Summer 2025

If you are registered on our Study Abroad Programme, there is no charge for tuition of this module. Students on the International Exchange or Erasmus Programme are welcome to register for this module for a standard 20 credit module fee of £2250. All students registered for this module - Study Abroad, Exchange or Erasmus - must pay a small supplemental charge of around £50-£150 to cover the costs of fields trips. Shakespeare has often been taken as the playwright of England, of Britain and of empire, but what can productions of his plays tell us about the relationship between Shakespeare, other playwrights of his time, and the London stage today? Reading Shakespeare and seeing Shakespearean plays in performance, we will investigate how the Renaissance is played on today's London stages. We will analyse performances, read texts and explore the performance history of three plays, to investigate the London theatre's energetic and often irreverent response to Shakespeare and Renaissance dramatists. In this way, we'll get to know the plays deeply, and you will be equipped to analyse these productions and the way that they comment on questions like nationhood, multicultural London, and Shakespeare on the metropolitan stage. You will have the chance to see very different kinds of production, as we sample the state-of-play of Shakespeare in 21st-century London. The productions we see will be chosen from the repertory for the spring London season. In 2014, for example, we went backstage at a West End theatre to get an inside glimpse of Michael Grandage's Henry V and had a brush with fame as we bumped into Jude Law behind the scenes. We also Sam Mendes's production of the high tragedy King Lear at the National Theatre and the energetically irreverent production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by the Propeller Theatre Company, who gave us an exclusive workshop on their performance. The cost of your tickets is included in the price of this module.

Caravanning in Bognor Regis, a visit to the pyramids in Egypt, or a weekend shopping in New York City. Tourism has grown to be the world's largest industry, employing more people around the world than any other. Travel journalism has mirrored this growth and we now encounter many forms of it, from newspaper articles to magazines, blogs and radio and television programmes. This module aims to introduce students to some of the key issues and debates in this field. It will consider how travel journalism represents 'other' people and 'other' places and how the media influence how we experience and practice travel. Students will also engage in the practice of writing and producing travel journalism themselves.

If you are registered on our Study Abroad Programme, there is no charge for tuition of this module. Students on the International Exchange or Erasmus Programme are welcome to register for this module for a standard 20 credit module fee of £2250. All students registered for this module - Study Abroad, Exchange or Erasmus - must pay a small supplemental charge of around £50-£150 to cover the costs of fields trips. London is one of Europe's most exciting theatrical cities with a range of productions on offer at any given time. Students are introduced to the wide diversity of theatre in London from the major subsidised companies, through the commercial West End to smaller fringe venues and productions. Weekly visits to new or recent events in the capital are introduced with a critical context and are discussed the following week within seminar groups. As part of the seminars, students will explore a range of strategies for analysing dramatic texts in production and reading live performance. Students will be introduced to a range of dramatic forms, conventions and aesthetics, which are employed on current London stages. Students will be encouraged to identify trends in productions and analyse the social and cultural contexts through which they are formed and constructed. Students will explore the relationship between contemporary theatre practices and specific periods of theatre history, i.e. the influence of earlier dramatic forms, conventions, contemporary stagings of classics, and contemporary responses and reworkings of the canonical texts/productions. The module will focus on plays which are currently running in repertory in the London theatre, the actual content varies from one term to another. Students will have an opportunity to visit the latest productions of major subsidised companies such as the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Globe Theatre, new-writing theatres such as the Royal Court, through to smaller 'fringe' theatres and productions at alternative venues.

Gods and Heroes in Classical Mythology

If you are registered on our Study Abroad Programme, there is no charge for tuition of this module. Students on the International Exchange or Erasmus Programme are welcome to register for this module for a standard 20 credit module fee of £2250. All students registered for this module - Study Abroad, Exchange or Erasmus - must pay a small supplemental charge of around £50-£150 to cover the costs of fields trips. London is one of the most diverse cities on earth. Its most iconic, stereotypical and canonical representations only partially reflect the various histories that have shaped the city. The module enables students to engage with those narratives, perspectives and imaginaries that are hidden, marginalised or lost, but that continue to shape contemporary London in often unacknowledged ways. For example, we will discover how histories of international migration are being marginalised by gentrification (by way of a 'writer's tour' of Brixton and a visit to the Black Cultural Archives); or we will explore side-lined perspectives including women's writing (such as a 'scandalously neglected' but recently rereleased novel by Brigid Brophy set on Charing Cross Road). As well as key works of fiction, four choreographed London excursions will be at the centre of our discussions. Both, key texts and explorations will form the basis of writing exercises, during the seminar or 'in situ' at various London locations. Drawing on module themes and discussions, you will be exploring your own versions of 'hidden' London in your creative pieces.

This module is concerned with the principles of digital photographic practice and the engagement with the concept that all images are constructed. You will be given a thorough grounding in the use of basic equipment and the appropriate technical processes including: SLR digital cameras, Photoshop skills and ink jet printing. A project will be set which will facilitate you to develop your skills and synthesise them with your conceptual understanding of photography. Technical instruction will be informed by creative and theoretical approaches to photography.

Preaching is a central practice of ordained ministers/pastors and many lay ministers; it is vital to the heath of congregations and the on-going witness of the church in society. The module explores the theology and practice of preaching in the context of Christian worship and mission to equip the student to engage confidently and competently in the practice of preaching. It builds on a student’s prior studies in Old Testament, New Testament, Biblical Hermeneutics, and Reflective Practice.

If you are registered on our Study Abroad Programme, there is no charge for tuition of this module. Students on the International Exchange or Erasmus Programme are welcome to register for this module for a standard 20 credit module fee of £2250. All students registered for this module – Study Abroad, Exchange or Erasmus – must pay a small supplemental charge of around £50-£150 to cover the costs of fields trips. This module will combine contemporary theories and debates on the condition of urban life in a global city with hands-on ethnographic, street-level perspective on urban social form experienced by students. The idea is to continuously relate theories from the fields of urban anthropology, sociology and urban studies with dynamic reality 'out-there' directly confronted by students and generate discussions among students on the interplay between culture and structure, economy and society, urban landscape and human behaviour. The methodological assumption behind the module is strictly anthropological - that students need to be 'immersed' in various aspects of London life, see things with their own eyes, analyse and critically evaluate their own assumptions against the backdrop of chaos and order of urban life in London. London is undoubtedly one of the global cities that offer a unique experience of social diversity. For many international students life in London is part of their education trajectory per se and this module aims at deepening this commonly held assumption through a study exploring various aspects and trends in contemporary global city. The proposed structure of the module will be divided between lectures/seminars/ethnographic debriefing sessions and field trips in 1:1 ratio (one trip, one session). The taught sessions will be divided into a taught theoretical background of the session and an 'ethnographic debriefing' session where notes, pictures, impressions from the field trip will be discussed and analysed.

Covering detective stories, fantasy, children's literature and graphic novels, this module introduces students to London city as the source, setting and inspiration for literary texts. Looking at texts where magic, mystery and murder come to the fore, we will investigate the city as a space where the strange and the familiar lie side by side. From Stevenson to Mieville, from Baker Street to Diagon Alley, our investigations will lead us from Victorian London through to the 21st Century, taking us through forgotten alleyways and snickets, through bustling tourist hotspots, into museums and underground stations, through parks and gardens and even inside private houses. Using a range of literary texts as well as recent film and TV adaptations, students in this module will be introduced to strategies for analysing literary texts as well as ways to 'read' the city itself. Students on this module will have a unique opportunity to explore London in person as well as through texts and the seminars are supplemented with weekly trips and excursions into the city.