• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

The aims of this module are to:

• give students a solid foundation in the key concepts of sex, gender, violence and conflict
• explore a range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on the relationships between gender, violence and peace 
• discuss and critically analyse contemporary policy debates and practical initiatives around “Women, Peace and Security” and “Violence Against Women” 
• develop students ability to critically engage with academic and policy literature and develop well-structured arguments orally and in writing 
• develop students’ transferrable skills in working independently and team-working.

Key topics to be covered in this module include: 

• key concepts of sex, gender, violence, conflict, security and peace
• key perspectives on gender, war and peace
• women and men as victims, perpetrators and actors 
• women’s bodies, ethnicity and the Nation 
• women peacebuilders 
• “Women, Peace and Security”: Women’s security or securitising women? 
• key concepts in gender(ed) violence
• gender(ed) violence and power, society and culture 
• "what works" to prevent "violence against women"? 
• researching gender, violence, conflict and peace.

• 15 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module provides you with training in social science research methods (generic as well as specific to your dissertation research) as well as with a set of professional skills that prepare you for a professional career. The module is run as a series of half-day workshops from which you select three workshops to match your specific needs depending on disciplinary orientation, previous training and experience, future employment plans and personal interests. The workshops will cover a wide range of topics. The social research methods workshops will include interviewing, ethnographic methods, participatory research techniques and questionnaire design. The professional skills workshops will include, for example, stakeholder engagement, sustainable livelihoods analysis, environmental impact assessment, project planning and private sector consulting. The professional skills will also help to prepare you if you plan to take a work placement over the summer. As part of the module, you will also receive a workshop on dissertation planning and design.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

Sex and Death in Global Politics  explores the multiple connections between gender and violence in contemporary international politics in historical and theoretical perspective. War and other forms of collective violence seem to be everywhere in world affairs, but it has often been commented that the many manifestations of gender are less visible. At times aspects of gender violence (such as war rape) seem to enter into the realm of academic International
Relations, whilst other questions (such as the inclusion of homosexuals in the military) have relevance for public policy and national culture. But many other issues (such as media representations of gender violence, the continuum between 'peace' and 'war' violence, or the connection between armies and prostitution) are more commonly discussed within sociology, political theory and history. This module will examine a broad range of such questions from an inter-disciplinary angle, with a particular stress on theoretical perspectives and academicpolitical controversies.

Topics will include:

gender in war and society; the intersection of race, class, and gender in collective violence; military masculinity; women at war and the question of the 'feminine' in the perpetration of violence; wartime sexual violence; genocide and 'gendercide'; sex industries and violence; homosexuality and military culture (including queer theory perspectives and recent debates about 'pink-washing' and 'homonationalism'); feminism, anti-feminism and gender studies in the academy; gender and the ethics of war; and gender violence in popular culture.

• 45 credits
• Summer Teaching, Year 1 credits

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module analyses the complex relationships that lie at the heart of the development-security nexus in the Global South, especially Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.

The module focuses on three key areas. First you will explore the extent to which cycles of insecurity and violence affect the possibility of development for large sections of the world's population. Second you will consider the difficulties that aid agencies, nongovernmental organisations, governments, and international organisations encounter when trying to negotiate these spirals of violence and insecurity – be it through armed intervention, the provision of aid, the sponsoring of peace-building processes, or assisting states in postconflict reconstruction. Finally you will conclude by considering whether underdevelopment can be said to constitute a security threat; some Western governments, for example, claim that underdevelopment in the Global South could threaten their national security by facilitating the international spread of terrorist and criminal networks.

The module will provide you with the necessary theoretical tools to approach this subject, grounded in applied examples and cases.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

You focus on independent reading and discussion which allows you to recap or extend your knowledge of feminist, gender and queer theory at advanced levels.

You do this through the following themes:

• identity
• sex
• culture
• speech
• experience
• violence
• labour.

You are encouraged to follow a particular topic or analytical thread through the themes, which can form the framework of your term paper.

You will participate in a weekly workshop and in small group discussion exercises which will encourage you to communicate your learning and make connections across themes and topics.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module approaches feminist theory and methodology at advanced levels, critically exploring feminist research on a number of different issues and engaging with the politics of the research process itself. As a core module on the MA in Gender Studies, it is intended to prepare you to conduct independent research and to produce your dissertation.

