King's College London

This course investigates the way in which literary texts and cultural theories have responded to the emergence of multiple new media formats through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By situating literary and theoretical texts in a broader network of visual, aural and interactive media the course invites students to consider: the social, political and cultural effects of technology; the specificity of written texts as distinct from other forms of technical media; relationships between text, image, and sound; the historical implications of mechanical reproduction; the emergence of networked communication; the cultural and political impact of the computer.

Using a variety of texts and genres as case studies (including the short story, novel, theater, and poetry), this course explores the way in which 20th-century writers in the Hispanic world have reflected upon their social and cultural realities. Through an examination of new aesthetic trends and new treatments of stock themes such as religion, politics, and love, it appraises the very characteristics of modern Latin American and Peninsular Spanish cultures.

This course enables students to understand the ways in which race has been used as a mode of resistance to various inequalities generated by capitalism. The course teaches students about how capitalism has to be seen through the prism of racial capitalism and draws attention to how anti-racist forms of resistance have targeted the historical entanglement of race and class.

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of this fast-growing market from the perspective of the investor, management team/entrepreneur, and fund manager – and concludes with an external assessment of the benefits (and failings) of private equity). In terms of how the course is taught, this course combines both a theoretical academic understanding of the industry with the practical vocational aspects to provide some of the skills required to work within the industry, taught by someone who is a partner at a private equity focused investment banking firm, has invested in PE deals and who has been backed as a manager in a start-up. Overall, the course provides students with vital knowledge to be able to understand how private equity interacts with other alternative and mainstream asset classes and offers context relevant to those considering careers in investment banking, asset management, accountancy, and private equity. It also provides an insight into different types of private equity (e.g. venture and growth capital) to address the relevance for start-ups and early stage businesses.

This course introduces students to the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of foreign policy widely conceived. Foreign policy analysis (FPA) is a field of inquiry that aims to understand and explain how foreign policy is made and who shapes it, but is also interested in outcomes, their impact and the assessment of performance. Theories of international relations are relevant to FPA to understand pressures and opportunities arising from the international system, but states are not seen as unitary bodies that respond in the same way, but they differ amongst each other and comprise contradictory forces and competing actors. FPA investigates the interplay between systemic, national and sub-national factors, actors and processes, including bureaucracies, public opinion and individual decision-makers. FPA pays significant attention to decision-making processes and their outcomes, including group dynamics, leadership styles, and cognitive theories. The first part of the course is conceptual, theoretical and methodological, while the second part compares and contrasts the foreign policies of selected countries to understand national idiosyncrasies as well as common features and factors that shape foreign policy-making.