Liberal Arts

Year 1

The modules offered will be dependent upon the major and minor track chosen. Within your first year of BA study (second year for foundation students), students will study across all tracks and be supported by an academic advisor to select the best major and minor routes for their following years. The below provides an indicative list of what you may study within each of the tracks.

All routes

• 30 credits Language (current choice is between French, Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese)
• 30 credits Liberal Arts compulsory module Culture and Language
• 15 credits option from Global Cultures:
  • Geography in the World
  • Cities and Regions in Transition
  • Global Worlds
  • Europe 1000-1500: The Middle Ages and their Legacy
  • Reformation to Revolution: Europe and the World, 1500-1800
  • Building the American Nation:1776-1896
  • Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801
  • Europe in a Global Context since 1800
  • Global Encounters: Conquest and Culture in World History
  • The Foundations of Modern Thought: Introduction to Intellectual History
  • Screening History: Representing the past in the Contemporary Historical Film 
  • London/Culture/Performance
  • London Global
  • Myth, Modernity and Metamorphoses
  • Understanding Culture: Exploring the Big Questions
  • Introduction to Comparison
  • Brief Encounters: Around the World in Short Stories
  • US Cinema: Key Concepts
  • Introduction to International Relations
  • Global Histories
• 15 credits option from Interactions: Societies and Cities
  • Cities and Regions in Transition
  • Earth Surface Science
  • History in Practice
  • Controversies of Science and Technology in the Making of the Modern World
  • London/Culture/Performance
  • London Global
  • Language Acquisition
  • Academic Writing for Linguistics
  • Foundations of Language
  • Political Analysis
  • Introduction to International Relations
  • Background to British Politics
  • Global Histories
• 15 credits option from any of the three tracks
• 15 credits Discovery module
• Language and Culture Theme electives:
  • Europe 1000-1500: The Middle Ages and their Legacy
  • Reformation to Revolution: Europe and the World, 1500-1800
  • Europe in a Global Context since 1800
  • Postcolonial Francospheres: Memories of colonialism un the French-Speaking World
  • Picturing a Nation: France and its image from Marianne to #JesuisCharlie
  • Catalan Culture: Art, Literature and Football
  • Men, Women and Song: Love Poetry in the Middle Ages
  • German Play
  • Germany Today
  • Austria Today
  • Language in the UK
  • Foundations of Language
  • Typology I: Languages of the World
  • Rio de Janeiro on the Global Stage and Imaginary
  • Contemporary Russian Short Stories
  • History of Russian
  • Russian Language Play
  • Reading Contemporary Russian
  • Deconstructing 'China' in the Western Imagination
  • Chinese Short Fiction

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

The modules offered will be dependent upon the major and minor track chosen. The below provides an indicative list of what you may study within each of the tracks.

Students across all tracks will take 30 credits of Liberal Arts compulsory modules:

• Thinking, Writing and Research across Cultures
• Race and Racism in European Culture
• Cultural Encounters in Theory and Practice or Digital Culture and Society

Global Cultures Theme Electives

• Culture, Power, Performance
• Performance and Visual Culture in South Asia
• Renaissance Literary Culture
• Romantics and Revolutionaries
• The Long Contemporary
• The Black Death: A Global History of Catastrophe and Transformation
• Art and Society in Nineteenth Century Britain and France
• Moving People: Migration, Borders and Belonging through Time
• Colonialism, Capitalism and Development
• International Politics of the Developing World
• Revolutions: Political, Social and Technological
• Global Theory
• Colonial Literatures, Post Colonial Perspectives
• To Be Continued: Adaptations of Global Literary Classics
• Latin America: Key concepts
• Colonialism and Culture in Latin America
• Culture and Revolution: Russia and China
• Contemporary World Cinemas
• Modern/Postmodern Cinema

Interactions Theme Electives

• Art and the Climate Crisis
• Victorian Fictions
• Representing London: Writing the eighteenth century City
• Cultural Geographies
• Society and Space
• Economic Geographies
• Health, Space, Justice
• Colonial Lives and Afterlives
• Human Rights in History: Origins, Foundations, Prospects
• A History of the Internet
• Inventing Identity: How Medicine, Science and the State made us who we are
• Globalisation: Capitalists, Colonisers and Crises in the Long Twentieth Century
• Modernity: Theories of the State, Economy, Society
• War in World Politics
• Power in Global Governance
• Introduction to British Cinema: From the Early Days to the 1950s
• Memories of the Holocaust and Colonialism in French Cinema
• Development Geographies: From International to Global Perspectives

Language and Culture Theme Electives

• German Thought I: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
• Literature and Philosophy
• Colonial Power and Desire: Narratives of Dissent in Portugal and Brazil
• Picturing a Nation: France and its Image from Marianne to #JesuisCharlie
• Literature, Dictatorship and Cultural Memory in the Hispanic World
• Serious Play: European Literary Games from the Past to the Present
• Catalan Literature: An introduction
• Postcolonial Francospheres: Memories of Colonialism in the French-Speaking World
• France and its Artistic Heritage from Louvre to Louvre
• Brazilian Cinema: the Social Tradition
• French New Wave

Language and Culture Major / Global Cultures Minor

• 30 credits Language (continuation of language studied in first year) (Example: German II Intensive)
• 15 credit option from Major area (Example: Contemporary German Studies II: Berlin Cultures)
• 15-30 credits option(s) from Minor area (Example: Madness Past and Present and/or Performing Illness and Disability)
• 15 credits option from third area and/or Discovery module (Example: Economic Geographies)

