History and Music BA

History core module:

History Workshop

What does it take to be a historian? In this module, you will study the process of historical research, learning discipline-specific methods and essential study and writing skills through close engagement with a historical text (usually a work of narrative non-fiction) linked to your tutor's research interests. You will develop skills in critical reading, historiography, essay writing, bibliographic techniques, and reflection.

The assessment for this module is aimed at giving you a strong foundation in the skills you will need throughout your degree and beyond: critical reading and writing, bibliographic techniques, and the ability to reflect on and articulate your skills as a historian.

20 credits

History option module examples:

Empire: From the Ancient World to the Middle Ages

Covering the period from the 4th century BC to the 15th century AD, this module invites students to explore the ancient and medieval worlds through the lens of 'empire'. It provides an introduction to ancient and medieval types of empire, their contacts with and legacies to each other, and the connectedness between East and West in this period. Using a wealth of primary evidence and drawing on corresponding historiographical debates, students explore what it meant to live in ancient and medieval empires, what kind of social, cultural and religious encounters they engendered, and whether there was any space for resistance.

20 credits

Land of Liberty? Rights in the USA, 1776-2016

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that men were created with 'certain unalienable rights'. Yet the new United States denied those rights to large swathes of its people. Examining themes which resonate powerfully today, this module explores American history as a struggle over how rights have been defined and debated, expanded and contracted, and secured and denied. Linking the history of ideas to the efforts of ordinary people, we will look at debates over liberty and slavery, democracy and disenfranchisement, capital and labour, integration and
segregation, gender and sexuality, nationalism and internationalism, and conservatism and liberalism.

20 credits

Paths from Antiquity to Modernity

The aim of this module is to introduce you to the broad structures of Western history from the end of the Roman Empire to the present day. It provides students intending to take History Single or Dual Honours degree modules with a common framework for the more detailed modules that you will be studying at Levels Two and Three. At the same time, it provides non-historians with a fundamental appraisal of the shape of the past, to which courses in other departments will readily relate. Our aim is to equip you with an understanding of the periodisation of western history and of the major transitions in the process of modernisation. In the process, you will become more critically aware of the essential conceptual tools that modern historians readily use to analyse the past. The module aims to provide the essential training in the skills and methods needed for University level historical study.

20 credits

The 'Disenchantment' of Early Modern Europe, c. 1570-1770

This module explores the fundamental shifts in mental attitudes and public behaviour that occurred in Europe between the age of the Reformation and the age of the Enlightenment. The central focus of the course will be the examination of the supernatural - religious beliefs, but also witchcraft and magic. You will explore the changing ways in which beliefs impinged on people's lives at various social levels. You will also have an opportunity to study the impact on people's world views of such changes as rising literacy, urbanisation, state formation and new discoveries about the natural world. All these will be investigated in the institutional contexts of state and church and the ways in which they sought to channel and mould beliefs and behaviour. This module enables you to understand how the early modern period is distinctive from and links medieval and later modern historical studies.

20 credits

The Making of the Twentieth Century

This module considers the twentieth century as a time that transformed the social and political order in the world, calling into question the role of the European powers in global contexts, and dramatically reorienting the relationship between states and societies. You will engage with case studies representing key themes in twentieth-century global history: imperialism and the processes of decolonisation; the challenges of building the postcolonial nation; revolutions and the emergence of new states; war, genocide and conflict; and the institutions of international order.

In addressing these themes, The Making of the Twentieth Century has a particular aim of counteracting prevailing tendencies towards Eurocentrism.  You will gain a considerable body of knowledge on the histories of Asia, Africa and Latin America especially.  At the same time, emphasis is placed on the empirical and theoretical grounds upon which competing interpretations rest in order to encourage you to develop critical awareness of the character of historical analysis.  More generally, this module aims to develop analytical, conceptual and literary skills through class discussion and written assignments.  Communication skills will also be emphasised in weekly seminars that will allow specific issues to be discussed in more depth, often with reference to primary source material.  Above all, the module seeks to stimulate an interest in history and an appreciation of cultural diversity.

20 credits

The Transformation of the United Kingdom, 1800 to the Present

This module explores the central political, social, economic, cultural and diplomatic developments that have transformed Britain since 1800. Unlike most of its European neighbours, Britain did not experience dramatic moments of revolution, constitution-building, invasion or military defeat; indeed the belief that the nation was set on a course of gradual evolutionary progress was central to many versions of British identity. This course examines how, when and why change occurred in Britain. Key themes include the transition to mass democracy; the impact of industrialisation; shifts in social relationships based on class, gender and ethnicity; and the rise and fall of Britain as an imperial power.

20 credits

Music option module examples:

History of Western Music

This module considers key moments in the history of Western music from the 1500s to the present day. Taking individual composers and works, it aims to introduce students to different approaches to the study of music history, the development of particular musical genres, and the impact of cultural, historical and geographical context on composers. In addition, the module will consider ways of writing about music, and the use of primary and secondary sources for informing critical discussions of the subject.

20 credits

Music in a Global Context

Whatever kind of music study you decide to specialise in, you'll do it better if you see it in the context of music as a phenomenon common to all humanity. You'll understand what's different about your own chosen field but also how the music you love derives from diverse cultural sources.In this module we examine how any music uses specific ways of organising sound to serve particular cultural purposes. You'll learn to recognise and describe diverse musical styles, research them through scholarly sources, present an analysis using appropriate audio-visual technology, and take control of the transferable skills you're developing.

20 credits

Tonal Music Analysis and Criticism

In this module you'll address the core skills of listening to, analysing, and writing critically about Western Classical music. With a focus on eighteenth-century "common practice" tonality, you will study harmony, counterpoint, melody, texture and form in preparation for analysing short pieces, and will learn to write about the music you hear as well as the notes you see on the page. Your work will also prepare you for future music modules.

10 credits

Exploring Tonal Styles

This module builds core skills of hearing, describing and using tonal procedures in a range of Western musical styles. It extends MUS133 Tonal Music Analysis and Criticism by moving on from classical "common practice" to explore styles that use tonality in different ways.

We'll explore styles like Medieval and Renaissance music, jazz and rock. You'll produce analyses from written scores and recordings, and write examples and exercises in the appropriate styles. You'll develop musicianship skills that prepare you for composition, analysis and performance work in subsequent years.

10 credits

Technologies for Music

Nowadays, most forms of music-related study involve music technologies. This module introduces you to a range of pertinent technologies, focussing around using computer in four key areas; sound recording, editing, transformation and representation, and a more general approach to computing required to complete tasks in many music modules. In each case, you will experience some of the many ways in which specific technologies serve many different music disciplines. You will go onto learn the essential principals of those technologies, before learning how they work in practice. By the end of the module, you will be versed in basics of digital audio, microphone choices and placement, sound recording techniques, wave-editing, MIDI, sound effect and plugins, file types and format, digital transcription and scoring and visual representation of sound. You will engage with University systems and through period of reflection complete a portfolio that contextualises your transferable skills.

10 credits

Composition

In this module you will develop your composition skills, practice writing music in staff notation, and learn to write effectively for different instrumental and vocal forces. Drawing on the models of a diverse range of classical composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, we will focus on techniques for writing inventive melodies and rhythms, and employing wide-ranging approaches to harmony. The module aims to give you a foundation in composition and increase your confidence in preparation for further study.

20 credits

Performance

In this module you will develop the musical and intellectual abilities appropriate to solo performance. The theoretical background is considered, focusing on the aural and analytical skills essential to performance at an advanced level. An awareness of style and interpretation, as well as effective preparation and communication are built into teaching. You will receive one to one tuition in addition to attending whole class performance lectures.

20 credits

Music Psychology

In this module you will engage with some of the most provocative questions about musical thought and behaviour: What are the characteristics of the musical mind? Why do we feel emotions when listening to or performing music? How does music and music therapy influence our health and wellbeing? Can music make you smarter? The module is designed such that no prior formal musical or psychological training is necessary.

You will develop knowledge of the scientific methods used to study music from a psychological perspective, and how findings can inform applications in education, healthcare, and the creative industries.

10 credits

Popular Music Studies

This module provides an introduction to the academic study of popular music. You will explore the various definitions of 'popular music' in relation to their socio-cultural context, and investigate some of the major issues and debates of popular music studies.

Lecture materials and in-class tasks will engage with approaches to the analysis of popular music and media, issues of representation, and the relationship between popular musicians and their audiences. Assessments involve critical engagement with the themes of the module in relation to a popular music artist or piece of your choosing.

10 credits

Folk Music Participation

This module is based upon participation in and preparation for folk sessions hosted by the Department of Music. Through intensive preparation of challenging repertoire, as well as the skills to enable improvised participation, you will develop your understanding of the demands and pleasures of session practice, and your knowledge of the repertoires concerned (British folk traditions), and be encouraged to reflect upon the roles and responsibilities of individual participants within the group. You will also be required to attend a professional ensemble concert or concerts within the university concert series, or an equivalent online event.

10 credits

Composing Electronic Music

The lectures on this module introduce you to various forms of electronic music composition. Through creative practice, key principles of composition with technology are introduced and a number of broad genres are set in a historical and analytical context. A diverse range of software tools are used, further enhancing your digital skills. You will learn how to process and develop a range of recorded and synthetic sound material, before considering some of the various ways in which those materials may be used to compose electronic pieces. After making a number of short etudes throughout the first half of the module, you select one area in which to complete your own original work.

10 credits

History core module:

Historians and History

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

The Uses of History

This module explores the theory and practice of public history by providing students with the opportunity to communicate their scholarly work to an audience beyond the boundaries of our discipline. Students will articulate an aspect of their own historical interests to a non-academic audience and evaluate the use of history outside academic settings. The course will engage in debate about important questions facing historians in the present, and consider ideas about the role and purposes of History as an academic subject.

20 credits

History option module examples:

Option modules are 20 credits each. Dual honours students will normally take between one and three modules from across our options and document options, depending on if you choose to major or minor in history.

A Protestant Nation? Religion, Politics and Culture in England 1560-1640

On the accession of Elizabeth I, England became an officially Protestant country but the Church, State and laypeople did not necessarily agree about the nature of changes needed to accommodate the new religion. On the level of national government policy, we shall explore what governments expected from their subjects and how they attempted to secure religious conformity during the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I. How far did anti-Catholicism define English identity in this period? Did authorities at the national and local levels disagree about how severely religious minorities should be treated?

20 credits

Asian Britain: Travel, Migration, Diaspora

It has been estimated that, by the early twenty-first century, more than 25 million peoples of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent were living in Europe, North America, Africa and Southeast Asia. This module aims to historicise this diaspora by examining how and why South Asians have criss-crossed the globe in increasing numbers from the nineteenth century: for pilgrimage, trade, service, indenture, learning, diplomacy, politics, performance, mission and employment. The focus will be on different experiences of travel, migration and settlement in Britain in the high and late colonial period (1858-1947) that anticipated mass migration in the post-war era.

20 credits

Becoming America, 1690-1763

This module investigates the proposition that modern America took shape in the period 1690-1763, prior to and, as we will consider, in many ways productive of the transformation often associated with the era of the American Revolution. The module will consider primary sources and associated secondary debates relating to five key themes: ethnic diversity and religious pluralism, geographic dispersal, the growth of domestic and international market economies, the emergence of popular, partisan politics, and the reconfiguration of notions of power, authority, and control. The module considers longstanding and emerging historiographical debates, including but not limited to the prevalence and manifestations of monarchical versus liberal political culture, anglicisation and colonial consumption, and geography/regionalism and periodization in colonial American history.

20 credits

Culture in Early Modern Europe

Culture is the key to understanding how societies thought and behaved in the past. Early modern Europe - a period of immense cultural change and conflict - is no different. This wide ranging module introduces students to ideas about culture and examines how cultural history has revolutionised what we know about the lives of men, women and children in Europe between 1500 and 1800. Building on a rich historiography and through a series of intriguing case studies, the module draws on wide range of sources - such as diaries, letters, and legal records, to printed works, art and archaeology - to enter into the many cultures of early modern Europe. The module explores issues like material culture, youth culture, cultures of protest, intellectual culture, and religious culture. It asks whether we can talk about different cultures of men and women and how cultures were affected by social and economic inequalities. It thinks about forces of cultural integration and pressures of cultural conflict. And it explores ideas of cultural change, and how these changes helped create the modern world.