The first half of the module introduces different methodologies and methods, encouraging you to reflect critically on their strengths and weaknesses, and how feminists have used them in the service of political projects. In the second half of the module, you will design research projects on two case-study issues and attempt to operationalise key feminist theories.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

The module will introduce you to debates in 'the politics of difference' as they relate to human rights. We begin by examining the genealogy of the concept of culture in the 20th century and look at the diverse political uses to which it has been put, from being part of the discourse of the European far-right to granting greater rights for minorities that were previously politically marginalised. We consider the cultural relativist challenge to universal human rights which asserts the distinctiveness of each 'culture' and that universal human rights instruments are, therefore, inappropriate. We then assess the view that globalisation in general, and especially the globalisation of a human rights discourse, means that relativist views of societal distinctiveness no longer hold in an increasingly interconnected world. Subsequent weeks are concerned with specific instances of rights and difference, including minority rights, indigenous rights and women's human rights. We conclude by returning to the liberal tradition to ask whether or not revised forms of liberalism ('multiculturalism') can provide the answer to the problem of difference in modern societies.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

For much of the 20th century, security was defined in terms of the management of armed conflict between sovereign states, either alone or in alliance. With the end of the Cold War, new sources of insecurity were identified and a 'new agenda' for security policy emerged. Links have been drawn between security and previously unrelated phenomenon such as climate change and the spread of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS. For some moreover, new policy approaches centering upon 'human security' rather than international and national security deepened linkages between security and development. 9/11, subsequent al-Qaeda type terrorism, coalition operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and insurgent action against them further highlighted the relation between non-state actors, transnational networks, 'weak' or 'failed' states and the pursuit of security.

This wider agenda has seen an expansion of the kind of organisations and forms of expertise involved in security policy and practice, traditionally understood to be the preserve of state governments. Growing awareness of the dependence of conflict resolution and post-conflict stabilisation on local development and capacity building, for example, has meant increased emphasis on the role of humanitarian and development agencies. 9/11 and subsequent terrorism have also served to highlight the vulnerability of businesses and civilians, raising questions about where responsibility for security provision resides. The potential vulnerability of these actors and agencies meanwhile, has meant an expansion in private-sector security providers, whose services extend from intelligence analysis through to close protection.

Engaging this wide and constantly changing field, New Security Challenges offers an advanced overview of ten contemporary security topics. Each week, the course focuses on a particular issue, the form of threat involved and how institutions and policy makers have sought to respond.

• 30 credits
• Autumn Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module introduces you to classical sociological theories informing mainstream anthropological analyses of social change. You will focus on theorisations of wider processes of modernisation and change from structural, political and economic perspectives. You will consider debates concerning the effects and consequences of modernisation processes on social, political and economic realms, such as the formation of nation states, state bureaucracy and civil society; the development of markets and commoditisation of economic, social and cultural relationships. You will also reflect on recent critical approaches to the study of modernity and change as represented by theoretical trends associated to feminist theory, postmodernism, postcolonial studies and contemporary social theory. Particular attention will be paid to issues of globalisation and transnationalism; colonial and postcolonial relationships; and discursive constitution of practices and representations of modernity.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

On this module, you will address the ways in which activists and activism have sought to engage in development and social justice. You'll explore and evaluate different approaches to activism, grounding this in theories of social mobilisation and citizenship, and will work through a series of practical examples, drawing on empirical material produced by anthropologists and others, to explore how activism has been used to address issues of development and social justice. In doing so, you will seek to build on the material introduced in previous terms on theories of social change and approaches to development and social justice, to explore how different kinds of activisms seek to bring about change.

The module will explore the contributions that imaginative, insurgent, disruptive and chaotic forms of social action have to make to development, and will cover a range of forms of collective action from the use of petitions and lobbying of representatives, to the use of the arts in "interrupting" everyday life to bring some of its elements into question, to mobilisation for protests and peaceful demonstrations, to non-violent direct action and info-activism.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

In their ethnographies, anthropologies have studied 'intra-cultural' conflict resolution practices. As activists, they have contributed to the emergence of generic approaches to conflict resolution. They have, however, raised important questions regarding the contextuality of generic practices and whether they can capture the complexity of local circumstances.

In the first part of this module, you critically assess the relationship between local ('intra-cultural') and generic approaches to conflict resolution (as practiced by INGOs and other third-parties) - asking whether the latter can be tempered with a sense of context-specificity. You also consider the sociology of mediation and peace negotiations and the power relations and dynamics involved.

In the second part of the module, you explore the desire to 'reconstruct' society in the aftermath of violent conflict. You critically assess 'truth acknowledging' exercises (such as truth commissions), and explore issues of memory and ways in which a psychologised 'nation' can be 'healed'. You contrast this with arguments in favour of 'retributive' exercises (such as international criminal tribunals and domestic trials).

