BA Global Liberal Arts

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 takes the interpretive skills and overview of the field of History gained in H101 Approaching History to examine History in the broader context of the modern university. We look at the history of the 'Humanities' and address the way in which humanities and social science disciplines emerged in the context of the Enlightenment and colonial expansion.

This course not only covers major concepts and theories in the study of Comparative Politics, but also offers empirical analyses of the government and politics in a select group of countries. The course covers a wide range of issues, including the formation of the nation-state, democratization, authoritarianism, political culture, political development, comparative political economy, nationalism, ethnic politics, politics of religion, and political institutions. The course will also discuss some debates in Comparative Politics that have been important in the policy-making community in recent decades, such as state-building, role of the state in economy, the concept of social capital, and the effort to promote democracy around the world. Although paying attention to countries in Asia, Middle East, and Africa, a select group of Western countries will also be studied in a comparative format.

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 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.

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 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.

South Asia (comprising of present-day India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives) has a history stretching back millennia. This module introduces the historical processes that shaped the society, culture, economy and political landscapes of the subcontinent over this long period. We begin with the Harappan or Indus Valley civilization and conclude with the English East India Company’s conquest of Bengal, a moment that marks the beginning of the colonial period. Students will study the principal historical themes, debates and controversies that have concerned scholars over the decades and thus build a foundation for further study of the history of South Asia at more advanced levels.

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 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 year one, in the modules 'Introduction to Global Liberal Arts' and 'Colonial Curricula.' Over ten weeks we will critically engage with theoretical texts from a range of disciplines that engage critically with today’s globalised world (Global Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Politics and International Studies) with a focus on the Global South.

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

• the role of Liberal Arts in education
• what are theories and how to apply them
• research methods and research design
• presentation methods
• knowledge, research and creativity knowledge, research and new media

Learning Outcomes

• Lo1. demonstrate the ability to analyse theoretical texts from selected interdisciplinary fields with a focus on the Global South and contextualise these in current debates and discourses
• Lo2 .design independent research projects and practice research methods studied in class (research skills
• Lo3. present a short research design (presentation skills
• Lo4. prepare research output in various written, oral and visual forms, including academic and creative writing, podcasting, photography, blogging and vlogging, and other creative practices
• Lo5. practice skills in new technologies and new media through the preparation of research output as described in L04

Workload

• 2 hour seminar per week (40 weeks)

Assessment

• One 2000 word essay (30%)
• One 3000 word mixed media portfolio (70%)

Reading List

• Mark Juergensmeyer, Saskia Sassen, Manfred B. Steger: The Oxford Handbook of Global Studies
• Appadurai, Arjun: Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization
• Loomba, Ania: Postcolonial Studies and Beyond
• Mabel Moraña, Enrique Dussel, Carlos A. Jáuregui: Coloniality at Large. Latin America and the Postcolonial Debate
• Homi Bhabha: The Location of Culture
• Sokari Ekine, Hakima Abbas: Queer African Reader
• Nalini Visvanathan, Lynn Duggan, Nan Wiegersma, Laurie Nisonoff: The Women, Gender and Development Reader
• Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks
• Amina Mama, Beyond the Masks: Race, Gender and Subjectivity
• Oyèrónké Oyĕwúmí, The Invention of Women
• Grada Kilomba, Plantation Memories
• Walter Mignolo, Catherine E. Walsh, On DecolonialityGloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands
• Jennifer Ung Lo, J. Daniel Luther, Queer Asia: Decolonising and Reimaging Sexuality and Gender
• Nawal el Saadawi, The Hidden Face of Eve
• Rebecca Hall, Hugo Martínez, Wake. The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

The overall aim of the course is to introduce students to Zoroastrianism - its doctrines, rituals and observances within a historical framework. The teachings of the religion will be discussed on the basis of the Zoroastrian sacred text, in particular the Avesta and Pahlavi literature, in the context of the Indo-Iranian religious system from which the religion emerged. The history of Zoroastrianism will be traced from its prehistoric roots in Indo-Iranian times through its development under the rule of three great Iranian empires, Achaemenian, Parthian and Sasanian, its gradual development into a minority religion after the Muslim conquest of Iran, the subsequent migration and re-settlement of a diaspora community in India, and from there up to the present day.

The module aims to provide students with a working awareness of the main texts and underlying aesthetic principles of premodern Japanese drama from the earliest times to the mid 19th century. The primary textual focus will be upon the dramatic genres of noh, joururi (bunraku) and kabuki, and a major theme of the course will be the ways in which these genres recast and recycle plots, structures and thematic elements from older prose and poetry canons.

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.

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 half-unit introduces students from across the School of Arts to key texts of post-colonial theory that deal with aesthetics and the senses. The team-taught module mixes different disciplinary approaches from Music, History of Art and Archaeology, and Media to engage key concepts in post-colonial studies.

The dissertation is the capstone of the BA Global Liberal Arts that draws on and brings together the different strands of the programme. It is an exercise in critical thinking, problem solving, and project design that can take various forms, depending on the student’s individual intellectual journey and academic and professional interests. It is an opportunity to work independently, but with guidance from an academic supervisor. The planning of the dissertation begins in the summer term of the preceding year with an indication of the research topic and a preliminary reading list.

This module is about the politics of normative change in world politics, and more specifically, in international responses to violent conflict i.e. the contestations over the norms, institutions, and law associated with the regulation of armed conflict and the management of its effects and consequences, and, more generally, the securing of a peaceful world. The module examines these both theoretically and empirically, with a focus on key domains within world politics - including human rights, humanitarianism, international criminal justice, the laws of war, and the legitimacy of the use of armed force - and the associated frameworks that have developed over the in recent decades as a wider architecture understood as ‘liberal’ in its ostensible foundations, goals, and commitments.

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.

This course introduces third year students in Politics degrees to diverse debates in gender and politics. Developed through a thematic, transnational approach, the module invites students to engage with majority world thinking on thematic questions and situate these intellectual debates within contemporary gender concerns

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.

This course is concerned with South Africa's tumultuous twentieth-century history. It is especially concerned with the ways in which ordinary Africans negotiated daily life within the strictures of these forms state repression.

Arts of the African Diaspora addresses an important and, in many ways, an emerging field of study, long forsaken in chronicles of (art) history but now critical to its understanding, as well as those legacies borne of Atlantic slavery, turmoil, and global migration. Taking the twentieth century as its primary focus and spanning the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and the African continent, this module considers the enduring impact and influence such histories have had on artistic practices assembled here under the rubric Arts of the African Diaspora.

In this module, selections of Palestinian writings in different genres will be read and analysed as exemplars of literary responses to a situation of alienation and displacement, with particular focus on tradition and innovation, the construction and maintenance of identity, coping strategies and the evolving social function of literature in the context of the current conflict.

This module examines literature in English about South East Asia and written by South East Asians, taking English as a South East Asian language. It explores issues such as diasporic identity, exile and belonging, linguistic choice, race and communal politics.