MA Media in Development

This interdisciplinary module will critically engage with contemporary academic debates around post-truth media environments, definitions of misinformation, conspiracy and information warfare. It will introduce key theoretical approaches around the role of media in the construction of prejudice and conspiracy while drawing on diverse approaches in critical media studies, social psychology, gender studies, sociology, politics and cultural studies.

This module balances the critical theoretical analysis of the hegemony of ideas and practices of Development with the practical issues surrounding the use of contemporary media, including notably digital technologies, for a range of developmental purposes. Reference is made to a range of old media and new Information Communication Technologies including radio and mobile telephony that are utilised in a variety of ways to address specific kinds of development-oriented issues, including health, literacy and gender empowerment and sustainable livelihoods.

The module will respond to the need to provide MA students at the Centre for Media Studies with the necessary knowledge about methods in research. The module will therefore help students write their dissertations by engaging with appropriate methods for research and provide a rationale for using a particular method in their work. The module will help students prepare for their dissertations in a systematic way and approach their dissertation with a clearer idea about how to design their research and execute it.

This 10,000 word research project focuses on a specific topic that the student selects from materials presented in the formal courses in Media in Development. It is normally written over the summer period and submitted in September. The dissertation provides the opportunity for individual research that includes an element of primary field research or the use of multimedia elements or both.

This module provides a critical understanding of the theoretical and conceptual approaches to the relationship between communication, culture, arts and politics in the Middle East.

A central component of globalization is the mass movements of people and the consequent growth of a variety of communities and networks whose lives are played out across and beyond national borders. Media and communications are central to the lives and practices of such collectivities and take many different forms. Many diasporas have developed a range of media channels to bind members and maintain connection with the homeland. Religious communities are amongst the biggest transnational media players, for example in the development of Christian broadcasting channels or the multiplicity of sites for Koranic interpretation on the Net.

The transnational news environment has been one of the most contentious arenas of global media activity. Long dominated by Western news agencies and global media channels, which remain key players, the transnational news environment is being transformed with the emergence of powerful non-Western news producers, including Al-Jazeera and ZeeTV and by the growing global access to the Internet. The course charts the history of contention over transnational news flow, examines the main producers in the West and in the South, and examines the emerging patterns of flow, use and reception.

International Political Communication

The course is designed to develop practical skills in ?digital media, informed by media scholarship. ?The principle of the module is that one of the best ways to study digital media is by making it. Students will learn about the emergence of podcasting ?as a new form of digital production, consider its relationship to traditional forms of broadcasting like radio, and work in groups to produce and publish a podcast. Students will learn a range of media production techniques; including idea management tools like Affinity Diagrams, consider a range of podcasts and the different genres they use to present information, scripting and presentation and editing (Audacity).

The aim of this interdisciplinary module is to offer a historical and critical survey of contemporary global media and communication theory and its application to the regions we study. It examines the interface between mainstream global media and communication theory and a variety of other perspectives and approaches applied to the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, including globalisation, political economy, critical theory, cultural studies, political communication and post-structuralism.

The modules addresses topics in Global Media and Post-National communication through using a comparative approach focused on case studies in the Global South. The comparative approach is important particularly because media studies developed along the US-UK axis making it imperative to ask how media theories can be used in other parts of the world, address their ethnocentric and normative assumptions and exploring different approaches arising from other genealogies and histories.

This interdisciplinary module will critically engage with contemporary academic debates around post-truth media environments, definitions of misinformation, conspiracy and information warfare. It will introduce key theoretical approaches around the role of media in the construction of prejudice and conspiracy while drawing on diverse approaches in critical media studies, social psychology, gender studies, sociology, politics and cultural studies. The module will help students acquire the necessary theoretical and methodological approaches to critically engage with, and understand, the role of media as well as the role of media users in the construction of post-truth societies, inter-group conflict, prejudice and discrimination.

Special Theme (2024/25): The Cultural Politics of Chinese Food

We explore key themes in the anthropology of Chinese societies through the lens of food and its cultural politics. In China, food figures prominently in the formation and expression of cultural identities, majority-minority interactions, political power, gender, religious practice, and everyday social relations. Longstanding concerns about food security have increasingly given way to anxieties about food safety and dietary health and renewed interest in culinary tourism and heritage. Food also mediates the relationship between China and the world and shapes the experiences of Chinese in the diaspora. The course addresses current issues and debates surrounding food systems and food practices, as they pertain to Chinese societies and peoples. Topics covered include: food safety and social trust; the culture and politics of banqueting; cultural understandings of body, health and nutrition; food and urban space; food and diasporas; ethnicity and nationalism; meat production, consumption, and avoidance; and famine, memory and moral economies.

This module introduces students to ethnographic studies in and of a particular region in Sub-Saharan Africa, its resident populations, and its diasporas, viewed through a variety of interconnected topics that have been important in the anthropological literature. With a particular focus on West Africa, East Africa, or Southern Africa, students will have the opportunity to explore classic and contemporary anthropological themes such as social organization, political economy, religion, gender and sexuality, race/ethnicity, personhood, the body, consumption, labour and livelihoods, violence and justice, and social identities, as they take shape in particular locales. The module also encourages students to consider how anthropological and historical understandings help us to recognize the fundamentally interconnected and global nature of any nation, subregion, or region, whose boundaries are often designated or shift as a result of colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial social processes and power relations.

This course focuses attention to social movements in relation to civil society and to the development project itself. It examines some current positions on theorising 'civil society' and 'new social movements'.

