University of London, Queen Mary

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 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.

This course examines how madness has been constructed and represented in western culture from the classical period to the 21st century. It looks at both medical and popular notions of madness prevailing at crucial historical moments, and analyzes how themes related to madness have been explored and exploited in a wide selection of genres including autobiography, the essay, the novel, the short story, theater, and film.

This course offers an overview of international law and its various areas, its relations to politics, and current challenges of the international legal system. It explores the theoretical background of international law as well as its practical implications in our globalized world. It provides a critical, analytical, and stimulating perspective on the nature and scope of international law for every scholar interested in this field.

Interventions examines the intersections between performance and activism. You will be introduced to work by a range of performance practitioners and theorists across live art, applied theater and site-specific performance. Throughout the course, you will explore how performance practices can provoke, argue, and advocate for social change. The course draws on international case studies, and you will undertake fieldwork rooted in the economic, historical and political contexts around our campus. Emphasis is also placed on developing your skills in communicating to audiences in, and beyond, the university.