The module will provide understanding of current (and future) biophysical products derived from remote sensing data and how they are being used in regional to global scale monitoring of current vegetation function and condition. The module will expose students to a range of advanced data analysis methods to extract quantitative biophysical information from remote sensing data and how to use them as input to ecosystem models. The module will enable students to link these methods and techniques to investigate some of the major societal challenges (e.g. food security through estimation of crop yield) and implications of changes in climatic condition on terrestrial ecosystem.
9/11; jihad; al-Qaeda; War on Terror; Osama bin Laden; Afghanistan; the Taliban; the Bush Doctrine; Iraq; WMDs; waterboarding; targeted killing and drones. America’s War on Terror, launched as a response to the terrorist attacks of September, 11, 2001 has created some of the most important and controversial themes in foreign policy in the twenty-first century thus far. This module tracks 9/11 back to its Cold War origins, answers the frequently asked question “why do they hate us?”, and explores the policies introduced by the Clinton, G.W. Bush and Obama administrations in their efforts to counter the ever-evolving terrorist threat.
In this module, you will explore one of the primary forms of data used in humanities data science - text! You will develop an understanding of text as a form of data, including what can (and can't!) be do with it. You will explore and compare varying aproaches to collecting and analysing text as data. Ultimately, you will design and deliver a project that situates the use of text as data in a humanities research context.
The (PG) Learning Curve aims to support students as they transition into postgraduate (taught) University life and as such includes both academic skills (researching, writing, referencing, etc) as well as life skills (time management, adaptability, resilience, career planning) in addition to the practical information they'll need to navigate their programme of study (University IT platforms, Student Wellbeing, etc)
The (UG) Learning Curve aims to support first-year students as they transition into University life and as such includes both academic skills (researching, writing, referencing, etc) as well as life skills (time management, adaptability, resilience, career planning) in addition to the practical information they'll need to navigate their programme of study (University IT platforms, Student Wellbeing, etc).
This module focuses on the essay as a critical practice and a literary form. The essay is fundamental to literary criticism, and basic to assessment across your degree. But the essay is also a literary and popular-cultural genre in its own right: one that marks the invention of the individual and the compulsion to, as Virginia Woolf puts it, ‘write one’s self’. During the course of this module, you will hone your skills as a literary essayist—a writer who produces and/or engages with literature as an art form. You will explore the eccentricities and paradoxes of essay-writing across history, through ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, from its origins in the sixteenth century to popular journalism, blogs, and multi-media essays in our own time. In so doing, you will look closely at essayists’ choices of writing style, rhetoric, evidence, argument, and aesthetics and refine these elements in your own writing.
This module sets out to introduce you to the advertising process from initial client briefing, through to the generation of ideas and concepts in response to that brief and concluding with the presentation of those solutions to the client in a manner that will simulate an ‘agency pitch’. Weekly online study resources covering the key stages of this process will precede an intensive 4-day workshop comprising of a simulated client/agency roleplay activity that will engage you in a fully immersive learning environment that will enable you to experience the various aspects and challenges of the client/agency relationship. During the workshop, you will work within small student groups, undertaking the role of an advertising agency. In this role, you will learn how to interpret a client brief, develop it into a creative brief, generate creative ideas that are strategically sound, and present those ideas to the client. The workshop will provide a ‘safe’ environment to experience the challenges of working with a client and producing creative work to a deadline, together with the responsibility and accountability, that accompanies your role as part of the advertising agency. The module will prepare you to reflect on the workshop experience, together with the knowledge and understanding you have from gained from the learning activities overall and considerations that have been given to achieving advertising and branding solutions that are ethical and sustainable.
