Black Studies - BA (Hons)

Black Political Activism introduces students to the different approaches that have been used to resist racism across the African Diaspora. We will explore a range of liberal, radical and contemporary forms of activism and root this in a discussion of how society is understood. The module engages with a range of case of studies of organisations and politics, and will also consider intersectionality in the context of Black political activism.

Popular culture refers to the cultural form of ordinary people and is shaped by the interactions between people in their everyday activities: styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals and the foods that people eat. Popular culture is also informed by the mass media and in this module, we will consider how the media and popular culture can act to confirm or resist dominant ideologies produced in society. We will explore and analyse a wide range of mass mediated and everyday culture. You will learn and apply a range of methods of cultural analysis to the study of contemporary media, culture, and the cultural sociology of everyday life.

Black Studies Methods aims to teach students methods of engaging in research that directly impacts on the social world outside of the university. We will explore a range of methodological approaches that complement and extend traditional approaches in sociology. Students will be expected to critique “taken for granted” notions of research and also to develop engaged and community based research projects.

This module aims to extend your critical knowledge and analysis of Black feminist discourses, in particular, to understand Black feminist ways of knowing and being in the world. We will examine black feminism through the lens of theory, popular culture, and political activism to ask questions about power and ongoing forms of domination. In particular we will consider how Black feminism provides an epistemological framework that resists, transgresses and negotiates dominant ideologies.

The module will explore how Black Feminism can speak to and construct democratic ideas of freedom and liberation while engaging questions of hypervisibility, invisibility and marginality. The core of this module will begin from an intersectional position to consider how black feminist theories are complex and varied in exposing the operations of power and transformative forms of political possibility.

The aim of the Placement Module is to offer Level 5 students the opportunity to apply their Level 4 knowledge and understanding of Black Studies perspectives to the world of community practice and employment. This includes public, private and voluntary sector organisation settings. In addition to developing the skills of reflexive practice, students will gain critical insight into the structures, processes and working practices of their host institution.

This module equips you with an understanding of citizenship theory and theories of race and ethnicity. The module looks at how political, civil, social, and cultural rights have been inflected by governmental and social questions of racialization and cultural diversity. These focal points will help facilitate historical and contemporary knowledge of rights, racism and anti-racism in Britain. You will gain an understanding of the local and global role the British state has played in shaping, as well as hindering, citizenship. You will also gain an understanding of how the politics of anti-racist struggles have varied historically. You will have the opportunity to apply key theoretical frameworks for analysing historical and contemporary examples. Teaching provision consists of lectures, seminars, and student-led presentation sessions.

This module will introduce you to critical theories around education. You will learn about dominant discourses of education as schooling and the relationship between institutional approaches to education and neoliberalism. A critical appraisal of contemporary education policy and practice will be undertaken by drawing on the relevance of critical scholars such as Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, bell hooks and Jonathan Kozol.

In this module, Food, Neoliberalism and Welfare, you will learn how and why the welfare system in the UK has changed over the past two decades. The module will provide a social and historical framework to discussions about the ideological consensus that brought about the establishment of the welfare system in the UK and will contextualise these changes within the broader debates regarding neoliberalism; its influence in shaping economic policies in the UK (with reference to other Western democracies where relevant), and debates regarding food poverty and food insecurity.

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40- week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree. The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.  Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace. 

The module explores and examines the historical context which produced the Black Arts Movement in the UK. It aligns with the aims of the Black Studies degree programme as it focusses on a social movement, and discusses the contribution that artists from the African diaspora have contributed to visual culture. By engaging with a range of intellectual perspectives that contributed to the development of the Black Arts Movement, students will have the opportunity to understand how, in the case of the Black Arts Movement, intellectual thought and artistic production are symbiotic.

 Black communities have a long history in Britain. It is important to recognise the histories, contributions and perspectives that Black communities have brought to Britain. This is both within terms of engagements on the British isles, which date back to at least Roman times and also understanding Britain as an empire where Africa and the diaspora populations contributed to the nation from the colonies. In this module we will be looking at how Blackness has been articulated in relation to Black communities in Britain. We will be covering histories, experiences in institutional spaces and the stories of migration into Britain.

In keeping with the programme philosophy the module explores the experiences, contributions and perspectives of African and diasporic communities. By focusing on the experience of Black populations in Britain the module allows us to draw together the diasporic experiences we have explored across the degree. This module is an opportunity to explore the strands of the degree in the context of past and contemporary Britain. We will also be investigating how communities have experienced inequality and worked to overcome these struggles in Britain. In doing so we will not lose sight of the diasporic nature of the experiences in Britain. 

