The School of Languages, Linguistics and Film covers a diverse range of subject areas, from which we have created a number of thematic programmes that can be chosen by you as a package.
You can immerse yourself in a particular area of study, from postcolonial studies to migration or global medical humanities, or choose a regional focus and explore British or European identities. Each thematic programme contains courses from the areas of film, literature, the languages and cultures of a society or region, taught by experts in the field.
To select one of the module suites, you don't need to register for a distinct pathway, just select the individual modules at the point of module registration, and select one or two free-choice electives. The advantage of module suites is that the suggested modules within each suite will fit clash-free within your timetable. You can also pick and mix and replace some of the suggested modules with other modules, but in that case it's up to you to check that they do not clash, once the timetable has been published.
You can choose from the following thematic programmes for Semester 1 (September - December 2024)
Postcolonial Studies
Modules in this suite investigate coloniality in a range of different contexts. One module explores ‘Afropean’ identities across the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, by analysing literary texts by ‘Afropean’ writers, a term that encompasses being both African and European, not as a contradiction but as an expression of plurality. The second module explores memory through cinema, by examining confrontations with historical violence in documentary and fiction films (co-)produced by France, Senegal, Algeria and Cambodia since the Second World War.
Migration and Diaspora
This suite of modules explores the ways in which migration and diaspora shape cultures across a range of transnational and country contexts. Using multiple 'texts,' such as selected literature, blogs, film, and photography, students will get familiarized with key issues relating to migration and diaspora, offering both a comparative view across cultural specificities and an understanding of transnational cultural dynamics. The ‘Cultural Encounters’ module examines how identity and migration have been used for political aims, and offers an opportunity to discuss the implications of these concepts within students' own positionality, particularly catering to changing socio-cultural contexts and the digital world. The third module offers a case study of how these processes lead to questions of otherness, exclusion and belonging in the German context, the challenge of a multi-layered and hybrid German identity, and how Otherness and national 'purity' are being performed.
Global Medical Humanities
What is illness? How does Western medicine define disease and wellness? Are these definitions universal? What happens when different cultural understandings of life, health, wellbeing and death come into conflict with one another? How are medicine and healthcare shaped by different social, historical and cultural contexts? The Medical Humanities examines these questions critically, and illuminates the assumptions, cultural norms and political judgements inherent within medicine and healthcare. This suite will provide you with a critical introduction to key issues in the study of the medical humanities from a global perspective.
World Cinemas
This film-themed package focuses on non-Anglophone cinemas from regions outside Europe and America. The focus will be on the current cinematic terrain of countries including Chile, Argentina, Senegal and South Africa. Other recent transformations will be explored, such as the increased visibility of female filmmakers from the Middle East and the rise of new Indian Indie cinema as a competitor to Bollywood. One module focuses on how the Japanese gangster film reflects post-WW2 social and political issues such as the post-war occupation and 'democratisation' of Japan, its rapid industrialisation and the 'economic miracle', the mass migration from rural to urban areas and its social consequences. This is complemented with a practice-based film making module teaching narrative fiction, culminating in your own practical production.
Linguistics
The course ‘Language and the Mind’ will provide an introduction to contemporary research on psycholinguistics, focusing on language processing and language acquisition, and covering topics such as language production, language in the brain, and language and thought. In the module ‘Sex, Gender and Language’ you will investigate language as it relates to gender and sexuality, and explore the claims that have been made in the literature regarding the linguistic practices of women and men. You will also investigate more recent analytical accounts of gendered and sexual power relations in society.
Finally, in ‘Coding for Linguists’ you will learn how to write code in Python, and gain experience in using tools that are suited to solving a range of computational problems in linguistics using machine learning approaches, with a focus on developing practical skills.
European identities – France, Germany, Spain
This mini-programme explores the cultural history of France and Spain through applying visual methodologies to images and visual narratives, from historical imagery encapsulating ‘national’ values such as ‘Marianne’, to contemporary French satire and Spanish graphic novels. It also explores developments in recent German filmmaking in the context of the increasing globalization of media industries and images. Students will explore the representation of politics, terrorism, history, heritage and the national past, the engagement with issues of performance, gender and sexuality.
These language modules are for beginners. You can also select a non-beginner language module if you already have some knowledge of the language and want to improve it, but you need to check whether it fits into your timetable.
OR: Free choice of one 15-credit elective module, instead of a language.
Britain through Language and Culture
This module suite looks at Britain through the perspectives of culture, language and film. It introduces British cultural history from the late Victorian period to the present, from the discourses of Empire to contemporary discourses of Britishness in relation to multiculturalism. A module on the history of English examines the socio-historical events that determined the shape and uses of the English language over time. Applying concepts from sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and general linguistic analysis, you will explore how English has changed over 1500 years, and how similar processes continue to operate on the language today.
English Language, Culture and Communication
If you are a non-native speaker of English and you want to use your semester or year abroad to deepen your English language competence, by analysing the implicit conventions of real-life contemporary English, then this course package is for you. The two modules in this package will equip you with practical tools to use spoken and written English in a variety of socio-cultural situations. Both modules will boost your academic outcomes while studying through the medium of English, and they will also enhance your employability prospects when considering a future career in multicultural and multilingual contexts. In addition to the two modules, you can choose two more 15-credit modules of your own choice.