The Age of Discovery explores the maritime expansion of Europe from c.1350-c.1650 through the experiences of four European states: Portugal; Spain; England and the Netherlands. It therefore covers the transition of these states from medieval polities to Renaissance powers. The history of the Age of Discovery is a story of two halves. The first part (c.1350-c.1580) is told through the endeavours of the Portuguese and the Spanish. Here we encounter famous names such as Henry the Navigator and Christopher Columbus. This first phase saw the rapid enrichment of Spain and the end of great civilisations such as the Aztecs and Incas. The second phase (c.1580-c.1650) witnessed the growth of England and the Netherlands as maritime powers. England focused on North America and the Indian Ocean; the former as an area of colonisation and the latter as a place to trade. The Dutch initially concentrated on the Indian Ocean and in doing so competed with the Portuguese and the English in this area. The course begins by examining the reasons for European expansion and the tools and technology that permitted the ‘European Breakout’. Seminars will be supported by lectures and be based around discussions of primary and secondary sources. A study of contemporary works not only offers an opportunity to learn about the history of European maritime expansion over this period, but also provides encounters with people directly involved in all aspects of the Age of Discovery. Early Portuguese voyages along the West Africa coast and into the Indian Ocean will be examined through contemporary narrative accounts such as the writings of Gomes Eanes de Zuara and the anonymous author who described in vivid detail Vasco da Gama’s 1497-99 voyages to the Indian Ocean (A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499, ed. E.G. Ravenstein). The Spanish voyages and the impact these had on indigenous cultures can be explored through the writings of Columbus (Felipe Fernández-Armesto: Columbus on Himself), Bartolomé de las Casas (A Short Account of the Destruction of Indies) and Bernal Diaz del Castillo (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain). English maritime expansion is told through a series of texts collected by Richard Hakluyt (Principal Navigations), which include contemporary narratives of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation in 1577 and Sir Martin Frobisher’s search for the Northwest Passage in 1578. The Dutch experience is partly told by Philippus Baldaeus and Dutch voyages to Asia can be explored through the use of an on-line database (Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th centuries).
This module introduces you to the history of the American Musical and examines some of the issues connected with race, exoticism, gender and national identity as they were articulated in this multimedia entertainment between the late nineteenth century and today. The module will take a chronological but also issue-related approach. Beginning with an overview of the main features of the musical and its relation with opera, operetta and the revue, we will go on to explore the social, cultural and political contexts in which it emerged, developed, and flourished, as well as the ways in which the genre became a crucial cultural arena for the articulation of contemporary social and political concerns and the formation of national identity. We will also follow the trajectory that brought the musical from the stage to the movie set, and the synergy between Broadway and Hollywood, discussing the ways in which music and text engaged with dance, lights, and costumes on stage and on video. This module is offered at two levels that will be taught together. (N.B. Students who take the module in year 2 cannot take the year 3 version)
This is a practical module in handling and interpreting stone tools and developing behavioural interpretations to explain the patterns seen. Stone tools remain the most significant part of the Palaeolithic cultural heritage. This course provides training in their analysis, bridging the gap between the simple recognition skills received at undergraduate level and the need to confidently engage with your data at PGR level, where time constraints are always at a premium.
In this module you will consider the relationship between the ancient world and the modern world. We will consider how new approaches to ancient societies have been developed in response to modern social and political developments. We will also look at examples where the ancient societies have been used in modern political contexts such as the ideology of the nation. We will also consider the ancient world in popular culture, and how this might distort popular perceptions of the past.
The impulse to adorn the body is as old as human history. This module explores the extraordinary variety of ways in which people have adorned their bodies in a range of archaeological and anthropological contexts, from body painting and tattooing, to the elaborate Yemenite costume and silver jewellery of the Arabian Peninsula. Teaching and learning will draw on a series of case studies from across the globe in order to explore key themes in the archaeology and anthropology of adornment including the role of the body in display, the social role of ornamentation and dress, and technologies and materials of transformation and adornment. In addition, students will participate in a museum field trip and practical sessions during which they will plan and design an object to ornament a body. These activities will facilitate students’ theoretical and practical understandings of the relationship between the body and the material culture of adornment.
