Anthropology and Sociology BSc (Hons)

Compulsory

• SC1603 - Contemporary Challenges

  This module will introduce students to applications of social and political sciences, providing students with the opportunity to practice the skills needed to communicate the results of their work accurately and reliably, and with structured and coherent arguments.

• SC1601 - Fundamentals of the Social Sciences

  This module will introduce students to key concepts, theories, thinkers and approaches in the social and political sciences and history. Students will also learn the techniques used by a range of disciplines within the social and political sciences and history for gaining and validating knowledge of the social and political world.

• SC1604 - Special Subjects A

  This module will introduce students to the underlying concepts and principles associated with their area(s) of study in relation to other areas of the social and political sciences; to provide students with the opportunity to evaluate and interpret these within the context of that area of study. It will also develop students’ ability to present, evaluate and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data, in order to develop lines of argument and make sound judgements in accordance with basic theories and concepts of their subject(s) of study.

• SC1605 - Special Subjects B

  This module will introduce students to the underlying concepts and principles associated with their area(s) of study in relation to other areas of the social and political sciences; to provide students with the opportunity to evaluate and interpret these within the context of that area of study. It will also develop students' ability to present, evaluate and interpret qualitative and/or quantitative data, in order to develop lines of argument and make sound judgements in accordance with basic theories and concepts of their subject(s) of study.

Compulsory

• SO2609 - Gender, Sexuality and Feminism

  This module will introduce students to core ideas in feminism via the key concepts of gender and sexuality. It will develop students’ understandings of social structures, human cultures, and economic inequalities and political relationships. The course will offer theoretical tools and historical insights into gendered, feminised, and sexualised socio-cultural worlds.

• SA5639 - Migration, Citizenship and Identity

  This module introduces students to a range of key concepts and theories in the anthropology of ethnicity, culture, nationhood and identity. These classical anthropological themes will be examined through the lens of high-profile contemporary social issues, including migration, citizenship, transnationalism and globalisation, xenophobia and deportation. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from settings across the world, we will explore how categories of identity and belonging are constructed, deployed and contested, and the ways in which they are embedded in broader social, political, legal and economic contexts.

• SA2610 - Political and Economic Issues in Anthropology

  Is anthropology separate from the study of politics and economics? In this module students will be learning about how politics and economics relate to anthropological knowledge. That is, they will be learning (a) how anthropologists have studied the economic and political lives of ‘Others’, as well as (b) how politics and economics have contributed, and sometimes even shaped, the kinds of studies that anthropologists have produced.

• SA2626 - Qualitative Research in Professional Practice

  The module provides training in how to conduct a research project in preparation for a qualitative dissertation in the social sciences. Throughout the module students will develop an understanding of the ethical and practical problems of conducting ethnographic research with human participants in varied social and professional contexts. Students will define research questions in light of existing literature and their knowledge of the social setting they are researching.  

• CO2605 - Researching Your World

  This module provides an advanced understanding of research methodologies, with a particular focus on data analysis. Equipping students with an understanding and appreciation of the important theoretical paradigms that underpin qualitative and quantitative social and communications research traditions. Furnishing students with the tools and skills required to conduct and evaluate their own empirical social and communications research.

• SO2614 - Sociology of Everyday Life: Issues in Contemporary Culture

  In this module you will consider the meanings of ordinary, ‘everyday’ processes and actions in society, by examining what everyday life consists of and the relevant academic debates and theories around it. The module will encourage you to reflect on your own everyday life through the lense of power, identity and gender in wider socio-cultural contexts.

Optional

• CO2607 - Popular Culture and Creative Industries

  This module explores how meanings are developed through contemporary cultural representations, practices and processes, with a focus on creativity and the creative industries sector. It examines popular culture and the rise of the creative and cultural sector in late modernity drawing on relevant sociological, media and cultural studies debates and theories. 

• SO2610 - Colonialism, Migration and Global Racism

  This module explores the concept, meaning and practices of ‘race’, ethnicity, racialization, and global racisms. It identifies how ‘race’ and racism have evolved over time, and in different contexts - both nationally in the contemporary UK as well as in other parts of the world. 

