Summer 2026

This module introduces students to the national art galleries in London, with a dual focus on the cultural history of these sites and the art history of their collections. Approaching the public art gallery as a historically specific phenomenon, we will trace the emergence and evolution of these institutions from the late-18th to the early-21st century and analyse their objectives, policies and artworks with reference to the political events, socio-economic conditions and cultural debates that shaped them over 250 years. By placing the development of public art collections into their historical context, the module utilises these resources for the teaching of British cultural history. Beyond this, it seeks to develop students' knowledge of the institutional frameworks within which art has been historically produced, disseminated and consumed. A further aim is to broaden students' understanding of the public functions of art, such as the construction of national and civic identities and the propagation of political ideas and regimes. The module will consider works by numerous artists, ranging from Hogarth, Gainsborough and Turner to Millais, Nevinson and Banksy.

The purpose of this module is to enable students to synthesise the knowledge, understanding and skills that they have learned during the course of the MA programme to produce an original piece of empirical research. This module requires that students independently design, conduct, analyse and write-up a research project in a specialist field, with the support of a supervisor. Students also must demonstrate an understanding of how their research findings advance criminological knowledge and what the limitations of their research are. This module is designed to equip students with the experience, skills and knowledge to undertake research projects in the workplace.

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.

The module provides students with the opportunity to explore a specific area of interest within a relevant context aligned with their programme of study, fostering the integration of theoretical knowledge and practical application. This module is designed to contribute significantly to their professional, intellectual, and personal development by promoting independent thinking, learning, and critical reflection. Students will design and execute an in-depth investigation into an approved topic addressing a real-world problem related to their field of study. Projects may be undertaken individually or completed as part of an approved team-based project, where collaborating students will each have discrete contributions that are assessed individually.
The capstone project emphasises equality, diversity and inclusion by encouraging students to consider diverse perspectives, societal impacts, and accessibility requirements throughout their work. It integrates principles of sustainability by promoting solutions that address environmental, social, or economic challenges. These considerations should be embedded in all aspects of the project, from initial design to final delivery, ensuring inclusivity in both process and outcome. Projects typically have an interdisciplinary focus, requiring students to apply research methodologies, ethical data collection, robust analytical techniques, and the synthesis of complex information.
Students will engage with intellectual property considerations appropriate to their project context, whether working on client-based projects, academia-specified initiatives, or self-defined projects. This includes understanding rights, permissions, attribution requirements, and potential commercialisation pathways relevant to their work. The capstone experience provides valuable insights into how intellectual property operates within different professional environments.
The capstone project also highlights global engagement by encouraging students to connect their work to international challenges and solutions, enhancing cultural and professional competencies. Throughout the project, students demonstrate their readiness for professional practice by aligning their work with industry standards and showcasing transferable skills, such as problem-solving, project management, and effective communication. Projects are supported by the guidance of a dedicated supervisor or supervision team, who provide mentorship throughout the process.
The capstone project represents the culmination of the student's learning journey, allowing them to address complex, real-world challenges while contributing meaningful and impactful insights to their discipline.

This module is intended as a rescue option for exceptional/urgent circumstances only. It provides an opportunity for students to undertake an extended essay or some other equivalent creative piece of work on an area of study undertaken at level 5 or 6. The aim is that the skills, knowledge and methodologies acquired by the student over the course of their degree study are applied and extended in a substantive piece of research, analysis or creativity. The subject, scope and approach of the research/creativity will be formulated by the student in negotiation with their tutor. A suitable reading list will also be developed by the student with the support of their tutor in order to develop and complete the project.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

The MSc Project allows students to explore a topic of their choosing based on their own interests as agreed and supported via a member of the academic team. The project provides an opportunity for students to research and deliver a significant piece of individual work that incorporates the practical and analytical skills presented in their programme. The Final-Year project will enable students to explore a topic of their choice. There are four project-types planned: •Student-defined. •Academic-defined (research-based). •Industry-defined. •Social enterprise. All projects will be signed-off by an academic supervisor. The students’ goal is to produce a product and supporting report.

The purpose of this module is to enable students to synthesise the knowledge, understanding and skills that they have learned during the course of the MA programme to produce an original piece of research. This module requires that students independently design, conduct, analyse and write-up a research project in a specialist field, with the support of a supervisor. Students also must demonstrate an understanding of how their research findings advance knowledge in international relations and what the limitations of their research are. This module is designed to equip students with the experience, skills and knowledge to undertake research projects in the workplace.

