University of Manchester

This course investigates the development of the Egyptian understanding of the Afterlife and the Gods. It discusses the role of the temple both as a religious and economic institution, and the creating of an industry based around the creation of funerary objects and tombs. It covers topics such as mummification, the development of private tomb architecture, the role of the Offering Cult and focus on sites of particular significance such as Abydos. The course as a whole provides the students with a comprehensive overview of how the Egyptians – both elite and non-elite – interacted with their Gods, understood their mythology and prepared themselves for Eternity.

 In this course, students examine the contributions of geographers to the theorizing and study of migration. Taking a main focus on Britain and our former colonies to understand migration patterns and processes, there are options to investigate other examples of global migration across the course and assessment. To critically engage with the geographies of migration students draw on theories of post-colonialism and anti-racism strategies, with reflection on ethnicity and religion, and reflect on the important contributions of feminist and intersectional approaches. For instance the course considers the interconnections between areas of Pakistan and Manchester in the textile and garment industry, that continue today. In the second half of the course students deepen their knowledge of key concepts of transnationalism, mobilities, encounter, integration, assimilation, statelessness, citizenship and belonging.  

This course complicates our understanding of North American cities.  It takes us through the histories and geographies of the emergence of the first North American cities.  Both Canada and the US are examples of settler colonialism – where European settlers evicted through violence those on whose land the two nation’s cities were built.  And the labor of slaves from inside and outside of Canada and the US was used to build these cities. The  course builds upon critical understandings of the two nations and their cities. It examines the changing ways in which North American cities have been governed and their changing position in American and Canadian societies, particularly with the emergence of suburbanization from the late 1940s and the gentrification-driven-renaissance of some of their downtown from the late 1980s. 

This course teaches students about the concepts of sustainability and resilience, and the main implications for infrastructure. Students should have a quantitative and qualitative understanding of both present and future challenges that face critical infrastructures (waste, energy, transport, and water). The course develops understanding and skills to compare costs and benefits of different technologies, materials, and managerial approaches that are relevant to the sustainability and resilience of infrastructure. It enables students to understand how decisions about infrastructure systems are made under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. It also enables students to develop professional skills.

This course explores the major themes of Black British history between 1948 and 1990, such as protest, anti-racism, and migration as well as the everyday life of Black communities and neighborhoods from around the UK. Built into the course are three trips to archives based in the North West and Midlands, where students delve into the history of Black communities through the words and perspectives of historical actors. Through recovering, exploring, and being led by the Black voices of the neighborhoods that we encounter, the class build up histories of these communities according to the views of the people who lived in them. In this way, students acquire a rich and multi-faceted understanding of the fabric of Black British history.

The course covers various aspects of biosynthesis and bioenergetics.  The course provides students with important information relevant to understanding the living cell as a chemical reactor, focusing on the chemistry of biosynthesis and bioenergetics underpinning this. The chemistry of key metabolic functions including energy-generating processes such as glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, respiration, photosynthesis as well as aspects regarding control of metabolic flux in the cell are looked at in detail. The course includes a detailed look at information flow and molecular machinery of the cell.

This course considers the re-emergence of social class as a primary category of a sociological understanding and analysis and assess its significance for interpreting contemporary inequalities and recent political developments. Set against the backdrop of post-war social and cultural change in Britain, it begins by tracing the declining salience of class in sociological theory and political discourse before considering the recent development and impact of a more culturally sensitive model of class analysis associated, in particular, with the work Pierre Bourdieu. It then moves on to examine how the key mechanisms of class formation are conceptualized and operationalized by researchers, paying particular attention to debates about social mobility, education, and meritocracy. A third section considers the relationship between lifestyle and classed cultures, the politics of classification, and issues of intersectionality between class, gender, and ethnicity. Finally, the course looks at the particular role of elites in defining class-based spatial inequalities and political alignments in "Brexit Britain."

This course examines concepts relating to gender and sexuality, and discuss the obsession with gendering in a historical, social, and cultural context.  Topics for discussion also include the sex/gender system; gender and sexuality in relation to identity, behavior, the body and desire. Questions include: to what extent are the characteristics of masculinity and femininity born with us, or to what extent do the makers of gender vary over time and between societies? Is sexuality innate of socially constructed or a combination of the two? 

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of using social media data for research and enables the development of transferable research and data skills. Such skills are in demand in the research and consultancy profession across the public and private sectors. After reviewing the different data types including Facebook and Twitter, students consider how to access and analyze such data. This, in part, includes developing the student’s critical data skills, hands-on training, and practice analyses on real social media data such as coding Tweets and blogs. This involves the use of on-line software to gather social media data. The course involves the development of research design skills including hypothesis testing, data analysis, and interpretation and writing skills. The emphasis on the use of real data to answer questions is designed to engage students and for them to consider using such approaches as part of their own dissertation research.

This course focuses on how entrepreneurs generate the ideas that allow them to create and grow their firm. It examines how entrepreneurs discover ideas and how they implement them. The course is grounded in research-led teaching but also links into the wider employability agenda. It is relevant for all students, with no prior business knowledge required.