20 credits

Decolonisation: The End of Empire & the Future of the World

The world was transformed in the twentieth century. A world of empires and colonies became a world of independent states. In this module we analyse this global transformation. Why did it happen - and how? How much really changed? For people around the globe - from imperial rulers in Europe to anti-colonial nationalists in the 'third world' - the crumbling of European empires was an opportunity to shape the future of their own communities and of the world. Sometimes negotiated, often violent, these hard-fought struggles over the future created the world we live in today.

20 credits

Disease, Medicine and Health Care in Early Modern Europe

Attitudes to disease and the body were often fundamentally different in early modern Europe. The aim of this module is to explore changing ideas about the human body, disease and health care across Europe across a broad periosd from its late medieval roots to the new science of the seventeenth century. Developments in public health care are explored, such as the development of hospitals, along with the impact of new ideas emerging from Renaissance Humanism and from the Scientific revolution. We will make wide use of contemporary texts, including herbals, recipe-books, health manuals, and case histories.

20 credits

Empire, Sexuality and the Family in Modern Europe

The last two centuries have witnessed the dramatic transformation of family life and sexuality across Europe. The experience of empire, both at home and in overseas colonies, played an essential role in that transformation. This module considers how empire shaped European debates about and experiences with sexuality and the family, including questions about race, religion, gender, marriage, childhood and family structures. We will examine developments on the ground both in the metropole and in colonies. Not least, we shall explore the shadow of empire in twentieth-century policies on and debates about sexuality and family life, from National Socialist eugenics laws to international human rights debates about protecting families and children of refugees. In doing so, we will connect a rich body of historical writing about the family, sexuality, gender, law and empire.

20 credits

Fascism 1918-1945

This option studies the rise and fall of European fascism between 1918 and 1945. The aim is to account

20 credits

From the Pharaohs to Alexander the Great: The Battle for the Ancient World

This module examines the ongoing battle for dominance in the ancient Near East between the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks. From the outset of the Iron Age (around 1000 BCE) until Alexander the Great swept in from Macedonia to conquer the whole of the known world in 330 BCE, four empires rose and fell in the area now known as the Middle East. In the midst of all these powers lived ancient Israel—the small yet strategically located society that produced the texts known as the Old Testament. The module explores the key political, military, religious, economic, and social events that shaped these empires, shifted the balance of power between them, shaped their sacred texts, and made parts of these societies iconic symbols of the ancient world.

20 credits

From World War to Cold War: Europe 1945-1968

This module examines the social and cultural character of Europe after the personal and political traumas of the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on developments in France, Italy and West Germany. Its purpose is to provide a stimulating and wide-ranging introduction to a key aspect of post-1945 European history, encouraging students to consider the history of post-war Western Europe as a unity, and highlighting the similarities between states. Similarly, it deliberately transgresses the boundaries between political, economic, social and cultural history. Topics will include the end of World War II, consumption and affluence, debates about Americanisation, and the changing nature of politics and society during the 1960s.

20 credits

Gender and Sexuality in Modern Britain, 1850 to the Present

Through lectures and seminars, this course offers an overview of the history of gender and sexuality in Modern Britain. We will examine political, social, cultural and economic change from the perspective of gender relations and constructions of gender, as well as shifting understandings of sex and sexual politics from the Victorian period of alleged sexual repression to moments of liberation resulting from two (or more) so-called 'sexual revolutions' in the 20th century. We are interested, in equal measure, how women and men experienced, negotiated, and reacted to these changes in gender norms and sexual mores.

20 credits

Gender, Culture and Society in Britain 1650-1850

This course will give students the chance to consider one of the most important, exciting and original areas of recent historical research gender. The course aims to encourage students to consider broad questions and theories about gender history through one specific context: Britain between the years 1650-1850. It was during this period that Britain was transformed from an early-modern to a modern nation. Students will explore the comparative experiences of men and women during a series of momentous developments, including the Englightenment, the industrial revolution, the emergence of a class society, the emergence of popular participation as a significant feature in political life, and the rise of 'separate spheres'. The course will thus enable students to assess the part played by gender in the emergence of 'modern' British society. Students will be encouraged to explore how a focus on gender encourages new interpretations of the key economic, political, social and cultural developments of this period.

20 credits

Gender and the Georgians: Sex and Society in Britain 1714-1837

Eighteenth-century Britain witnessed great change: historians have argued for a 'revolution' in industry, the 'birth of a consumer society' and the emergence of a 'public sphere' of political debate; global trade expanded, towns grew, and new Enlightenment ideas flourished. In this context, gender identities and roles were redefined, understandings of the body debated, and notions of masculinity and femininity contested. This module explores these ideas about gender, and how they informed people's experiences, from polite fashions to the criminal underworld, bluestocking sobriety to drunkenness in gentlemen's clubs, and from 'subcultures' of homosexuality to the first 'feminists'

20 credits

Holy Russia, Soviet Empire: Nation, Religion, and Identity in the 20th Century

This module explores the twentieth-century history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and its successor states. Rather than approaching this turbulent period in history by focusing on the rise and fall of different political leaders (as is often the case in survey courses), we instead approach this subject through the prism of nation, religion and identity. The course probes the following questions: What did the 'Russian revolution mean for the multi-national empire created by the Romanovs? How far did the communist party manage to create a 'Soviet' identity, and on what was this based? Did the Bolsheviks attempt to create an atheist society succeed? And what happened to 'Soviet' identity when communist leaders began to lose their grip on power in the final decades of the twentieth century?

20 credits

Imperial Germany, 1871-1918

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the study of Imperial Germany and its position in the controversial interpretations of the 'peculiarities' of Modern German History, ie the structural continuities leading the the rise of National Socialism and its seizure of power in 1933. The module will cover topis crucial for an understanding of these debates, such as the party system and electoral culture, the structure and sociability of the middle class, the forms and impact of social militarization, and the emergence of radical nationalism. Particular attention will be paid to the confessional conflicts and identities and to the First World War

20 credits

Intoxicants in Early Modern England

The module looks at the uses and abuses of intoxicants in England during the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This includes `old world' intoxicants, such as wine, beer, and ale, as well as `new world' commodities like tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea. The module introduces students to the economy of intoxication, and the importance of intoxicants to domestic trade and global expansion; to the role of intoxicants in medical practices; to the places, spaces, rituals, and conventions of consumption; and to importance of intoxicants to the early modern state and political culture.

20 credits

Life Worth Living

What does it mean for a life to go well? How does one live life well? What is a flourishing life? These questions have shaped intellectual endeavour for millennia. Life Worth Living explores approaches to these questions through engagement with diverse traditions/thinkers including classical Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Existentialism, Marx, and Nietzsche. The module includes historical analysis of these traditions, visits from individuals whose lives are shaped by them, fieldwork to discuss the ideas beyond the classroom, and assessments to help students develop their own vision of a life worth living.

20 credits

Media and Popular Culture in Twentieth-Century Britain

This module will explore ways in which the press, the cinema, and radio and television broadcasting shaped politics, society and culture in twentieth century Britain. The first half of the module will examine the historical development of each of the major media forms and discuss the different types of content that they provided. The second half will explore a number of key issues, such as the impact of the media on the evolution of modern democracy, the media's role in reflecting and shaping identities such as class, gender and ethnicity, and the media's contribution to the emergence of a consumer society.

20 credits

Religion in an Age of Terror: Ancient Texts and the Making of Modern Israel.

This module will look at the origins, growth and development of conflict and violence in the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), in order to provide a historical perspective on the roots of contemporary religious violence. The focus of the module will be a case-study on the conflict in Israel/Palestine (especially between 1947-67). Primary source analysis will be of the Bible/Quran (and related material), and the documents relating to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Related topics will include: theories of religious violence; religious terrorism; politics and religion; and the roots of religious 'fundamentalism.'

20 credits

Revolution, Reform and Crusade in 11th-c. Europe

This module explores one of the most dramatic and debated centuries in European history. Beginning with the apocalyptic resonances of the year 1000, the module then examines the evolving political framework of the period, with special attention to the role of bishops and queens. It next explores the transformation in Europe's economy, before comparing and analysing the two major historiographical approaches to this puzzling period: church reform and feudal revolution. The course then considers the place of Judaism and Islam in eleventh-century Europe, and concludes with Europe's growing involvement with the wider world, putting the First Crusade into full context.

20 credits

Rome and its Empire (14-235 AD)

This module provides an introduction to the themes, sources and methods involved in studying the Roman empire at the height of its power, between the consolidation of a monarchical style of government at the death of Augustus and the beginning of this government's `crisis' in the third century. It draws on a wide variety of sources, including narrative history, letters, legal texts, inscriptions, coinage, architecture and artefacts. The module particularly focusses on traditional and current scholarly debates surrounding the `Romanisation' of the vastly different territories under Roman rule (stretching from Hadrian's wall to the Euphrates), the relationship between local and Roman identities, as well as definitions of Roman forms of `imperialism' and strategies of cohesion.

20 credits

Shell-Shock to Prozac: Mental Health in Britain

This course charts the history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain. We start at the First World War, with the large-scale management of psychiatric casualties (shell-shock). We will look at the uptake of psychoanalysis in interwar Britain, contrasted with 'extreme' asylum treatments such as lobotomy and insulin coma therapy. We shall then gauge the impact of the National Health Service from 1948, the closure of the asylums, and the impact of new drug therapies (including the iconic Prozac). Finally we shall analyse the rise of patient activism, and the emergence of new 'epidemic' illnesses such as depression and self-harm.

20 credits

Slavery and Abolition in the United States

This module explores slavery and its critics in the United States. Focusing mostly on antebellum America - the three decades before the Civil War - we will move from the daily struggles over life and labour on the plantation to the place of slavery in national politics and international trade. Students will explore the character of the slave community, the relationship between master and slave, and debates over the rights and wrongs of the `Peculiar Institution'.

20 credits

Social Crisis and Political Change in England, 1550-1640

England experienced rapid social and economic change in the two generations before 1640 and these changes had a considerable impact on the development of the state. This course examines political and administrative responses to increasing poverty, migration and urbanisation, as well as responses to death and epidemic disease. It will also consider government attempts to foster growth in both the domestic and international economy. These initiatives were also shaped by changing visions of government and good order, and the course will consider the role of these ideas in defining social problems and appropriate responses to them.

20 credits

Spain, 1917-1982

The primary aim of this course is to introduce students to the study of Spanish history and to prepare them for more advanced study, particularly of modern European history. The restoration of the monarchy in 1875 marked the beginning of an extraordinarily turbulent century of Spanish history, which is dominated by the Civil War of 1936-39. Against a background of far-reaching government corruption, the weapons of political terrorism became increasingly prominent and a cyclical pattern of escalating violence and brutal repression culminated in a bloody Civil War and the subsequent military dictatorship of General Franco. The role of the army will be examined as will the nature of the Franco regime, together with the opposition forces of anarchism, socialism and Basque nationalism.

20 credits

The Battle for China's Future, 1839-1949

This module explores a century in which nationalists and imperialists fought over China. We will begin by looking at how the Qing empire, having expanded China's frontiers, confronted the 'semi-colonialism' of foreign powers and bloody domestic rebellions. After covering the Qing's fall in the 1911 Revolution, we will examine different designs for national integration on the part of warlords, reformers, and radicals, and consider the civil wars that followed. China's history in this period is sometimes told as a straightforward story of Eastern response to Western impact. But in introducing you to China before Communist rule, we will consider a more complex story of innovation, exchange, accommodation, and resistance, as the Middle Kingdom's dynastic rulers and their republican successors tried to meet foreign and domestic challenges, balance conservatism and modernization, and redraw their country's social, political, and geographic boundaries.

20 credits

The Export of England: Seventeenth Century Trade and Empire

This module considers the commercial and territorial expansion of seventeenth-century England. It examines how England's commerce was transformed from the largely bilateral cloth trade with Europe conducted by mercantile corporations, to a multilateral commerce conducted under several conditions (the 'navigation system, 'free trade', joint-stock companies). These changes coincided with the foundation of North American and West Indian colonies, building on earlier experiences in Ireland, and the course will consider their developing relations with the metropolis. Throughout, the focus will be on whether these changes were a consequence of deliberate 'mercantilist' state policies, or of the initiative of thousands of individuals.

