BA (Hons) Politics, Philosophy & Ethics

What is Going on? Making Sense of the 21st Century

This module invites you to engage in an investigation of contemporary global events by using current news stories as primary catalysts for academic inquiry.

Rather than viewing headlines in isolation, you will learn to deconstruct media narratives and breaking events through a diverse range of academic frameworks and multidisciplinary perspectives.

By bridging the gap between immediate current affairs and theoretical study, the curriculum explores how interconnected themes—such as neoliberalism, the climate emergency, and the rapid evolution of technology—manifest as live, unfolding issues in today’s social and political landscape.

You will develop the analytical agility to look beneath surface-level information and recognise the deeper ideological and economic shifts that drive 21st-century discourse.

The curriculum creates a space to make sense of the “now,” where unfolding phenomena, including modern “culture wars,” globalization, and changing class dynamics, are interrogated through various scholarly lenses.

By contextualising real-world incidents within competing academic perspectives, you will explore the highly contested nature of citizenship, power, and belonging.

This approach will equip you with the critical reasoning skills necessary to synthesise complex information and evaluate the most pressing, often chaotic issues of the modern age.

Ultimately, the module empowers you to transform your bewilderment at the daily news into a sophisticated, academic appreciation of the systemic forces shaping the world around you.

Truth, Post-Truth and Ignorance

This module investigates if and how one can know the truth in a society where social media shapes the perspective of many people.

Is truth something that can be measured? Is there reality beyond the material world? Or a reality beyond the world we experience?

The module begins by reflecting on contemporary culture’s questioning of knowledge in social media, film/TV and politics.

You will investigate the implicit epistemologies at work in these areas in order to understand how popular views of knowledge support particular ethical and political views.

This module aims to give you an understanding of key epistemologies with an emphasis on social epistemology and its ability to explain the world today. 

Political Ideology: How Ideas Shape Politics and Why They Matter?

This module aims to provide you with an introduction to the nature of political ideology.

It will familiarise you with definitional discussions including Marxist, Liberal, and ‘Truth Neutral’ approaches.

It will also explore and analyse a range of indicative political ideologies, including conservatism, socialism, fascism, and ecologism.

You will be introduced to the relationships that exist between political ideology and political myth. 

Being Human

This module invites you to engage in a profound inquiry into the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

By positioning humanity at the intersection of nature, culture, and individual agency, you will explore our unique place as a species and the intricate ways our inner emotional landscapes are forged within the broader social and historical world.

Drawing upon a rich synthesis of sociology, philosophy, psychology, and biosemiotics, students will navigate a diverse intellectual terrain. Moving from foundational explorations of humans as symbolic, meaning-making creatures to critical investigations into the complex dynamics of emotion as they manifest in contemporary life—including the structures of the workplace, the nuances of intimate relationships, the performance of gender roles, and the heat of political discourse.

You will be challenged to look beyond biological or social determinism to consider the “human condition” as a contested and evolving concept.

By engaging with these high-level abstract frameworks, you will cultivate a sophisticated, reflexive understanding of themselves and others.

This approach fosters a deep appreciation for diverse disciplinary perspectives, empowering you to synthesise competing ideas and apply them to the lived experience of being human in a complex, globalised society.

Subverting the Subject: Ideas in Literature from Barthes to Gaming

This module explores the idea of the subversion of the subject, our idea of the individual, across a range of ways of thinking about literature.

If fiction is already an exploration of the subject, and one that is potentially destabilising, then we need to consider how our selves might be considered as a kind of fiction and what results from this.

Ranging from the 1970s to the present, we will examine how ideas of the unconscious, of the body, of the libido, of power, of simulation, of performance, and of the machine and the animal undermine our sense of the boundaries of the human and even the human itself.

Introduction to International Relations Theory and Practice

This module introduces you to International Relations (IR), particularly emphasising the most popular ways of thinking about IR theoretically.

It surveys orthodox and critical theoretical approaches within the academic discipline of IR. The theories are discussed chronologically, beginning with classical theories and continuing to modern and contemporary approaches.

The module also focuses on the historical and social context in which each theory emerged, so you will learn how this discipline has evolved and changed.

The key goal of the module is to emphasise that a thorough knowledge of IR theory is central to explaining, understanding and analysing the most significant ‘real world’ aspects of contemporary global politics, such as war and peace, security and insecurity, intervention and peacebuilding, oppression and global inequality. 

Thinking the Environment

The module will familiarise you with key approaches to thinking about the environment. Covering topics that may include climate change, ecology, the controversies surrounding the term ‘the Anthropocene’ and cultural representations of these themes will enable you to discuss the intersecting political, ethical and social dimensions of environmental issues.

