University of St Andrews

In this introductory course, students examine key concepts and approaches that are relevant to the study of film. The course develops the skills needed for film analysis by looking at aspects of film form such as mise-en-scene, editing, cinematography, narrative, and sound. Students also examine particular aspects of Film Studies such as genre, authorship, stardom, acting, fandom, and film industries. This course introduces students to notions of popular and art cinemas as well as documentary through a range of important cinematic texts from around the world.

Building on the introduction and broad overview of Sustainable Development (SD) provided in SD1000, this course utilizes the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as a framework and is organized around five thematic clusters. These themes are explored from various disciplinary perspectives, explaining how each theme can be understood and what it entails in practice; who the key stakeholders are and the nature of their involvement; and how we can critically analyze the evidence in the context of SD and go beyond conventional paradigms and behavioral patterns. The course also highlights recurring, cross-cutting themes such as values, partnership, and diversity as ambitions of SD.

The course introduces students to major issues in modern glaciology, and to provides them with an understanding of how glaciers behave and why. The first part of the course explores the fundamental elements of glacier systems (accumulation, ablation, meltwater, ice flow processes, etc.), and explains how these interact to produce specific glacier behaviors (advance and retreat cycles, surges, etc). The second part of the course develops an understanding of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets and Mountain Glaciers, and how they impact other parts of the Earth system, including the oceans. The course develops a holistic understanding of glacier science, emphasizing the links between physical processes at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.

The majority of the world's population live in close proximity to the coastal zone. Coastal processes are highly dynamic and sensitive to external drivers, including long-term climate change and anthropogenic activities. Understanding these systems is important for developing appropriate coastal management strategies. Coasts (and coastal processes) therefore represent an excellent opportunity to study the interactions between humans and their physical environment. The course enhances students' understanding of environment-shaping processes and to offer advanced field-based training in the coastal environment. Including practical classes and an obligatory, reasonably priced, weekend field excursion, it encourages students to think about the ways in which process knowledge can inform coastal management.

As the global population speeds past seven billion, mounting evidence about resource depletion and climate change, and global economic inequality and social injustice, suggests current human development is unsustainable and that we are now living in the “Anthropocene” – an era in which human activity has, for the first time, become the dominant driver of environmental processes, and is causing unprecedented global change. The course shows how Geography, a discipline that draws on knowledge that spans the social and natural sciences and the humanities, is uniquely placed to understand our changing world.