Search results: 41
This module, taught in translation, introduces students to the breadth and variety of ancient
thought – investigating the ways in which the ancient Greeks and Romans articulated their thinking
and their beliefs, about themselves and the worlds around them. This module surveys the cultural
and intellectual contours of the ancient Graeco-Roman world from the presocratics through to late
antiquity, and investigates not just the origins and development of philosophical thinking, but also
developments in scientific investigation. It offers an overview of the cultural and intellectual
horizons of major advances in intellectual self-examination, across politics, ethics, aesthetics, and
literary criticism, and Graeco-Roman value-systems, including in relation to gender, class, and
race. It does not simply survey familiar names and ideas in ancient philosophy (e.g. Plato and
Aristotle; Stoicism and Epicureanism) but also facilitates discussion of a variety of contributions to
ancient self-reflection across a much wider range of ancient sources.
As well as expanding awareness of the range of materials that classicists study, the module will
explore critically the range of methodologies and approaches used in the interpretation of this
material, and the assessment of its own conceptual self-consciousness, and allow students to test
out these skills in their own responses. For instance, what is it about presocratic thought that is so
innovative and distinctive, and how might it be understood in context, both in the development of
ancient attitudes to writing and to culture and religion? What range of materials might we use,
beyond Plato and Aristotle, to investigate the intellectual obsessions of Classical Athens? How
might Plato’s and Aristotle’s attitudes to ethics, politics, and poetics be more broadly situated?
How might the origins and developments of Roman thought be understood, and through what
range of sources? How, in particular, might a distinctive Roman philosophical poetics be
articulated, and what might that mean, with what consequences for ourselves as well as for our
understanding of ancient Rome? How might the origins and developments of ancient medicine be
understood, in context and beyond?
No previous knowledge is assumed, and this module is designed to inspire students, to broaden
their intellectual horizons, and to provide them with a basis on which to choose their honours
pathways after year 1. Each weekly 2-hr lecture will introduce a series of texts, themes and
approaches, and two seminars will investigate two case studies in greater depth (one Greek, one
Roman).
The module provides an understanding of the principles
of operation of automated equipment with particular reference to industrial
robots. It focuses on the knowledge needed to select and use such equipment
effectively and safely. However, some design aspects will be presented. There
is an emphasis on the use of sensors to make robots behave
"intelligently".
By the end of the module students will be able to:
- Appraise the impact of automation, both economic and social, on modern industry and future applications in industry
- Contrast the benefits and disadvantages of automating a task.
- Evaluate the different mechanical configurations available for a modern industrial robot and argue if a task is appropriate for that configuration.
- Program an industrial robot off-line using kinematic simulation software to perform a specified task.
- Locate the sources of positional error and calculate the possible positional error in an application.
- Analyse safety hazards and formulate a safety system for a given automation application.
- Select appropriate sensors for a given automation application.
- Apply machine vision to a given application and set up a machine vision system.
- Analyse complex robot kinematic theory and devise kinematic calculations for a given case study.
This module aims to provide a rigorous understanding of first-principles design applied at the limits of practical performance of mechanical systems, including constraints on it. It introduces ideas and methodologies for miniaturization that are essential to modern technology, e.g. in the large UK instrumentation sector, as well as sub-systems for use in aerospace, automotive, etc. Additionally, it provides insights into the science and practice of metrology.
Having set the scene in terms of the implications to mechanical systems design arising from high-precision applications, from microsystems technology and from nanotechnology, the module examine the definitions and causes of uncertainty and the nature of mechanical surfaces. It then proceeds to explore some fundamental principles useful to design and to the assessment of technical plausibility; for example, loops, alignment principles, kinematic design. Practical ways to exploit them are studied through semi-kinematic design, flexure design, materials selection and so on. A review of some conventional and non-conventional manufacture processes is necessary to this study and leads directly to more detailed consideration of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) design strategies. Case study examples are drawn mainly from instrumentation, but may also include considerations of machine tools, vibration reduction, etc.
This module offers students the opportunity to study postcolonial film from different historical and national contexts and via a range of geopolitical and technological shifts. It will explore the changing relationship between colonialism and film through the course of the twentieth century and beyond. The module will begin by interrogating cinemas of and as Empire with an emphasis upon Anglo-American history, its ‘imperial gaze’ and neo-colonial Hollywood. It will then move on to explore various case studies of colonial, de-colonial or anti-colonial film (for example, Indian cinema or Palestinian film) and to consider key related themes such as questions of diaspora (via Accented cinema) and of the digital (via online activism).