20 credits

The Fall of the Roman Empire in the West

This course will explore one of the classic problems of world history, conventially seen in terms of 'decline and fall', but recently reinterpreted in a more positive light with a new emphasis on 'transition', 'transformation', and the cultural diversity of a period now generally known as Late Antiquity. These themes will be explored through a wide range of informative and entertaining primary sources and a lively historiographical debate. Students will acquire a good general awareness of the last century of the western Roman empire (no prior knowledge of this period is required), but will also explore a number of important comparative themes in history such as authority, community and identity, why empires exist, and how they end.

20 credits

The Family in Late Antiquity: Romans, Barbarians and Christians

This module examines how family concepts and family life were affected by the two phenomena that changed ancient society beyond recognition: Christianisation and the establishment of `Barbarian¿ kingdoms on Roman territory. To study the period of late antiquity from the point of view of the family is a particularly fruitful way of understanding these changes, as for most late antique men and women their family was their most immediate and most important life experience. Throughout the module we will explore crucial aspects of the late antique household: settlement patterns, family finances, intergenerational relationships, marriage, gender roles, childhood and forms of family commemoration. We will pay particular attention to strategies families developed to safeguard their identity and their livelihood at a time of major social and cultural upheaval.

20 credits

The French Third Republic, 1870-1940

This course will introduce students to French history from the fall of Napoleon III until the Second World War. The emphasis will be on the major political debates which emerged during the period, especially ideological struggles over whether France should be a republic or monarchy. Some of the questions to be explored include French attitudes towards democracy and the nation, the rivalry of Church and State, anti-semitism and the Dreyfus affair, the rise of socialism and the labour movement, the domestic ompact of the First World War, the inter-war period, and the Popular Front of the 1930's.

20 credits

The History of American Foreign Relations

George Washington famously warned against 'the insidious wiles of foreign influence' in his farewell address in 1796. But history has challenged any idea of the United States as a self-contained, bounded nation. Rather, the U.S. has played an active role in world affairs and has been profoundly shaped by events and people outside its borders. This course surveys the history of the U.S. in global context, beginning with America's first forays into overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century. We will cover both the major foreign policy moments and trends in U.S. history ;wars, government initiatives and interventions abroad, interstate diplomacy 'as well as the less formal encounters, migrations, and transnational exchanges that constitute American foreign relations. Primary and secondary source readings, lectures, and discussions will pay particular attention to the intersections between changes at home and developments abroad.

20 credits

The History of Terrorism

In the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7, the rhetoric of the war on terror has been one of the most significant political vocabularies of the twenty-first century. Yet, terrorism is not a new phenomenon: the history of the modern world, particularly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has been marked by violent challenges to political authority by non-state actors. This module will consider in detail the phenomenon of terrorism in a historical setting, considering various manifestations (geographically, chronologically and ideologically) as well as the related areas of state terror and counter-terrorist strategies.

20 credits

The Making of Modern India, 1780-1965

Modern South Asian history has been an exceptionally fertile field of scholarly exploration, with many new insights and theoretical developments emerging from this field. This module will study the recent historiographical trends while looking closely at several historical developments during the period of British rule and the immediate post-colonial period. The module will be divided into four parts: the early colonial period, the late colonial period, the period of anti-colonial resistance or the national movement, and the post-colonial/Nehruvian era. The themes to be studied include: land/agrarian settlements, British expansionist policies, the revolt of 1857, the formation of caste identities, British famine policies, socio-religious reforms, Gandhian mass-mobilization, Islamic assertions, the national movement, Nehruvian socialism, partition of the subcontinent, and post-colonial legacies.

20 credits

The Northern Ireland 'Troubles' and Peace Process

This module introduces students to one of Europe's most recent - and deadly - intra-state conflicts. The 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, c.1968-98, were marked by the persistence and seeming intractability of a conflict that contained national, ethnic and religious dimensions. With the paramilitary ceasefires in the 1990s, a new era opened; but difficulties remain in moving from an absence of violence to a genuine peace. Students will consider the conflict as a low-level civil war within the United Kingdom, as well as a dispute over sovereignty. The module covers the competing political and paramilitary groupings and various initiatives to enhance peace.

20 credits

The Rise of Rome and its Empire (c.500-90 BCE)

This course will look at the political, cultural, and economic dimension of Roman imperialism (500 BC-90 BCE), the relevant primary sources and the current historiographical debates. Firstly, we will study the motives of Roman aggression and the causes for their success. Secondly, we will also look at the ways in which the Romans understood and conceptualised their imperial practices. Thirdly, we will consider the role of the other Italian peoples in the Roman imperial project, and how the peninsula underwent processes of integration and cultural change that was instrumental to, but not necessarily bound with, Roman imperial expansion.

20 credits

The Welfare State in Britain, 1900-2015.

Although 1948 is remembered as the birth of the British welfare state, the involvement of the government in the wellbeing of its citizens has a far longer history. In this unit, we will explore the gradual evolution of British welfare practice and policy from 1900 until the present day. We will analyze the shifting relationship between citizens and the state in modern Britain, drawing both on historiographical and primary sources. We will examine how debates about class, gender, race and immigration informed the nature and extent of welfare provision over the past hundred years. In doing so, we will set the birth, growth and decline of the British welfare state alongside debates about the nature of citizenship in modern Britain.

20 credits

Tolerance and Dissent in Europe (12th - 16th Centuries)

Different religious faiths have coexisted in Europe for centuries. Yet religious violence occurred repeatedly across Europe until the 18th century. Historians have largely focussed on the policies implemented by political and religious authorities in explaining these events. While addressing group culture in general and the contributions of social groups to the institutionalisation of values in a religious context, the seminar aims to trace the possibility and the limitations of religious pluralism in Europe between the 12th and the 16th centuries. This long term perspective will contribute a novel approach to the history of the Reformation.

20 credits

Trumpism: An American Biography

Donald Trump's election, commentators claim, was unprecedented as well as unexpected: a break with more than two centuries of custom. Yet closer scrutiny of American history suggests Trump is no aberration. The module will interrogate the U.S. past to better understand the present, looking at the likes of populism as a political language, whiteness as a psychological wage, masculinity as a path to high office, protectionism as an economic policy, and deindustrialization as a political spur. By asking historical questions about the roots of Trump's rise, we will situate the American present in a complex and often painful past.

20 credits

Two Germanys, 'One People'? Central Europe, 1945-1990

In 1989-90, German 'reunification' brought together populations changed by 40 years of different lived experiences, within borders that had not bounded any previous German state. This course examines the social, political, and cultural history of East and West Germany in comparative perspective, focusing on how they related to one another as well as to pre-1945 German history. Special emphasis will be placed on relationships with European neighbours, allied superpowers, and migrant populations in order to show how contemporary Germany has been shaped by transnational processes and how non-Germans have likewise helped define what it now means to be 'German'.

20 credits

Understanding the Aztecs: Life and Death in Early Sixteenth-Century Mexico

Human sacrifice has cast a long shadow over the history of the Aztecs, obscuring the complexity, sophistication and compassion of the distinctive society which dominated central Mexico in the early sixteenth century. But the Aztecs' unique island-capital of Tenochtitlan was not only a centre for spectacular religious bloodshed, but also a sophisticated metropolis, home to a civilised society of highly educated individuals and close loving families. Taking a principally ethnohistorical and cultural approach, this module examines life in Tenochtitlan on the eve of its shattering conquest by the Spanish invaders whose records are also the principal source for Aztec history.

20 credits

History document option module examples:

Document option modules are 20 credits each. Dual honours students have the option to take one document option module.

History document modules have a narrower focus than our standard option modules and usually cover a specific event, a movement, or a moment in time. They help you develop your skills in the use and analysis of primary sources which will be invaluable as you progress through your degree. Dual honours students have the option to take one document option module.

1066 and all that - the Norman Conquest of England

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

1968 in Western Europe: Rebellion and Upheaval

`1968¿ is an emblematic date, signifying political upheaval and mass demonstrations, strikes, cultural rebellion and protests against the war in Vietnam. The module will analyse the significance of 1968 as a dense sequence of events which affected many aspects of social, political and cultural life in Western European societies. The module will focus on selected political incidents and their cultural and artistic reflections in France, England and Germany, and explore some of the political controversies surrounding the events of 1968. It will draw on a wide range of primary sources (both textual and visual), including pamphlets, eyewitness reports, and songs.

20 credits

Appeasement, the Munich Crisis and the British People

The conduct of foreign policy in Britain in the late 1930s and the policy of appeasement in particular have been matters of sustained historiographical debate since 1945. This unit introduces students to some of the key sources pertinent to the discussion through a series of linked lecture workshops and seminars. These highlight the shifting debates between the 'Guilty Men' and the anti-appeasers, and the diplomatic perspective, but we also consider how the Press, the British public, men and women, and various political parties responded to the Crisis and understood their position as the Second World War loomed.

20 credits

Barcelona and the 'Tragic Week'

In 1900, artistic innovation and social conflict were juxtaposed in Barcelona. Rebuilt in the Art Nouveau idiom known as Modernisme, the bourgeois city was challenged by a burgeoning anarchist movement. Spectacular events, including the 'Tragic Week' itself, saw Barcelona renamed the 'rose of fire'. Students will examine how public space is contested, looking at architecture and urban planning as well as the representation of the marginalised and dispossessed. These were the anarchists, whose methods changed from bomb-plots to education and syndicalist organisation. Textual sources will be used to explore this anarchist sub-culture and the growth and importance of anticlerical riot.

20 credits

Coercion and Consent in the Third Reich

This course will introduce students to sources and literature that explore the relationship between state and society in Nazi Germany. With particular emphasis on exploring the extent to which support for the regime resulted from coercion or popular consent, it aims to give students a nuanced understanding of the nature of National Socialism, its appeal and effectiveness as well as its contradictions and limitations. Students will consider documents and interpretations that consider `resistance' and `collaboration', which will aid their analysis of the choices and constraints that shaped the relationship between the Nazi state and society.

20 credits

Global Lives: South Asian Travel and Migration in the Age of Empire

By the early twenty-first century, more than 25 million peoples of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent were living in Europe, North America, Africa and Southeast Asia. This module aims to historicise this diaspora by analysing letters, diaries, and travelogues. These sources reveal how and why South Asians have criss-crossed the globe in increasing numbers from the nineteenth century: for pilgrimage, trade, service, indenture, learning, diplomacy, politics, performance, mission and employment. The focus will be on different experiences of travel, migration and settlement in the high and late colonial period (1858-1947) that anticipated mass migration in the post-war era.

20 credits

Guilty Men? European Leaders and the Origins of the Second World War

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

Jane Groom's 'Extraordinary Scheme': Disability and the body in the Transatlantic World c. 1800-1900

This document option takes as a starting point Jane Groom's emigration scheme to send white, working-class, deaf people from London to Canada and establish a deaf colony in North America. The scheme is used as a springboard to think about issues of disability and the body in the nineteenth-century Transatlantic world. Topics covered include: institutionalisation, immigration restrictions, deaf separatist demands for a `Deaf State' in the USA, eugenics, and medical and social attitudes towards disability and the body. The course draws on a range of primary sources including: newspapers, memoirs, propaganda pamphlets, immigration legislation and medical and scientific treatises.

20 credits

Match of the Day: The Nika Riot of 532

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

Murder in the cathedral: the Becket Affair

On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered in his cathedral by four knights of his King and one-time friend, Henry II. In the space of ten years, a close friendship had been ruined, and Thomas' stubbornness, flight to France, and untimely death created additional tensions for the English king. This document option investigates events surrounding Thomas' death and the emergence of his cult. It asks how a minor squabble became a continent-wide cause célèbre, forcing Henry into an act of ritual humiliation to clear his name while ensuring that Thomas' memory lived on.

20 credits

Russian Revolution 1917-18

This course will allow students to explore the Russian revolution, through a close study of sources from 1917-18. A tight focus on these years will enable students to grasp some of the complexity not only of political events in St Petersburg, but also of the social tensions and rifts across the whole of Russia. Through a close reading of primary sources, students will be able to reflect independently on how Soviet and Cold War narratives of the revolution can now be challenged. Sources will include propaganda posters and films, works of art, popular songs, graffiti, peasant petitions, and workers' letters.

20 credits

Tenochtitlan, City of Blood and Flowers: Aztec society in the early sixteenth century

This course will introduce students to the most influential 'schools' of historical practice in operation in the second half of the twentieth century and which remain influential today. These include Marxism, the Annales school, quantitative history, history from below, feminist and gender history, and postmodernism, as well as English empiricism. Lectures will provide an overview of each approach, and discuss the historical context in which it emerged. In seminars, students will be taught to assess critically the opportunities and limitations of each approach.

