Global Affairs and Politics

History and Policy

On this module you will explore what an awareness of historical trends and developments can bring to the study of global affairs. You will be introduced to historical methodologies and evaluate how these relate to the methodologies adopted by scholars of global affairs and international relations and by policy-makers around the world. This will form the basis for a discussion of the contribution historical research has made to our understanding of contemporary events, from social movements to environmental issues and armed conflict, and how a transdisciplinary approach can provide a contribution to our understanding of global affairs. Based on this understanding, the module will also encourage you to apply your own historical research to specific policy issues.

Investigating Journalism and Politics

This module will enable you to examine the relationship between journalism and politics and critically explore notions of power and influence in the reporting of politics, nationally and internationally. The module draws extensively on key theoretical debates within contemporary political communication but also signals approaches within history, cultural studies, sociology as well as journalism and communication studies, in order to allow you to critically examine current controversies in politics and public affairs. The module enables you to examine the constantly shifting socio-political environment and the range of factors impacting on political communicators and their audiences and place these within broad historical trends within the field.

'The Shape of Things': Culture, Identity, and Representation

Since the invention and increasingly widespread adoption of technologies of mass media and communication – from the telegraph and radio to cinema, television, and internet – content creators have shaped the very image and understanding of the world. Accordingly, this module explores some of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries key ‘moments’, ideas, and issues via a range of cultural texts – fiction and non-fiction, art and music, film and television, the built environment and design, and digital content – to encourage critical and creative thinking about the forces that shape ways of seeing and being in the modern world. Globally focused and built around indicative ‘case studies’, it will therefore consider the varied ways in which power and belief have been conceived and received, what kind of selves and societies have been created, what was ‘new’ and what might constitute new versions of ‘old’ ideas, practices and behaviours.

Economy and Environment 

This module explores contemporary issues of economic and environmental relevance to societies and economies, such as population growth, ageing and migrations, biodiversity and habitat loss, and conservation campaigns, the climate crisis, resource conflicts over materials, water and marine resource. By engaging critically via a range of qualitative, historical and quantitative approaches, you will evaluate and contextualise historical trends and patterns since the early eighteenth century, in particular tracing trends in economies and societies that provide context for contemporary debates around politics and attitudes around sustainability, social and economic equity, and the future. You will analyse trendlines in subjects such as the development of mass production and consumption, factory farming and growing opposition toward it, the advent of computerisation, and mass communications and media. You will be encouraged to engage with contemporary debates such as sustainability, AI, the green economy, multinationalism, and globalisation.

Democracy and Authoritarianism 

During the early decades of the twenty-first century, democratic systems and institutions around the world have come under increasing pressure from authoritarian movements and autocratic regimes. Taking a comparative approach through the study of a range of national political contexts (for example, indicatively, three case studies from the United States, India, Russia, Brazil, Hungary) this module examines some of the main characteristics, consequences, and historical drivers of the authoritarian turn, addressing issues such as: the sources of authoritarianism; the securitization of politics in autocratic regimes; relationships between political economy and authoritarianism; nationalist and populist movements, and the intellectual histories informing them; the roles played by culture and media in the challenging of democratic institutions and process; the interplay of domestic and international contexts in the construction of authoritarian agendas. You will engage with a range of disciplinary materials, illustrating the multiple and diverse sources through which political conflict and power are channelled, and out of which authoritarian and autocratic political cultures are built.

Data Journalism and Data Science

This module will enable you to understand and apply approaches to the interpretation and representation of key sources of quantitative data used in journalistic investigation. You will critically examine the methods and approaches journalists use to re-interpret and mediate this information to a wider audience. The data domains include those relating to economics and climate, household and longitudinal surveys, health, social and demographic data. You will be introduced to techniques in data handling, reliability and validity, sampling, correlation and causality, multiple, multivariate regression, and spatial analysis. You will also consider contemporary developments in data visualisation and communication.

Globalisation and the Legacy of Imperialism 

In the past few decades, more and more historians have become interested in the connections between different parts of the world and in the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the globe. This module will therefore introduce you to the history, politics, and economics of globalisation. The module will examine past discourses of globalisation, before focusing on the results of globalisation in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first century. In particular, you will examine to what extent a number of worldwide developments in this period have been determined by the history of European imperialism and decolonization. You will survey the continuation of socio-economic inequalities in former colonies, the emergence of both authoritarian and democratic regimes in these territories, as well as instances of post-colonial conflict.

Independent Study

This module enables you to develop advanced academic and transferable skills by providing you with an opportunity to undertake a substantial research project. You will need to show an advanced, critical engagement with debates within academic literature, undertake critical analysis of relevant sources, and acquire advanced project management skills. The writing of the dissertation will enable you to develop your ability to construct sustained and coherent arguments, and to show a systematic and up-to-date understanding of relevant theoretical and methodological issues, whether this involves scholarly debates and/or matters pertaining to how the humanities is presented to public audiences. The skills developed in this module are essential to your future employability and personal development, as well as providing a basis for doctoral study.

Researching Global Affairs and Politics 

This module provides a detailed and thorough foundation in research skills to enable Master’s study in a number of different disciplinary approaches.  As such, it aims to provide an advanced understanding of research methodologies relevant both to the course of study and future career. Importantly, it also allows for the application of this methodological knowledge through the production of a policy paper. Eschewing constrained interpretations of disciplinary research methods, and by means of a series of focused but discursive seminars, you will learn a range of analytical approaches, including models of interdisciplinary study and learning, and their application to topics in contemporary global affairs and politics. Qualitative, and some quantitative, methods of research analysis and critical enquiry will provide the central core of student learning via seminars, group work and debate. This module also blends independent research with learning the art and techniques of persuasive writing and presentation, with the final summative student assessment taking the form of a conference paper delivered to an audience of peers.

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