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.
It is commonplace to hear people say such things as, "You should believe that the climate is changing—that's what the evidence tells us", or "You ought not to believe that the earth is flat—that's just not true". These judgements concerning what people ought (not) to believe seem to assume that there are norms governing belief in something like the way that moral norms govern action. But what are these norms? Are they moral? If not, what kind of norms are they? The judgements about what people ought (not) to believe seem also to assume that people bear responsibility for their beliefs in something like the way that they bear moral responsibility for their actions. However, people cannot control what they believe in the way they can control what they do. Moreover, beliefs are influenced by a range of external factors ranging from upbringing to peer pressure to indoctrination. So, are people really responsible for their beliefs? And, if they are, how might such external influences make a difference to whether beliefs satisfy the norms governing them? These are among the issues this module will explore.
The climate crisis is one of the most urgent issues facing humanity. Climate change is having an increasing impact on individual lives, and on social and political relations and institutions. This module examines the moral and political philosophical issues raised by climate change. It considers, amongst other questions, what obligations individual citizens have to address the climate crisis; what present generations owe to future generations; and what a just distribution of the costs of tackling the climate crisis might look like.
The course seeks to provide an overview of the evolution of the European Union (EU) from its early stages to the present. In so doing, it examines the ideas and history of the EU, the institutions of the EU, examples of specific issue areas and the present and future challenges facing the Union. By the end of the course students should have a broad knowledge of the EU, encompassing these various dimensions. They should be able to critically reflect on the various debates, critique the established literature and present their own reasoned arguments.
Earth’s environment has undergone dramatic changes over geological time, shaped by interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere, and solid Earth. This module explores the key events in Earth’s evolution, from planetary formation to modern climate dynamics, using both geological evidence and numerical modelling. Students will develop practical skills in Earth system modelling through hands-on practical sessions. A central component of the module is an independent research project, where students will apply modelling and data analysis techniques to investigate major transitions in Earth history. The course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary perspective, relevant to students with a range of Earth and ocean science backgrounds.
At the outset of the nineteenth century the Russian Empire appeared to be at the zenith of its power. Hundred years later, the autocracy had collapsed, overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the 1917 revolutions. The emergence of new ideas and movements in Russia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from both the left and the right, posed new challenges to the tsarist state. This module will trace the changes that led to the collapse of the tsarist autocracy, and why the tsarist state proved unable to respond effectively to the transformation in the Russian empire. The module will consider the rise of radicalism from both left and right and the problems this posed for the longevity of tsarism. Both had important implications for the long-term sustainability of the Russian autocracy. It will explore wider social change amongst key estates like workers, peasants, and men and women. It will consider how non-Russians lived in the empire. The module will use a broad source base, considering a variety of different sources, including novels and memoirs as well as police reports and other official documents. By the end of this module, you should have a firm understanding of the processes that shaped the development of the Russian state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, particularly, the events that would lead to the fall of the autocracy in 1917.
By the middle of the eleventh century, the various nations of the British Isles were characterised by quite distinct cultures and political and economic systems and elites. Yet the relationships between the various nations were entirely redrawn between about 1090 and the 1170s, as the Norman political elite of England came to control each of them in turn. In Wales, Norman barons progressively took over Welsh territory in as a kind of private-enterprise expansion; in Ireland, private military interventions by the Norman elite from 1169 culminated in takeover by the king of England; in Scotland, Norman baronial involvement led to the remodelling of the kingdom and its takeover by Norman interests largely outside the ambit of the kings of England. Though the details varied considerably, the overall effect was that all parts of the British Isles came to be ruled by members of the same elite. The establishment of English-based domination of the British Isles remains central to British politics and culture.
The history of the First World War will be studied through consideration of the literature concerning its diplomatic origins, its nature as a military conflict, the social history of warfare, the nature of the home front, its impact on gender relations, its impact on the landscape, and its memorialisation and commemoration.
The Future Artisan delves into the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary innovation within the sustainable luxury textile industries. This module builds on foundational knowledge to demonstrate how artisan communities can evolve by integrating new technologies, sustainable practices, promotional strategies, and ethical considerations. Through the disciplines of knitting, weaving, and printing, you will engage in collaborations, reinterpret traditional handicrafts, and develop products for fashion, interiors, and lifestyle industries. You will examine the role of communities in co-creating and shaping the future of artisanship. Emphasising sustainability, ethical production, and luxury markets, you will learn to align your work with the personal, cultural, and social values of today's consumers.