20 credits

The Easter Rising: Living, Fighting and Dying in 1916

The rebellion in Dublin at Easter 1916 was a moment of profound crisis. For a week, rebels occupied key buildings in central Dublin, having proclaimed an Irish republic. After their surrender, sixteen leaders of the rebellion were executed, inaugurating a new martyrology and prompting a wave of public sympathy. This document option will explore the broad range of perspectives on the Rising, including those of civilians, rebels, and those tasked with its suppression. Drawing on plentiful digital resources (memoirs, diaries, official inquiries, and witness statements), this document option will uncover what it was like to live through that landmark event.

20 credits

The Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Plot provoked endless debate at the time and in following centuries over the precise nature of the plot, its objectives and the degree of government complicity. The answers to these questions lie in a rich but ambiguous body of primary sources written by the government and its apologists, by Catholics, and by other observers. This course will enable students to analyse all these types of source, and to address systematically the problems of source analysis and interpretation that they present, while building up a detailed understanding of the problematic position of Catholics in late Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

20 credits

The Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858-85

Britain's 'Irish problem' has long roots. This document module examines one of the most important violent Irish organisations that challenged British sovereignty in Ireland. Founded in 1858, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) (or the Fenian movement, as it was also known) was a transatlantic movement dedicated to the overthrow of the British state in Ireland. Fuelled by hatred for the British after the dreadful Famine in Ireland of the 1840s, the Fenians constructed a sophisticated organisation that was part secret society, terrorist cell structure and propaganda machine. It was the early forerunner of the Irish Republican Army. This document option investigates aspects of Fenianism from a range of angles. Using sources written and produced by contemporaries, we will consider the dynamics of the IRB and its place within nineteenth-century Ireland.

20 credits

The Medieval Inquisition

The Inquisition - an extraordinary court instituted by bishops from the 13th century to judge heretics and encourage their return to the Roman Church - marks an important development in medieval history and has played an essential role in modern perceptions of the Middle Ages. By focusing on some of the best known sources of the Inquisition, which have been important in recent historiography as well as contemporary fiction (The Name of the Rose), this document option will help students reflect on how a better understanding of the Middle Ages and a critical questioning of modern prejudices can benefit from each other.

20 credits

The Myth of Venice

Historians usually debunk fabrications, but myths can themselves be the focus of historical study. This module explores the Myth of Venice, its production, diffusion, and reception. Venice was celebrated as the ideal republican government, but it was also the city of state terror and seductive `oriental¿ luxury. Students will examine a wide variety of sources and develop the skills required for their interpretation: descriptions of the city by Venetians and foreigners; political tracts; maps, paintings and sculpture; theatre and literature. The course concludes by considering how these myths have endured and influenced the writing of Venetian history.

20 credits

The Putney Debates, October 1647

Following the first English civil war there was political stalemate over the post-war settlement. By late 1647 there were calls for revolutionary political change, not least at the famous Putney debates. They came at a crucial moment in the development of the revolution, and successive editors between 1891 and 2007 presented the records of the debates in varying contexts in order to reveal the fundamental significance of the revolution. This module explores the background to the debates at Putney, what was said, and also considers how different editions of the debates reflect the shifting significance attached to the English revolution

20 credits

The Ten Commandments

This module examines the Ten Commandments, perhaps the most well known `legal' code in the world. Through the close study of key primary sources from the Hebrew Bible and the cultures that informed its writing, all readily available in modern English translation, the module explores the ancient Near Eastern context for these commands, the four texts in the Hebrew Bible that might be given the name Ten Commandments, and the role these texts played in the political, social, economic, and ethical aspects of ancient life.

20 credits

The Welfare State in Britain, 1900-2015.

Although 1948 is remembered as the birth of the British welfare state, the involvement of the government in the wellbeing of its citizens has a far longer history. In this unit, we will explore the evolution of British welfare from 1900 until the present day. Drawing on newspaper reports, documentary film and television, diaries, memoirs, charity records, and local government sources, we will analyze the shifting relationship between citizens and the state in modern Britain. We will examine how debates about class, gender, race and immigration informed the nature and extent of welfare provision over the past hundred years.

20 credits

For Music, optional modules across our seven areas of expertise are available to students in Years 2 and 3. These modules are taught on a two-year rotation, with the exception of Intermediate Performance, Intermediate Composition and Creative Applications of Music Technology which run every year. This enables the majority of students to select from the greatest possible range of module options across two years of study.

For students on a 4 year programme where the 3rd year is spent away from the Department (i.e. as a year studying abroad or on a work placement), the two year module rotation means that you will be out of the department when some options are running. However, since your third year involves a high proportion of modules with a self-directed focus (including dissertation and special project), you should still have plenty of opportunities to pursue your specialist interests.  

Music annual modules (optional):

Intermediate Performance

This module will introduce you to performance practice and techniques related to performance at an intermediate level. It will act as preparation for advanced performance in Year 3 Recitals, and builds on the foundation work completed as part of Performance in Year 1. You will take individual instrumental/vocal lessons, which will run alongside workshop-based lectures throughout the academic year. You will also attend 6 lunchtime, rush hour or evening concerts across the year and write a short critical review.

20 credits

Intermediate Composition

This module follows on from Composition in Year 1 to support the development of your compositional practice. You will study more advanced techniques of 20th and 21st Century classical music and develop strategies for making longer pieces. You'll write for small ensembles and soloists, including collaboration with advanced performers taking the MA Performance Studies, and you will have opportunities to get your work played in concerts. This work will prepare you for other composition-related modules, including Portfolio of Compositions and Special Project in Year 3.

20 credits

Creative Applications of Music Technology

This module will introduce you to a range of technologies that might be used for creative purposes and provides an opportunity for further electronic music composition. The module necessarily focuses upon the science of music (sound and the digital medium, filters, reverbs, synth design, computer music programming) before engaging with the construction of two works: one that is very synth driven (a dance music style) and one that further develops your electroacoustic music study. The technological aspects of the module are quite broad and strengthen essential transferable skills and computer literacy. The creative aspects of the module develop your original composition profile whilst augmenting skills in sound design and commercial composition.

20 credits

Music rotational modules (optional):

Analysis of Classical and Early Romantic Music

This module will introduce you to musical analysis in the western classical tradition. The emphasis is on the internal and external workings of musical forms in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focussing on Haydn's and Mozart's mastery of standard classical forms, on Beethoven's formal manipulations, and on the interaction of form and expression in the early nineteenth century (e.g. Schubert and Chopin).

Topics will include: motivic, thematic, melodic and rhythmic manipulation; interrelationships between counterpoint, harmony and melody; standard formal patterns; formal expansions and contractions; wit and humour in the late eighteenth century; expression and form.

20 credits

Baroque Music

Public knowledge of baroque music today is shaped by the dominance of a 'canon' of music considered authoritative or 'great', which for ideological and historical reasons is dominated by white European male composers. This module sets out to help change that.

You'll work as a team, with clearly defined roles, to produce a critical edition-with-commentary of music created using staff notation between c.1600-1750 by a musician who was NOT a white European man, which is obscure or completely unknown in the present day. Optionally, the group may also choose to record historically-informed performances of some or all of the music included in their edition. The materials produced will ultimately be made publicly available online.

20 credits

Community, Music and Education

This module will engage you in the current debates and practices of music in education and community settings, from the formal classroom setting and instrumental studio, through the work done by community support groups, to more recreational musical practice in the community. Questions of music's place in the curriculum, the relationship between school and home music, and the challenges of providing a vibrant musical education for all people, will be addressed in lectures and discussions.

You will work in mentored groups to investigate and support community music-making or school-based music education in Sheffield, building your skills as a researcher, and learning about career options including teaching, delivering and managing music provision for young people and vulnerable adults. You will finish the module knowing more about music and its contribution to education and society, through your critical reflection on published research evidence, and through school and community fieldwork visits.

20 credits

Ensemble Performance

This module will present you with the opportunity to develop ensemble performance skills in a supervised situation. You will form an ensemble with fellow students prior to the module commencing, and your ensemble will programme a contrasting selection of repertoire for study and public performance. Particular attention will be paid to ensemble considerations, though technical matters and the development of stylistic awareness will also form an important part of the module.

20 credits

Ethnomusicology

This module introduces ethnomusicology as a way of researching musical culture, with selected musical traditions explored as case studies in applying and assessing ethnomusicological methods. These methods typically emphasise 'ethnography', in which the primary sources are live human beings and knowledge is produced by interacting with them through musical participation, observation and interviewing.

You'll have the opportunity to conduct an ethnographic fieldwork project, either face-to-face or 'virtual', and write up the results in your assessed work. Alternatively, you can submit an essay examining published ethnomusicological research on a specific topic. Either way, you should reflect critically on how musical knowledge is produced by ethnomusicological methods.

20 credits

Jazz Studies

This module introduces some of the key figures and developments in the history of jazz, from its origins as an early twentieth-century American music, to its various contemporary manifestations across the world. You will engage with the contexts and debates that have shaped (and continue to shape) the performance, reception, representation, and study of jazz music, and will conduct independent research into a jazz-related topic of your choosing.

20 credits

Musical Culture in East Asia

This module introduces the musical life of East Asia, including China, Korea, Japan and neighbouring areas, in historical and cultural context. While emphasising traditional East Asian music and musical theatre, you'll also examine East Asia's participation in the culture of Western-style classical and popular musics.

You'll learn to recognise many forms of East Asian music and explain how they use sound in pursuit of particular cultural goals. You'll also carry out a guided research project on a cultural, historical and/or analytical topic in East Asian music.

20 credits

Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791

In this module, you will examine Mozart's career as performer and composer in Vienna (1781-91), looking at the environments and circumstances in which he worked and the aesthetic contexts in which he thrived. Topics will include: the circumstances that led Mozart to move from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781; his career as a performer; aesthetic, historical and contextual issues in 1780s Vienna; Mozart's instrumental, operatic and sacred works composed in Vienna; and Mozart's status as a musical-cultural icon in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

20 credits

Music in Renaissance Europe

This module will introduce you to European musical cultures in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the research methods through which they are discovered and studied. You'll investigate the roles played by music in the everyday life of street and home, as well as in religion and politics.

The module links music to some of the big critical themes in the European history of the period, including Europe's expanding international horizons through trade and colonialism, the dramatic increase in the circulation of books thanks to new printing technology, and conflict both within and between religious faiths.

20 credits

Music and Wellbeing

This module introduces you to the important ways in which music contributes to our sense of wellbeing. Wellbeing is not simply about feeling ok but has health implications for society. Music plays a vital role in fostering wellbeing. In the module, we cover four distinct areas where health and wellbeing may be challenged; these include special educational needs in schools, the use of music for people with dementia, as well as some specialised clinical settings where music is used. As part of your work on the module, you will be able to design your own music intervention.

20 credits

Music Psychology in Everyday Life

This module will introduce you to theories, empirical investigations and applications of music psychology relevant to everyday life. You will learn about the diverse uses of music in everyday situations, which may include personal, communal and commercial settings. The reasons for music use in these situations are explored and possible explanations of music's ability to support functions are critically reviewed, including social, emotional, personal, educational and commercial impacts. The module will be delivered through lectures, group discussions, and small research projects.

20 credits

Opera and Identity

This module gives you the opportunity to explore, understand and debate contemporary critical issues about the relationship between opera and identity. Focussing on opera from 1800 to the present day, the historical and social contexts surrounding the creation, premiere, and reception of opera forms the backdrop to the study of individual works in relation to topics including race, gender, sexuality, class, colonialism, religion, exoticism, political ideology, and national identity. From exoticised 19th-century Italian constructions of Egypt, through to the interplay of gender and sexuality in the depiction of pop culture icon Anna Nicole Smith, the operatic stage provides a forum for the consideration of some of society's most pertinent and widely debated issues.

20 credits

Orchestral Technique

This module covers the essential knowledge and skills for scoring music for symphony orchestra, as well as for smaller groupings of orchestral instruments. The module equips you for arranging and writing music for ensembles you might find yourself working with in the future, as a player, composer, conductor or teacher. The Orchestral Technique module is appropriate for all music students, but is particularly important for those specialising in composition. It will give you relevant knowledge of instruments, repertoire and techniques, and also provide the background training you will need for composing for media and film, and for live performance.