• SO2611 - Digital Culture

  This module considers the shape of new media technologies such as iPhones - has changed the basis of contemporary social life and culture. This module will examine some of the key transformations that are taking place through digital culture. Key aims of the module include:

  • an introduction to debates on digital culture and society;#
  • conceptual, analytical and practical resources to understand contemporary issues on digital culture;
  • the use of case studies to focus on debates around digital culture;
  • to consider the extent to which digital culture is changing social relations at local and global levels.
• SA2615 - Understanding Childhood and Youth

  This module will introduce you to the study of childhood and youth as they are constructed and practiced in different social, cultural and economic settings. The first section focuses on children, looking first at how ideas of childhood are constructed by adults, the second section is devoted to young people.

• SA2619 - War and Humanitarianism

  This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the main themes in the anthropology of war and humanitarian assistance. These include the anthropology of violence, how societies respond in the aftermath of violence, the origins of humanitarianism, the concept of emergency, refugees and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘bare life’.

• SA2621 - Kinship, Sex and Gender

  An introduction to some of the key social anthropological literature on kinship, gender and sexuality including universalities and particularities in the construction of gender roles and different theoretical paradigms on gender and sexuality.

• SA2622 - Culture, Education and Learning

  This module explores key theoretical issues in the cross‑cultural study of education, examining how culture shapes learning and how educational practices, in turn, influence social and cultural life. It develops your ability to understand these processes ethnographically and highlights the value of a comparative approach to studying education across different contexts.

• SA5638 - Global Development: Critical Perspectives

  To acquire a theoretical and historical overview of the changing relationship between the critical social sciences and global development, to understand the multiple ways in which social science research can enhance our understanding of contemporary policies and practices in global development and to critically evaluate, from a social science perspective, various theoretical approaches to global development.

• SA2624 - Middle East: Societies, Religion and Politics

  This module examines a particular ethnographic region, assessing in the first instance whether these regions can usefully be considered cultural areas, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of each region. The module covers topics such as religion, gender, economics, and local politics in the area of study. 

• SA2625 - South Asia: Cultures, Societies and Development

  This module examines the region of South Asia, assessing whether the geographical region can usefully be considered as a cultural area, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of the region. The module covers topics including colonial histories, caste and class, gender, kinship, globalisation, and South Asian diasporas. It draws, in particular, on the disciplines of anthropology and history and on the field of development studies.

• SA5XXH - Global Health: Critical Perspectives

  This module aims to provide a theoretical introduction to the anthropological study of global health. It will provide students with a detailed insight into the ways in which medical anthropology can contribute towards the critique of existing interventions in the field of global health and with a detailed insight into the construction of global; health problems such as plagues and epidemics Finally, it will assess a range of ethnography and theory bearing on issues pertaining to global health, enabling students to bring a comparative perspective to familiar problems.

Compulsory

• SC3601 - Dissertation

  To develop students’ abilities to plan, design and execute a research project in the subject area of their degree programme, to communicate their ideas and critically evaluate the success of their project. 

• SC3602 - Advanced Research Skills for History
  • To introduce and guide students on the research and writing process for dissertations or Major Final Projects
  • To support students to develop their reading, writing, and analytical skills for their dissertation.
  • To introduce students to the techniques used in designing and executing a research project in their discipline.
  • To encourage students’ critical engagement with their chosen dissertation topic

Optional

• SA3615 - War and Humanitarianism

  This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the main themes in the anthropology of war and humanitarian assistance. These include the anthropology of violence, how societies respond in the aftermath of violence, the origins of humanitarianism, the concept of emergency, refugees and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘bare life’.

• SA3634 - Contemporary Worlds

  To explore approaches to contemporary issues in anthropology and cognate disciplines.

• SA5XXH - Global Health: Critical Perspectives

  This module aims to provide a theoretical introduction to the anthropological study of global health. It will provide students with a detailed insight into the ways in which medical anthropology can contribute towards the critique of existing interventions in the field of global health and with a detailed insight into the construction of global; health problems such as plagues and epidemics Finally, it will assess a range of ethnography and theory bearing on issues pertaining to global health, enabling students to bring a comparative perspective to familiar problems.

• SA3628 - Medical Anthropology in Clinical and Community Settings

  Delve into the contemporary texts that have contributed to the development of medical anthropology as you consider its innovations and how the application of anthropological research in the subject can contribute to improving medical practices.

• SA2615 - Understanding Childhood and Youth

  This module will introduce you to the study of childhood and youth as they are constructed and practiced in different social, cultural and economic settings. The first section focuses on children, looking first at how ideas of childhood are constructed by adults, the second section is devoted to young people.

