University of Manchester

This course introduces students to the study of Russia from a variety of different perspectives (e.g. historical, cultural, social and political). The course is structured around a series of pivotal events that have shaped Russia’s development from the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725) to the reign of Nicholas II (1894-1917). Each event is examined in its appropriate historical context, through documentary evidence, cultural artefacts and contemporary debates, as well as through scholarly works. 

This interdisciplinary course explores the place of the supernatural in American history and culture from the beginnings of English settlement in North America through the current era. It explores the ways in which the “original sins” of American history, such as the enslavement of African-Americans and the dispossession of Native Americans, have been understood through the figures of ghosts, monsters, and spirits, and how the recurrence of such figures over centuries reflects the novelist William Faulkner’s claim that “the past is never dead; it’s not even past.” 

This course develops a multi-disciplinary understanding of drugs in the UK and elsewhere by enabling students to apply sociological, criminological, historical, psychological and cultural perspectives to the study of drug use, and policy responses to this "social problem."  Students seek to understand why people take and sell drugs, how drug use is understood within societies, and how societies respond.