20 credits

Creative Performance

This module introduces you to contemporary, jazz and classical improvisation. By learning and developing these skills over a series of practical and taught sessions, you will become more flexible and confident as a performer.

20 credits

Psychology of Music: methods and applications

This module lays the foundation for you to be able to research a music-psychological topic using psychological research methods and consider its relevance for musical life and the music profession. You'll work on developing skills in psychological research approaches, through teaching that is problem-based, meaning that you will work on research design and data collection methods to tackle an issue or problem that may be encountered in musical contexts. A combination of methods is considered including qualitative and quantitative data collection, reflection, observation and literature research. Included problems may relate to musical development, psychology of performance, and music engagement.

20 credits

Sound and Moving Image

This module gives you the opportunity to compose sound and music for film and other visual media, and position sound and music within the filmmaking process. Using a variety of software, you will be responsible for the entire project from the ideas stage through to the creation of all audio materials. A diverse range of existing movies, audiovisual works and relevant literature will be studied, and you will be expected to use these to inform your own work.

20 credits

Sound Recording Practice

This module examines the fundamental theories of recording. Focussing upon the recording of both sound and music, it provides you with an opportunity to realise an original track. The module engages briefly with technical aspects of recording (microphone types, sound file formats) before using practical work and listening to decide upon choice of microphone, placement and capture. By making field recordings, location recordings, and session-based recordings, you will acquire a broad understanding of relevant issues and methods. The mixing and mastering of session-based recordings results in your finished track and helps you develop the skills required in the professional sound studio.

20 credits

Topics in Popular Music

In this module you'll explore in depth a range of models, case studies and themes for the study of Popular Music. You'll be introduced to varying analytical and critical approaches to the study of popular musics in global perspective, with topics including (e.g.): how popular musicians learn; popular music and humour; popular music as world music; reading popular music 'texts'; understanding business models; and conducting a popular music ethnography. As well as developing a factual knowledge of the genres covered in the module, you will develop a critical awareness of research methods and discursive themes in the field of popular music studies.

The module aims for diversity both in the styles and population groups represented and in the critical and analytical approaches discussed. The exact topics may vary with the specialisms of the teaching team, but you'll always be free to formulate a focus that interests you for your assessed project, which you'll develop with regular input from tutors and peers.

20 credits

The Broadway Musical

This module addresses the development of the Broadway musical, focusing on leading figures and critical issues. It looks at shows such as My Fair Lady and Oklahoma!, examines aspects of identity such as race and sexuality, and unpacks the collaborative nature of the genre. Alongside lectures on set works, you will pursue an individual project on a topic of your own choice, allowing freedom to identify with the work being studied.

20 credits

Traditional Music in the Modern World

This module will introduce you to the study of folk and traditional music, focussing on a range of contemporary folk music cultures. You'll learn to use a range of approaches (ethnomusicology; critical and culture theory; political theory) to consider the traditional identities these music cultures construct, and how they relate to their modern, economic, political and technological contexts. Past and current definitions of the terms folk music and traditional music are explored, and music cultures are investigated in terms of specific debates and contexts, such as revivalism, nationalism, institutionalisation, competition and education.

20 credits

Performing South Asian Melody

In this module you'll acquire a practice-based understanding of one world music tradition (selected in advance by the course tutor), improving your musical performance skills and experiencing first-hand the modes of transmission that are part of the tradition. Through performance-based seminars, you will learn to play and/or sing in the style offered, backing up that experience with theoretical knowledge derived from ethnomusicological literature. Your learning will also be supported by a writing-based project, supported by seminars/tutorials as appropriate, resulting in a Learning Journal documenting and reflecting on the learning experience.

20 credits

History option module examples:

There are two dissertation options available. All students can choose to take the 20 credit short dissertation. Students who wish to major in History can choose to take the 40 credit dissertation; in this case the dissertation must be taken in combination with a Special Subject.

Dissertation

The Dissertation in History is an exercise of 9-11,000 words in which students explore an individually chosen topic involving problems and issues derived from a module taken at level two or level three. It is expected to consist of research at a high level where interpretation and analysis will be of importance. The balance between primary and secondary materials will depend on the topic and the availability of sources. In each case students work independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

40 credits

Short Dissertation

The dissertation in History is an exercise of 7,500-8,500 words in which students explore an individually chosen topic involving problems and issues derived from a module taken at level two or level three. It is expected to consist of research at a high level where interpretation and analysis will be of importance. The balance between primary and secondary materials will depend on the topic and an availability of sources. In each case students work independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

20 credits

Making History Public

This core module is designed to allow students the opportunity to produce a piece of public history. It will equip students with the skills required to effectively communicate their scholarly research to a non-academic audience, and develop transferable skills beyond the traditional academic skills of a History degree. Drawing on any aspect of their experience as History undergraduates, students will design and produce an accessible digital artefact presenting a topic or theme of their choosing. Students will be supported by workshops and seminars to identify suitable topics and develop communication and digital skills central to public history, and will also be encouraged to bring their extra-curricular skills and interests to this module. A virtual exhibition will showcase student work to the whole History community. In addition, students will submit an interpretative written exercise, situating and explaining the artefact they have created and analysing their experience over the course of the module.

20 credits

History thematic module examples:

Thematic modules are 20 credits each. Dual honours students have the option to take one thematic module.

A Comparative History of Revolution

This module takes a comparative approach to the study of Revolution as a way to gain a better understanding of significant transformation of the social, economic and political landscapes of entire societies, to question underlying assumptions regarding values and legitimacy, as well as to understand and assess the vocabulary of revolution which has come to permeate political language. By comparing different case studies, students will have an opportunity to engage with the rich and stimulating historiography in this area and to formulate their own interpretations of a subject that touches on significant questions about change and power.

20 credits

Cities

This module explores key historiographical and theoretical approaches to the study of cities and the ways that historians can apply these ideas in practice. It adopts a comparative analysis that requires students to consider a range of cities from antiquity to the post-modern era. Students will have the opportunity to engage with the rich and stimulating interdisciplinary scholarship in this field, to pursue their own lines of research, and to formulate their own interpretations of a subject that is central to the nature of `civilization'.

20 credits

Decolonising History: Empires, Colonialism and Power

This module examines the rise and fall of empires as processes that shape our contemporary world. It considers the growth and governance of empires, decolonisation struggles, and the telling of imperial history from the perspective of colonised and coloniser. In approaching this history from multiple vantage points, this module asks: who held power, particularly over knowledge production, both during empire and after empire's end? Drawing upon diverse historiographical traditions, and examining a wide range of time periods and places, we will question the centrality of empires in the telling of global history. In doing so, we will bring the past to bear on contemporary debates about race, globalisation, migration, and decolonisation. This module is, above all, about what it means to decolonise history, society and the academy.

20 credits

Money, Power and Society

This module takes a comparative approach to the history of debt in societies across time. Students will have the opportunity to engage with and formulate their own interpretations of a subject that raises significant questions of historical and contemporary relevance: the nature of money; the ethics of lending and borrowing; markets, trust and institutions; the role of the state; globalization and finance capital. The module adopts an interdisciplinary approach, in which historical examples are related to theoretical perspectives from sociology, economics, anthropology and literary theory.

20 credits

The Family

The family is one of the most important forms of social relation across historical periods and places. But this seemingly 'natural' form of social organisation has a diverse history, as households and familial relationships were shaped by their cultural, economic, and political contexts. This module examines historical family structures and familial relations, from affection and care to authority and exclusion. We pay particular attention to gender and race, considering how intersecting identities shaped the family as we know it today. Drawing on anthropology, feminist history, and queer history, we also consider non-biological kinship: from 'chosen families' to surrogacy.

20 credits

History Special Subject examples:

Special subjects are 40 credits each. Dual honours students have the option to take one special subject.

Anarchy in the UK? Radicals, Democrats and Revolutionaries 1830-1886

This module examines the history of radical political culture in the United Kingdom from the Reform Act of 1832 to the Home Rule crisis of 1886. The re-imagining of the British state within radical political cultures is the chief focus, with particular emphasis on the democratic ideals projected from a variety of perspectives, liberal, socialist, republican, and Irish nationalist. There were many radical proposals to transform the British polity; from a desire to extend the franchise to republican activism, the many layers of radicalism in the United Kingdom will be assessed within wider political, cultural and intellectual contexts.

20 credits

Art, Power and History: Ideals and Reality in Renaissance Florence I

With its rich artistic life, financial innovations, and vibrant humanist culture, Renaissance Florence had a lasting influence on the rest of Europe. This module makes full use of the extremely rich visual and documentary sources available to historians (including paintings, sculpture, architecture, diaries, memoirs, tax and electoral records, sermons, histories, political writings) to explore the complex interrelations of social, cultural and political history. In doing so it provides the essential context for the understanding of key figures such as Machiavelli, Bruni, Alberti, Guicciardini, Vasari and Savonarola. 

20 credits

Breaking up (in) the Carolingian Empire

In 858, an event took place that scandalised Europe. At a public assembly, a Frankish king, Lothar II, accused his wife Theutberga of the most outrageous crimes, in order to secure a divorce so he could marry his mistress Waldrada. Yet despite his best efforts, and to everyone's surprise, Lothar failed to get his way - and so his kingdom spiralled into crisis, exacerbated by Viking attacks, interfering popes and predatory uncles. This Special Subject concentrates on this crisis, and the rich documentation it produced, to investigate the politics, society and culture of early medieval Europe under the Carolingian kings.

20 credits

Britain's Social Revolution: Welfare, State and Society, c. 1870-1914

This module introduces students to the powerful debates about and important reforms targeted at a variety of `social questions' which haunted Britain from the late nineteenth century until the First World War. It demonstrates how new forms of knowledge, ideas about social solidarity and political and social movements shaped how Britons addressed issues such as poverty, unemployment and public hygiene. By analysing a wide variety of primary sources, including visual sources, this module will examine competing visions about the future of the nation and, in particular, what role the state should play in determining that future. 

20 credits

Cannibals and Christians: Mexico and Spain, c.1492-1600

This module examines the extraordinary clash of cultures which occurred following the `discovery¿ of America, and the reciprocal relationship which developed between Europe and the `New World¿ in the sixteenth century. Focusing on the sixteenth-century discovery, conquest and settlement of Central and South America, especially Mexico, the module will address such themes as the nature of the encounter, the intellectual and cultural impact, trade and exchange, migration, evangelisation and empire. The module addresses the encounter from a wide range of perspectives, evaluating the encounter from the viewpoint of sailors, conquistadors, priests, historians, explorers, missionaries, administrators and the indigenous people themselves.

20 credits

Capitalism and Identity in 19th-century Britain (1)

How did people see themselves and the world in nineteenth-century Britain? The module emphasises the way local transformations and struggles were linked to global processes: emergence of class identities, shifting ideas about gender roles, and discourses of racial, religious and scientific superiority in a globalising world. We will study a broad range of primary sources, including textual, material and visual culture: from rival models of change and their popular reception; to the way identity was bound up with new consumer goods and fashions; to visual representations of empire and the impact of humanity upon the environment.

20 credits

Contested Visions: Imagining an Empire in mid-nineteenth century Britain

British expansion did not result from a single, coherent imperial strategy, or a fit of `absence of mind¿; it developed from specific cross-cultural encounters and competing colonial visions. Some saw the Empire as a place of adventure, others an opportunity for Christianisation, still others as a `New World¿ in which to build a Greater Britain. These visions were always contested and challenged both overseas and in Britain. This module explores these contested visions and the impact of empire at home. It is structured around different `visions of empire¿ including those of humanitarians; missionaries; settlers; travellers; scientists and the British public.

20 credits

Eating, Meeting and Greeting in the Medieval West

In 1095, Urban II delivered a sermon that kick-started the Crusades in a small city in the south of France; 120 years later, King John would seal a document limiting his powers in front of his barons at Runnymede. Separated by time, geography and audience, both these assemblies nevertheless shaped the medieval world. They are two of the many meetings between 1050 and 1250, which presented opportunities for face-to-face discussions and law-making, trials of justice and wit, as well as celebrate, feast, and mourn. This Special Subject investigates the purposes and events of these assemblies in the Central Middle Ages. Historians insist on separating `Church¿ and `State¿ in the Middle Ages, but this module looks at both to understand how medieval European government functioned, and how rulers employed the theatre of ritual and the growth of bureaucracy and law to influence their subjects and increase their power.