• SA5638 - Global Development: Critical Perspectives

  To acquire a theoretical and historical overview of the changing relationship between the critical social sciences and global development, to understand the multiple ways in which social science research can enhance our understanding of contemporary policies and practices in global development and to critically evaluate, from a social science perspective, various theoretical approaches to global development.

• SA2622 - Culture, Education and Learning

  This module explores key theoretical issues in the cross‑cultural study of education, examining how culture shapes learning and how educational practices, in turn, influence social and cultural life. It develops your ability to understand these processes ethnographically and highlights the value of a comparative approach to studying education across different contexts.

• SO3614 - Apocalypse! Crisis and Society

  Explore the social & political significance of representations of national and global crises, and public perceptions of controversies. Students analyse dystopian popular and scientific discourses that dwell on disorder and catastrophe. Indicative content includes risk, uncertainty, globalisation, the environment, disease, capitalism. Public understanding, perception and engagement with popular and scientific controversies and notions of crisis.

• SO3615 - Global Migration

  Equips students with an understanding of the key concepts in global migration including the causes and consequences of migration, national and international responses to migration and the diversity of migrant flows within a global context, using cases from both Global North and Global South contexts.

• SO3625 - Cities, Culture and Social Change

  This module introduces you to urban sociology and builds your understanding of how cities develop, how they’re lived in and how they’re represented. You’ll explore the relationship between space, culture and social life in contemporary cities, using theoretical tools and practical examples to bring those ideas to life.

• SO3617 - Lawyers, Guns and Money: Making the Modern World System

  This module will explore issues raised by historical and political sociology regarding the development of the modern world-system. In particular the course will focus upon the rise to dominance of Europe in the building of the modern world-system and the explanations offered for this.

• CO3617 - Digital Media, Social Movements and Change

  This module gives you an in‑depth, critical understanding of how social movements emerge, succeed or fail to create social or political change, using real‑world cases to explore media tools, leadership, collective identity and governmental or international responses. You’ll build strategic thinking by analysing how historical and contemporary movements organise, mobilise and coordinate in the digital age.

• CY3609 - Psychosocial Perspectives on Crime and Violence

  An interdisciplinary module which explores the psychosocial underpinnings of crime and violence in the contemporary world. It offers students the opportunity to move beyond common sense understandings of crime and criminal justice to consider the interconnected psychic, social and cultural processes involved in the development of criminal social identities.

• PX3619 - Violence and Conflict in Eastern Africa

  In this module students will explore the role of violence and conflict in the course of eastern Africa’s modern history. Students will gain an in depth understanding of the ways in which violence and conflict have influenced economy, society and polity in the modern era, through a consideration of broad themes, such as age, ethnicity, and resources, as well as specific case studies taken from across the region.

• PX3626 - The Arab-Israeli Conflict

  We survey the Arab-Israeli conflict, covering three overarching themes: 1) Origins of the Conflict; 2) Evolution of the Conflict; and 3) Peace and its Limits. The module covers the origins of both national movements, the development of the conflict under British rule, the major Arab-Israeli wars, peace agreements, and it ends with recent events. 

• SA3631 - Environment and Sustainability

  The aim of this module is to look at environment and sustainability from a multipronged perspective. The module will help students develop a nuanced understanding about managing our natural resources. Both top down and bottom up approaches to manage nature will be explored. 

• PP3631 - Marx and the Critique of Political Economy

  This module involves reading several key works by Marx, culminating in several weeks on Das Kapital

• GY3610 - Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking

  This module provides a ‘meta-critique’ of both the dominant and critical claims related to modern slavery and human trafficking. The module aims to introduce students to the historical debates on labour and migration that led to the current international laws on ‘human trafficking’ (and national laws on ‘modern slavery’ in the UK and Australia). Students will be able to critically analyse the geopolitics of several competing terminologies, such as ‘human trafficking’, ‘modern slavery’, ‘forced labour’, and ‘unfree labour’. They will be able to critically evaluate whether and how these terms help address labour exploitation and/or are selectively deployed to serve certain political ideologies. Not only will students develop critical lenses to analyse the dominant paradigm of ‘modern slavery’ and ‘human trafficking’, but they will also be able to critically interrogate the strengths, weaknesses, and biases of the critical literature. Overall, the module is designed to encourage students first to engage with critical perspectives and then to go beyond them to decolonise one of the most politically charged debates of the 21st century, enabling them to develop original ideas on how to address the exploitation, oppression, and rightlessness of all workers.