University of London, Queen Mary

The aim of this class is to give you an introduction to digital image processing and uses programming language Java to implement simple applications in low level image processing. Topics covered include: image representation image sampling and display image transforms and image enhancement using point and spatial operations image processing methods such as convolution, frequency filtering and image restoration, compression and segmentation.

Magical realism is an international style of writing that is considered one of the most established world literary genres and inextricably linked to the development of post-colonialism. This course raises questions such as: What counts as the political aspects of a novel? Why Western literary forms came under question during the period of de-colonisation? What problems are associated with defining a literary genre and determining its literary value?

This course examines Shakespeare's development as a dramatist and poet, and covers a range of his plays and poems in detail. The course situates Shakespeare's work within the specific historical contexts of stage history and print culture, and examines the latest developments in Shakespeare criticism. Students explore the history of Shakespeare stage, consider the ways in which he re-worked his source material, examine the literary and performative contexts of the period, and look at how his texts appeared in both performance and in print. The course examines some of the problems involved in the transmission and editing of Shakespeare's texts, and the resulting implications for contemporary criticism and performance.

This course provides an introduction to business management and administration. It offers an understanding of the external and internal business environment, the various contexts of business, and an analysis of markets and issues within business management. The course covers the structure and functioning of business organizations, examining the internal and external environments of business with particular emphasis on political, economic, sociological, technical, legal, and ethical issues.

This course explores the sound track to life in modern Britain. From the concert culture and street ballads of the late eighteenth century to the brass bands and music halls of the Victorians, and from the dawn of the ‘Jazz Age’ to rock ‘n’ roll, punk and beyond, this course focuses on the ways in which music has shaped, and been shaped by, British society. Transformative processes – the Industrial Revolution, democratization, imperial expansion and decline, campaigns for gender, racial and sexual equality, to name a few – have all made their mark on British music, just as British music has played its part in bringing these changes into being. The course revolves around a series of repeating thematic motifs whose development we will track from the nineteenth century into the twentieth. In these years, music became a way of defining class hierarchies, enforcing women’s social marginalization, and projecting British imperial power. And yet it was also a weapon of resistance that offered a sense of solidarity, of identity, of dignity, to those marginalized in British life; the musical lives and struggles of the working classes, of women, and of Black and Asian British communities are central to this history. This is also a course designed by a historian, for historians. While music is our central focus, an ability to read music is not required. Our emphasis will be on the social and cultural meanings of music-making and listening, meanings that are accessible through a wide range of sources, from diaries, memoirs, letters, magazines, newspapers, and official archives to visual images and material culture. That said, we will do plenty of listening to music as we seek to understand how the form that music took – the nature of the sounds being created – reflected and challenged social values and norms. While this course finishes with the sounds of Britpop in the 1990s, poised on the verge of our current internet age which has opened a new chapter in musical life, the implications of our study of music and social change in modern Britain carry important legacies that continue to define the music and society of today.

Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most acclaimed and influential of all filmmakers, and this course employs the methods of the “new film history” to explore the director's work and the debates surrounding it. The course investigates the production and reception of key films, considers aspects of visual style and technique, and examines the representation of nation, class, gender, sexuality, and politics within specific historical contexts. Hitchcock's critical reputation and his influence on contemporary filmmakers are also considered. Students model a holistic approach to film analysis with reference to both textual and contextual factors through the deconstruction, decoding, and interpretation of filmic imagery, sound, dialogue, and story.

This course focuses on how Africans experienced the Atlantic trade and how they challenged the oppressive systems under which they were forced to labor. It provides a broadly chronological introduction to the ways in which Africans became slaves, the Middle Passage, and the establishment of plantations in the New World. It makes use of slave narratives, photographs, and abolitionist tracts to examine the origins, form, and structure of the Atlantic trade from a global perspective.

This course is based around the rich visual resources of London. Through lectures and visits to monuments and national museums, students explore the history of art from the medieval period to the present day by focusing on a select group of objects, images, or buildings. The course examines issues of how these objects are presented today, considering the questions of museology, curatorial practice, and the contemporary art market. The class visits monuments and museums such as Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Museum, and the Tate Galleries, as well as local collections such as the Whitechapel Gallery.