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MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES PART II COURSE 2016-2017

Schemes of Study – Part Two

MAJOR STUDENTS All Media Cultural Studies students major students must study a total of 8 full units in Part II. The 3 compulsory core courses for Media and Cultural Studies are listed below. You are pre-enrolled for compulsory core courses.

Media and Cultural Studies Course Code Course Title Year of

Study Page

MCS.200 Critical Cultural Theory (full unit) 2 5

SOCL 201 Skills for Researching Social Life (half unit) 2 6

MCS.360 Independent Research Project (full unit) 3 33

You should choose at least 5 of your option courses from the lists on pages 2 and 3. These courses are suited to MCS major students and develop or relate to aspects of the core courses. After you have chosen your 5 options from these lists (and having taken the 3 compulsory core courses in Part II), you will be left with a half unit of ‘free’ choice. You can either choose an additional course from these lists, or choose a minor from one of your Part I departments. You must make sure you meet the pre-requisites for additional Part II courses not listed here. Please note: Recommended year of study based on level of course. Some courses run in alternate years.

NB. YOU MUST TAKE EXAMINATIONS IN AT LEAST

FOUR OF YOUR EIGHT UNITS

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OPTION COURSES Second Year Page

MCS.200 Critical Cultural Theory (compulsory) 5

SOCL 201 (half unit) Skills for Researching Social Life (compulsory)

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MCS.204 (half unit) Viral Video Production 7

SOCL 207 (half unit) Friendship, Intimacy and Society 8

SOCL 208 Gender, Sexuality and Society 9

SOCL 210 (half unit) Virtual Cultures 10

SOCL 218 (half unit) Socio-Cultural Approaches to Advertising 11

SOCL 220 (half unit) Sociology of the Environment 12

SOCL 221 (half unit) Climate Change 13

MCS.224 (half unit) Media and Visual Culture 14

MCS.226 Gender and Media 15

SOCL 230 (half unit) Bodies in Society 17

Third/Final Year MCS.360 Independent Research Project (compulsory) 33

MCS.303 (half unit) Facebook, Twitter and Political Revolution 18

SOCL 306 Health, Life and Bodies 19

SOCL 307 (half unit) Modernity and Its Discontents 20

SOCL 310 (half unit) Nation, Migration, Multiculturalism 21

SOCL 311 (half unit) Disasters: Why do things go wrong? 22

SOCL 314 Feminism and Social Change 23

SOCL 315 Sociology of the Future 24

SOCL 316 (half unit) Sociology Goes to Hollywood 25

SOCL 323 Media in the Global Age 26

SOCL 325 Media, Mediation and Crises 28

SOCL 326 Society and Drugs 29

SOCL 327 Violence and Society 30

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SOCL 329 (half unit) Classic Encounters 31

SOCL 330 (half unit) Living with Capitalism: Class, Distribution and

Recognition

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SOCL 361 Independent Research Project by Placement 34

Choosing a Minor in Marketing. Some of you may wish to take a Marketing minor pathway. There are courses for students who have studied Marketing at Part I and those who have not.

• You can consult the online courses handbook during the online enrolment period.

• All Management School undergraduate course details can be found at http://lums.lancs.ac.uk/undergraduatemodules/

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MINOR STUDENTS Many students who have passed MCS. 101 choose to minor in Media and Cultural Studies. A minor involves from 1 to 2 courses from the list in this booklet. (There are several courses not available to minors). Some of the courses are offered by other departments, which determine their content and assessment, and which may advise you on the appropriateness of the course for non-majors. Be especially careful, when taking just one or two courses in a department, to make sure that they complement your other courses and that you will be able to adjust quickly to the demands of a new discipline. DISSERTATIONS AND NON EXAMINED COURSES Note that many of the courses in the scheme have the option of assessment by dissertation rather than by examination and coursework. University regulations permit students to take a maximum of FOUR units, out of their eight, for which the coursework component counts for more than 70% of the total assessment (ie the examination component counts for less than 30%). All dissertation options fall into this category. Minor students should always consult their respective major department before opting for a dissertation in the minor. EXAMINATIONS Examinations are in the year that you take the course. COURSE CHANGES Changes in courses for Part II students are permitted up to and including the Friday of the second week of term. SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK Coursework should be submitted by the deadlines set for each course. The Department operates a lenient policy on extensions for late work for students with mitigating circumstances. If you have mitigating circumstances such as illness, personal or family problems or severe last minute technical problems with computers you should be able to get an extension for a piece of assessed work (some evidence of work done would be required in the last case). The Departmental Personal Tutor is the person responsible for granting extensions for essay and other assessed work in Part II. In the first instance you should see the Undergraduate Co-ordinator, Karen Gammon. Extensions of more than 7 days normally require some form of written evidence confirming the mitigating circumstances (e.g. a doctor's note). Failure to meet deadlines without approved extensions may result in a zero mark being given, subject to approval by the Part II Director. No coursework can be accepted for marking after the Senate Deadline, this deadline is only in exception cases, which normally falls on the Friday of week 3 of the Summer term of the year in which you are assessed for the course.

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PART TWO COURSES (Year Two)

MCS.200

CRITICAL CULTURAL THEORY

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Convenors: Tracey Jensen and Debra Ferreday This course builds on MCS.101, focussing on structural and post-structural approaches to cultural theory. The course engages closely with key theoretical texts and debates in cultural studies and puts them to work through detailed analysis of contemporary media practices. It is organised into short interlocking sections, each of which concentrates on a specific theoretical area. These include semiotics and representation, postmodernism, embodiment and subjectivity, capitalism and consumer culture. We will examine these themes by addressing contemporary issues such as cultures of simulation, the war on terror, national identity and multiculturalism, body image, sexuality, and branding. The course explores a range of cultural material from a variety of popular media, including advertising, film, photography, news media, print media, and the internet. This a core course for Media and Cultural Studies. Course Reader: Practices of Looking: Sturken and Cartwright Introductory Readings: Althusser, L. ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’

in Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays Marx, K. Capital Foucault, M. History of Sexuality Jameson, F. Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late

Capitalism Baudrillard, J. The Gulf War did not take place Skeggs, B. Feminist Cultural Theory: Process and

Production Teaching methods: Lecture and seminar/workshops Assessment: 30% 1st essay 30% 2nd essay 40% examination

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SOCL. 201 (half unit) COMPULSORY