The module is structured as follows:

1. 'Traditional' conflict resolution
2. Re-traditionalising conflict resolution
3. The international 'peacebuilding' discourse
4. Memory and narrative in post-violence contexts
5. Memorialisation
6. 'Reconciliation' or 'co-existence'?
7. 'Truth commissions'
8. International criminal tribunals
9. Case study 1; post-genocide Rwanda
10. Case study 2; post-war Sierra Leone
11. Case study 3; post-war Guatemala
12. One-to-one term paper tutorials

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module will explore legal and rights frameworks relating to children and young people with a particular emphasis on international conventions and perspectives. The first part of the module will involve an exploration of three areas of law: children's rights, child protection/welfare and youth justice/offending. 
Explorations of these topics will include an examination of ideas of globalisation and post-colonial critiques where relevant. In the second part of the module case studies will be used to critically explore these issues in relation to practice with children and young people drawing upon examples from the developed and developing world.

An indicative list of practice topics for exploration includes: 

• Children/young people and work
• Children and poverty
• Children and homelessness
• Children and criminal justice
• Children and refugee status
• Children and the family 

The module will make connections between policy and practice approaches to children and youth in majority and minority worlds as well as linking themes such as migration, adoption and child trafficking. We will, however, pay particular attention to the specificities of work within a development context including an exploration of the practice issues asssociated with work in refugee camps and with street children.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The aim of this module is to explore the development of rights to culture, religion and language from an international and comparative perspective. The idea is to link rights based discussions to contemporary debates involving cultural issues and conflicts (for example on Shari'a law, on religious dress and symbols and on language rights in post-conflict reconciliation). In particular, the module seeks to explore the accommodation of such rights and the balancing of competing interests.

The module will be divided into three parts. The first part of the module will introduce relevant legal frameworks and different theoretical perspectives required for a study of legal approaches to culture, religion and language. Specifically, this part will consider what we mean conceptually by culture, religion and language and consider how competing values and interests are reconciled within the international human rights framework. 

The second part will consider in more depth the development of (both individual and collective) rights to culture, religion and language at the international level and consider the wider implications of the recognition of such rights with a particular focus on specific country situations. This part of the module will consider the extent to which such rights are increasingly being marginalised. It will also consider the impact of contemporary challenges, such as the current economic climate on the accommodation of such rights as well as new opportunities in a post-multicultural era. 

The final part of the module will involve oral presentation of research plans on a case-study of your choice.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The module seeks to provide you with a comprehensive and sophisticated appreciation of the importance of queer work and queer practices in world politics. These include knowledge of different approaches to queer theory and sexuality studies and how these bear on understandings of international relations theory and practices in world politics. The kinds of questions to be investigated are: What is 'queer' and how has 'queer' been understood and explained by the discipline of IR? How and in what ways are 'sexuality' and 'queer' constituted as domains of international political practice and mobilised so that they bear on questions of state and nation formation, war and peace, and global political economy? And how does the discipline of IR grapple with 'queer' and 'sexuality studies' work? Topics to be investigated include analysing how 'heteronormativity' and 'homonormativity' function in relation to questions of hegemony, nationalism, migration, military recruiting, military intervention and its justifications, and neoliberal development projects. We will also consider how 'queer trouble-making' - as a political practice in world politics and as a scholarly practice within the discipline of international relations - might begin to change the relationships amongst queer work, sexuality studies, and international relations.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

On this module you will examine the process of internationalisation of human rights and the main factors that underpin that process, including the nature of the international order, the relationship between human rights and sovereignty of states, and the problematic of intervention and redistribution. You will contrast the use of human rights as instruments of foreign policy with the involvement of international non-governmental organisations. You will examine both the global and the regional legal, and contrast questions of cultural hegemony with those that claim legitimate cultural autonomy.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module reflects the various ways in which power and knowledge interact within contexts of development and economic change. The module provides you with the conceptual apparatus to theorise notions of discourse, power and resistance, but also deals in depth with the historically and culturally contingent nature of the various meanings given to development, modernity and tradition, and how these in turn are linked to different forms of knowledge. As the module shows, narratives and counter narratives of development are not only produced by the developers and developees, but also by yourself and fellow students. They are also inextricable from relations of power.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module seeks to revitalise the concepts of militarism and the world military order as fruitful means of understanding and explaining organised violence and its preparation in contemporary international politics.

