Summer School: Media, Arts and Humanities
Learn about British history and culture and express yourself creatively in our Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities.
Immerse yourself in culture and creativity
Our modules tell the story of how British culture and history has shaped the nation, focusing on local sites such as the opulent Royal Pavilion in Brighton, once the seaside pleasure palace of King George IV.
You can also explore the booming industry of video games, imagining your own story-worlds and investigating the social and ethical dimensions of gaming.
Undergraduate Summer School student
Read Sofiia’s Summer School story
Modules you can study
Select from the following modules:
Session One
- British History: Protest and Privilege since 1800
Module code: IS442
This module provides an overview of what has changed (and what has not) in British society and culture since 1800. It explores how change was driven by ordinary men and women, alongside the powers of empire, aristocracy and monarchy. Popular protest will be contrasted with the ongoing importance of social privilege and national prestige, and you will encounter, not just royalists, but radicals and revolutionaries.
You will gain fresh insight into how the past continues to shape contemporary Britain. Why have the legacies of empire become a source of such controversy? How has the monarchy been able to survive? Have women’s status and sexuality fundamentally changed since the Victorian era? Is there a distinctive “British” variety of youth culture, evolving from mods and rockers to punks and ravers?
Your tutors will draw on Sussex University’s long tradition of studying the history of those (workers, women, sexual and racial minorities) who sought to resist, transgress and disrupt the status quo. Outside the classroom, you will encounter the extraordinary past (and present) of Brighton, encapsulated in the Regency’s era dazzling Royal Pavilion and the city’s long-established alternative subcultures and lifestyles. Immersed in a wide range of sources and archives, you will learn advanced skills of historical analysis, emerging with an authoritative grasp over the longer-term historical trajectory of a nation which struggles to confront both its past and its present.
Learning outcomes:
- use historical knowledge and evidence to analyse and contextualise contemporary issues and challenges
- demonstrate skills of source analysis, archival investigation, textual interpretation and evaluation
- investigate the influence of events and ideas across historical periods
- understand key debates and conflicts in British history since the late eighteenth century.
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar, Fieldwork
Assessment: Portfolio (90%), Observation (10%)
Contact hours: 40 hours
Credits: 15 Sussex Credits
Level: 4This module is suitable for students who have an interest in how history has shaped contemporary British culture and society. A background in history is not required.
- Video Games: Creative and Critical Writing
Module code: IS403
In recent years the gaming industry has been transformed by the addition of auteur-driven indie games to those of AAA studios with Hollywood budgets, as well as by the diversity of technology on which games can be played.
We will study examples of successful imagined worlds (Zelda: Breath of the Wild), powerful storytelling (The Last of Us), literary games (Kentucky Route Zero), indie games (Braid), micro-Indies (Problem Attic) and classic adventure games (Monkey Island), among others.
We will explore the possibilities of play, world-building, narrative, character-design, game mechanics, and game dynamics. Technical understanding of the medium will provide us with an array of opportunities for writing and imagining video games; composing narratives and shooting-scripts, creating avatars and developing fictional worlds.
We will introduce you to some game development software, though this module is not designed as a coding course. It is ideal for students looking beyond the surface of video games, wanting to engage with thoughtful critique of an emerging industry. We will reflect on the social implications of game design, taking into account discourses around gender, race and sexuality.
Learning outcomes:
- understand and experiment with common practices of creative writing across multiple video game genres
- reflect critically on the social implications of game design, taking into account discourses around gender, race, and sexuality
- communicate the results of critical reflection in a collegial group discussion
- evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems when relating the creative aspect of game design to critical reflection on the social aspects of games.
Teaching method: Workshops
Assessment: 90% portfolio, 10% observation
Contact hours: 40 hours
Credits: 15 Sussex Credits
Level: 4If you are interested in this module, please see our Session Two module, British Cinema.
Undergraduate Summer School – Video Games
Dr Sam Ladkin introduces the Summer School’s Video Game module.
- Video transcript
[Dr Sam Ladkin, Associate Professor of Critical and Creative Writing, speaks to camera]
Hi. My name is Dr Sam Ladkin, and I am Associate Professor of Critical and Creative Writing here at the University of Sussex. This is just a brief introduction to the Video Games module on the Summer School.
The module is a creative writing module, so we’re going to play with all sorts of features of video games, from character design and narrative arcs, world building, choice architecture and script writing.
It’s really a module about meaning and interpretation, including the interpretation of why people play video games and why characters in stories act in the way they do. Though this isn’t a game development module, we do introduce you to one of the big industry standard game engines to see whether any aspect of game development, the art, the coding or the engineering might be in your future.
We interpret games in all sorts of ways, thinking about their mechanics and dynamics, and we interpret anything really, from indie games and Triple-A blockbusters to tabletop role playing games or board games. Crucially, throughout we interpret games according to their political and social effects, so we think through the representation of games in terms of gender, sexuality and race.
This would be a great module for you if you’re looking to extend your creative practice. Whether or not that currently includes game design, it would also be a great module if you’re interested in using games as part of your other scholarly discipline. So thinking about games for change and social games, or so-called serious games. It’s been inspiring teaching games at Sussex for a number of years.
Our students always bring great imagination and idiosyncratic approaches to games. They produce both quirky, fun, small indie games and devise huge, vast, epic, imaginative works.
We very much hope we can welcome you to the University of Sussex.
Session Two
- British Cinema
Module code: IS426
This module provides a historical survey of British cinema as well as an introduction to critical and theoretical debates associated with national cinema. You’ll examine the relationship between British cinema and British culture, history and national identity. You’ll also consider how British cinema has represented other dimensions of identity such as class, gender, ethnicity and sexuality. You’ll analyse a range of films in order to explore how British cinema:
- responded to the Second World War and the decline of the British Empire
- has been discussed in relation to notions of “realism” and “heritage”
- has engaged with transformations of society associated with multiculturalism
- functions in a transnational or even post-national era.
You’ll also consider how specific genres such as the crime film and the period drama have functioned in the national and international marketplace.
This module is suitable for students who have an interest in humanities, film and cultural studies. A background in these subjects is not required.
Learning outcomes
- develop an awareness of the problems involved in constituting a ‘history’ of a British national cinema
- develop a critical understanding of British cinema’s production of representations of Britishness and Englishness, its constitution of ‘otherness’, and its representations of gender, race, class and community
- develop an understanding of the changing political and cultural context in which such representations have been produced
- develop an ability to critically analyse specific film texts in light of these understandings.
Teaching method: seminar, film
Assessment: learning diary (70%), presentation (20%), observation (10%)
Contact hours: 40 hours
Credits: 15 Sussex Credits
Level: 4If you are interested in this module, you may also want to explore two of our Session One modules: British History and Video Games.
Undergraduate Summer School – British Cinema
Explore the British Cinema module with Prof Dolores Tierney.
Read our top tips for choosing your modules. You can also find out about our teaching structure, assessment process and how your credits transfer back to your home institution.
Contact us
Email summer@sussex.ac.uk with any questions about Undergraduate Summer Schools.