University of Sussex

In this course, students are introduced to a range of practices from across the disciplines that are taught on the Media Production BA. Centered around a series of lectures from staff practitioners, students are introduced to the different approaches employed, whether by digital artists, designers, filmmakers, art-activists, or practice-research academics. Insights are given into multifaceted processes, how to find inspiration, explore themes and turn interests into final work and how to take action. The lectures are complemented by a number of seminars and smaller group sessions where students widen the scope of enquiry, to look at specific examples of contemporary media practice, identifying modes and methods. 

This course introduces students to a variety of ways of understanding a globalized society and the kinds of identities that it incorporates, produces or threatens. Indicative topics will range across language and its relation to identity; how global histories are mediated and how they live within us; the effects of decolonisation; borders and identity; gender and sexual identities; and regional identity in a globalised world. The course will explore representations of these topics in film, media, social media, historical accounts, world literature, and anthropological study. Teaching will be delivered by experts drawn from across a range of academic disciplines, creating a dynamic space where connections between arguments and ideas can come into view.

This course helps liberal arts students to develop their skills of analysis and understanding. Students do so both individually and in teams. Students focus on topical or real-life events and explore them using a wide range of methods and approaches linked to the arts, humanities and social sciences, including media analysis, statistical analysis, textual analysis and visual analysis. This course is built around a stake holder meeting, which explores a specific topic (potentially based on a recent real-world example). It involves the introduction to what a stake holder meeting is; introduction to case studies and modes of analysis; introduction to group work and team theory; introduction to presentation of argument and analysis in essay form.

We need to regulate our thoughts, feelings and behavior in order to achieve our goals and succeed in life. In this course, students consider the processes involved in self-regulation, the role of emotions in self-regulation, and the relationship between self-regulation and mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Students also discuss the factors that lead people to fail at self-regulation, and the interventions and techniques people can use to improve their regulation ability and thus achieve their goals. Students learn about controlling emotions, combating procrastination, forming good habits, and overcoming smoking, overeating, and overspending. Students gain theoretical and practical insights into how people successfully pursue their goals, and apply these insights to their own lives.

After an introduction to the major threats to global biodiversity, student explore a series of broad conservation themes. The first part of the course focuses on the species level, including: some of the particular threats faced, why species become rare and endangered, what measures can be taken to halt or reverse population declines, and how populations of threatened species can be restored. Students consider the contribution of modern molecular genetics to clarifying and addressing various conservation issues. Students also look at how people and wildlife interact, both positively and negatively, and how emergent conflicts can be resolved. The second part of the course adopts a habitat and ecosystem focus. Students work up from a consideration of specific habitats and their management to a landscape approach, including methods for restoring damaged habitats and ecosystems. Finally, students explore the national, European, and international system of conservation designations and their associated legal frameworks.

This course is an introductory study of contemporary organizations and their management. It explores the types of purposes of organizations, their stakeholders and changing environments together with their key managerial processes – entrepreneurship, organizational structure, leading, strategic planning and change. The focus throughout is on helping students achieve a critical and reflective approach, and learning to apply relevant concepts, tools, and models. The coursework component of assessment requires students to choose an organization that is of interest to them and to explore, critically, the way in which it handles a process of students' choice. 

This course provides students with detailed insight into the fundamental workings of the nervous system. Students focus on the relationship between the structure and function of the cellular and sub-cellular components of neurons, and on mechanisms that underlie information signaling. Examples of nervous system disorders illustrate the sensitivity of neurons and circuits, as well as the often-catastrophic consequences on brain function. Students learn to identify and communicate key principles that are essential to understanding neuroscience. Topics include: signaling by neurons and synapses, neurotransmission and information coding, nervous system plasticity, cellular and molecular basis of learning and memory, fundamental disease mechanisms, and methodological approaches.

In this course, students explore how anthropology contributes to understanding humanity beyond simply documenting ways of life in different societies. Students learn how anthropologists theorize, interpret, analyze, and explain different ways of life, make these ways of life understandable to outsiders, such as informing policy and development, and build a broader picture of the nature, capacity, and variation of humankind. Students also critically examine the limitations and assumptions of different anthropological approaches, helping them develop a nuanced understanding of the discipline’s methods and contributions.

This course provides a series of lectures on current economic issues, which illustrate how basic economic principles may be applied to real problems. Upon completion of the course students are able to demonstrate knowledge of the core principles of economics; to use the power of abstraction to focus upon the essential features of an economic problem and to provide a framework for the evaluation of the effects of policy or other exogenous events; demonstrate an understanding of appropriate concepts in economics that may be of wider use in a decision-making context; and communicate economic ideas, concepts, and information using means of communication appropriate to the audience and the problem at issue.

The course is concerned with the close analysis of works of art out on site rather than in the seminar room, along with the physical, cultural, and social contexts in which art is produced and consumed. It provides students with an introduction to the rich and diverse opportunities available to study art in situ that Brighton and the surrounding area provides. The course is structured around a series of specific case studies, selected both to highlight some of Brighton’s main resources and to represent broader issues central to the study and understanding of Art History. The course takes in a wide selection of sites, ranging from those specifically designed to house and present works of art, such as museums and galleries, to buildings and spaces that serve alternative functions, such as churches and houses. The course also pays close attention to art’s relationship to the built environment, looking at issues relating to architecture and planning.