Moodle@Warwick

When people think about media these days, the internet and social media immediately spring to mind. But of course, these are only the latest developments in a long history of humans communicating to ever larger numbers, about a wider variety things, over greater expanses of space and time. This module surveys that history from a sociological perspective, looking at how people respond to the form and the content of media representations through the lens of sociological theory and empirical research. The module starts with the early theories of mass media and their impact on people’s lives. Step by step, the module introduces key developments in the history of media research. Ultimately, we arrive at the role of social media in society. We consider how the highly distributed and democratised nature of the internet and social media is transforming society and people’s lives on an evolving basis. The module asks you to consider your own experience of media and to critical interrogate its role in society from a sociological perspective.

Sociology of Education is a sub-discipline of Sociology that takes a critical and analytical look at the design, development, experience and outcomes of the education system. Over the course of the module we will take the UK education system as a case study for helping us to understand the ways in which political, social, moral and economic agendas have shaped (and continue to shape) schools and universities. Paying close attention to key policy-making, we will ask critical questions about the role and purpose of education in relation to wider society. What kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing are permitted or excluded in traditional educational settings? Does education challenge or reproduce social inequalities? How do young people and teachers experience education?

Welcome to Gender, Crime and Justice,

 This module aims to provide a comprehensive and critical understanding of the relationship between gender, crime and justice. The module will explore the  sociological  and  criminological approaches to the study of deviance, gender and crime in contemporary society. You  will be presented with a range of theoretical and conceptual issues around the theme of gender, crime and justice including feminist writing on the meaning and relevance of gender. The course will highlight some of the key issues when exploring crime, victimisation and criminal justice in relation to gender. The content will draw on relevant policy material in this field.

Disability, Inequality, and the Life Course is a Year 2 optional module that introduces students to the sociology of disability. The particular focus of the module is to provide explanations for numerous disability inequalities that exist across the life course. Upon completion of the module, students will have an appreciation of existing theoretical approaches to understanding disability inequalities as well as knowledge of empirical research on a wide range of relevant topics. The module is primarily research-led: we will regularly engage with existing empirical work on disability in order to better understand mechanisms and social processes behind the association of disability with social inequality.

This module seeks to promote teaching on the historical and contemporary experiences of transgender people. It fosters critical analysis of gender in relation to trans binary and non-binary genders and focuses on the meaning of transgender for everyday social life in a local as well as global context. ‘Trans’ may be taken to mean anyone who is uncomfortable with, or transgresses, usual gender roles and ‘can cover a variety of experiences’ (Whittle, 2006) including gender variance, permanent or temporary cross dressing, transsexuality and transgenderism. It aims to introduce students to gender as a question of being or doing beyond ‘the binary’ and introduce them to the theory and practice of trans epistemologies in contemporary society. Taking a trans-feminist perspective, the course recognizes the increasingly critical field of inquiry in trans binary and non-binary social life (including socio and medico legal frameworks) and how this is cross cut by other variables such as race, impairment, class, sexuality and religion. The course will address socio and medico legal issues such as healthcare, young people, surgery as well as research methodologies and media representation and presentation.

Provisional Outline of Course

Week 1: Introduction: Indigenous feminisms, post/colonial feminisms and the intersections of political struggles

Week 2: Feminism, post/coloniality and the question of sovereignty (Assam)

Week 3: Feminism, terror and security (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan) 

Week 4: Feminism, socialism and authoritarianism (China)

Week 8: Feminism, reproduction and land rights in settler colonial states (Australia, US, Canada)

Week 9: Feminism and Revolution (Algeria)

Week 10: Summary workshop/ Time for assessment discussion

Illustrative Bibliography

R. Icaza (2017) 'Decolonial Feminism and Global Politics: Border Thinking and Vulnerability as a Knowing Otherwise' in M. Woons & S. Weier (eds.) Critical Epistemologies of Global Politics, E-International Relations Publishing.

Kaul, N. & Zia, A.(2018) ‘Knowing in our Own Ways: Women and Kashmir’, Special Issue EPW/RWS

Osuri, G.(2018) ‘Sovereignty, vulnerability, and a gendered resistance in Indian-occupied Kashmir’, Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, 3(2) 228-43.

Menon, Nivedita. 2012. "Victims or Agents?" in Seeing like a Feminist. pp. 173-212. 

Radha Kumar (1999) 'From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Indian Women's Movement'. in N. Menon (ed.), Gender and Politics in India. OUP, pp.342-369.

Fong, M. (2016) One Child: The story of China’s most radical experiment, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt.

Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl and Dorothy Ko (eds.) (2013) The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory, Columbia University Press.

Hershatter, G. (2018) Women and China’s Revolutions, Rowman & Littlefield.

Maha El Said, Lena Meari and Nicola Pratt (eds.) (2015) Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance: Lessons from the Arab World, London: Zed.

Nadje Al-Ali & Nicola Pratt (2009) What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq, Berkeley: University of California Press.

Seedat, F.(ed.) (2017) ‘Special Issue: Women, Religion and Security’, Agenda, 30(3).

M.E.M.Kolawole (1997) Womanism and African Consciousness, Africa World Press Inc.

B. Badri & A. M. Tripp (eds.) (2017) Women’s Activism in Africa, London: Zed.

B. Fredericks (1997) ‘Reempowering Ourselves: Australian Aboriginal Women’, Signs. Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 35(3).

Green, J. (ed.) (2017) Making Space for Indigenous Feminism(2^ndedition), Fernwood Publishing.

R. Aída Hernández Castillo (2010) ‘The Emergence of Indigenous Feminism in Latin America’, Signs, 35(3).