African continent and its diaspora. The module is also meant to help encourage students develop critical and analytical skills that move away from dominant Eurocentric and Western perspectives and to present the teaching, researching, understanding and analysis of Africa from African-centred perspectives.

The module is intended to complement modules such as ‘History and Culture of Korea to the Late 19th Century’ and ‘Culture and Society in 20th Century Korea’ (which focuses on South Korea) to provide BA Korean students with a more comprehensive overview and understanding of the Korean peninsula and how it has developed, especially since the Pacific War.

This module aims to provide students with a broad knowledge base to understand Taiwan's culture and society. Because of its multifaceted cultural and ethnic mix and the complex colonial history, the module looks at Taiwan’s contemporary culture, unpicks the various dimensions of the complicated social change, and considers the colonial legacy and the impact of globalization.  The focus of the module is placed on the highly contentious issue of identity politics of the post-war era. By exploring contemporary Taiwanese cultural change and social development, this course facilitates a solid understanding of the complexity of this place, offers an interesting reference point to think about China and Japan, and provides a better understanding of the greater East Asian society. Because most courses cover China, Japan and Korea, this module can connect the dotted line to form a more complete picture of East Asia.

There are multiple ways of thinking about resistance. Simply writing about oneself and the space one is not allowed to occupy can be a mode of resistance. Writing about past or present oppression, stirring protest, and imagining alternative futures can also be read as resistance. Cultures of resistance makes us think about what literature, film and other media seeks to do and the silences or censorship it challenges. It directs our attention to forms of injustice, but also to its mode of address, and to its intended and non-intended audiences, as well as it effects. Through narrative, poetic technique, political inclination, subject matter and authorial position, texts highlights the often intersectional dynamics of everyday living and the power structures that shape it. The module will examine an array of examples and forms of cultural texts from South Asia, and may include anticolonial, Dalit, feminist and LGBTQ narratives, political satire in prose, poetry, film, drama, dance and other such forms. 

This module introduces the practice and principles of audio-visual translation, primarily subtitling. It covers two main components in subtitling - the practical including associated technology and concepts that underpin the practice and general theoretical arguments that surround subtitling as a genre in translation studies. The module provides students with opportunities to practice subtitling, first by translating scripts under subtitling conditions, and then using subtitling software programmes to produce a finished product.  This module also develops students’ independent working abilities by preparing & organising presentations. It is also aimed to help students develop linguistic skills, cultural awareness and subtitling techniques required to work as a screen translator.  

The course examines the historical context of Islam in Britain, beginning with early Muslim migrations and settlement in the 19th century, through to the institutionalisation of Islam in Britain in the early twentieth century and the emergence of community leaders. Within this framework it will cover the different ethnic, sectarian and doctrinal approaches to Islam belonging to and/or adopted by migrants and second generation Muslims. The course proceeds to look at the various issues that have arisen, uniquely, out of this context and in response to world events.

This module offers an overview of key works and themes in modern Japanese literature. By exposing students to methods, cultural movements and texts, the module aims to showcase and problematise the multiplicity of literary voices that are part of the Japanese literary domain. For this reason, while the module provides students with the theories, knowledge, and skills to analyse and discuss fundamental texts in Japan’s literary history, it also considers works that articulate the experiences of marginal" or peripheral identities, with topics ranging from modernism to queer writing, from atomic bomb literature to that written by ethnic minorities."

This module offers a textual and contextual survey of modern Chinese literature, exploring seminal literary works in connection with key political movements.

The course will offer a survey of films from the Arab world, Turkey, Iran, and Israel, as well as an overview of the historical development of film in the region and a grounding in the socio-cultural contexts in which films have been produced. Films will be analysed aesthetically, with an awareness of multiple aspects of film technique, and meanings will be interrogated through a number of interdisciplinary and theoretical prisms.

Partition and independence in 1947 are critical events underlying the modern history of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir.  This module examines the histories of nationalist and imperial politics that are held to account for the partition of British India. Throughout the sessions there will be reflections on the continuing importance of the divisions caused by partition occupying the states in the present day. Students will become familiar with the historiography of colonialism and nationalism, and gain an understanding of cultural, political issues involved in the politics of governing different groups, the politics of identity, its various sources and dimensions as well as international geopolitics. The module assumes a basic knowledge of the history of South Asia, which can be acquired with additional reading.

This module examines the history of institutionalised racial segregation in South Africa during the first half of the twentieth century. Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, the module traces the social, economic and intellectual origins of segregation (as distinct from apartheid) during the early decades of the twentieth century.  The module is especially concerned to investigate the everyday lived experiences of 'ordinary' black South Africans.