20 credits

Emotions and identity in Britain: from 'stiff upper lips' to 'snowflakes'

This module introduces students to an exciting area of social and cultural history: the emotions. In the early twentieth century, Britain confronted the emotional disorders of warfare, the repressed and sexualised emotions of Freudian theory, and the prevailing culture of 'stiff upper lip'. Today our emotions are everywhere, poured out on social media: we are endlessly exhorted to talk about and investigate our emotional states, wants, drives and needs. This shift has been spectacular and far-reaching, involving psychology, welfare, education and empire. This course helps students to understand how this has happened - and how our emotions are now an integral part of gender, racial and sexual identities in Britain.

40 credits

Empire of Faith: The Making of Global Catholicism, 1500-1700

Modern Catholicism is a global religion: one billion Catholics now live in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Yet global Catholicism was forged five hundred years ago, as Catholic missionaries travelled to nearly every corner of the world between 1500 and 1700. In this course, we consider how Catholic belief was shaped in encounters and exchanges with people across the early modern world: from the dreaming lodges of the Huron people in Canada, to Confucian scholars' courts in China. We will explore the ways in which a global religion was created in an exchange between centre and periphery.

20 credits

Ending the Cold War

Based upon a wealthy variety of primary sources recently released and for its most part digitalized and/or published, this course will explore why and how the apparently secure world collapse in 1989. Topics will include: Germany, Ostpolitk and CSCE; Superpower détente; The Fall of Détente: Afghanistan and Euromissiles; Reagan, SDI and Third World Interventionism; The Polish Crisis, 1980-1981; the Second Cold War and intra-German rapprochement; the Soviet Union's systemic crisis and imperial overstretch; Gorbachev Political Thought and Reform; Gorbachev, Reagan and Nuclear Weapons; Gorbachev's Eastern European policies; The Road to Maastricht and EU.

20 credits

Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Britain, 1923-1945 I

This module examines three inter-related issues in order to assess the impact of fascism in Britain between the wars. Making full use of one of the best archives for this purpose in the country held here in the Special Collection of the University Library, first we examine the political organization, the ideas and the culture of 'native' British fascism from its inception in 1923 to the Second World War. Second, we move on to explore active and ideological resistance to British fascist and racist organisations by a loose coalition of Communists, Socialists, Liberals and even Conservatives, as well as the resistance mounted by those religious and ethnic groups most affected by fascist racial provocation and violence. Third, we will consider how contemporary interpretations of fascism, and formal and more informal relations with the European dictatorships, contributed to the National Government's policy of appeasement on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to the greater definition of what was quintessentially 'British' about Britain's war aims with the outbreak of World War Two. We will approach these topics by analysing primary source material, including political pamphlets and propaganda, newspapers, public records, memoirs, oral testimonies, visual material, film and recordings, and novels.

20 credits

Forced into Being: How Involuntary Migration Created Ancient Israel

Religious conflict and migration shape the Middle East now, just as they have for nearly 3000 years. Case in point: ancient Israel and its sacred texts-known widely as the Old Testament-are the product of a rather small satellite nation whose primary experiences included subjugation by larger military powers, resistance against the potential influence of foreign religious practices, and forced migration from its land that resulted in life among unfamiliar peoples. Indeed, the Old Testament is a collection of texts written by involuntary migrants to involuntary migrants, often about involuntary migration. This special subject examines how the migratory experiences of this relatively small society shaped some of the most important religious texts in history, which are sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and remain influential factors in the international conflicts of the 21st century Middle East.

20 credits

From Julius Caesar to Augustus: Rome's Revolution (89 BC-14 AD)

This module will analyse the profound political, cultural, and social changes that led to the downfall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of a new regime by the victorious Caesar Augustus, a period of turmoil called the Roman Revolution by some modern scholars. We will aim at understanding these changes in the context of ongoing cultural and political processes that had affected the city of Rome in the previous decades. This was a period marred by internal political violence, and for which we have an impressive wealth of contemporary documents written by some of the protagonists of the events. 

20 credits

Half Slave and Half Free: The Origins of the U.S. Civil War

Between 1861 and 1865, around a million Americans died in a conflict that concluded with the defeat of the breakaway southern Confederacy and the emancipation of the South's enslaved people. Why that war happened is one of the central problems of U.S. history. To some, the struggle signifies an `irrepressible conflict' between two rival civilizations, but for others, blundering politicians and a dysfunctional democracy brought on an avoidable crisis. Through looking at men and women, blacks and whites, slaves and citizens, and politicians and voters, we will try to understand why - as Abraham Lincoln put it - `the war came.'

20 credits

Humanitarianism, Internationalism and the British Empire, 1900-2000.

What is humanitarianism? How has it shaped, and been shaped by, beliefs about Britain's role in the world? Why, in the eyes of politicians and the public, did British interests, and the interests of `humanity' so often coincide?The unit analyses British humanitarianismfrom 1900 to 2000. We situate British humanitarianism within the history of the Empire, globalization, U.S. ascendancy, and Cold War tensions. We consider traditionally disenfranchised groups - women, children and imperial subjects - as objects and agents of humanitarian interventions, and ask whether humanitarianism can be considered as `political' both in the past and in the present.

20 credits

Humour and Laughter in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Laughter is fundamental to human experience. Yet, the things we see fit to laugh at and how that laughter is thought about, tolerated, suppressed or celebrated, have all varied with time, place and culture with compelling possibilities for historians. Eighteenth-century Britain was a golden age of humour, brimming with bawdy jestbooks and a surfeit of satirical texts and images. It even witnessed the invention of caricature as we know it. The module explores this comic material-and ideas about it-to investigate fundamental shifts in manners, morality and political participation in the period, and the historiographical debates surrounding them.

20 credits

Makers of a New World: Merchants, Scholars and Commoners in Late Medieval Europe I

This module explores the changes which helped to create a 'new world' in Europe in the period c. 1350 - 1450, tracing the economic, social, political, intellectual, cultural, and religious developments which would support the 'discovery' of a wider world, and its colonisation from the 16th century onwards. Students will assess the contributions made by merchants who established a capitalist market economy, but also shaped the social life of their cities as patrons, with particular focus on the Italian and German city-states; by scholars who colonised the past by 'rediscovering' the Classics; and by commoners, who became increasingly involved in politics.

20 credits

Mao and the Making of Twentieth-Century China

In 2015, citizens in Henan Province erected a 120-foot gold statue of Mao Zedong, which was swiftly torn down on government orders. Why does Mao still provoke such strong feelings? To some he is a monster: history's greatest mass murderer. But recently historians have painted a richer picture of Mao's China, trying to understand its social character, political culture, and role in Cold War rivalries. Focusing on the origins, character, and legacy of Maoist rule, and devoting most of our attention to the period between the declaration of the People's Republic in 1949 and Mao's death in 1976, we will use translated primary sources, a rich visual culture, and a burgeoning scholarly literature to explore Maoist thought and its critics; major upheavals like the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution; and everyday life under `Communism with Chinese characteristics'.

20 credits

Merchants, Mariners and Migrants: The English Overseas, 1570-1624

The period c.1570-1624 saw a reorientation of England's global position, as increasing numbers of English people began to venture into unfamiliar regions. This course charts the nature and significance of their travels. We will encounter merchants in Europe, the Ottoman Empire and the far east, settlers and conquerors in Ireland and America, explorers in the frozen seas of the far north, and pirates in Spanish America. The latter part of the course focuses on the foundation of England's first `successful' American colony, Jamestown. Throughout, we consider the motives driving these ventures, and the complex nature of the encounters that ensued.

20 credits

Permissive Britain? Social and Cultural Change 1956-74 I

This module explores British society and culture as the nation moved from an era of austerity to one of unprecedented affluence. Key topics include the impact of affluence on class and gender relationships, the emergence of a national youth culture, changes and continuities in sexual behaviour, and debates about immigration and race. The unit encourages students to assess the significance of reforming legislation that relaxed the censorship regime, decriminalised homosexuality, enabled easier access to abortion, liberalised the divorce system and abolished capital punishment, examining the arguments of those who resisted, as well as those who championed the `permissive society'.

20 credits

Popes, Caliphs, Emperors, 1095-1229 (1)

The Crusades are known as religious wars, in search of the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem. Yet they were only part of the complex interactions between peoples of different politics, religions, and cultures in the medieval Mediterranean basin. Using sources including histories, letters, buildings, art and mosaics, this module will examine how religion intertwined with medieval politics, culture and society. From Iberia to Jerusalem, and from Italy to Africa, we will investigate religion’s role in expressing political power and in the everyday life of the people who lived there. How was religious authority received, understood, and contested by contemporaries?

20 credits

Renaissance and Popular Culture in Early Modern England

Renaissance is often often associated with `high culture', `popular culture' with `the masses' or `the people': different cultural worlds which grew further apart over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This module challenges this categorisation and model of cultural change. It introduces students to a much more encompassing idea of Renaissance as an educational and cultural movement which not only looked to revive the learning and wisdom of the `ancients', but also translate that knowledge into English and communicate it to as wide an audience as possible. The first half of the module explores the writers and statesmen committed to this agenda, the ideology which drove them, and the tools at their disposal: for example education, theatre, language, popular print. The second half of the module then considers different aspects of early modern life affected by this Renaissance: not least notions of state, society, and family; gender identities and relations; astrology, witchcraft and medicine; citizenship, governance, and warfare; colonialism and global commerce; drinking habits and telling jokes; and attitudes towards the self.

20 credits

Resistance & Liberation in South Africa: Gandhi to Mandela

This module analyses resistance to segregation, apartheid, and white supremacy in South Africa. Drawing upon memoirs, oral histories, novels, films, speeches, news reporting, online databases, and document collections, we begin with the non-violent campaigns led by Mohandas Gandhi in the 1900s against the segregation of Indians in South Africa, and end with Nelson Mandela's election as president in the country's first non-racial democratic elections in 1994. We will explore the inspirations, nature, and effects of a wide range of forms of political, social, and cultural resistance by opponents of white supremacy - from ordinary people to elite politicians - both inside South Africa and around the world. 

20 credits

Slavery in the American South, 1789-1861

By 1861, some four million African Americans were enslaved in the American south. This module explores the lives of these enslaved people. We examine the roles, relationships, and experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, through themes such as social and cultural life, work, the family, community and conflict, truancy, escape, and violence. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources - from the perspectives of enslaved and formerly enslaved people, as well as their enslavers - we focus in particular upon the varied ways in which African Americans resisted both their enslavers and their enslavement.

20 credits

Solidarity, Sabotage, Students: Protest in Europe from 1968 to 1989

This module will explore the history of protest since 1945 within and beyond Europe, with a view to understanding social movements and how they seek to effect political change. Protest research in history and the social sciences has focused on widely varied actors, forms, traditions, and issues, leading to very different conclusions about why and how protest occurs. This course will emphasise the merits and limits of particular approaches for answering different historiographic questions such as those about long-term continuities between movements, the synchronisation (or not) of protest across borders, and why protest activity appears to rise and fall dramatically. The course will examine movements from the 1950s to the early 2000s, focusing in particular on pacifism, student protest, feminism, `New Social Movements', international solidarity, and globalisation.

20 credits

South Asian Muslims in the Age of Empire, 1850-1950

Writing in 1888, the Viceroy of India, Lord Dufferin, described South Asia's Muslims as `a nation of 50 million, with their monotheism, their iconoclastic fanaticism, their animal sacrifices, their social equality and their remembrance of the days when, enthroned in Delhi, they reigned supreme from the Himalayas to Cape Cormorin.' How far does this colonial representation capture the diverse lives and experiences of South Asian Muslims under British rule? Were they a `nation' or even a cohesive community before India's Partition in 1947? To what extent did Dufferin's understanding of Islam fuel reformism, cultural expression, global movement and nationalist politics?

20 credits

Stalinism and De-Stalinisation, 1929-1961 I

This module explores Russian history from 1929 - when Stalin's fiftieth birthday was celebrated across the Soviet Union and he was heralded as Lenin's great successor - to 1961 when his body was removed from the Red Square Mausoleum under cover of darkness. It examines the rise, reign and - posthumous - fall of the Soviet leader and the nature of the new world he sought to create. The module will explore not only the ideological and political dilemmas of the ruling elite, but also the diverse experience of ordinary citizens who faced both new opportunities and new ordeals during a period of radical transformation. 