This module offers advanced training in the writing of fiction, and does so in a wider international context than the usual selection of UK and possibly US texts allows. Instead of basing our examples of good practice only in British and American fiction, a distinctive feature of this module is that literary texts and examples studied will also be drawn from international sources. Fiction from Europe, Canada, South Asia and the Caribbean, as well as other parts of the world, will provide a wide-ranging perspective and offer many new paths for development of your work. Taught by a combination of seminars and workshops, the module will explore both the practical techniques used by professional writers of fiction and the literary theory behind them, but there will be opportunities to discuss your own work in a workshop atmosphere as well as to reflect on published texts. It is not necessary to have a special background to take this module. The practical element here is to learn to apply these technical elements to your own fiction, without resorting to pastiche or parody.
This module focuses on the period between about 1600 and 1800, allowing you to explore the development of the British Empire in the Americas from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 up until the American Revolution and its aftermath. The module takes a broad look at the British colonies in the Americas from Barbados in the south to Newfoundland in the north, examining the development of these colonies and the Atlantic system of which they were part.
The module aims to review the main concepts, methods and tools which are used in the strategy of building luxury businesses. Strategies such as media, law, visual merchandising, the supply chain and luxury marketing are explored to develop the application of key strategic theoretical tools to real-life situations, from a management, organisational and creative context. The perspective of this module is for a luxury manager to understand the realities and practices of managing and subsequently maximising the overall performance of luxury organisations. The module analyses the key factors and drivers of an organisation’s performance and identifies external and internal changes that may affect performances. Issues such as globalisation, innovation, entrepreneurship as well as leadership and the practice of strategy in a luxury context are considered.
GGES3021 is a module designed for students who are interested in the creative economy and how it is being shaped by geographical processes related to globalisation, digitisation and flexibilisation. The module will cover topics that are central to understanding the creative economy and key themes in geography. For example, lectures and seminars will examine: • The challenging labour conditions within creative industries such as music and fashion • The ways in which producers create and communicate value for their goods, services and experiences in the competitive global marketplace • The changing nature of consumption and growing importance of curators such as bloggers to the creative economy • How and why these activities are contained within but also shaped by specific physical, temporary and virtual spaces • The formation and relationship between global, local and trans-local cultural scenes such as Shoreditch in London • Why cities are trying to attract creative firms and entrepreneurs and how individuals decide where to live and work in an era of unprecedented mobility • To facilitate deep learning the module will combine conceptual engagements with theory and real world examples drawn from case studies in the UK and other international contexts including Canada and Sweden. Students will also be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and to explore these topics first hand during independent research for their research papers. The purpose of this module is to provide students with a critical, theoretical and applied understanding of the processes and spatial dynamics that are shaping the creative economy. It explores a range of interrelated economic, social, political and cultural issues from a geographical perspective.
The Crimean War (1853-56) was the most important Great Power conflict fought between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the outbreak of World War One in 1914. Yet its causes are uncertain and the way it was fought was often paradoxical: modern techniques of warfare, media reporting and medical care did not prevent this being a war characterised by blunder and incompetence, all played out in the glare of public scrutiny. Reputations were made and broken, Great Powers were humbled; we might ask did anyone win this war? Yet on the battlefield and beyond the implications and lessons of the war were wide-reaching for societies, economies and governments. This module therefore asks why did the war break out and how was it fought, while also examining its impact and legacy beyond the battlefield.
