This module will examine the development of representations and debates around AIDS in France from the early 1980s to the close of the twentieth century. The module will take a broadly cultural studies approach and, through the analysis of political and sociological texts, will examine the role of French medical research in the isolation and naming of the virus/disease and the development of French government policy toward the disease in terms of prevention campaigns and political rhetoric. We shall also study, in depth, a range of ‘literary’ and filmic texts which address the issue of AIDS and debates around AIDS. The module will address a range of themes related to these interlinking areas: government policy versus non-government sponsored AIDS activism in France; the setting up and development of self-help organisations; issues related to gender and (gay) sexuality; the individual and different notions of community; the politics of representing and ‘reading’ AIDS. Although the focus will be on AIDS in France, comparison will be made with other countries and cultures in order to highlight some of the ideological and political inflections specific to AIDS in modern France.

This module provides students with historical and sociological perspectives on Chinese childhood, families and education from the late nineteenth century to...

Children, Families and Education in Modern China, 1890-present (EDPS0250)

This module provides students with historical and sociological perspectives on Chinese childhood, families and education from the late nineteenth century to the present. It considers how state and non-state actors have used education to mould ideal citizens and how changing gender relations have profoundly shaped this education. Throughout the course students will be asked to think critically and comparatively about how Chinese conceptions of childhood, family and education changed through interaction with globally circulating ideas. It covers topics including late Qing examination systems, education for women, debates about education in the face of encroachment by western powers and Japan, the role of western missionaries and Chinese students abroad, the May Fourth Movement of 1919, and childhood and family life under Japanese occupation during the Second World War. Students will gain an understanding of what it was like to grow-up in Mao’s China and how the family planning polices introduced in 1980 irrevocably altered the educational and life chances of children in urban and rural China. Students will be introduced to the latest debates in the literature and will engage with various theories and approaches including global, gender and oral history to analyse a wide variety of primary oral, visual, textual and material sources. The module includes a field trip to the British Museum and students will give a 10-minute in-class presentation on an object of their choice as part of the module assessment.