Summary of Aims: This module explores the impact of colonialism upon national cinemas and filmmaking practices in broad terms and through detailed examples. It aims to provide a solid understanding of this well-established but still unfolding field whilst furthering students’ analytical and critical skills, allowing them to enter confidently into its debates.
Anticipated Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester you will be able to:
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the impact of colonialism on national cinemas and filmmaking practices.
• Critically contextualise the relationship between Empire and Cinema via historical, geopolitical, technological and aesthetic concerns.
• Articulate (in verbal and written form) a critically engaged understanding of the ways in which film has reflected, reinforced, resisted or rescripted ‘Imperial’ (orientalist/racist/colonial) processes and legacies.
• Demonstrate an ability to offer nuanced and detailed analyses of film texts that enter, confidently, into postcolonial debates.
All teaching – lecture, screening and seminar – takes place in room A1.27 from 12.00-16/16.30 on Wednesdays. The one timetabled screening per week is to be supplemented by a required viewing done on the student’s own time. As well as preparing for class each week by doing the readings assigned, and trying to watch the additional films recommended, students may be asked occasionally to do some web-based informal research or ‘tasks’ for relevant sessions. All seminars (week 2-10) will include an unassessed student presentation – on the week’s topic, determined in consultation with the module leader – which will form the basis of the presenters’ first assignment, the review essay. The requirements for this will be discussed further in class.
Please come to seminars prepared = having read and annotated assigned texts identifying any areas or ideas that were hard to follow or particularly interesting, and formulating questions in response to them and the viewings you have done, which will allow you to contribute fully to seminar discussion.
ASSESSMENT:
One 1,000 word Review Essay – 20% Deadline: Monday 6th April 2020
Building upon the unassessed presentation, this essay will critically evaluate the de-, post-, or anti-colonial concerns of one case study. Guidance on this provided in week 1
One 4,000 word Essay – 80% Deadline: Tuesday 5th May 2020
Who hasn't heard of Napoleon? Who doesn't recognise his hat? Why have Nicolas Sarkozy, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron be likened to him? And what might those comparisons mean? This module aims to introduce students to the key events and ideas of the First Empire through contemporary sources. A range of material will be used, from official declarations to political pamphlets to the plays of the period to allow you to understand Napoleon's achievements and controversies.
In addition, Napoleon’s reign will be used as a case study to examine leadership styles and potential derailers for leaders. Napoleon is frequently used as an example of high and low points in leadership and we will be comparing key concepts in leadership theory with Napoleon's career and achievements.
By the end of the module, students will have:
i) engaged critically with events and discourse 1799-1815
ii) developed greater insight into the evolution of the socio-political and cultural context in France 1799-1815
iii) developed their capacity to work with original source material in the target language and to examine and analyse such source material in a coherent and succinct manner.
iv) used Napoleon’s career to examine what lessons can be learnt for 21st-century leadershipr.
Assessment Method:
Either
1 x 2000-2500 word essay and 1 x 1hr exam
Or
1 x 10 minute oral presentation and 3500 word essayThis module offers an in-depth examination of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (“good health and well-being”) and the broader field of global health. The module will involve a blend of conceptual foundations, case study analysis, and work with real-life qualitative and quantitative data. Teaching and case studies will be interdisciplinary, drawing on medical as well as social science research.
This module offers an in-depth examination of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (“good health and well-being”) and the broader field of global health. The module will involve a blend of conceptual foundations, case study analysis, and work with real-life qualitative and quantitative data. Teaching and case studies will be interdisciplinary, drawing on medical as well as social science research.
Module Outline
This module has been designed to introduce students to the critical evaluation of visual and documentary evidence through a discussion of works of art that have been revealed or are polemically considered to be fakes. Taking a thematic approach, the module will consider cases from the medieval to the contemporary across different media. The following questions will be addressed: What is authenticity? When did the notion of forgery emerge? What is the difference between copy, replica, and forgery? Is restoration a sort of forgery? Is there a science to reveal forgeries? What is the relationship between fake and mass culture? Two important 20th-century films will provide further points for study. The module will be team-taught and will also introduce students to the range and presentation methods of the members of the department.
