United Kingdom - England

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the greatest English novelists and, since the First World War, has become a national icon. This module provides an opportunity for in-depth study of her six full-length novels. It explores the various ways in which she transformed the genre of the women's domestic novel into a vehicle for social analysis and commentary. Her novels are full of signs which conveyed to her contemporaries opinions about economics, class, religion, and politics. We shall decode those signs and explore their significance.

This course, which is taught on site in historic buildings, introduces students to the history of London and its buildings from the late 17th century to the present day. This is an extremely dynamic period in London's history: nearly the entire city was destroyed and rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, the city then saw huge increases in its population in the 18th century, and massive technological and social change in the 19th. The 20th century brought yet more destruction and rebuilding after the Blitz, alongside political and economic upheaval, all of which led to radical changes in the appearance of London's buildings. This century has seen huge new investment in the City, and the rise of gentrification in the suburbs. Throughout the course, students tell this story by visiting and considering many different types of buildings, from churches, hospitals, and palaces, to railway stations, and housing estates. Students explore questions of architectural style, the implications of social and cultural change for architecture, and urban and architectural history and theory more generally. 

Many current philosophical discussions, both in practical and theoretical philosophy, center around the explanation of normativity. This course focuses primarily on practical normativity, starting with the crucial concept of a normative reason and then look into a number of different topics, e.g. values and reasons; reasons for attitudes and the wrong kind of reasons; and normative powers and voluntary obligations.

This course explores why and when Russian policymakers consider military interventions necessary; how they are presented as legitimate and justifiable. It investigates the widespread beliefs and ideas among the Russian political elite associated with intervention, state sovereignty, and the role of the West.

This course focuses on the Greek world. The course includes a study of the built environment, from the major urban and imperial monuments of Athens to the forts and farms of the frontiers, the images housed in public buildings, houses, and tombs, as well as portable objects and the material residues of daily life and ritual. Students learn to apply the different perspectives and methods of archaeologists and art historians in interpreting material remains and visual images. The course combines close study of individual pieces of evidence with an evaluation of how they may illuminate the societies, cultures, institutions, and economies of classical antiquity. The students also learn to access sources of evidence in printed and digital form and in museum collections in London where key relevant source material can be inspected at first hand. Students in this section take only one term of the year-long course Art & Archaeology of Greece & Rome.

This course examines some of the issues that face human kind at the beginning of the 21st century and show how geographers approach the problems facing the modern world. It includes topics that are currently reported in the media and examine the realities and uncertainties behind these issues, focusing particularly on the tools available to address key questions. The course facilitates cross-disciplinary discussion and to promote an in-depth understanding of problems facing us all. The course provides an insight into how these issues are influenced by complex interactions between social, cultural, economic, physical, and biological processes.

This course examines how international factors influence the economic policies of developing countries. Students evaluate different theoretical debates, with an emphasis on how cross-border flows – such as goods, capital, production, people, and pollution – influence economic policymaking in developing regions. They address several themes that are central to understanding the politics of economic policymaking in emerging economies, including, the legacies of colonialism, trade protectionism and liberalization, globalization and the race to the bottom, the role of the state in development, and the influence of international organizations on developing countries.

This course examines the sweeping changes in religious life in Europe between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century. It concentrates on the upheavals associated with the Protestant and Catholic Reformations (the latter known also as the Counter-Reformation), but places these in a much broader context, examining the role of religion in the social, cultural, and political world of early modern Europe. The course does not treat religious issues solely in theological or ecclesiastic terms, but also in terms of piety – the "varieties of religious experience" Europeans had, and community – the social and spiritual bonds formed by religion. It pays attention to the "common folk" as much as to famous leaders, and looks for long-term shifts behind the era’s revolutionary events

The course introduces students to literature and debates in the fields of the anthropology of geopolitics and the anthropology of diplomacy. It explores historical expressions of geopolitical projects and processes, focusing on the spatial, cultural, political, and social characteristics of these, the experiences of societies living in contexts shaped by geopolitical processes across the world, and the forms of informal diplomacy that are also an important aspect of the contemporary world (dis)order.