SKILLS FOR RESEARCHING SOCIAL LIFE Terms: Michaelmas Course Convenor: Allison Hui Availability: 2nd Year Major, Combined Major Contemporary social life is filled with a diverse collection of questions and problems that affect our personal life and shared interactions. Since these questions and problems are often complex, multiple types of data and methods can be useful in understanding them. The module will address three types of methodological skills: imaginative, critical and practical. Cultivating a methodological imagination of how different methods could support useful research insights is therefore an important part of planning, justifying, and reflecting upon the research process. It also highlights the contingent relationship between methodological skills, research problems and empirical contexts. In many instances, however, we are not directly involved in research, and instead encounter data or findings through other sources such as the news or academic publications. Developing a critical awareness of the limitations and possible misuses of methods and evidence is therefore crucial when assessing how others' arguments should be treated. Finally, the module also provides an opportunity to develop practical skills while undertaking your own pilot research. This module provides opportunities to develop research skills and understandings that will help you design and conduct research in your Year 3 dissertation(s). Basic skills covered in the module, such as generating appropriate questions and identifying possible misuses of data, are also widely applicable to other real life contexts, and will therefore help to support future job applications and on-the-job duties. Bibliography Babbie, E. (2013) The practice of social research (13th ed.). Belmont, CA, Wadsworth. Becker, H. S. (2007) Telling about society. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. & Tight, M. (2006). How to research (3rd ed.). Maidenhead, Open University Press. Bryman, A. (2008). Social research methods. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Denzin, N. K. and Y. S. Lincoln, Eds. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, Sage. Erickson, B.H. and Nosanchuk, T.A. (1992). Understanding data (2nd ed.). London, Open University Press. Geertz, C. (1983). Thick description: Toward and interpretive theory of culture. In Contemporary field research: A collection of readings. R. M. Emerson. Boston, MA, Little, Brown and Co.: 37-59. Gillham, B. (2000). Case study research methods. London, Continuum. Mills, C.W. (1959) The sociological imagination. New York, Oxford University Press. Teaching Method: 10 x 2-3 hour workshop

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MCS. 204: (half unit)

VIRAL VIDEO PRODUCTION Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Adam Fish Availability: 2nd Year Majors and Combined Majors This module introduces to students several forms of creative new media production. Students will work directly with social media, memes and image macros, GIFs, glitch art, music and political mashup videos, Vine and Instagram reflexive video essay forms, Wikipedia authoring, and live video jockeying. Along with the media production, students will critically analyse readings about new media production. Introductory Readings: Inside the GIF-Industrial Complex: How the animated image file took over the Internet, New Republic http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112442/gif-industrial-complex-inside-look

New Aesthetics: Cyber-Aesthetics and Degrees of Autonomy, Patrick Lichty, March 2013 - http://s.shr.lc/ZHTJrp

Edwards, Richard L. and Chuck Tryon. 2009. Political video mashups as allegories of citizen empowerment First Monday, Volume 14, Number 10 - 5 October 2009 http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2617/2305

An Interview with Paul D. Miller a. k. a. Dj Spooky--That Subliminal Kid, Carol Becker, Romi Crawford and Paul D. Miller, Art Journal, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring, 2002), pp. 82-91, URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778170 Teaching Method: one workshop fortnightly. Assessment: Project 10% Portfolio 60% (consisting of eight smaller digital media projects) Social Media (Twitter): 10%

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SOCL. 207 (half unit)

FRIENDSHIP, INTIMACY AND SOCIETY

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Anne Cronin Availability 2nd Year Major and Minor This course explores the role of friendship in society. Classical and contemporary sociological accounts often claim that social bonds have been eroded or that personal relationships and community have become less stable and more ‘liquid’. Sociology has focused most attention on family ties and kinship in exploring these questions. But a focus on friendship can offer new perspectives on society. This course will ask: What does friendship mean today? What form of social bond is friendship? Has social change impacted on friendship and vice versa? Introductory Reading Adams, R.G. & Allan, G. Placing Friendship in Context Adam, G. Friendship: Developing a Sociological

Approach Griffiths, V. Adolescent Girls and their Friends Hey, V. The Company She Keeps: An

Ethnography of Girls’ Friendship Hochschild, A,R. The Managed Heart: Commercialization

of Human Feeling Pahl, R. On Friendship Spencer, L. & Pahl, R. Rethinking Friendship: Hidden

Solidarities Today Teaching Method: One 2 hour workshop per week Assessment: Level 2 1 x 3000 word essays (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 208

GENDER, SEXUALITY AND SOCIETY

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teacher: Vicky Singleton & Anne-Marie Fortier Availability: 2nd Year Major and Minor (including 1

unit minors)

Prerequisite: Normally Part I Sociology or Part I Gender and Women's Studies. This course considers a range of feminist approaches to understanding gender relations and sexuality. Topics covered will include a selection from the following areas: the limits of gender binaries; growing up gendered; performing gender and sexuality; intersections of gender, sexuality, race and class; gender and technology; gender, sexuality, reproduction and childbirth. Introductory Reading: Colebrook, C. Gender Connel, R. Gender Holmes, M. What is Gender Jackson, S and Scott S. Gender: A Sociological Reader Tripp, A. Gender Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar/workshop weekly taught in a 2-hour block (numbers permitting) Assessment: Level 2 2 x 3000 word essays (50%) plus 25% group presentation and exam (25%) Level 3 As above OR 8,000 word dissertation (75%) plus (25%) other

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SOCL. 210 (half unit)

VIRTUAL CULTURES

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Miriam Meissner and Joe Deville Availability: 2nd Year Major and Minor This course explores the question of how information and communications technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives. The aim of the course is to develop an appreciation for the range of experiences affected by digital media, including the progressive expansion of life online, and the increasingly intimate relations between life online and off. Indicative topics are cyborgs and technobodies, virtual sociality and digital identities, gamer cultures, the military-entertainment complex, social media and social movements, geeks and hactivists, and electronic waste. The course aims to consider the new possibilities that the changing social infrastructure of digital technologies afford, while also learning to look at the rhetorics and practices of the virtual with a questioning and critical eye. Throughout the course attention is paid to issues of gender, race and other marks of sameness and difference as they operate among humans, and between humans and machines. Indicative Readings Boellstorff, T. Coming of Age in Second Life Burrell, J. Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet

Cafés of Urban Ghana Coleman, G. Coding Freedom Der Derian, J. Virtuous War Gabrys, J. Digital Rubbish Hables Gray, C. (ed.) The Cyborg Handbook Nakamura, L. Cybertypes: Race, ethnicity and identity

on the Internet Taylor, T.L. Play Between Worlds: Exploring online

gaming culture Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar/workshop weekly Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 218 (half unit)

SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACHES TO ADVERTISING Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Anne Cronin Availability: 2nd year Majors and Minors This half unit introduces a range of debates about the social and cultural status and impact of advertising. From a sociological perspective it explores: advertising in the nineteenth century; the practices of contemporary advertising agencies; advertising controversies; advertising regulation, methods of textual analysis for advertisements, gender and advertising; challenges to advertising and the subversion of advertisements; and sociological accounts of branding and ‘promotional culture’. Introductory Reading: Berger, A.A. (2000) Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture Davidson, M. (1992) The Consumerist Manifesto: Advertising

in Postmodern Times Dyer, G. (1992) Advertising as Communication Goldman, R. (1992) Readings Ads Socially Leiss, W. et al (1990) Social Communication in Advertising Sinclair, J. (1989) Images Incorporated: Advertising as

Industry and Ideology Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly. Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 220 (half unit)

SOCIOLOGY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Terms: Michaelmas Course Teacher: Claire Waterton Availability: 2nd / 3rd year Majors and Minors

Is ‘the environment’, a matter for sociologists? How is it treated in sociological thinking? In this half-unit module we will explore the ideas of environmental sociologists whose research puts the relationship between societies and environments under scrutiny. We will think, in particular, about how ‘the environment’ is often seen as something quite basic that is used to sustain life, and yet it is also tangled up with issues of identity, consumerism, the media, fashion, extraction, activism, commodification, protection, citizenship, and inequalities. Through lectures, readings, films, popular and academic texts, and much class discussion, students will learn how to think sociologically about ‘the environment’. Students will also gain a sense of the kinds of environmental problems and controversies that arguably need critical sociological analysis. This half-unit module goes well with another half-unit: SOCL 221 Climate Change and Society. Issues to be considered include:

• Nature and Environment in Sociological Though • Green Social Networks • Green Consumerism • Environmental Activism • Oil Economies • Nature as Commodity • Climate Change Inequalities • Environmental Citizenship • The Sociology of Unsustainability

Introductory Reading: Fischer, F and Hajer, M. (eds) Living with Nature: Environmental

Politics as Cultural Discourse Hannigan, J. Irwin, A.

Environmental Sociology Sociology and the Environment. A Critical Introduction to Society, Nature and Knowledge

Szerszynski, B., Lash, S. and Wynne, B Risk, Environment and Modernity MacNaghten, P. and Urry, J Contested Natures Castree, N. and Braun, B. (eds) Social Nature: Theory, Practice, Politics Jasanoff, S. and Long Martello, M Earthly Politics: Local and Global in

Environmental Governance White, Rudy and Gareau Environments, Natures and Social

Theory Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly. Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 221 (half unit)

CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOCIETY

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Claire Waterton (guest lectures by John

Urry and Andrew Sayer) Availability: 2nd / 3rd Year Major and Minor This half-unit course will introduce students to sociological thinking on climate change. Climate change debates are shifting, and beginning to make much stronger links between a vast and complex planetary perspective (a globe in crisis) and the private sphere (the home, low-carbon lifestyles, consumer demand, etc.). In this context, social theorists have begun to consider what contribution sociological thinking can make to contemporary debates on climate change issues. The course will review these emerging sociological perspectives on climate change, aiming to give students an understanding of: climate change and social change; new subjectivities, institutions and collectives under climate change; climate change and social activism; utopias and dystopias of climate change; the politics of climate change science; and the global political economy of climate change. This half-unit module goes well with another half-unit: SOCL 220 Sociology of the Environment. Introductory Reading Barry, J.

The politics of actually existing unsustainably

Castree, N. Clark, N.

Changing the Intellectual Climate Inhuman Nature: Sociable Life on a Dynamic Planet

Giddens, A. The Politics of Climate Change Hulme, M. Why We Disagree About Climate

Change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity

Pearce, F. With Speed and Violence: Why scientists fear tipping points in climate change

Szerszynski, B. and Urry, J. Urry, J.

Changing Climates Climate Change and Society

Teaching Method: 1 x 2 hours workshop weekly Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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MCS. 224: (half unit)

MEDIA AND VISUAL CULTURE Terms: Michaelmas Course Teacher: Graeme Gilloch Availability: 2nd Year Majors and Combined Majors

Everyday life is often described as bombarding us with images, and contemporary culture is therefore frequently understood as a visual culture. But what do such statements actually mean? How far is our culture a visual culture? What role do media play in a visual culture? How do visual phenomena affect us? How is vision linked to practices – including representation, the gaze and embodiment – of power and inequality? In what ways might these practices be challenged or resisted? Does vision only involve seeing, or is visual culture multi-sensory? And how can we make sense of the multiplicity of images we witness each and every day: paintings, drawings, illustrations, photographs, TV images, internet images, film images, media spectacles?

This module will introduce you to various theories and practices that have addressed these questions. We will cover topics including: the relationship between vision and knowledge; the gaze and power (eg the gaze as gendered and raced); media, representation and identity; technologies of vision; material practices of vision; vision as multi-sensory; and, most importantly, the critical interpretation of images as a process of iconological and semiotic decoding.