Liberal Political Philosophy and Its Critics

The module investigates the historical development of the liberal political tradition in order to assess its ability to address contemporary political issues.

You will become familiar with central figures in the development of liberalism, key critiques of this approach and representative examples of alternative approaches to politics.

Engaging with arguments that may include feminist political philosophy, political philosophy of race and/or post-colonial theory allows you to explore the limits of the Western philosophical canon.

Bio-Ethics and Bio-Politics

The module explores different ethical and methodological approaches in current debates in bio-ethics and bio-politics.

You will develop your knowledge and understanding of the variety of approaches to bio-ethical questions and the way that these approaches are informed by different bio-political commitments.

You will become acquainted with the major issues in bio-ethics, which may include disability, enhancement, abortion and euthanasia.

You will explore the application of bio-ethics to both the human and the non-human and investigate the way that the field of bio-politics has challenged and recontextualised debates within bio-ethics.

The Politics and Culture of Technology

This module investigates the technological transformations of society with an emphasis on the way that digital technologies are transforming local, national and international politics, ethics and culture.

You will learn how culture has shaped technologies and examine ways that technologies are changing the way we live.

You will consider the broader political, ethical and social implications of these changes, which may include topics such as the role of algorithms in our daily lives, the environmental impact of AI and/or predictions about the transformative power of emerging technologies.

Culture, Media and Society

This module investigates the hidden architectures of meaning and their profound influence on the structures of modern life.

You will move beyond surface-level consumption to explore the universal narrative frameworks and functional archetypes that provide a “grammar” for storytelling across literature, film, and digital platforms.

The curriculum examines the transition from stable systems of logic to more fluid, open-ended interpretations, investigating how cultural myths are embedded within signs and how the traditional “authority” of a text is often superseded by the active interpretation of the reader.

This offers a crucial lens through which to view the construction of “truth” and how institutional language regulates social norms and defines the boundaries of public discourse. 

In this module, you will dissect the moral and political dimensions of the relationship between cultural producers and their audiences.

Rather than viewing the public as a passive collective, the course explores the dynamic cycle of communication where messages are encoded with specific ideological values and subsequently decoded by individuals.

This analysis highlights how a person’s unique social, ethical, and situational background allows them to accept, negotiate, or entirely subvert intended meanings.

By applying these frameworks to a diverse range of texts, from classical books to contemporary media, the module challenges assumptions about representation and power, empowering you to critique how information shapes personal identity and the broader collective landscape. 

Work Placement

The aim of this module is for you to undertake a work placement to apply your academic learning in a related employment setting and for you to gain experience that will be useful in pursuing your career or profession.

Emphasis will be placed upon the development of vocational and employability skills, knowledge of self-reflexive work, an ability to use subject knowledge beyond the classroom and the development of skills for lifelong learning. 

A Global History of the Cold War

The Cold War almost immediately evolved into a global conflict, which also impacted and was influenced by the so-called Third World or Global South and decolonisation.

During the 1950s, the Third World increasingly gained the attention of the superpowers and their allies, and while by the 1960s, it stood at the centre of the East-West rivalry, by the 1970s, it had become the main battlefield of the Cold War.

Yet the peoples and rulers of the southern hemisphere were not merely passive recipients of the policies of the intervening powers but, unlike in traditional historiography, were also able to influence the course of the Cold War and the policies of its principal actors.

The module thus aims to show that the Cold War was a conflict of global reach, and while it led to a “long peace” in the northern hemisphere, it brought death and destruction to large parts of the southern hemisphere.

You will also learn that the Cold War cannot be reduced to a bipolar conflict between the Americans and the Soviets and their respective European allies, but that also peoples, rulers, and countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America played a part in it – voluntarily and involuntarily. 

Russia and China: An Introduction To 'Post-Communism'

This module introduces YOU to the history and politics of the two major powers, Russia and China, and explores, comparatively, their journeys into versions of post-Communism.

The module provides a historical backdrop to help understand the evolution and collapse of ‘communist’ ideology and practice in each state.

It acknowledges the new state-society dynamics in each state, offering an introduction to politics and society in twenty-first-century Russia and China.

The module also discusses how we might define and understand post-communist foreign policies.  

Dissertation

The dissertation is an 8,000-word research project on a topic agreed with a supervisor and carried out with their support.

This project is the culmination of the degree and should reflect your particular interest in a question or issue related to politics, philosophy, ethics, sociology and/or the wider liberal arts tradition.

Topics may be things you have touched on in earlier modules and want to explore in greater depth, new applications of approaches you have learned over the course of your degree, aspects of your own lived experience or projects related to future career goals.  