This module is conducted by independent study, assisted by supervisory tutorials arranged with a dedicated supervisor. It is the responsibility of the student to make contact with the supervisor and arrange such supervisions at times convenient to them both. The student is expected to come to supervisions with a clear agenda. In return, supervisors are expected to make themselves available for individual supervisions during the Summer term. While group sessions (with other students), one-to-one supervisions at distance (e.g. by Skype), e-mail and telephone correspondences, and so on, may reasonably be included within the allotted supervision time, the student is entitled by right to demand that the majority of supervisions are face-to-face and one-to-one. Supervisor and student will be expected to be as flexible and respectful of each other's other commitments as possible. The 12 hours of supervision designated to each student includes time spent reading and responding to e-mail requests, reading and commenting on chapters and other material, and marking the final submission. The purpose of the supervision is to discuss the research question and any ideas the student has generated in relation to it, to discuss practical, ethical, methodological and theoretical issues, and to agree the direction of the dissertation generally. It is the policy of the Department of Social Sciences that supervisors are not required to read and comment on substantive drafts of the dissertation, nor to discuss the dissertation as a body of work in any way which might presuppose its final grade.

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.

This capstone project enables students to apply the knowledge, analytical, and conceptual tools, as well as the personal skills gained from the taught courses, addressing a specific organizational issue or problem. The Major Project consolidates the learning that has taken place during the first two semesters of the programme, and develops students’ capability to see a project through from idea to finished output. At its core, the project addresses a creative or pragmatic brief. This can either be selfinitiated or can arise from a business or organisation acting as a “client”, with the student in the role of a consultant. The student is expected to specify and contextualise the project (in the Creative Reflection), and then to put that analysis into practice (Practical Project). For example, students produce a substantial set of outputs (e.g., a communications campaign with associated assets, or a similar output). In the process, students will have to research the target audience(s) or market, devise a communications strategy, and specify appropriate metrics for evaluating success.

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.

This module is designed for those Dance students who elect to study abroad for a semester. It draws on the skills and knowledge acquired in the level 4 set, as well as on the student's dance, education and broader cultural experience during their time abroad. The module encourages critical reflection on that experience in order to deepen students' understanding of specific aspects of the dance practices encountered. It also develops students' broader dance understanding through comparison and contrast of their experience abroad with their knowledge of UK dance institutions, choreographic practices and/or dance works. Based primarily on the student's independent research with tutorial support, the module also fosters autonomy in the learning process to enable effective progression to DAN040X300Y Dissertation.

This module is intended as a rescue option for exceptional/urgent circumstances only. It provides an opportunity for students to undertake an independent creative project on an area of study undertaken at level 4 or 5. The project is a site in which students can apply their expertise to an area of interest. The subject, scope, approach and form of the work will be formulated by the student in negotiation with their programme convener/tutor building on that programme's aims and learning outcomes. Appropriate reading will be compiled by the student with support from their tutor as part of this work.

This module enables students to further their engagement with Scripture through a combination of perspectives from biblical studies and practical theology. Building upon knowledge gained in the earlier modules on Old and New Testament (Scripture 1 and 2), this module aims to help students make authentic connections between the biblical text and contemporary thought and practice. Using a framework that distinguishes between discourse located ‘behind’, ‘within’ and ‘in front of’ the text, this will approach the task in two different ways, both of which will be important for later professional contexts. The first will involve expounding a set passage and drawing out key points for a contemporary audience. The second will start with an issue in contemporary society, mission or practice and explore how the broad sweep of biblical testimony might inform a plausible position on the issue at hand.

This module aims to enable student exploration of issues in learning and faith-formation, to examine the churches’ involvement in education in different contexts and Christian traditions, and to develop skills and resources in facilitating Christian religious education of children, young people and adults. The module examines the learning characteristics and styles of adults, and the influence of educational theories and philosophies on approaches to Christian education. It will also introduce students to the biblical and historical foundations of religious education, including the teaching of religious education in schools. The module will appeal particularly to students already engaged in Christian education as well as those considering Christian education as part of their professional practice or a career in religious education in schools.

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.