Introductory Readings:

Berger, John (1972) Ways of Seeing (London: Penguin) Barnard, Malcolm (2001) Approaches to Understanding Visual

Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave) Barthes, Roland (1993) Camera Lucida (London: Vintage)

Howells, Richard (2003) Visual Culture (Cambridge: Polity) Teaching Method: One 2 hour workshop per week. Assessment: Portfolio project (group and/or individual) 1500 words (25%) Essay 3000 words (75%)

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MCS. 226: (full unit)

GENDER AND MEDIA Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teacher: Debra Ferreday Availability: 2nd and 3rd Year Majors and Combined

Majors The media are hugely influential in shaping, reflecting and challenging gendered power relations. Feminist theorists have been attentive to the ways in which our lives are mediated, suggesting that we construct and perform our identities in relation to media representations of gender, sexuality and the body. This module introduces students to recent debates on gender in the disciplines of sociology and humanities/media and cultural studies, and to the interdisciplinary domains of feminist media studies. It draws on both classic and contemporary scholarship to examine key concepts in feminism, postfeminism, queer theory, critical masculinity studies, critical race theory and theories of embodiment, affect and body image. The course focuses on the production, circulation and reception of media representations of masculinities, femininities, transgendered identities, and sexuality, and the intersection between gender and sexuality and race, ethnicity, class and ability. It explores how these questions are related to wider debates concerning media and society, for example in the negotiations of the public/private divide. This course engages a wide range of media texts and explores diverse media genres including film (both classic and contemporary), TV, social and digital media, fashion, performance, music and advertising. We look at wide range of media examples ranging from the Twilight saga to women in hip-hop and R&B to explore the ways in which media representations of gender are changing. Introductory Readings: Brunsdon, C. and Spigel, L. (2007) Gauntlett, D. (2002) Gill, R. (2006) McRobbie, A. (2010) Peberdy, D. (2013) Serano, J. (2006) Skeggs, B. and Wood, H. (2012)

Feminist Television Criticism: A Reader. Open University Press. Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, London and New York: Routledge Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage. Masculinity and Film Performance: Male Angst in Contemporary American Cinema. London: Palgrave MacMillan. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Seal Books. Reacting to Reality Television: Performance, Audience and Value. London and New York: Routledge

Teaching Method:

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One workshop weekly. Assessment: 2nd years Group presentations - 20%. Presentations will be 15 minutes long. Students will be assessed on the presentation itself, plus a handout intended to guide group discussion. There will be one group mark for all students. Essay One (3000 words) 20% due Monday 12 noon, week 11, Spring Term Essay Two (3000 words) 20% due Monday 12 noon, week 21, Summer Term Examination (3 hours) 40% Summer Term 3rd years As above or Group presentation (20%) and Dissertation (8000 words) (80%) due Monday 12 noon week, 21 summer term

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SOCL.230 (half unit)

BODIES IN SOCIETY

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Kate McNicholas Smith Availability 2nd Year Major and Minor Social and cultural theories of the body have transformed sociological thinking in the last two decades. Indeed, theories and accounts of the body and embodiment have become a central focus of sociology. Bodies in Society explores how social differences, such as gender, race, and class, impact in the formation and experience of human bodies and identities. Through a focus on power relations, in/visibility, surveillance, social class, race, ethnicity and disability, this course explores some of the theoretical, conceptual and empirical grids through which bodies are understood, perceived, imagined, expressed and lived. It examines bodies in the context of complex social arrangements and processes, as a site of social control, and as the repository of shifting categorizations. In the readings we will examine a range of approaches to the body and gain some insight into the theories and methodologies employed to think about bodies and identities. In the seminars we will look at specific examples of concepts of the body as they manifest in a range of everyday encounters and experiences and within mediums such as film and art. In our discussions we will employ critical analysis of multiple concepts, images and experiences of the body to help us synthesize an informed view of the lived body. As well as gaining an understanding of key social, cultural and political issues you will develop critical thinking, reading and writing skills and participate in lively debate. Introductory Reading Evans, M.& Lee, E., eds. Real Bodies: A Sociological Introduction Fraser, M. & Greco, M. eds. The Body: A Reader Turner, B. S. The Body and Society Shilling, C. The Body and Social Theory Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly Assessment: 1. 30% Short Film or animated PowerPoint responding to and illustrating a key concept introduced on the course (30%) 1 x 4000 word academic research project (70%)

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MCS. 303: (half unit)

SOCIAL MEDIA AND REVOLUTION Terms:

Lent Course Teacher: Adam Fish Availability: 3rd Year Majors and Combined Majors What is the internet and why does it facilitate political organization? The internet’s decentralized and many-to-many structure, paired with the ease of digital content production, makes for a communication environment conducive for collaboration and dialogue. Like many communication systems before it—printing presses, newspapers, radio, and television—the internet is mobilized by the politically and economically powerful as well as those seeking radical change. The internet facilitates a type of public sphere for the dialogue on the future of democracy. And yet, the infrastructure for this public sphere is owned by media corporations and monitored by governments. The implications of this are little understood by those uploading videos, tweeting, and updating social media pages. The consequences of the control of this “big data” are ever more complex when considering the production and circulation of political-charged information. Pro-democracy revolutionaries, internet freedom hackers, feminist mediasmiths, anti-capitalists, anti-corporate globalization activists, data leakers, and others use the internet to organize their social movements. Conversely, those opposed to the liberal project, such as authoritarians, religious fundamentalists, “terrorists,” etc., also use the participatory affordances of the internet to distribute their message and rally their supporters. Political and economic battles are not only argued on the internet but the internet itself is also a site for political fights over “internet freedom,” free speech, and privacy. This module will explore how the politically powerful and the politically radical use the internet to consolidate and revolutionize the distribution of power around the globe. Introductory Readings: Coleman, G. and A. Golub. 2008

Hacker Practice: Moral Genres and the Cultural Articulation of Liberalism, Anthropological Quarterly http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Gabriella_Coleman

Coleman, Biella. 2011 Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action." Part of the "Politics in the Age of Secrecy and Transparency" Everyday (March 2011)

Fattal, Alex. 2013 Facebook: Corporate Hackers, a Billion Users, and the Geo-Politics of the “Social Graph,” Anthropological Quarterly 85(3): 927-958.

Morozov, Evgevy. 2011 Introduction and The Google Doctrine in The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. x-31.