Historically, we will examine colonial and Cold War legacies, and theoretically we will address the problem of Eurocentrism and questions around how to conceptualise the world military order, drawing on theoretical resources from within and without the discipline of IR as we do so.

Empirically, we will challenge the new wars and failed/fragile states argument through cases such a Sudan and the DRC, explore the gendered distinction between war and domestic violence through a focus on the gender dynamics of gun violence, and re-read the War on Terror through the international politics of drone warfare in the Middle East.

Through these and other cases we will seek to connect up seemingly disparate cases of violence and weaponry in a single analytical frame of militarism and the world military order.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module examines peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction within the context of transformations and continuities in international politics. This involves:

• Analysing a number of individual peace processes and post-war reconstruction efforts, in each case examining them in their full local specificity, as well as within the context of international (or global) political, economic and social transformations;
• Undertaking some comparative analysis of these individual peace processes and post-war reconstruction efforts, again within the context of international (or global) change;
• Considering, at a more general level, how and why practices of peacemaking have changed over time, and been structured by broader patterns of politics and society, ie.undertaking an international historical sociology of peacemaking;
• Considering, conversely, how practices and experiences of peacemaking have contributed to the shaping and reshaping of international orders;
• Analysing peace processes and reconstruction through the lens of theoretical debates in peace studies, conflict resolution, international relations and global political economy.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

In this module, you explore theoretical debates over key postcolonial political and socio-cultural dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa.

You are encouraged to think critically about dominant representations of the sub-continent in the West particularly as these shape developmental, security and other interventions, and to assess alternative representations, such as those produced by African print media or civil society campaigns.

You are introduced, and invited, to analyse different, often conflicting accounts of postcolonial continuities and transformations.

Topics include introductions to theoretical discussion of:

• the postcolonial state and forms of local governance
• nationalism and ethnicity
• conflict
• borders
• the politics of land and natural resources
• processes of urbanization and reshaping of city spaces
• mobility
• new forms of transnational connection between Africa, Europe and China.

Each session is oriented around a different theoretical debate, but is also explored through a particular case study.
Therefore, you gain an overview of cutting edge theory, while at the same time appreciating the extent of diversity across the continent, and having the opportunity to explore primary and secondary sources on specific and topical issues.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The aim of this module is to gain knowledge and understanding of the complexity of forced migration issues in developing countries, and of the range of ideological and practical perspectives which inform policy concerning the reception and settlement of refugees, and the resolution of conflicts which give rise to forced migration flows. At the end of the course, you will be expected to have a conceptual and intellectual grasp of the principle components of the growing literature on forced migration and development, and specific understanding of the practical experience of, and lessons learnt from refugee assistance programmes over the past 50 years.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The module will explore sexualities as sites of political contestation, claims to rights and intimate aspirations in context of global socio-economic transformations, international health and development practice. The module will bring together theoretical perspectives on sexual subjectivity and sexual life, worlds with a range of applied concerns relating to health, actvism and development policy, and programming internationally. In particular the module will examine ways in which 'dissident sexual subjects' have been imagined globally, often both included and marginalised in different domains, such as the community, the state and international policy fora.

Themes and issus addressed by the module will include:

• Sexual subjectivities, intimate lives and global transformations
• Heteronormativity in interntional development and health
• HIV and AIDS: Epidemiology, anthropology and policy - contested engagements with sexual lives and 'key populations'
• Citizenship, economies and queer abandonment
• Sexuality, law and the state: Homonational contestations
• UN agencies and (im)possible sexual subjects
• Sexualities in transition: trans-subjectivites, trans-bodies and trans-nationalisms
• Viral and virtual intimacies
• Intimate economies: Sex work, sex and work
• Collaborative action: working with NGOs on sexual rights and health
• Creative engagement: visual ethnographic work on sexual life-worlds - globally
• Advocacy and exclusions: Global dialogues, sexual rights, well-being and marginalisations 

Sexual life-worlds are increasingly interpreted in relation to global flows and transitions. One way in which connections between global processes and sexualities are becoming ever-more visible is in relation to new imaginaries of sexual identity and subjectivity, as mediated through transnational media, new communication technologies and the global momentum of neo-liberal capital. International development and heath practices are closely associated with such social processes as they seek to respond to the changing and enduring attributes of sexual lives, practices and risks in the context of wider concerns for well-being. The module will respond to such concerns and seek to equip you with both theoretical and practice based frameworks for engaging with a range of themes and issues related to sexuality and development.