Syllabus
Introduction: Restoration or Replication?
Reproduction, Revival, Forgery
Technical Analysis: An Anti-Forgery?
Archives of Forgeries
The Forger as Artist?
The Architectural Simulacrum
Appropriation, Authorship, Copyright
The Real/Fake Debate
Forgery and Connoisseurship
Assessment:
Essay (1500 words; 100%; to be submitted by the end of the term)
Bibliography
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (London: Penguin, 2008).
Lynn Catterson, Finding, Fixing, Faking, Making: Supplying Sculpture in ‘400 Florence (Todi: Ediart, 2014).
Leah R. Clark, “Transient Possessions: Circulation, Replication, and Transmission of Gems and Jewels in Quattrocento Italy,” in Journal of Early Modern History 15 (2011):185–221.
Bruce Cole and Ulrich Middledorf: “Masaccio, Lippi, or Hugford?,” in Burlington Magazine 113 (1971):500–507.
Thomas Da Costa Kaufmann, “Antiquarianism, the History of Objects, and the History of Art before Winckelmann,” in Journal of the History of Ideas 62 (2001):523–41.
Jonathon Keats, Forged: Why Fakes Are the Great Art of Our Age (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Joris Kila and Marc Balcells, eds., Cultural Property Crime (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014).
Thierry Lenain, Art Forgery: The History of a Modern Obsession (London: Reaktion Books, 2011).
Tomas Loch, “The Changing Meaning of Copies: Citations and Use of Plaster Casts in Art from the Renaissance to the Beginning of the 20th Century,” in Copia e invención (Valladolid: Museo Nacional de Escultura, 2013):107–39.
Ken Perenyi, Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger (New York: Pegasus, 2012).
David A. Scott, Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archeology Press, 2016).
Walter Stephens, “When Noah Ruled the Etruscans: Annius of Viterbo and his Forged Antiquities,” in MLN 119 (2004):201–23.
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the discpline of Hispanic Studies and to foster a critical engagement with written and visual texts via the study of three key themes that each in different ways pose questions about studying other languages and cultures. Students will reflect on the nature and range of Hispanic Studies, and then engage with travel writing, images and stereotypes of the Hispanic world, and representations and interpretations of the Spanish Civil War. In each case, emphasis is placed on close textual analysis to foment (i) linguistic ability acquired in language modules; (ii) critical reading skills; (iii) management and understanding of source materials where relevant.
Description
This module offers a completely different experience from other university courses. Whilst having the chance to investigate and reflect on your own aspirations and values, you will also complete 30 to 40 hours of volunteering in a local not-for-profit organisation or similar setting. During Autumn term 2016, you will be matched with a community-identified project, ready to start volunteering on your project when you begin the module at the beginning of 2017. This course will encourage you to reflect on and enhance your practical experience in a community-engaged setting. You will explore the links between academic study and community engagement within a framework of respect, reciprocity, relevance and reflection.
The module will combine theoretical understandings from your home discipline with new interdisciplinary perspectives and apply them to practical, real world problems in communities outside the university. We will investigate and reflect on what can be learned from engagement with communities and with community-identified problems, and you will test the relationship between theory and practice, reflecting collectively and individually on the emergent learning that results.
Structure
The module will consist of ten two-hour sessions, in addition to the community-based project. Some weeks, a guest lecturer will examine aspects of community engagement from the perspective of their particular discipline. With these perspectives in mind, you will work in the second half of each session with the module convenor to develop your learning in an interdisciplinary manner, including reflection on practical project experience. Other weeks will be workshop style throughout - in both cases consistent attendance is very important to the development of critically reflective responses to theory and practice for this module.
This module aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between crime and justice on the one hand, and how this relationship is tied to current issues and recent transformations in the socio-political global environment on the other. This aim is pursued through a critical interdisciplinary study of law in society, which thoroughly examines the pursuit of justice through law together with the role of law as an instrument of social order.
The first part of the course explores the main theoretical and methodological reflections around the main theme of the course, developing the conceptual basis for the critical analysis that will be undertaken in the course as a whole. The second part of the course then focuses on the analysis of specific case studies, through which the methodological framework previously developed will be applied. In this part, students choose specific case studies to explore in their course assessments. The course end with a discussion of conclusions and reflections, and with student presentations of their case studies.