Module Content and Indicative Topics 

This interdisciplinary module introduces students to theory and methods that will be useful across languages and departments in and beyond SELCS. The module also includes practical training from conducting interviews, to analyzing a wide range of media sources (from films to advertising), to museum field trips.

Students also prepare in-depth independent research projects in teams, which they present to classmates and a panel of 'judges'. Students are encouraged to participate in weekly discussions, on-line fora and learn as much from the lecturer as from their multi-talented and multilingual classmates. The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:

Term 1: general introduction to cultural studies, language and culture, language and gender, otherness, introduction to memory studies, ‘reading the city’, introduction to museum studies (including trip to museum of London) oral history and fieldwork.

Term 2: introduction to Translation studies, Brian Friel’s Translations (a case study), literature in translation, digital humanities, postcolonial studies, visual culture, race and class.

 

Teaching Delivery 

Taught in two-hour sessions the module will vary in delivery, with some formal lecture hours, regular group seminars and some collaborative lessons (including two ‘flipped classroom’ lessons). Students will be expected to actively participate in discussions and to complete weekly reading assignments as well as occasional on-line fora. In term 1 two lessons will take place outside the classroom: one will involve a walk in Bloomsbury and the other will take place at the Museum of London. In term 2 some class time will be devoted to developing your group independent projects as well as for the presentations themselves.



This is a compulsory module for the BA in Language and Culture



Enrolment on this module is restricted to students on the BA in Language and Culture. You will not be able to join the module if you do not meet these criteria.



By the end of the module, you should be able to:




 Have some knowledge of key concepts in cultural studies/sociolinguistics and of a wide range of interdisciplinary academic fields and methodological approaches.
 

 Have gained research/social and public speaking/presentation skills through your group independent projects and presentations.
 

 Have a sophisticated understanding of problems relating to ‘representation’ whether in the context of works of art/news/museums.
 

 Have developed your academic writing through a tailored writing lab session, and challenging essay questions. 
 
Preliminary Reading



Hall, Stuart, Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices, London, Sage with Open University, 1997.



Kramsch, Claire, Language and Culture, Oxford, Oxford UP, 1998