The module will be interdisciplinary in focus, drawing more widely on literature from anthropology and the social sciences, international development, health, gender and sexuality studies. In particular the module will seek to explore a range of literatures comparatively, bringing theoretical perspectives on sexuality into dialogue with more practice-based literature, such as reports by UN agencies, NGOs and so on. Through class readings, and drawing on the experience of the tutor and your own experiences, the aim will be explore, contest and consider differing modes of engaging with sexualities on a global scale - as academics, health practioners, activists, development professionals and so on. The module will be taught via a combination of seminar-based readings and discussions, analysis of (ethnographic) film, reflexive class exercises and group presentations.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module offers an advanced level introduction to terrorism, state terror and security in global political context. Attending to case studies, academic literatures and primary sources the curriculum is divided into two sections. The first, 'Studying Terror: Conceptual Issues', offers a thematic exploration of terrorism and state terror, considering their historical development in modern societies; relation to other forms of organised violence; some of the animating ideas historically associated with the use of terror for political purposes; the phenomenon of `suicide terrorism' and the ideas, organisations and practices used by states in their efforts to counter terrorism. The second section, 'Cases and Contexts', situates terrorism and state terror within the changing context of state power, international and global politics, exploring the historical and contemporary relations between them.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The body has recently become a key focus for sociological theorising and research. Much of this work has focused on defining the body as a socially constructed phenomenon, and exploring how it is produced through various social and cultural practices and discourses, and categories such as gender, class, race and sexual orientation. However, the body is also highly politically charged; a key site at which oppression is meted out, and is a focus of regulation and governance at individual, group, national and international levels. Bodies, and particularly women's bodies, are also at the nexus of some of the most controversial debates of our time.  

This module looks at the politics of the body from a sociological point of view, exploring themes of embodiment and power through a variety of controversial issues such as HIV/AIDS, sexual violence, sex work, abortion, cosmetic surgery and eugenics. You will think through various debates in relation to a broad canon of theories from feminism and sociology, around notions such as rights, bodily autonomy and integrity, structures and discourses, and the formation and regulation of identities. Gender will be a central thread throughout, and attention will be paid to how it intersects with other social categories such as class, 'race', sexual orientation, age, and (dis)ability.
 
 

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

The Middle East is almost constantly in the news. From Israel and the West Bank to Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the region is at once a byword for political instability, and a recurring site of Western political and military interventions. This module explores some of the political, economic and cultural dynamics that lie behind the crisis-ridden headlines. You examine the emergence of the Middle East from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and the specificities of the modern state-formation processes in the Middle East. You study the interplay of the international and domestic factors in the Middle Eastern states and societies looking at their political economies and patterns of development. You critically investigate the problems of authoritarianism and democratic change in the Middle East. The module also engages in more in depth analysis of some important contemporary phenomena in the Middle East such as political Islam, The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iraq War, and the 'Arab Spring'.

We start by examining some key methodological and theoretical debates in the study of the Middle East. We then move on to consider the processes of modern state formation and the legacies of (neo)colonialism and imperialism. We then consider the impacts of neo-liberalism on Middle Eastern polities and economies, international (geo)political economy of the region with special reference to oil, and the theme of human development including gender issues in the Middle East. We then examine some key political forms and forces, including the authoritarian 'rentier' state, processes of democratisation and liberalisation, and political Islam. The final part of the course concentrates on three particularly important issues in contemporary Middle East: the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution and the 'Arab Spring', Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the Iraq War.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

In this module you:

• engage critically with key theoretical debates over the concepts of transnationalism and diaspora
• assess qualitative methodological approaches to transnational dimensions of migrants' lives
• reflect critically on representations of migrants and mobility
• demonstrate knowledge of the power relations and institutional contexts that shape migrant agency, transnational connections and expressions of diasporic identity
• critically evaluate policies, campaigns and migrants' own initiatives in relation to specific transnational engagements.

• 30 credits
• Spring Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module is divided into two halves. The first half consists of core topics providing a theoretical framework for the study of women's human rights. You will draw on feminist legal theory, human rights theory, anthropological and historical materials and international and national rights instruments and documentation. The second half focuses on the conception, implementation, adherence and breach of a specific right or related rights. 

• 45 credits
• Summer Teaching, Year 1 credits

This module is designed to allow you to apply theories and concepts, as well as practical and research skills learned during the MA programme, to a work context in the UK or internationally. It takes the form of a 12-week work placement with an organisation working in a field relevant to the degree programme, normally undertaken from May-July after assessments on other courses are completed.