The module is also interdisciplinary, drawing on history, literature, education, criminology, health and other cognate areas of Black experiences in Britain and the empire. We will evaluate the course by having students explore a contemporary issue using the historical framework presented in the module.

The Black Studies Project is the culmination of the work that the students have completed over the preceding years of the degree. They will draw upon the work in the Level 5 module Black Studies Methods in order to carry out their own independent research project.

This module will be of interest to students who wish to explore and gain a critical understanding of the social world through visual culture. It will discuss the power of texts to influence and shape both historical and contemporary social contexts and is informed by debates that address the increasing significance of visual communications and the need to develop visual literacy in the contemporary world. We are increasingly exposed to a phenomenal array of sophisticated visual texts, and therefore the module aims to explore how visual meanings are made and how meanings are communicated.

Activism and social movements have attempted to address a wide range of social problems and influence social change. Historically, movements have had significant influence on social relations and social policy.

This module will critically investigate a range of social movements and activism from the past and present in order to better understand these movements and their internal processes and external contexts. Various theories will be explored in order to get a good grasp of what brings about social movements, how they operate, and when they succeed.

This is an optional module concentrating on cultural sociology with specific reference to music. The module will provide students with an in-depth introduction to some of the key sociological ideas and perspectives on music, and it will focus on three main themes: the social and historical settings in which musical forms are produced and consumed; music in relation to identity and politics; and the political economy of music.

By the end of the module, students should have a good understanding of the social functions, and significance, of music. Key issues we will explore include: the influence of class, race and gender on musical styles; music in its relationship with sub-cultural groups and as a force for political expression; and the commodification of popular music. Alongside considering these issues, we will be listening to a variety of music.

This module develops your knowledge of political globalisation, borders, and migration. These intersecting aspects of the modern world are examined by drawing upon key perspectives in International Relations and Sociology. You are provided with a rigorous conceptual account of globalisation through the figure of the mobile and immobilized subject. Institutional frameworks, political events, legal developments, social identities, and cultural attitudes towards borders and migration are the empirical foci of the module. You are required to develop strong written and verbal debating skills, as necessary for demands of interdisciplinary scholarship. Teaching provision consists of lectures and seminars. Guest lectures will supplement the learning. Invited speakers will be from other academic institutions or civil society organizations. 

The aim of this module is to provide students with a critical understanding of how the concepts of ‘self’ and ‘identity’ are continually shaped, regulated and maintained through varying aspects of identity formation, social divisions and inequalities. The module focuses on sociological approaches to exploring the ‘self’ and ‘identity’ in a social context.

Students are encouraged to develop an appreciation of the ways that identities are fluid, complex and, multifaceted. Within the teaching and learning aspects of the module, students are encouraged to consider the ways in which cultural, political, social and economic contexts impact on their own and others’ identities through mediated practices, processes and discourse.

This module will critically examine how we can make epistemic links between past histories of colonialism and the complex ways these histories continue to impact contemporary forms of inequalities in the present. We will examine how we can understand and address the role of race, gender, sexuality and coloniality in shaping the modern world. Critical discussions and debates to decolonise the curriculum directly draw attention to the relationship between the production of power (coloniality), the politics of knowledge and the reproduction of social inequalities. Students will be expected to engage issues of power and inequality from a variety of critical perspectives in order to develop and extend their understanding of these social, cultural and political issues through a decolonial lens. 

Using international urban case studies, Global Cities is an advanced urban sociology module building upon the imagination and skills developed through City, Community, Culture (L4 focusing on Birmingham); Space and Place (L5, focusing on spatial theory) and Crime in the City (L5, focusing on urban criminology). The module introduces students to cutting-edge urban studies thinking via research informed teaching. Each week will focus on a new city and a new topic, encouraging students to expand their global horizon of urban issues, as well as enabling them to compare, contrast, and expand their learning across different case studies. 

The module provides you with an introduction to postcolonial studies. The module gives you an overview of how European colonialism operated, legacies of colonialism in the present, and contestations of these legacies. It examines the writings of key thinkers in postcolonial studies as well as the applicability of their ideas for interpreting and critiquing contemporary politics. The module has a transnational focus. It engages with Anglo-American, Western European, Latin American, Chinese, South Asian, North African, and Australasian postcolonial contexts. Focus is placed on the empirical postcolonial developments and scholarship that emanate from these regions. You are thereby exposed to key historical and contemporary political issues across national borders. Teaching provision consists of lectures, seminars, and student-led presentation sessions. Guest lectures and optional cross-university readings groups will supplement the learning.