CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES LATE CENOZOIC PERIOD|CLIMATE CHANGE

The study of climatic and environmental changes that have occurred over the past few million years is one of the most exciting branches of Physical...

Climate Change: Past, Present, Future (GEOG0052)

The study of climatic and environmental changes that have occurred over the past few million years is one of the most exciting branches of Physical Geography. This module examines spatial and temporal patterns of climatic and environmental changes during the late Cenozoic and their potential causes. It also assesses the contribution of palaeoclimatology to our understanding of present and future climate.  The course stresses the multi-disciplinary nature of research into past environments.  On completion of the module students will have knowledge of major global patterns of climate change and environmental response on tectonic, orbital and millennial timescales and their regional expression e.g. northern vs southern hemisphere, low vs mid vs high latitude, an understanding of the different climate forcing variables and an appreciation of how climate scientists have used palaeoclimatic data to support projections of future climate.

Geography students are advised to take GEOG0021 Reconstructing Past Environments. GEOG0052 is also relevant to Earth Science and Archaeology students, who are advised to take relevant 2nd year courses in their own departments if they have not taken GEOG0021.

This course aims to contextualise and introduce key concepts in French postwar (literary) theory by focusing on two of the key figures involved: Michel...

An Introduction to Literary Theory (FREN0009)

This course aims to contextualise and introduce key concepts in French postwar (literary) theory by focusing on two of the key figures involved: Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes. Post-war (literary) theory is characterized by an explosion in the understanding of the ways literature, culture and thought can be approached and conceptualized. The experience of literature is connected by these thinkers and writers to experiences of philosophy, linguistics, sociology, history, sexuality, as well as to the other arts.

The first half of term will focus on Michel Foucault, and his investigations of the ways in which our understanding is structured by particular configurations of knowledge, and the assumptions and desires which drive it. In the second half of term, the course will focus on Roland Barthes, and the ways in which his investigations into history, myth and ideology, for example, force readers into an active kind of reading, and makes an engagement with writing a way of resisting a range of cultural and ideological orthodoxies. The work of both figures will be linked by their shared concern with issues of authority and authorship, two areas of direct concern to literary study.

The course will be taught in a combination of tutor-led discussions and student-led presentation and seminar debates. The aim is to engage with detailed close reading of specific theoretical texts rather than presenting a wide overview of the proliferating field of post-war theory and its approaches.