20 credits

The American War in Vietnam, 1945-1975

The American War in Vietnam tarnished the United States' international reputation, bitterly divided the country, and continues to haunt US foreign policy. Yet, the war was much more than simply an episode in American history. Rather, it was a global event. New scholarship reveals the role of Vietnamese, French, Chinese, and Soviet actors, among others, while the political and cultural impact of the war extended beyond the U.S. and Vietnam. This module employs new scholarship and an array of primary sources, from government documents to fiction and film, to explore the American, Vietnamese, and international dimensions of the conflict. 

20 credits

The English People and the English Revolution, 1640-1651 (A)

This module examines the social and cultural impact of the civil wars and revolution in mid-seventeenth century England. The war, which grew out of irreconcilable political conflicts, was the most destructive ever fought on British soil. Responses to the war in turn created new political and social conflicts, leading to a revolution and Britain's only experience of republican rule. Drawing on the evidence of official publications, pamphlets and diaries, the module explores how the English people responded to the war and helped to make the revolution.

20 credits

The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry I

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the various debates on the origins and execution of the 'final solution' in Nazi occupied Europe during the Second World War.

20 credits

The Irish Revolution, 1912-1923

This module explores Ireland's revolutionary decade, from the Ulster Crisis of 1912 to the end of the Civil War in 1923. That period saw the demise of the Home Rule ideal, the rise of republicanism and the partition of the island amidst bloody sectarian and political violence. Among the issues examined are the paramilitarisation of political culture, the impact of the Great War and Easter Rising, the nature and dynamics of revolutionary violence, and the entrenchment of divisions - intra-communal as well as inter-communal. The controversial historiography of the Irish revolution, its place in public history and its cultural representations form an important aspect of the module. Above all, the sense of what it was like to live through a revolution, as a rebel, a policeman, a soldier or a civilian, is a key unifying theme of this module. 

20 credits

The Phoenix City: Rome in Late Antiquity (300-600) I

Drawing on literature, letters, laws, sermons, inscriptions, archaeology, art objects and material culture, this module will critically analyse traditional and recent approaches to the transformation of urban space and urban identity in late antique Rome between the reign of emperor Constantine (306-337) and the pontificate of Gregory the Great (590-604). Through exploring civic and religious building programmes; religious conflicts; urban administration; urban economy, demography and poverty; rituals of urban life; the cult of the Roman saints, and the rise of monasticism the module will assess the complexity of the shift of power from emperor to pope in late antique Rome.

20 credits

The Road to Civil War: England 1621-1642 I

This course aims to provide an intensive document-based analysis of the working of early Stuart politics on both theoretical and practical levels, and to use it to stimulate an informed evaluation of the roles played by a variety of ideological and political forces in provoking civil war. Particular attention is paid to the career and voluminous unpublished correspondence of one of the foremost and most tragic political figures of the period, Sir Thomas Wentworth, First Earl of Strafford. Strafford's unpublished letters, along with parliamentary debates, state trials, sermons, newsletters, and popular pamphlets will be used to tease out the private and public attitudes of both major political actors and the 'man in the street' towards the main political and cultural divisions of the pre-Civil War period.

20 credits

The Spanish Civil War I

The Civil War (1936-1939) has a resonance beyond Spanish national boundaries. Students will be expected to gain a detailed understanding of the political complexity of the Civil War and come to their own conclusions as to whether it was an international confrontation which took place on Spanish soil or a local conflict involving foreigners.

20 credits

The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1975

The Cold War shaped American foreign policy as well as domestic politics and culture for much of the second half of the 20th century. But how all-encompassing was the Cold War? How did non-state actors react to and influence the course of its development? And how 'cold' was the Cold War? This module will examine the Cold War with fresh perspective. We will revisit the traditional historiography, which focuses on high policy actors and U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. But we will also gain new insight from an emerging literature that challenges such a deterministic and elite framing of what was a global conflict that involved multiple actors at all levels of society, many of whom brought with them complex motivations that existed prior to, or outside of, the rigid Cold War binary. In addition to these secondary sources, we will explore a wide range of primary source material, from declassified State Department documents to Third World assertions of sovereignty to popular films and novels.

20 credits

The Weimar Republic - Laboratory of Modernity I

The history of Weimar Germany has often been portrayed as an almost permanent crisis and the ultimate demise of parliamentary democracy. But the Weimar Republic was more than just a polity and economy in crisis. It was also a laboratory of modernity, a site of permanent experimentation in politics, the arts and mass media, in gender relations and in attempts to built new communities. The module will examine key topics in the political participation and symbolic representation of this classical modernity. It will explore these issues in a broadly conceived perspective, drawing upon a broad range of contemporary source material, both textual and visual. 

20 credits

The West & the East in each other's eyes 1850-2000

The idea that the 'East' and the 'West' are fundamentally different in their thinking and values and are locked in a mutually antipathetic 'clash of civilizations' is an age-old one. It has been argued by European and Asian politicians and writers alike, by imperialists and anti-imperialists, 'orientalists' and their critics, and has been manifested in a range of approaches and ideologies, including 'Orientalism', 'Occidentalism', pan-Asianism, pan-Islam, and Samuel Huntington's notorious 'clash of civilizations' thesis. It has fed into both colonialist and anti-colonialist thought. This course is intended as a case study in the history of ideas. We will investigate how ideas of a division between 'West' and 'East' have been expressed and developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries and how they have been deployed by politicians in a range of different countries and contexts. We will also examine some of the more subtle, alternative formulations of East/West cultural difference, assimilation and appropriation that have been articulated in the same period. The course will encourage you to rethink how cultures relate to each other, and about what is distinctively 'Western' or 'Eastern' about political and economic organization, human rights, democracy and secularism. Can we really talk about 'East' and 'West' as meaningful categories, and if not, when and how did people start using these terms and why, and what does that tell us about how we should understand the world and write about it? In semester 1, after an initial introduction of the themes and questions of the course, the next 4 weeks ('the West looks at the East') will analyse Western accounts of the East. The second half of the first semester ('the East looks at the West') then undertakes a chronological and thematic analysis of the different ways in which Asian governments and writers have understood, analysed and critiqued the West and its values. The second semester ('the East looks at the East') concentrates on how Asian governments and thinkers have understood the East, and their views of how far it can be said to enshrine coherent non-Western values. As well as studying transnational movements (pan-Asianism, pan-Islam and the Non-aligned Movement), we will also study selected Asian writing on democracy, human rights, nationalism, and secularism up to the present day.
During the course we will be using a wide range of documents in translation - from constitutional debates, political tracts, government declarations, policy documents and educational literature, to travel accounts, speeches, letters, poetry and images.
The course is intended to help you to rethink how you understand Western and non-Western cultures and to provide you with a more informed sense of the roots and nature of current global geo-political and cultural tensions.

40 credits

The World of Intoxicants in Early Modern England (1)

Intoxicants were a key feature of early modern societies. This is as true for ‘old’ world alcohols like wine, beer, ale, and other fermented drinks as it is for ‘new’ intoxicants like opiates, tobacco, sugar, caffeines, chocolate, and distilled liquors that began to enter European diets after 1600 from the Levant, the Americas, and Asia. Focusing on intoxicants in England, this module considers a) the ongoing importance and, indeed, increasing significance of alcohols to culture, society, and economy over the course of the seventeenth century and b) the introduction and popularisation of new intoxicants over the same period.

Introductory reading:
David Courtwright, Forces of habit. Drugs and the making of the modern world (2002)
Jordan Goodman and Andrew Sherratt, eds., Consuming habits. Drugs in history and anthropology (1995)
Phil Withington and Angela McShane, eds., Cultures of intoxication (1995)

20 credits

Tools of Empire? Medicine, Science and Colonialism, 1800-1950

Western science and biomedicine have, for long, been seen as symbols and agents of progress. Research in the last two decades has, however, revealed their close ties with the history of colonial conquest and rule - so much so that scientific discoveries such as guns, steamboats, and quinine have been seen as `tools of empire`. This module will, however, go beyond this fact and discuss much larger questions of equal relevance. It will, for instance, deal with the question of the `consumption` of science in the colonies, the role of the colonies in constituting western science, the role of medicine in furthering colonial hegemony, the `reinvention` of traditional sciences such as Unani and Ayurveda under colonial influence, the relationship between scientific centres and peripheries, and post-colonial developments with respect to medical and scientific administration. In exploring these themes, the module will not limit itself to any particular region, but will draw upon readings from South Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

20 credits

For music, you must take at least 20 credits from among the Final Year Project modules. Optionally, you can also take a second Final Year Project module at 20 or 40 credits. 

Optional modules across our seven areas of expertise are available to students in Years 2 and 3. These modules are taught on a two-year rotation, with the exception of Intermediate Performance, Intermediate Composition and Creative Applications of Music Technology which run every year. This enables the majority of students to select from the greatest possible range of module options across two years of study.

For students on a 4 year programme where the 3rd year is spent away from the Department (i.e. as a year studying abroad or on a work placement), the two year module rotation means that you will be out of the department when some options are running. However, since your third year involves a high proportion of modules with a self-directed focus (including dissertation and special project), you should still have plenty of opportunities to pursue your specialist interests.

Music Final Year Projects modules:

Dissertation

This module gives you the opportunity to undertake intensive study of a particular aspect of musical sound/material, behaviour or thinking, from the past or present, presenting the findings of your investigation as a substantial piece of scholarly written work, and in the process consolidating and further developing your research and critical skills. Your dissertation topic should enable you to demonstrate the ability to place music in its historical and cultural context, and to support your arguments with informative comments based on detailed analysis.

Dissertation can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. The length of the dissertation should be approximately 6000 words for MUS301 Dissertation (20 credits); 9500 words for MUS332 Extended Dissertation (40 credits).

20 credits

Extended Portfolio of Compositions

This final year module supports your independent composition practice and builds upon skills acquired over previous years. Compositions may be for small or large forces of instruments or voices, may combine instruments with electronics, or may be electroacoustic. Where possible the module will culminate in a public performance of some of the work produced.

Portfolio of Compositions can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. The length of the portfolio should be approximately 10 minutes for MUS302 Portfolio of Compositions (20 credits); 20 minutes for MUS333 Extended Portfolio of Compositions (40 credits).

40 credits

Extended Prepared Instrumental or Vocal Recital

In this module you will develop your advanced practical skills to demonstrate the ability to communicate meaning in music through a public performance at a professional standard. You will prepare a programme, in any musical style and on any instrument, which exhibits your repertorial range containing works of a contrasting nature from different historical periods and contain a contemporary work. Your work will be supported by individual instrumental tuition.

Instrumental or Vocal Recital can be taken in 20 and 40 credit versions. The length of the recital should be approximately 25 minutes for MUS303 Instrumental or Vocal Recital (20 credits); 35-40 minutes for MUS334 Extended Instrumental or Vocal Recital (40 credits).

40 credits

Special Project

This module allows you to negotiate a special project that does not conform to Dissertation, Performance and Composition, on a topic agreed with tutors on a case-by-case basis. It affords an opportunity for you to work with others outside of your discipline and to communicate your work to non-specialist audiences where appropriate. The project must be public-facing and potentially have career-oriented goals; it may include a placement activity.

Special Project can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. MUS3040 Special Project (20 credits) comprises the project itself, presented through a public self-designed website and blog. MUS3041 Extended Special Project (40 credits) adds a critical reflective essay that serves to link the project to extant academic work and provide a context for aspects of the project itself.

20 credits

Extended Dissertation

This module gives you the opportunity to undertake intensive study of a particular aspect of musical sound/material, behaviour or thinking, from the past or present, presenting the findings of your investigation as a substantial piece of scholarly written work, and in the process consolidating and further developing your research and critical skills. Your dissertation topic should enable you to demonstrate the ability to place music in its historical and cultural context, and to support your arguments with informative comments based on detailed analysis.

Dissertation can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. The length of the dissertation should be approximately 6000 words for MUS301 Dissertation (20 credits); 9500 words for MUS332 Extended Dissertation (40 credits).

40 credits

Portfolio of Compositions

This final year module supports your independent composition practice and builds upon skills acquired over previous years. Compositions may be for small or large forces of instruments or voices, may combine instruments with electronics, or may be electroacoustic. Where possible the module will culminate in a public performance of some of the work produced.

Portfolio of Compositions can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. The length of the portfolio should be approximately 10 minutes for MUS302 Portfolio of Compositions (20 credits); 20 minutes for MUS333 Extended Portfolio of Compositions (40 credits).

