European Studies

In the aftermath of the Act of Union with Great Britain, Irish society and its political system was transformed. Change was not immediate however, transformation came slowly. Beginning with Catholic Emancipation and the Ordnance Survey (both dating to 1829) and ending with the onset of the Plan of Campaign (1886) this module explores the relationship between the people and the land on which they lived and labored, and the ways in which they were subject to, and interacted with, the British state. Rural unrest, the tithe war and periodic crises of famine and disease foreshadowed the catastrophe that took place during the Great Famine (1845-52) when the population of the country dropped by over a quarter, from around 8 million to around 6 million. Death and emigration became drivers of change that saw a rise in living standards in the two decades after the Famine ended. Despite this, conflict in the form of the ‘Land War’ (1879-81) erupted, and thus began the decline of landlordism in Ireland. These decades are crucial in understanding the development of Irish society and politics in the period up until independence in 1921.

This course provides students with the opportunity to explore the connections between language, culture, and society with a comparative approach. Using a range of contemporary materials in different media (including political writing, journalism and visual media), students investigate the factors of geography and national identity, history and memory, politics and society, culture and media in the countries where the languages they are studying or encounter across Europe are spoken.

This course covers a range of films that map issues affecting Galician culture and society. It identifies the major historical, socio-economic, political, and cultural shifts that have affected Galicia in the 20th and 21st centuries. It provides an understanding of key issues affecting Galician society such as linguistic diglossia, climate change, migration, rural abandonment, industrialization and Minoritization. This course helps develop key skills in film analysis, how to read and critically evaluate academic sources on a range of topics related to Galician cinema, culture and society, and how to combine the studied themes into a coherent overview of Galician culture and society.

This course offers a critical study of the conditions of cultural production, its formalization as a changing ideological foundation, and the mechanisms of selection, transmission, and reception throughout various historical periods. It explores how classical ideas were preserved and transformed in medieval and Renaissance Europe. This course also discusses the role of gender, education, and politics in shaping culture, from cathedral schools and early universities to humanist learning. It examines how culture was produced and shared and how intellectuals connected knowledge, power, and creativity across the centuries. 

Pre-requisites: Culture in Its Historical Dimension