University of East Anglia

In this course students learn about the atmosphere, ocean, and land components of the carbon cycle. The course covers global issues such as ocean acidification and how to get off our fossil fuel "addiction," as well as how to deal with climate change denialists.

In this inter-disciplinary course, (designed for students of geography, environmental science, ecology, and international development who have an interest in biodiversity and its conservation), students focus on the interactions between biodiversity and human societies. The course adopts a rigorous evidence-based approach. Students first critically examine the human drivers of biodiversity loss and the importance of biodiversity to human society, to understand how underlying perspectives and motivations influence approaches to conservation. They then examine conflicts between human society and conservation and how these potentially can be resolved, reviewing institutions and potential instruments for biodiversity conservation in both Europe and developing countries. 

The human body offers historians a gateway onto understanding the cultures of the past. On this course students examine several groups of objects from the visual culture of medieval Europe and the Middle East through this contemporary theoretical lens, examining how the techniques and society of the medieval craftsman at once idolized and distorted the medieval body's forms. In previous years this course has also featured a study trip to museums and galleries in London to meet with curators and handle objects.

In this course, students explore the debate over the onset of the Anthropocene, and the unique contribution that human geographers can make to it. Students gain a firm grasp on how the idea of the Anthropocene is re-shaping geographical thought, and encounter concepts and methods from across the field of human geography which can help us to think in new ways about the past, present, and future of human-environment relationships. 

Students examine how artists have explored the way in which contemporary galleries and museums function. Since the 1960s artists have adopted the museum as both subject and medium in their artworks. The course examines how such projects impact on our idea of what galleries and museums are, how they operate, and what role they have in public life today. Throughout, key ideas regarding aesthetics, politics, memory, and audience participation are approached by way of specific artworks and exhibitions. 

In this course, students learn about contemporary archaeological and anthropological perspectives in the study of material culture. Questions that come up include: why the summer solstice is celebrated at Stonehenge; how houses differ across cultures; why we give each other gifts and wrap them; and how clothing gives us identity? Studying human-object relations from a range of perspectives, students explores the role of materiality and the consumer society.