20 credits

Prepared Instrumental or Vocal Recital

In this module you will develop your advanced practical skills to demonstrate the ability to communicate meaning in music through a public performance at a professional standard. You will prepare a programme, in any musical style and on any instrument, which exhibits your repertorial range containing works of a contrasting nature from different historical periods and contain a contemporary work. Your work will be supported by individual instrumental tuition.

Instrumental or Vocal Recital can be taken in 20 and 40 credit versions. The length of the recital should be approximately 25 minutes for MUS303 Instrumental or Vocal Recital (20 credits); 35-40 minutes for MUS334 Extended Instrumental or Vocal Recital (40 credits).

20 credits

Extended Special Project

This module allows you to negotiate a special project that does not conform to Dissertation, Performance and Composition, on a topic agreed with tutors on a case-by-case basis. It affords an opportunity for you to work with others outside of your discipline and to communicate your work to non-specialist audiences where appropriate. The project must be public-facing and potentially have career-oriented goals; it may include a placement activity.

Special Project can be taken in 20 or 40 credit versions. MUS3040 Special Project (20 credits) comprises the project itself, presented through a public self-designed website and blog. MUS3041 Extended Special Project (40 credits) adds a critical reflective essay that serves to link the project to extant academic work and provide a context for aspects of the project itself.

40 credits

Music annual modules (optional):

Intermediate Performance

This module will introduce you to performance practice and techniques related to performance at an intermediate level. It will act as preparation for advanced performance in Year 3 Recitals, and builds on the foundation work completed as part of Performance in Year 1. You will take individual instrumental/vocal lessons, which will run alongside workshop-based lectures throughout the academic year. You will also attend 6 lunchtime, rush hour or evening concerts across the year and write a short critical review.

20 credits

Intermediate Composition

This module follows on from Composition in Year 1 to support the development of your compositional practice. You will study more advanced techniques of 20th and 21st Century classical music and develop strategies for making longer pieces. You'll write for small ensembles and soloists, including collaboration with advanced performers taking the MA Performance Studies, and you will have opportunities to get your work played in concerts. This work will prepare you for other composition-related modules, including Portfolio of Compositions and Special Project in Year 3.

20 credits

Creative Applications of Music Technology

This module will introduce you to a range of technologies that might be used for creative purposes and provides an opportunity for further electronic music composition. The module necessarily focuses upon the science of music (sound and the digital medium, filters, reverbs, synth design, computer music programming) before engaging with the construction of two works: one that is very synth driven (a dance music style) and one that further develops your electroacoustic music study. The technological aspects of the module are quite broad and strengthen essential transferable skills and computer literacy. The creative aspects of the module develop your original composition profile whilst augmenting skills in sound design and commercial composition.

20 credits

Music rotational modules (optional):

Creative Performance

This module introduces you to contemporary, jazz and classical improvisation. By learning and developing these skills over a series of practical and taught sessions, you will become more flexible and confident as a performer.

20 credits

Ensemble Performance

This module will present you with the opportunity to develop ensemble performance skills in a supervised situation. You will form an ensemble with fellow students prior to the module commencing, and your ensemble will programme a contrasting selection of repertoire for study and public performance. Particular attention will be paid to ensemble considerations, though technical matters and the development of stylistic awareness will also form an important part of the module.

20 credits

Orchestral Technique

This module covers the essential knowledge and skills for scoring music for symphony orchestra, as well as for smaller groupings of orchestral instruments. The module equips you for arranging and writing music for ensembles you might find yourself working with in the future, as a player, composer, conductor or teacher. The Orchestral Technique module is appropriate for all music students, but is particularly important for those specialising in composition. It will give you relevant knowledge of instruments, repertoire and techniques, and also provide the background training you will need for composing for media and film, and for live performance.

20 credits

Sound and Moving Image

This module gives you the opportunity to compose sound and music for film and other visual media, and position sound and music within the filmmaking process. Using a variety of software, you will be responsible for the entire project from the ideas stage through to the creation of all audio materials. A diverse range of existing movies, audiovisual works and relevant literature will be studied, and you will be expected to use these to inform your own work.

20 credits

Music in Renaissance Europe

This module will introduce you to European musical cultures in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the research methods through which they are discovered and studied. You'll investigate the roles played by music in the everyday life of street and home, as well as in religion and politics.

The module links music to some of the big critical themes in the European history of the period, including Europe's expanding international horizons through trade and colonialism, the dramatic increase in the circulation of books thanks to new printing technology, and conflict both within and between religious faiths.

20 credits

Baroque Music

Public knowledge of baroque music today is shaped by the dominance of a 'canon' of music considered authoritative or 'great', which for ideological and historical reasons is dominated by white European male composers. This module sets out to help change that.

You'll work as a team, with clearly defined roles, to produce a critical edition-with-commentary of music created using staff notation between c.1600-1750 by a musician who was NOT a white European man, which is obscure or completely unknown in the present day. Optionally, the group may also choose to record historically-informed performances of some or all of the music included in their edition. The materials produced will ultimately be made publicly available online.

20 credits

Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791

In this module, you will examine Mozart's career as performer and composer in Vienna (1781-91), looking at the environments and circumstances in which he worked and the aesthetic contexts in which he thrived. Topics will include: the circumstances that led Mozart to move from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781; his career as a performer; aesthetic, historical and contextual issues in 1780s Vienna; Mozart's instrumental, operatic and sacred works composed in Vienna; and Mozart's status as a musical-cultural icon in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

20 credits

The Broadway Musical

This module addresses the development of the Broadway musical, focusing on leading figures and critical issues. It looks at shows such as My Fair Lady and Oklahoma!, examines aspects of identity such as race and sexuality, and unpacks the collaborative nature of the genre. Alongside lectures on set works, you will pursue an individual project on a topic of your own choice, allowing freedom to identify with the work being studied.

20 credits

Music and Wellbeing

This module introduces you to the important ways in which music contributes to our sense of wellbeing. Wellbeing is not simply about feeling ok but has health implications for society. Music plays a vital role in fostering wellbeing. In the module, we cover four distinct areas where health and wellbeing may be challenged; these include special educational needs in schools, the use of music for people with dementia, as well as some specialised clinical settings where music is used. As part of your work on the module, you will be able to design your own music intervention.

20 credits

Music Psychology in Everyday Life

This module will introduce you to theories, empirical investigations and applications of music psychology relevant to everyday life. You will learn about the diverse uses of music in everyday situations, which may include personal, communal and commercial settings. The reasons for music use in these situations are explored and possible explanations of music's ability to support functions are critically reviewed, including social, emotional, personal, educational and commercial impacts. The module will be delivered through lectures, group discussions, and small research projects.

20 credits

Community, Music and Education

This module will engage you in the current debates and practices of music in education and community settings, from the formal classroom setting and instrumental studio, through the work done by community support groups, to more recreational musical practice in the community. Questions of music's place in the curriculum, the relationship between school and home music, and the challenges of providing a vibrant musical education for all people, will be addressed in lectures and discussions.

You will work in mentored groups to investigate and support community music-making or school-based music education in Sheffield, building your skills as a researcher, and learning about career options including teaching, delivering and managing music provision for young people and vulnerable adults. You will finish the module knowing more about music and its contribution to education and society, through your critical reflection on published research evidence, and through school and community fieldwork visits.

20 credits

Sound Recording Practice

This module examines the fundamental theories of recording. Focussing upon the recording of both sound and music, it provides you with an opportunity to realise an original track. The module engages briefly with technical aspects of recording (microphone types, sound file formats) before using practical work and listening to decide upon choice of microphone, placement and capture. By making field recordings, location recordings, and session-based recordings, you will acquire a broad understanding of relevant issues and methods. The mixing and mastering of session-based recordings results in your finished track and helps you develop the skills required in the professional sound studio.

20 credits

Traditional Music in the Modern World

This module will introduce you to the study of folk and traditional music, focussing on a range of contemporary folk music cultures. You'll learn to use a range of approaches (ethnomusicology; critical and culture theory; political theory) to consider the traditional identities these music cultures construct, and how they relate to their modern, economic, political and technological contexts. Past and current definitions of the terms folk music and traditional music are explored, and music cultures are investigated in terms of specific debates and contexts, such as revivalism, nationalism, institutionalisation, competition and education.

20 credits

Topics in Popular Music

In this module you'll explore in depth a range of models, case studies and themes for the study of Popular Music. You'll be introduced to varying analytical and critical approaches to the study of popular musics in global perspective, with topics including (e.g.): how popular musicians learn; popular music and humour; popular music as world music; reading popular music 'texts'; understanding business models; and conducting a popular music ethnography. As well as developing a factual knowledge of the genres covered in the module, you will develop a critical awareness of research methods and discursive themes in the field of popular music studies.

The module aims for diversity both in the styles and population groups represented and in the critical and analytical approaches discussed. The exact topics may vary with the specialisms of the teaching team, but you'll always be free to formulate a focus that interests you for your assessed project, which you'll develop with regular input from tutors and peers.

20 credits

Performing South Asian Melody

In this module you'll acquire a practice-based understanding of one world music tradition (selected in advance by the course tutor), improving your musical performance skills and experiencing first-hand the modes of transmission that are part of the tradition. Through performance-based seminars, you will learn to play and/or sing in the style offered, backing up that experience with theoretical knowledge derived from ethnomusicological literature. Your learning will also be supported by a writing-based project, supported by seminars/tutorials as appropriate, resulting in a Learning Journal documenting and reflecting on the learning experience.

20 credits

Jazz Studies

This module introduces some of the key figures and developments in the history of jazz, from its origins as an early twentieth-century American music, to its various contemporary manifestations across the world. You will engage with the contexts and debates that have shaped (and continue to shape) the performance, reception, representation, and study of jazz music, and will conduct independent research into a jazz-related topic of your choosing.

20 credits

Musical Culture in East Asia

This module introduces the musical life of East Asia, including China, Korea, Japan and neighbouring areas, in historical and cultural context. While emphasising traditional East Asian music and musical theatre, you'll also examine East Asia's participation in the culture of Western-style classical and popular musics.

You'll learn to recognise many forms of East Asian music and explain how they use sound in pursuit of particular cultural goals. You'll also carry out a guided research project on a cultural, historical and/or analytical topic in East Asian music.

20 credits

Opera and Identity

This module gives you the opportunity to explore, understand and debate contemporary critical issues about the relationship between opera and identity. Focussing on opera from 1800 to the present day, the historical and social contexts surrounding the creation, premiere, and reception of opera forms the backdrop to the study of individual works in relation to topics including race, gender, sexuality, class, colonialism, religion, exoticism, political ideology, and national identity. From exoticised 19th-century Italian constructions of Egypt, through to the interplay of gender and sexuality in the depiction of pop culture icon Anna Nicole Smith, the operatic stage provides a forum for the consideration of some of society's most pertinent and widely debated issues.

20 credits

Analysis of Classical and Early Romantic Music

This module will introduce you to musical analysis in the western classical tradition. The emphasis is on the internal and external workings of musical forms in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focussing on Haydn's and Mozart's mastery of standard classical forms, on Beethoven's formal manipulations, and on the interaction of form and expression in the early nineteenth century (e.g. Schubert and Chopin).

Topics will include: motivic, thematic, melodic and rhythmic manipulation; interrelationships between counterpoint, harmony and melody; standard formal patterns; formal expansions and contractions; wit and humour in the late eighteenth century; expression and form.

20 credits

Ethnomusicology

This module introduces ethnomusicology as a way of researching musical culture, with selected musical traditions explored as case studies in applying and assessing ethnomusicological methods. These methods typically emphasise 'ethnography', in which the primary sources are live human beings and knowledge is produced by interacting with them through musical participation, observation and interviewing.

You'll have the opportunity to conduct an ethnographic fieldwork project, either face-to-face or 'virtual', and write up the results in your assessed work. Alternatively, you can submit an essay examining published ethnomusicological research on a specific topic. Either way, you should reflect critically on how musical knowledge is produced by ethnomusicological methods.

20 credits

Psychology of Music: methods and applications

This module lays the foundation for you to be able to research a music-psychological topic using psychological research methods and consider its relevance for musical life and the music profession. You'll work on developing skills in psychological research approaches, through teaching that is problem-based, meaning that you will work on research design and data collection methods to tackle an issue or problem that may be encountered in musical contexts. A combination of methods is considered including qualitative and quantitative data collection, reflection, observation and literature research. Included problems may relate to musical development, psychology of performance, and music engagement.

20 credits