Nail, Thomas. 2013. Deleuze, Occupy, and the Actuality of Revolution. Theory and Event, 16(1). https://www.academia.edu/2973497/Deleuze_Occupy_and_the_Actuality_of_Revolution

Reestorff, Camilla Møhring. 2014

Mediatised affective activism. The activist imaginary and the topless body in the Femen Movement

Teaching Method:one workshop weekly Assessment: Exam 30% Group Social Media Practical 30% Essay 20% Presentation on a social media activist campaign 10% Presentation on a reading 10%

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SOCL. 306

HEALTH, LIFE AND BODIES

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teachers: Celia Roberts and Maggie Mort Availability: 3rd Year Major and Minor This course introduces contemporary health issues and the sociological questions that arise from them: What is ‘health’ and how do we try to achieve it in contemporary societies? Why are some people healthy and others not? What role do sex/gender, race, ethnicity and class play in producing healthy and unhealthy bodies and lives? We study contemporary research on a wide range of health issues, including smoking, genetics, HIV/AIDS, cancer and alternative therapies. In discussing these examples, we explore conceptual issues around bodies and selves, and think about how people form new relationships around questions of health, including relationships between patients and doctors, within families, and between individuals and the state. We also analyse new forms of activism around health, illness and bodies. In Term 2 this course uses an innovative teaching method – problem based learning – which is fun and interactive – not the usual lecture/seminar format. Introductory Reading: Annandale, E. The Sociology of Health and Medicine: A

critical introduction Nettleton, S. The Sociology of Health and Illness 2nd

edition Peterson, A., & Bunton R. (eds) Foucault, Health and Medicine Clarke, A., Shim, J., & Mamo, L. Fishman, J.R. and Fosket, J.R.

‘Biomedicalization: Technoscientific transformation of Health, Illness and U.S. Medicine’, American Sociological Review 68, April: 161-194

Teaching Method: 2 hour lecture per week Term 1 2 hour Problem based learning seminar Term 2 Assessment: Level 2 2 x 3000 word essays (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%) Level 3 As above OR 8,000 word dissertation (80%) plus (20%) other

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SOCL. 307 (half unit)

MODERNITY AND ITS DISCONTENTS

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Graeme Gilloch Availability 3rd Year Major and Minor This module introduces and explores the writings of a number of key twentieth-century social and cultural theorists, radical thinkers offering perceptive and provocative critiques of the many ills of modern western capitalist society: alienation, reification and domination; environmental exploitation, pollution and the destruction of nature; media supersaturation, cultural commodification and ideological manipulation; technocracy, instrumentalism and ‘scientism’; violence, genocide and the perpetual threat of nuclear extermination. Building on some of the theories and concepts encountered in SOCL200 Understanding Social Thought, this module provides an opportunity for students to engage with some of the most stimulating and challenging perspectives in the social sciences, ones which interrogate our common and comfortable assumptions about the supposedly benign and beneficent character of contemporary capitalism, scientific development, technological innovation, and affluent consumer lifestyles. In so doing, the very concepts of historical ‘enlightenment’, ‘progress’ and ‘civilisation’ themselves are called into question. This is an essential module for those for whom sociology is not just intended to interpret the world in various ways, but concerned to change it. Introductory Reading Baudrillard, J. America Debord, G. The Society of the Spectacle Gorz, A Farewell to the working Class: An Essay

on Post-industrial Socialism Jay, M. The Dialectical Imagination Bauman, Zygmunt Modernity and the Holocaust Bronner, S. & Kellner, D Critical Theory and Society: A Reader Teaching Method: One 2 hour lecture and one seminar weekly Assessment: 1 x 4000 word extended essay (80%) 1 x 1500 word critical analysis (20%)

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SOCL. 310 (half unit)

NATION, MIGRATION, MULTICULTURALISM

Terms: Lent Course Teachers: Anne-Marie Fortier Availability: 3rd Year Major and Minor and Social

Anthropology Minors ‘Belonging’ to a nation is widely seen to be as ‘natural’ as ‘belonging’ to a family or a home. This course explores how such assumptions about national belonging come about, by introducing students to a range of theoretical approaches and debates. How are the nation and national belonging socially constructed? How is the nation defined? Who belongs, who doesn’t? The course addresses these questions by examining what everyday practices, discourses and representations reveal about the ways we think about, and inhabit, the ‘nation’. In the second part, the course pays particular attention to nation formation in relation to debates about multiculturalism, diversity and migration and asks: What are the impacts of migration and multiculture on definitions of the nation? How is multiculturalism defined and perceived? Although we will focus on the example of Britain, the issues raised will be of interest to all students concerned with the effects of nationalisms and ideas of belonging and entitlement, which many countries of the contemporary world are presently debating in the context of the ‘Age of migration’ (Castles and Miller 1998). Examples of topics covered include: ‘We the people’ – the forging of nations; Is Islam the new black?; Migrant belongings and transnational connections; Gender, sexuality and the nation; Migration, citizenship, and integration; Border controls; Multiculturalism and multicultural politics; ‘home’ in migration’. Introductory Reading: Anderson, B. Imagined Communities Bannerji, H. The Dark Side of the Nation. Essays on

multiculturalism, nationalism and gender Baumann, G. The Multicultural Riddle Bhabha, H. (ed.) Nation and Narration. Billig, M. Banal Nationalism. Boswell, D. & Evans, J. (eds) Representing the nation: A reader.

Histories, Heritage and Museums. Edensor, T. National Identity, Popular Culture and

everyday life. Fortier, AM. Gellner, E.

Multicultural Horizons Nations and Nationalism.

Goldberg, D.T. (ed) Multiculturalism. A critical reader Hall, S. “The Question of Cultural Identity”, in

S. Hall, D. Held and T. McGrew Modernity and its Futures.

Hobsbawm, E.J. Nations and nationalism since 1780. Smith, A. Nationalism and modernism: a critical

survey of recent theories of nations and nationalism.

Puri, J. Encountering Nationalism Teaching Method: 2 hours per week: one lecture and one seminar/workshop Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essays (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL 311 (half unit)

DISASTERS: WHY DO THINGS GO WRONG? Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Maggie Mort Availability: 3rd Year Major, Combined Major and

Minor What counts as a disaster? Is it still reasonable to speak of ‘natural’ or human-made’ disasters? Do disasters have a beginning, middle and end? Is it possible to make disaster-proof systems? This module uses case studies of disasters (technical and social) to explore these questions and what sociology can teach us about them. Introductory Reading: Quarantell, E.L. What is a Disaster? A Dozen

Perspectives on the Question Convery, I., Mort, M., Baxter, J. & Bailey, C.