This module critically explores the different theoretical perspectives of the relationship between Human Rights and Islamic law and examines the practices of some relevant Muslim-majority States in that regard.

This course aims to provide a critical introduction to the building blocks of public international law – its nature and sources, international personality, statehood and recognition, jurisdiction and immunities, the law of responsibility, international organisations, and enforcement. Throughout the course, you will be introduced to different theoretical perspectives– including feminist and 'third world approaches to international law' (TWAIL)– and encouraged to think critically about the rule and role of law in the international order.

This module explores historical and contemporary dimensions of the relationship between International Law and colonialism/ imperialism.

In the first part of the course, we will consider the historical mappings of the colonial endeavour within international law as well as theoretical debates concerning colonialism, post-colonialism and neo-colonialism. In the second half, we will focus on a variety of contemporary international law issues – e.g., statehood and recognition; self-determination of peoples; failed states; administration of territory; racialisation and capitalism; and reparations- in light of the historical and theoretical perspectives introduced in the earlier part of the term.

This module examines ‘water justice’ in the global South from a combined Law and Development Studies perspective. The three main themes in the course are water rights/right to water, the modalities of access to water, and social movements on water issues. The course discusses examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America, and selected examples from the global North. It seeks to provide students with a broad understanding of the multi-faceted issues arising in the water sector from the local to the international level.

Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to understand and analyse issues concerning water law and policy, conflicts and governance from a broad perspective encompassing their economic, social and environmental dimensions. Students will acquire knowledge of basic concepts and principles underlying the regulation, management and conservation of water, focusing on national, regional examples in the international context in which governance evolves and the increasing importance of conflicts in the water sector.

This module “de-colonizes” comparative constitutional law: It introduces students to critical approaches to comparative law; it de-centres the “role model” constitutions; it critiques mainstream liberal theories that idealise these constitutions; and it sheds light on often marginalised constitutional histories and systems.

This module offers an investigation into the theories and key texts that inform the dynamic field(s) of postcolonial, decolonial and anticolonial studies, with a specific focus on law. Whilst anticolonial uprisings are as old as the global project of Euro-American colonialism and imperialism itself, the long twentieth century saw the emergence of a body of thought that critically addressed the realities of both an enduring ‘coloniality of being’ around the world and the prospects of a Third Worldist approach to social, political and legal justice claims. This body of thought is the core preoccupation of the module, taught by a diverse team of experts in the field. No prior knowledge of law is required to attend the module.

This subject will provide an overview of the discipline of international criminal law. First, the course will examine the origins of the fundamental principle of international criminal law – individual criminal responsibility – and its operations through a variety of international crimes. Second, the course will explain the core theoretical assumptions of the law - focusing in particular on the rationales for criminalisation and for the creation of international criminal tribunals – and take a critical look at these core theoretical assumptions. Third, the course will look at the operation of international criminal law through national jurisdictions and international tribunals.

This module examines the nature of international investment and its legal regimes; the impact of foreign and domestic investment on the economic development of states; the protections afforded investors and their interpretations, the role of states and the impact of investment law on their regulatory powers; and the ICSID dispute resolution mechanism for investment related disputes between foreign investors and states. This module aims to equip students with a clear understanding and critical engagement of these issues from a legal perspective and particularly as it relates to developing and capital importing states.

This module critically explores the different theoretical perspectives of the relationship between Human Rights and Islamic law and examines the practices of some relevant Muslim-majority States in that regard.

This module critically explores the different theoretical perspectives of the relationship between Human Rights and Islamic law and examines the practices of some relevant Muslim-majority States in that regard. Following on from Part 1, this module focuses on substantive issues, States practices and application of the law.

This module aims at conceptualising a new law and development initiative for Africa by critically engaging with the traditional “law and development movement” and identifying its methodological shortcomings with respect to Africa. It examines the scope and limitations of law as an instrument of development and explores what contributions law, legal theory and legal institutions can make towards the realisation of human, economic and socio-political development in Africa.

This module explores old and new theories of law and development relevant to Africa through thematic topics that fall within the three key aspects related to development: Human Development, Socio-political development and economic development. The module applies the successes and limitations of law as an instrument of development identified in LDA I, and determines what contributions law, legal theory and legal institutions can make towards the realisation of human, economic and socio-political development in Africa.

The module has a comparative approach, examining national, regional and international perspectives of highlighted issues within an African context.

As the most heavily populated region in the world, the Indian subcontinent has always played an important role in world affairs. From being one of the most successful trading nations of the world, to becoming the heart of the British Empire, and now sitting adjacent to the newly world-dominant China, South Asia has always been a region of strategic, cultural, political and economic importance.
This module aims to introduce students to the many ways in which law, religion and the state interact in the subcontinent. We seek to do so by using, as far as possible, authors from the region, and focus on issues that continue to hold contemporary relevance. We begin by briefly examining the construction of the colonial legal system in South Asia and its lasting legacies today. We analyse the role of religion in the legal systems of the region in two ways: Firstly, we examine the increasing rise of religious intolerance and religious nationalism in South Asia and the legislative and judicial responses to these challenges before analysing whether ‘secularism’ can ever truly be at home in the subcontinent. We also study the impact of religion on personal law, and especially the ways in which this affects women. Within the field of personal and family law we discuss themes such as child marriage and polygamy, dowry problems and violence against women, divorce and maintenance and the much-debated issue of uniform civil codes.

This module aims to introduce students to the many ways in which law, religion and the state interact in the subcontinent. We seek to do so by using, as far as possible, authors from the region, and focus on issues that continue to hold contemporary relevance.