Language and Culture Major / Interactions: Societies and Cities Minor

• 30 credits Language (continuation of language studied in first year) (Example: French II)
• 15-30 credit options from Major area (Example: Art in France: Manet to Picasso)
• 15-30 credits option(s) from Minor area (Example: The UK and the EU)
• 15 credit option from third area or Discovery module (Examples: Literature and Philosophy / How Do You Know? From the Culture of Facts to Post-Truth Society (16th-21st Centuries)

Global Cultures Major / Language and Culture Minor

• 30 credits Language (continuation of language studied in first year) (Example: Portuguese II Intensive)
• 30-60 credits Major area option modules* (Examples: Colonial Power and Desire: Narratives of Dissent in Portugal and Brazil /
  Colonial Literatures, Post-colonial Perspectives / South African Theatre and Performance)
• 15 credits third area option module (Example: International Politics of the Developing World)

Global Cultures Major/ Interactions: Societies and Cities Minor

• 30-60 credits from Major area (Examples: Violence in Early Modern Europe / Colonial Lives and Afterlives / Facts and Fictions of Climate Change)
• 15-45 credits from Minor area (Examples: US Politics/ Human Rights in History)
• 15 credits Discovery module: London and its Museums

Interactions: Society and the Cities Major / Language and Culture Minor

• 30 credits Language (continuation of language studied in first year) (Example: Russian II)
• 30-60 credits Major area option modules* (Examples: Modernity: Theories of the State, Economy, Society / Human Rights in History: Origins, Foundations, Prospects)
• 15 credits third area option module (Example: The East in the West)

Interactions: Society and Cities Major / Global Cultures Minor

• 30-60 credits from Major area (Examples: Language in Mind / Colonialism, Capitalism & Development / Totalitarianism: Authoritarian Politics in History and Theory, 1920-2003 / London on Film: Representing the City in British and American Cinema)
• 15-45 credits from Minor area (Example: Latin America: Key Concepts)
• 15 credits Discovery module (Example: Walking the City)

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

The modules offered will be dependent upon the major and minor track chosen. The below provides an indicative list of what you may study within each of the tracks.

Students across all tracks will take the Liberal Arts Research Project module.

Language and Culture Major / Global Cultures Minor

• Year Abroad Assessment module(s)

Language and Culture Major / Interactions: Societies and Cities Minor

• Year Abroad Assessment module(s)

Global Cultures Major / Language and Culture Minor

• Year Abroad Assessment module(s)

Global Cultures Major/ Interactions: Societies and Cities Minor

• 30 credits compulsory Research Project
• 30-60 credits options from Major area (Examples: Culture, Performance and Civilisation / Kinship: Geographical Perspectives / Postcolonial Studies Today)
• 15-45 credits from Minor area (Examples: American Politics, Carceral State and Social Movements / The Public Life of Cities)
• 15 credits Discovery or non-language Modern Language and Culture module (Example: Avant-Garde Theory in Europe)

Interactions: Society and Cities Major / Language and Culture Minor

• Year Abroad Assessment module(s)

Interactions: Society and Cities Major / Global Cultures Minor

• 30 credits compulsory Research Project
• 30-60 credits options from Major area (Examples: The Darwinian Revolution: The History of a Dangerous Idea / Language and Health Communication / Beyond Language: Multimodality in Theory and Practice)
• 15-45 credits from Minor area (Examples: Islam and the West in the Middle Ages / German Thought II: Political Thought in the Twentieth Century)
• 15 credits Discovery or non-language Modern Language and Culture module (Example: Offstage London)

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 4

Language and Culture Major / Global Cultures Minor

• 30 credits Language (Example: German III)
• 30 credits compulsory Research Project.
• 15-30 credits options in Major area (Example: Anglo-German Relations)
• 15-30 credits options in Minor area (Examples: On The Subject of Sex II / European Philosophy and Representation of Consciousness)
• 15-30 credits options in third area and/or Discovery (Example: Historical Geographies of Medicine)

Language and Culture Major / Interactions: Societies and Cities Minor

• 30 credits Language (Example: French III)
• 30 credits compulsory Research Project
• 15-30 credits options in Major area (Example: Language and Society in the French-Speaking World)
• 15-30 credits options in Minor area (Example: Politics at the End of History)
• 15 credits option in third area or Discovery (Example: The Modern Caribbean: Migration, Radicalism and Revolt)

Global Cultures Major / Language and Culture Minor

• 30 credits Language (Example: Portuguese III)
• 30 credits compulsory Research Project
• 30-60 credits options in Major area Examples: Comparative Modernisms: China and India / Beyond Crisis and Catastrophe: Environmental humanities across texts and cultures / Sea Power and Empire: Piracy, Race and Modernity)
• 15 credits options in third area or Discovery (Example: Gender and Politics)

(If 15 credits remain, and a 15 credit option in Modern Language minor has not been taken at Level 4 or 5: 15 credit option in Modern Language and Culture)

Interactions: Society and the City Major / Language and Culture Minor

• 30 credits Language (Example: Russian III)
• 30 credits compulsory Research Project
• 30-60 credits options in Major area (Examples: The Politics of Southeast Asia / Manifestos in the Modern Political Imaginary / Ethnography of Communication – Foundations and Fieldwork)
• 15 credits options in third area or Discovery (Example: Look Who’s Computing)

(If 15 credits remain, and a 15 credit option in Language and Culture Minor has not been taken at Level 4 or 5: 15 credit option in Modern Language and Culture)

Please note that all modules are subject to change.