Animal disease and Human Trauma: emotional geographies of disaster

Perrow, C. Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies

Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly. Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 314

FEMINISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teachers: Vicky Singleton & Kate McNicholas

Smith Availability: 3rd Year Major and Minor This challenging course investigates gender inequalities within society through a focus on historical and contemporary debates in feminist theory and activism. The course has an `intersectional` focus that means we will consider gender inequalities as bound up with other forms of discrimination and marginalisation, particularly racial and ethnic inequalities, disability and social class. The first term will challenge you to think about `what feminism means today` through a consideration of key aspects of feminist thought and activism from the late 1960s onwards. We will consider ideas such as ‘the personal is political’, consciousness raising and the contemporary relevance of sexism. We will also consider feminist research practices and methods and the idea of work as liberation to prepare you to carry out an intergenerational interview on the theme of gender, work and social change. In the latter part of term 1 we will explore the Women’s Health Movement and explore contemporary feminist activism through current examples of everyday activism. In the second term we take the feminist manifesto as a central document which expresses lived experiences of gender inequalities and collective desire for social change and explore the contemporary resonance of ideas introduced in the first term through engaging with topics such as breast cancer activism, anti-feminist backlash, and black and cyborg feminisms. Throughout the course we will interrogate social constructions of sex differences and consider how lived experiences of inequality are perpetuated. By the end of the course you will be familiar with some of the key debates within feminism today and be able to make connections between feminist theory and forms of feminist practice. This course will challenge you to interrogate your own assumptions about sexual difference and inequality and we expect you to take a full part in lively class discussion and debate. The course involves analysis of varied media including academic texts, advertising, art, film and news media. Indicative Reading: Baxandall, R. & Gordon, L. eds. Dear Sisters: Dispatches from the Women’s

Liberation Collins, P.H. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge,

Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment.

Butler, J. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'.

Mohanty Chandra Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity.

Hook, b. Feminist theory: From margin to center (2nd ed.).

Balsamo, A. Technologies of the Gendered Body. Teaching Method: This course will be taught in a two hour lecture/seminar/workshop format Assessment: 2 x 1500 word analytical exerecises (or equivalent) 40%, 1 x 3000 word essay (30%) plus exam 30% or 6000 word dissertation instead of essay and exam.

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SOCL 315

SOCIOLOGY OF THE FUTURE

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teacher: Richard Tutton Availability: 2nd/3rd Year Majors and Combined

Majors What will the world be like in 2050? What kind of future society do we want? What do we need to do now to make that future possible? The future is a ubiquitous part of everyday social, economic, cultural and political life: we are expected to plan ahead, to avoid doing things that could harm us later in our future life, we are asked to ‘save the planet’ for future people yet to be born. We also consume images of the future in films, books, and games – some depict the future as a better time, others as a darker, more fearful one. On this module, we will consider how we should understand the future from sociological perspectives. We will focus on both how societies have tried to look into the future, to predict what will happen next, and we will analyse how to look at the future in terms of how it is imagined and contested today by artists, filmmakers, writers, scientists, academics, politicians and activists. We explore what effect visions of the future have on the present, what cinematic and literary representations of the future tell us about the world today, and how ideas of the future have changed over time. You will have opportunities to work in groups on presentations, write an essay, and your own scenario of the future. Introductory Readings: Barbrook, R. Imaginary Futures: From Thinking

Machines to the Global Village Brown, N., Rappert, B and Webster A (eds)

Contested Futures: A Sociology of Prospective Technoscience

Coleman, R. Transforming Images: Screens, Affect, Futures

Kirby, D. ‘The future is Now: Diegetic Prototypes and the Role of Popular Films in Generating Real-world Technological Development’. Social Studies of Science 40: 41-70

Urry, J. ‘Climate change travel and complex futures’ The British Journal of Sociology 59: 261-279

Teaching Method: Lectures, case studies, group work. Assessment: Level 2 2 x 3000 word essays (50%); group presentation (20%), and final exam (30%) Level 3 OR 8000 word dissertation (80%), group presentation (20%).

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SOCL. 316 (half unit)

SOCIOLOGY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Bulent Diken & Graeme Gilloch Availability 2nd and 3rd Year Major and Minor This module will be of interest for all those MCS and Sociology students who are keen to explore the intersections of the cinematic and sociological imaginations. How might particular films represent and critique present-day societal patterns and everyday life? How might sociological themes and ideas enable us to situate and read films more productively as ideological interventions in the social world? Each week we will view and analyse one single film – mostly mainstream American cinema, sometimes independent – carefully chosen for its dramatization of selected sociological themes and debates. What might these films, ordinary films not obscure specialist documentaries, tell us about, for example, violence and power; community and conflict; hegemonic masculinities; the workaday neoliberal world; forms of alterity; modernity and tradition? Introductory Reading hooks, b. Massood, P.

Black Looks. Race and Representation The Spike Lee Reader

Morin, E, The Cinema – or the Imaginary Man Pisters, P. The Matrix of Visual Culture Sennett, R. Turner, G.

Film As Social Practice The Corrosion of Character

Virilio, P. War and Cinema Weber, C. Imagining America at War. Morality,

politics and film Zizek, S. Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in

Hollywood and out Teaching Method: 1 x 4 hour workshop weekly Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essays (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 323 (half unit)

MEDIA IN THE GLOBAL AGE

Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Miriam Meissner Availability 3rd Year Major and Minor This course is designed to introduce students to the increasingly complex and interactive world of global media. It combines classic theories of globalisation and media sociology with recent developments in media and cultural analysis. The approach is both institutional and micro-analytic, looking at wide-ranging patterns of socio-economic, political and everyday influences of global media innovations, while also examining the new types of global interaction, creativity and imagination that different types of media – from the newspaper to the mobile app – produce. The emphasis of the course is on structures of power, both in Britain and globally, and on the ways in which global power structures are shaped by different forms of media discourses, media access, media connectivity and media usage. Questions discussed in this module include – yet are not limited to: How do global media influence

• our experiences of place and space (e.g. home vs. elsewhere)? • our imaginations of ‘other’ places around the globe? • our experiences of time/speeds of life? • our attitudes towards global issues such as war, environmental crisis, migration, et cetera? • our everyday perceptions of and interactions with other people? • our ways of engaging in global forms of exchange and mobility (e.g. global travel, trading,

communication) • global socio-economic development and (in)equalities

These questions will be explored in relation to different case studies, encouraging students to develop a nuanced and critical understanding of media in the global age. Introductory Reading Abercrombie, N. Television and Society 1996 Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. 'The Culture Industry' in Dialectic of

Enlightenment Appadurai, A. Modernity at Large: Cultural

Dimensions of Globalisation 1996 Augé, M. Non-Places: An Introduction to Super-

Modernity Castells, M. The Rise of the Network Society 1996 Eagleton, T. Ideology: an introduction 1991 Garnham, N. Capitalism and Communication: global

culture and the economics of information 1990

Kellner, D. Media Culture 1995 Poster, M. The Second Media Age 1995 Robertson, R. Globalization: Social Theory and Global

