University of Bristol

This course examines the history, constraints, and characteristics of British cinema and television since the early 20th century. Topics include gender relations and social issues; actors and performance; popular genres including heritage, comedy, and gangster films; television drama and its hybrid forms; indigenous and exportable qualities of British film and television; audiences; distribution, exhibition, and public service broadcasting; relations between the film and television industries; and the impact of new media in contemporary global contexts.

The course examines social developments and political tensions that shaped the modern United States, including visions of early century reform; the emergence of mass society and the "new woman"; the redefined role of the State in the aftermath of the Great Depression and in World War II; racial reform and the white supremacist backlash in the 20s and 60s; sexual liberation and counterculture in the 60s; the renewed power of Conservatism in the 70s and 80s; and the crises and culture wars of the late 20th century.

This course focuses on different scholarly perspectives on ethnicity, nationality, ethnic groups, and nations. Divided into three parts, it begins by establishing an analytical framework for the study of ethnicity and nationalism that stresses the historic specificity and social construction of ethnic groups and nations. In the middle part, the course examines a range of ways in which ethnicity and nationality are experienced, legitimated, and reproduced in the modern world. The final part of the course is devoted to contemporary applications of these concepts: how ethnicity and nationalism manifest themselves in politics, culture, and everyday life. Combined, these three parts establish different ways in which ethnicity and nationality are modern social constructs.