Nation, Culture, Power

Module overview

This module offers an in-depth exploration of three concepts that have shaped the modern world: nation, culture, and power. Drawing on staff expertise in cultural and critical theory, the module will investigate the key questions that worldwide thinkers and activists have asked about the fluid concepts of nation, culture, and power, and the theories they have proposed to understand our place within them. Specific topics might include, for example, cultural identity, patriotism and nationalism, racism and empire, gender and feminist thought, queer identity, disability and political resistance. Seminars and individual tutorials are centred on locating your own academic interests within these worldwide theories and concepts. In this way, the module provides you with new and exciting ways of approaching your studies, enhancing your research in other modules and in your dissertation. In addition, the module will significantly strengthen your transferable skills of critical thinking, analysis, debate, and communication of complex concepts, which will serve as an ideal foundation for both advanced study and entrance into the workplace.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

manage deadlines and make effective use of your time
communicate complex, advanced ideas and arguments in an essay format
engage in advanced debate around complex, high-level ideas and theories
engage in high-level analysis of texts/case studies and arguments
identify, select and draw upon a wide range of printed and electronic sources
reach an advanced level of global and cultural awareness

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

evaluate advanced theoretical approaches to nationhood, culture, power and identity
demonstrate confidence and skill when engaging in high-level academic discussion and debate
employ critical and cultural theory in high-level analysis of cultural trends, narratives and texts
interpret and reflect critically, at an advanced level, on a range of global cultural texts and case studies

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

advanced conceptualisations, theories and debates around nationhood, culture, identity, imperialism, colonisation, migration and globalisation
working and thinking globally and across cultures, at an advanced level
how culture manifests and is disseminated through global exchange and encounter, at an advanced level
how to engage critically with high-level theoretical scholarship.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures, seminars and individual tutorials, alongside in-depth independent study.

Study time
Type	Hours
Seminar	24
Guided independent study	126
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Journal Articles

Collins, Patricia Hill (1998). It’s all in the family: intersections of gender, race, and nation. Hypatia, 13(3), pp. 62-82.

Textbooks

Williams, Raymond (1989). Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society.

Lemert, Charles et al, eds (2010). Globalization: A Reader.

Longhurst, Brian et al, eds (2008). Introducing Cultural Studies.

McGrew, Tony, Stuart Hall and David Held, eds (1992). Modernity and its Futures: Understanding Modern Societies.

Couldry, Nick (2000). Inside Culture: Re-imagining the Method of Cultural Studies.

Hall, Stuart, ed. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices.

Cabral, Amílcar (1972). The role of culture in the struggle for independence / O papel da cultura na luta pela independência.

Anderson, Benedict (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.

Williams, Patrick and Laura Chrisman, eds (1993). Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader.

Mbembe, Achille (2013). Critique of Black Reason / Critique de la raison nègre.

Edelman, Lee (2004). No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive.

Paul Gilroy (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness.

Cohen, Robin (2001). Global Diasporas: An Introduction.

Billig, Michael (1995). Banal Nationalism.

Yuval-Davis, Nira (1997). Gender and Nation.

Hall, JR, et al, eds (2010). Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology.

Levitt, Peggy, ed. (2008). The Transnational Studies Reader: Intersections and Innovations.

Kafer, Alison (2013). Feminist, Queer, Crip.

Samuels, Ellen (2014). Fantasies of Identification: Disability, Gender, Race.

Young, Robert (1981). Untying the Text: A Poststructuralist Reader.

Muñoz, José Esteban (2009). Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity.

Davis, Lennard J., ed. (2017). The Disability Studies Reader.

Davis, Angela Y. (1981). Women, Race and Class.

Assessment

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Coursework plan

Assessment Type: Formative
Feedback: Appropriate feedback will be provided.
Final Assessment: No
Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	100%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External