Culture 1992 Sassen, S. The Global City: New York, London,

Tokyo 1991 Thompson, J.B. The media and modernity: a social

theory of the media 1995 Urry, J. Mobilities 2007 Waters, M. Globalization 1995

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Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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SOCL. 325 (half unit) (new course to be approved)

MEDIA, MEDIATION AND CRISES

Terms: Michaelmas Course Teacher: Monika Buscher Availability 3rd Year Major and Minor How are crises visually and discursively represented? How do these mediations shape everyday practices and public concerns? This course examines practices of mediation – such as news, photography, popular film, financial modelling, cultural narratives, crowdsourced crisis mapping, celebrity humanitarianism – and explores what they reveal about community, society, threats, technology and nature. Such mediations affect political decisions, ethical values, scientific research, and social action. Focusing on theories of mediation, students will learn techniques through which to analyze how different representational forms shape how we come to understand and act on the world around us. Through readings, real world examples, and case studies, this course will address diverse historical and contemporary forms of crisis (from Y2K to the 2008 global financial crisis, political crises, refugee crises, disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 Haiti Earthquake or the 2015 UK floods, and slow motion crises such as climate change, air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, environmental displacement) to explore how we come to know crises through media, in crisis response, in government planning, and in activist communitie Introductory Reading Beck, U. (2009) World at Risk Cartwright, L 2012 How to Have Social Media in an Invisible

Pandemic. The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies 6:2:9

Chouliaraki, L. 2012 The Theatricality of Humanitarianism: A Critique of Celebrity Advocacy. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies

Chouliaraki, L. & Blaagaard, B. 2013 Inroduction: Cosmopolitan and the new news media. Journalism Studie, 14(2)

Clarke, Lee 2006 Silver Linings. In Wrost Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination

Cottle, Simon, 2009 ‘Global Crises in the News: Staging New Wars, Disasters, and Climate Change

Assessment: Small weekly assignments (such as providing 3 questions regarding the readings prior to class, poster presentation, writing a one paragraph response to a reading, or finding a relevant example to a week’s theme and explaining why): 10% Group Poster Project (assigned week 4, due week 6): 20% Essay 40% Final Exam: 30% Teaching Method: One x 2 hour workshop weekly

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SOCL. 326 (half unit)

SOCIETY AND DRUGS Terms: Michaelmas Course Teacher: Karenza Moore Availability: 3rd year Majors and Minors This module focuses on sociological and interdisciplinary research on 'drugs' (including alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription/over-the-counter drugs, and novel psychoactive substances). The module has a broad intellectual remit which incorporates - but also goes beyond - criminological and criminal justice aspects of drug use to include social, philosophical, historical and cultural perspectives on drugs, drug use and drug users. The module will appeal to BA Sociology students alongside joint major students BA Sociology and Criminology AND those studying other social sciences and humanities (BA Media and Cultural Studies, BA Politics, Philosophy and Religion, LLB Law, BA Criminology). We will consider ‘what a drug is’, alongside how and why we take drugs, by exploring the relationship between society, culture and intoxication. Together we will examine classic and contemporary literature on 'drugs' and the 'drug experience', including drug ethnographies, critical drug studies, and narcocultural studies (eg. literary works and media on drugs). We will also analyse how certain forms of drug use are produced as ‘social problems’ to develop a critical understanding of the aims, efficacies and inadequacies of societal responses to drug use, including drug education programmes, public health policies, treatment regimes, recovery work, and criminal sanctions. Other topics covered include club drugs in post-rave dance cultures; continuity and change in drug markets/distribution systems; drug prohibition, its consequences, and its alternatives; illicit drugs, globalisation and securitisation; gender, sexuality and drugs; researching drugs/drug use (theoretical concepts, research methods and ethics); risks, harms and pleasure; and mapping drug futures in the digital age. Selected Reading: Becker, H. (1963) Outsiders: Studies in Sociology of

Deviance Campbell, N. and Ettorre, E. (2011) Gendering Addiction: The politics of

drug addiction in a neurochemical world Rief, S. (2009) Club Cultures: Boundaries, identities

and otherness Stevens, A. (2011) Drugs, Crime and Public Health: The

political economy of drug policy Yardley, T. (2012) Why We take Drugs: Seeking excess and

communion in the modern world Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly, plus two ‘debate workshops’ and one film screening/debate session Assessment: 1 x 4000 word essay (90%) plus 1 x 500 word reflective report on drug debates (10%)

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SOCL. 327

VIOLENCE AND SOCIETY

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teacher: Sylvia Walby Availability: 3rd Year Major and Minor Violence matters to contemporary society: war, terrorism, domestic violence, rape and genocide destroy lives. The course introduces the different ways in which Sociology has thought about, theorised and analysed violence. Topics include: violence and social change; violence from below and from above; violent crime and socio-economic inequality; gender-based violence against women; hate crime and genocide; criminal justice system; war, democracy and power; old and new wars; militarism and gender; peace processes; terrorism; securitisation; increases and decreases in violence over time. Introductory Reading Enloe, C.

Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link

Foucault, M. Discipline and Punish Kaldor, M. New and Old Wars Mann, M. The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining

Ethnic Cleansing Pinker, S. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why

Violence has Declined Ray, L. Violence and Society Shaw, M. The New Western Way of War Stark, E. Coercive Control: How Men entrap

Women in Personal Life Tilly, C. The Politics of Collective Violence Walby, S., & Allen, J. Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and

Stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey

Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly Assessment: 2 x 3000 words essays (50%) and exam 3 hours (50%)

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SOCL 329: (half unit)

CLASSIC ENCOUNTERS Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Graeme Gilloch Availability: 3rd Year Majors and Combined Majors All sociologists are supposed to know their classics but most only know them from second or third hand summaries. In this course we offer the opportunity for advanced students to have an intimate encounter with one of the core texts by one of the classics, texts that are referred to all the time in the social sciences. Our choice this time is Zygmunt Bauman’s prize-winning book Modernity and the Holocaust (1989). In this collection of closely interlinked essays, Bauman makes the disturbing claim that, far from being some momentary regression to barbarism by a brain-washed population, the Holocaust was very much a ‘creature’ of modern society. Indeed, he argues that the social and personality structures that enabled the Holocaust to occur are very much a part of systems, processes and logics which continue into the present. In provocatively challenging our comfortable, complacent ‘civilised’ existence today, Bauman poses fascinating and vital questions about responsibility, ethics, co-operation and conformity, and our individual and collective courage to confront authority and violence. We will use Bauman’s book as a point of departure for exploring some central debates and key writings in Holocaust studies. Pre-requisite: Socl 200 Introductory Readings: Bauman, Zygmunt Modernity and the Holocaust Arendt, Hannah Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the

