Course Descriptions
LEVEL 1
WRITING CULTURE
Course Convenor: Ms Louise Owusu-Kwarteng
The course introduces ideas about the self and theories of neighbourhood and community. How is the individual formed and how do they, in turn, shape the environment and society? This course will hone academic skills, introduce research methods and enhance employability by introducing students to key speakers from vocational areas associated with the social sciences.
INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Course Convenor: Dr Sally Mann
This course considers systemic inequality in a local and global context; from oppression on the grounds of class, ethnicity, gender and disability, to global economic inequality. Alongside theory we consider strategies for social change. We consider how inequality is institutionalized and how socially-defined categories of people are unevenly rewarded for their social contributions.
LEVEL 2
RESEARCHING SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Course Convenor: Dr Craig Morris
This course aims to develop an understanding of different approaches to doing sociological research. It engages with fundamental issues underlying how we understand the world and how to research ‘the social’, use different research methods and understand various debates relating to their use. The course also begins to prepare students for their third year project, with one piece of assessed work being the completion of a research proposal.
SOCIOLOGICAL DEBATES
Course Convenor: Ms Louise Owusu-Kwarteng
This course is based around a number of themes including the human body and social life, the person, the nature of the social bond and understanding the Holocaust. It explores what it means to be a human being in a society with others; what kinds of creatures we are; how we make sense of our worlds; and the nature of the bonds between us.
EMOTIONS IN THE SOCIAL WORLD
Course Convenor: Dr Linnell Secomb
This course is divided into four sections: emotions, culture and society; representing emotions; phenomenology of emotions; and politics of emotions. It asks: Are emotions universal or are there differences in emotional experience and representation between cultures? How do advertising, workplace regulation and political events shape our emotions and conversely how do emotions affect our interactions with the social world? What do emotions such as love, happiness and sadness feel like and how are they represented in culture?
INVESTIGATING POPULAR CULTURE
Course Convenor: Dr Craig Morris
The rationale behind this course is a simple one – to allow students to employ appropriate sociological and cultural studies approaches to the analysis of their lived experience. The course will address aspects of popular culture in late modern Britain. Areas to be examined include the celebrity, media, popular music, art, football, identity, youth as a culturally constructed category, drug use and language (as a complex and evolving cultural practice).
SOCIETY AND DEVELOPMENT: ASIA AND AFRICA
Course convenor: Dr Nandini Dasgupta
This course seeks to analyse and explain political and social change in the regions of Asia and Africa. It looks at debates about development, state and nation-building in the context of globalization and interdependence, postcolonialism and international relations.
LEVEL 3
SOCIOLOGY PROJECT
This course gives students the experience of working independently on a single medium size project (8-10,000 words) under staff supervision. It aims to equip students with fundamental sociological skills, which may form the basis of professional practice in the discipline or may be transferable to other areas of employment. In particular, the skills of question formulation, information collection and analysis, communication and dissemination will be stressed. Students may engage in either empirical or literature based research to demonstrate that they have met the aims of the Project and accomplished the learning outcomes.
SOCIOLOGY WORK PLACEMENT
With staff assistance and approval students are required to find a suitable host institution. The Placement will be conducted over a period of 150 hours (days and times to be agreed with the host organisation). The work experience will reflect a reasonable mixture of tasks aimed at giving experience in useful work-based skills and activities, as well as time spent conducting a piece of research for the host institution.
GENDER, RACE AND CRIME
Course Convenor: Dr Sally Mann
This course introduces debates about gender and race in relation to deviance and crime. It is divided into three sections: Constructing and Deconstructing Gender, Race and Crime; The Politics and Economics of Crime; and Media and Cultural Representations of Crime. The course will use film, TV, music and other popular representations to explore the relation between gender, race and crime.
DRUGS AND DRUG USE IN SOCIETY
Course Convenor: Dr Craig Morris
The objective of this course is to provide a clearer understanding of the meaning of drugs in society. Particular questions (among others) that will be addressed are: how should we understand drug effects; what is addiction/dependence and how is it caused; will the war on drugs succeed; should heroin and/or other drugs be legalized. We shall also explore the link between drugs and crime and violence and how serious the drug problem really is.
Return to Home Page