Religion in a Secular Europe

This module investigates the history of the concept of religion, its role in politics and its depiction in culture.

You will reflect on the co-emergence of ‘religion’ and ‘the secular’ as key to understanding contemporary ideas about belief, belonging and identity.

During this module, you will assess the role of religion and the secular in constructing a concept of Europe and its others.

Drawing on philosophy, sociology, anthropology and political theory will allow you to develop a more holistic understanding of the role of religions in the contemporary world, with an emphasis on Europe but an openness to global events and issues.

Unconscious Desires: Psychoanalysis and Culture from Freud to Žižek

This module explores the notion of unconscious desire and the expression of these desires in literature and culture.

It traces the emergence of the ideas of unconscious desire in the work of Freud and how Freud links this idea to the literary and the cultural.

Then the course explores the ways in which various psychoanalytic thinkers have transformed the notion of unconscious desire and used it to grasp literary and cultural forms.

At the heart of our experience is, psychoanalysis argues, a fundamental fantasy that engages and shapes our experience of the world and our ‘selves’. These fundamental fantasies are shaped by literature and culture. 

Futures: Risk, Anxiety and Hope

This module investigates different conceptions of the future, particularly those that worry about impending disasters and those that imagine radically new futures. What role does the future play in our conception of the world today? What might the future look like?

We will ask how the future has been conceptualised in philosophy, politics and sociology and some of the ways it has been depicted in literature, film and other media.

Topics covered may include theories of utopianism, apocalypticism, doomsday prepping, the ‘risk society’ and the ways these approaches to the future shape and are shaped by popular culture.

The Bloodlands: History and Politics in Contemporary Ukraine and East Central Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 came to many political observers as a shock and created an urgency for understanding this country.

While the Russo-Ukrainian war began in 2014 with the Russian annexation of Crimea and direct involvement in Donbas, the origins of the war stem from imperial collapse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Contextualising the current war beyond the post-Cold War proxy conflicts and NATO expansion argument by turning to Ukraine’s history, this module will examine Ukraine and Russia’s ideas and cultures as well as domestic and international politics.

In today’s politics, defined by the proliferation of nuclear weapons, conflicts over natural resources and a resurgence of populist nationalism, Ukraine has become a vital battlefield between many domestic and external actors and the outcomes of the war will be felt far beyond its borders. 
 

Not only are there a few books about the political history of Ukraine, but these books mainly focus on the Ukrainian nation’s emergence as a through-line.

Borrowing the title from the eponymous monograph on Eastern Europe by Timothy Snyder, this module aims for a different approach.

While it will touch upon the importance of the medieval history of Ukraine and the early modern period, it will primarily focus on the history of Ukraine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and conclude with the current war.

Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, secondary works and the latest scholarship, the module seeks to contextualise Ukraine as a complex actor in European history and politics since 1991.  

Aggression, Violence and Abuse

This module provides a rigorous investigation into the phenomena of aggression, violence, and abuse, prioritising the analysis of real-life cases to understand how harm is identified and contested in the modern world.

By examining high-profile legal proceedings and contemporary incidents, you will explore the profound impact of social movements in moving these interpersonal and systemic harms from the private sphere into the public and legal spotlight.

You will scrutinise the “wilful blindness” that can permeate institutional responses to abuse, exploring the complex tension where the state must balance its roles as both a protector of the vulnerable and a potential perpetrator of structural violence.

Through this case-led approach, you will evaluate how individual life chances are dictated by the interplay of legislative frameworks and the sociological power dynamics that fuel aggressive behaviour. 

A central theme of the module is the critical intersection of legal justice and social justice as it pertains to diverse manifestations of harm.

Rather than viewing these issues in isolation, the syllabus examines how public perceptions of fairness often clash with statutory reality across a variety of social contexts and interpersonal relationships.

The module places a heavy emphasis on media representation, investigating how the framing of violence in news, digital platforms, and popular culture shapes public attitudes and drives policy shifts regarding abusive conduct.

By deconstructing the way the media narrates real-life cases, you will gain the analytical tools to debate whether the current legal system provides genuine accountability for aggression or if social justice remains an aspirational goal distinct from the rulings of the court.  

Britain and Europe: Brexit – Before, During and After

This module explores the history and contemporary politics of Britain’s relationship with continental Europe.

You will chart in place the reasons for European integration and the expansion of the ‘European Union’ from the 1950s to the present day.

The module also investigates the rise of populist politics and the idea of Euroscepticism. In doing so, it highlights the processes associated with the ongoing ‘Brexit’ arrangements, as well as the internal contemporary shaping of the EU itself.