In this module you will study how and why domestic crises struck the Habsburg Monarchy (Austria-Hungary) in the two decades before the First World War, and what the potential consequences were for the Empire’s long-term sustainability. The module particularly considers issues of stability/instability as its theoretical framework, as expressed not only by the ruling authorities towards certain suspect peoples or political groups (eg. socialists), but also by certain groups towards their respective rulers. We begin by evaluating the Habsburg dynasty as a ‘centripetal force’ and examples of civilian loyalty in the 1890s; then look at developments in the imperial city of Vienna (the rise of Christian Socialism). From there the module develops into three major crisis case studies. First, the crisis in Hungary where in the aftermath of the Millennium celebrations a new Magyar confidence resulted in a full-on clash with the Habsburg dynasty from 1905. At the same time, for the Magyar rulers themselves a different type of crisis was evident in their own back-yard: the behaviour of their Slovak and Romanian minorities. This reached a European-wide public when publicized in 1908 by the British historian R.W. Seton-Watson. The second case study is the Czech-German nationalist clash in the Bohemian lands. Here the Viennese government managed to effect some solution (in Moravia), but both Czech and German nationalists in Bohemia were still viewed as disruptive or disloyal. The module will take stock of the different tactics employed on all sides in order to explain rising national and dynastic paranoia. Third, the module turns to the infamous South Slav Question. It focuses in this part particularly on crisis in Croatia where Serb politicians after 1903 were thought to be in league with neighbouring Serbia. A prime point of study is the Zagreb Treason Trials of 1908-19 and their repercussions. Your knowledge base will slowly increase so that you can make informed comparative judgements (a) about contemporary mentalities and (b) about why these major domestic crises could not be solved by the Empire before 1914.
How are management practices and organisational behaviour imagined in culture, and how can we use imaginative approaches and cultural forms to understand leadership, ethics, and workplace dynamics? To what extent does popular culture influence leadership group dynamics and communication? In this interdisciplinary module, you will learn how to harness knowledge and skills from the humanities in management through scenario-based learning, using various materials ranging from case studies and films to literary text. In this module you will apply knowledge to case studies and explore how different styles of knowledge – narrative, visual and analytical – shape understanding of management and culture.
A four-field Anthropology brings together Archaeology, Biological and Social/Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics. This approach started in North America, but has since become useful globally, and ties in with Southampton’s long-established integrative approach to the disciplines. The four fields all explore different aspects of human diversity past and present, and all co-developed as disciplines over the last two centuries. Sometimes the connections between the four disciplines have been closer than at other times, but all investigate what it is to be human, using ethnographies, artefacts and resources, spatial organisation of space, physiological variation, evolution and languages. We shall explore some of the main themes that have informed archaeological and anthropological thought, from these disciplines’ beginnings in antiquarianism and exploration many centuries ago, to their growth as university disciplines in the nineteenth century and their current interdisciplinary approaches. Intersections and co-development with closely related disciplines (e.g. primatology, geography, history, natural sciences) will also be explored in this module. We shall discuss some of the philosophical and scientific influences on archaeology and anthropology (the Enlightenment, evolution, ethnography, science and cultural theory), relating these to broader historical trends in the development of archaeological and anthropological thought.
In this module, students will explore a wealth of different texts and different discourses, from the literary to the scientific, on humanity and the human body in the early modern period. Starting with a glimpse of ancient and modern visions of the body, we will then discuss classic aspects of the subject from the humours and scientific anatomy to illness, sex, identity and death. As well as thinking about the body, the students will be introduced to a controlled variety of textual genres, e.g., scientific and philosophical treatises, didactic verse, satire, essays, plays, etc. In addition the students will encounter (and be encouraged to challenge) some classic theorists, such as Bakhtin, Elias and Laqueur. In all classes, the students will be pushed to think about how early modern attitudes to the body differ from, and are comparable to, those held today.
The module will look at the challenges posed to human societies living on a dynamic planet and how these societies adapt (or not) to a range of environmental and socio-economic hazards. Pre-requisite for GEOG2006 One of the pre-requisites for GEOG2032
Migration is a topic at the centre of political concerns on scales ranging from local to global. The central question that this module addresses is this: How should transnational migration be governed? It does so by focusing on the key normative debates surrounding migration in general and specific forms of migration in particular. There are three main parts to the module: 1)The political ethics of territorial borders which addresses issues concerning the right to regulate borders 2)The political ethics of migration which addresses the ethical claims of different kinds of migration 3)The political ethics of civic boundaries which addresses access to, and forms of, civic status in relation to migration. Structured by these foci, the module will address the main positions, arguments and debates within the contemporary political theory of migration.