Banality of Evil Smith, Dennis Zygmunt Bauman: Prophet of

Postmodernity Fine, Robert and Turner Charles Social Theory after the Holocaust Fletcher Jonathan Violence and Civilisation: An

introduction to the work of Norbert Elias Bergen, Bernard The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt and

the ‘Final Solution’ Bettelheim, Bruno Surviving the Holocaust Cheyette, Bryan and Marcus Laura (eds) Modernity, Culture and ‘the Jew’ Finkelstein, Norman The Holocaust Industry Teaching Method: 1 x 2 hour workshop weekly Assessment: 1 x 3500 word essay (80%) 1 x 15 minute class presentation (20%) delivered in a workshop sessions seminar and written up as a 1000 word text, with additional handouts and power point slides

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SOCL. 330 (half unit)

LIVING WITH CAPITALISM:

CLASS, DISTRIBUTION AND RECOGNITION Terms: Lent Course Teacher: Bob Jessop Availability 3rd Year Major and Minor Economic inequalities have widened in advanced capitalist countries and yet many people are reluctant even to acknowledge the existence of class. The course analyses how inequalities of class and status are generated, how they relate to other kinds of inequality, and how they are experienced. It explores how the social forms and mechanisms of capitalist economic organisation interact with other sources of inequality, not only producing an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities but affecting the ways in which people value themselves and others. Linking social structure to personal experience, the course applies social theory, including that of Pierre Bourdieu and Henri Lefebvre, to the ‘common sense’ about class and to their people’s everyday experiences. Introductory Reading Bourdieu, P. Distinction: A Social Critique of the

Judgement of Taste Bourdieu, P. et al The Weight of the World Jones, O. Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working

Class Lareau, A. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and

Family Life Lefebvre, H. The Critique of Everyday Life Welshman, J. Underclass: A History of the Excluded Piketty, T. Capital in the 21st Century Pink, S. Situating Everyday Life Savage, M. Class Analysis and Social

Transformation Sayer, A. The Moral Significance of Class Sayer, A. We Can’t Afford the Rich Skeggs, B. Formations of Class and Gender Smart, B Economy, Culture and Society Smith, D.E. The Everyday World as Problematic Weigert, A.J. Sociology of Everyday Life Welshman, J. Underclass: A History of the Excluded Wilkinson, R. & Pickett K. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal

Societies Almost Always Do Better Teaching Method: One lecture and one seminar weekly Assessment: 1 x 3000 word essay (50%) plus 20% other and exam (30%)

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MCS. 360 (COMPULSORY)

INDEPENDENT DISSERTATION PROJECT [tbc]

Terms: Michaelmas and Lent Course Teachers: TBA Availability: 3rd Year Majors and Combined This course comprises a 8000 word dissertation that students will do in their final year. Building on the research methods they have completed in their second year, this course offers students the opportunity to do an independent piece of their own research (under supervision) and to apply their general understanding of the research process to real world examples that will inform their choice of dissertation topic. In the Michaelmas term, students plan, present and design a dissertation proposal in tutorial groups and using a detailed, step-by-step web based course material. They will develop an idea for a research project, work out what is do-able, which methods to use, and begin to plan it. They will communicate their dissertation proposal to other students and then write it up in a way that clearly states their research topic, aims and methods, and that situates in within wider academic debates. In the Lent term, students undertake their research under supervision; they carry out analysis, and write it up as a dissertation. They will meet regularly with their supervisors to discuss the progress of their research. Introductory Reading: Beger, A A (2000) Media and Communication Research

Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

O’Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research Pettigrew, T. (1996) How to think Like a Social Scientist Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research Stokes, J (2003) How to Do Media and Cultural Studies Teaching Method: 1 lecture in week 1 and week 11 5 tutorials in Michaelmas term (to be arranged at the beginning of the year) 3 hours of individual supervision (in Michaelmas and Lent terms) Assessment: 2000 word dissertation proposal 20% 8000 word dissertation 80%

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SOCL. 361

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT BY PLACEMENT

Are you interested in conducting an independent research project on a topic of your choice whilst also gaining employment experience in a charity, local government, social enterprise, or company? This module is a variation on the standard dissertation module (SOCL/MCS 360). It offers you the chance to formulate a research question and plan and execute an independent research project in collaboration with external stakeholders and under academic supervision. This module aims to foster your ability to ask critical questions, drawing on sociological and critical cultural theories to analyse ‘real world’ problems to come up with viable solutions.

While you are expected to identify and source your own placement, the FASS Work Placements Officer will help you to find appropriate organizations and negotiate access. This is a new module, so we will be capping the numbers of students who can take it to six for 2016-17. Only students projected to achieve a 2:1 based on their second year work to date and a good attendance rate would be eligible to apply to take this module. Please note this module is open to both BA Media and Cultural Studies and BA Sociology students.

Introductory Readings

Bauman, Z. (1990) Thinking Sociologically, Oxford: Blackwell

Becker, H. (1998) Tricks of the Trade, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Blaikie, N, (1993) Approaches to Social Enquiry, Cambridge: Polity

Elster, J. (1989) Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences, Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

O’Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing ResearchLondon: Sage.

Pettigrew, T. (1996) How to Think Like a Social Scientist, New York: Harper Collins

Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research, Oxford: Blackwell, Second Edition

Teaching Method: Lectures, group tutorial, individual supervision, placement Assessment: Project proposal (20%, 2000 words), reflective log (20%, 2000 words), academic report (60%, 5000 words)

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LICA Courses

Courses which you can take but you need to contact LICA for further information

2nd year

LICA 251 Hollywood and Beyond: Global Cinema

3rd year

LICA 350 Film Theory

LICA 351 Contemporary Hong Kong Cinema

LICA 352 Classic Hollywood: The Studio Era

LICA 355 Silent Cinema