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FY-012
Introduction to Being Human
This module will focus on introducing what it is to be human from a broad humanities and social science perspective. It will offer the opportunity to engage with key ideas, theory and literature within these disciplines. It will therefore prepare students for further academic work in the humanities and social sciences and initiate the development of critical thinking and creative abilities.
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PO-3330
Genocide
Genocide is considered by most to be the gravest crime against humanity. Various authors have estimated that during the twentieth century between 60 million and 120 million people were killed by premeditated acts of genocide, which targeted specific ethnic, religious, racial, or class-related groups. But why do people kill? And what can be done to prevent, punish and/or overcome this `odious scourge¿ of humankind?
This module explores the nature of genocide and mass violence and seeks to discover the common historical, political, and sociological threads that unite these tragedies. In this module, students will engage with theories of genocide and mass violence and discuss a series of case studies including, among others, the near extermination of First Nations people by colonisers of the New World, the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the period of the First World War, the Holocaust (Shoah), Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s and Rwanda in 1994. Further, this module will ask questions such as: why did the twentieth century witness so many occurrences of deliberate genocide, on such an unprecedented scale? What is the context for these acts of mass violence? How should genocide be defined in order to differentiate it from other forms of mass destruction? Should we consider the killings of millions of people by Communist regimes forms of genocide or do they amount to other forms of crimes against humanity?
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PO-M25
Dissertation
Individual research based, under the guidance of appointed supervisor.
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POLM03
Understanding Global Politics: Theories and Approaches in International Relations
Approaches to International Relations gives you the tools to understand and challenge how global politics is studied and practiced. You will explore the big theories of the field and discover how each explains power, security, conflict, cooperation, and inequality in different ways. You won¿t just study these ideas in the abstract. You¿ll apply them to urgent global issues, such as why wars break out, how climate change drives new forms of diplomacy, what shapes global poverty, how gender matters in world politics, and how leaders make decisions in crises, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to nuclear proliferation. Along the way, you¿ll tackle some of the discipline¿s biggest debates: the role of states versus non-state actors, the influence of norms and ideas, and how to study a world shaped by both globalisation and deep inequality.
Through lectures and seminars, you¿ll debate, test your arguments, and develop your own critical perspective. By the end, you¿ll be able to use theory to analyse contemporary global challenges and to reflect on who gets what, when, and how in international politics¿and what this means for whose voices are amplified or marginalised. The skills you build will prepare you for careers in policy, diplomacy, NGOs, or further postgraduate research[D.
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POLM08
Violence, Conflict and Development
The Conflict Trap: armed conflict undermines development, with buildings destroyed, schools closed down and hospitals looted, while slow or no development creates grievances which can act as a fertile ground of violence and armed mobilisation. So how to escape this Conflict Trap? In this module we will look in detail into this relationship between armed conflict and (the lack of) development. After all, countries in the Global South are more prone to experiencing armed conflict than their counter-parts in the North.
We know that violence and conflict have been enduring and widespread obstacles to the promotion of sustainable development throughout the second half of the twentieth century, and into the first quarter of the 21st century. So we need to start with examining the root causes of conflict and violence in developing nations and explores how and why such conflicts emerge even between hitherto seemingly peacefully co-existing communities. But we not only ask what impact protracted and violent conflict can have upon development prospects. We are equally interested in how this vicious cycle can be broken and examine national and international initiatives and tools to mediate conflicts and rebuild countries post-war. . How to design a so-called Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme for ex-combatants? What to do with those who committed atrocities: a general pardon buying the cooperation of warlords and commanders or `no peace without justice¿? How to organise transform warring factions into political parties and organise those crucial first elections after the war has come to an end.
In this module you will explore the nexus between armed conflict ¿ post-war reconstruction and longer-term sustainable development. It will provide you with an excellent basis for a career in conflict studies, international development and/or humanitarian aid, whether you plan to work in the UK or abroad.[
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POLM12
Tools of Knowing: Research Methods in Politics and IR
This module introduces you to the methods that researchers in Politics and International Relations collect and analyse data. Each week, we look at different research methods and dissect their logic and process. We also explore how these methods are used in real published studies across Politics, Public Policy, Governance and International Relations topics, giving you a clear sense of how these approaches work in practice.
By the end of the module, you¿ll have developed research skills that are highly valued both inside and outside academia. In addition, the module seeks to develop a critical, ethically informed perspective that will support students engaging in social research. This will be evaluated through a combination of a series of quizzes assessing your mastery of the language and logic of the research methods we will cover and a `replication paper¿, where you reproduce and analyse the choices made by a researcher in a peer-reviewed publication.
The module is designed to give you the language and practical know-how that mark out confident `research insiders¿ in the study of politics and global affairs. Through lectures and discussions, you¿ll work step by step through the logic and technical processes behind a range of research methods, from quantitative to qualitative to mixed methods designs. The aim is not only to build your competence in these approaches, but also to give you the confidence to use them critically and creatively in your own work.
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POLM17
Dissertation
Throughout your MA course, you¿ve been developing towards this point ¿ the dissertation. You are emerging scholars with fresh insights and depths of knowledge, and this is the time to put these to work and produce an original contribution to the field that you can be proud of.
Over the late spring and Summer, with the extensive support of a supervisor expert in your area (and building on your existing methodology modules), you¿ll scope out, design, and conduct an independent project of study on a topic of your choosing, pursuing the questions that motivate your interest in the subject. You might be poring over declassified intelligence agency archives looking for evidence of complicity in mass violence, charting the everyday politics of energy and logistics that (quite literally) keeps the lights on, or answering the big questions about where we¿re going in an increasingly precarious twenty-first century ¿ this is a chance for you to truly spread your wings and research what interests you.
Between this extended project, and the accompanying presentation of your findings, this represents the culmination of your studies, building on all the modules you¿ve studied and skills you¿ve gathered. This is a great opportunity to develop detailed knowledge of a particular field, hone competencies that will make you a skilled researcher and policy advocate in the real world, give you skills managing a major research project.
