ANT4001
Introduction to Anthropology
20 credits
This introductory module provides students new to anthropology to the core topics, goals, theories, and methods of the discipline. Students will learn foundational skills related to how to understand and analyse forms of human life socially, culturally, and morally different from their own. They will also learn how to compare different societies in order to produce solid arguments about the human condition.
100% Coursework
ANT4004
Fieldwork and Ethnography
20 credits
In this module, students will learn how to conduct an ethnographic project from inception to completion. We will focus on training methodological skills, familiarising ourselves with anthropological ethics, and producing anthropological arguments using the ethnographic evidence we ourselves collect.
100% Coursework
SOC4002
Social Identities and Inequalities
20 credits
This module explores how and why social inequalities influence lived experience and social identities. It focuses on a range of substantive issues, such as poverty, social class and hierarchies, health, gender and sexuality, family and kinship, neo-colonialism and 'race', and violence and ethnicity. This module explores how these influence culture, social identities and lived experience throughout the life-course.
100% Coursework
ANT4007
Becoming Human
This module introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches concerned with ‘how we became human’. The module examines the unique characteristics of Homo Sapiens, focusing on evolutionary changes, tool use, mythology, social organisation, equality and inequality, intersubjectivity and symbolic culture (art, ritual, language and myth). Students will be introduced to key theories on human evolution, the evolution of language and its relationship with symbolic thought, while investigating social structures, behaviour, and gender dynamics. Practically, the students will be taught key study skills in bibliographic research, interdisciplinary methods, academic research, writing and presentations.
SOC4004
Introduction to Social Theory
20 credits
This module introduces students to key features of classical social theory. These features are placed within the context of the Enlightenment, Modernity, the emergence of modern science and social science, and their use for contemporary social analyses.
100% Coursework
ANT4008
Monsters, Mods, and Magic: An Anthropology of the Body
This module draws on sociological and anthropological sources to examine how societies perceive, transform, control and use the human body. The module explores topics such as the disciplining and surveillance of bodies, the development of “habitus”, bodily adornment and transformation, gender and sexuality, biopolitics, the commercialisation of the human body, and the body as a window on wider symbolic-cultural orders.
ANT5011
Fieldwork reimagined: Advanced methods in anthropology
In this module, students are acquainted with advanced ethnographic research techniques, including reflexivity, netnography, multi-species relations, narrative analysis and multi-sensory ethnography. They also explore the interplay between methods and writing. Building on their existing skills, students develop a research project that applies these advanced concepts and methods.
SOC5011
Contemporary Theories of Society and Culture
The module introduces current theoretical disputes framed within the context of classical and early modern theories of society and culture. These debates are linked to historical events and social and cultural research that reciprocally influence contemporary theoretical change. Foundational disciplinary questions are broached, and formative critical workshops assist in developing theoretical analysis and evaluation.
ANT5002
Gifts, Commodities and Crises: A contemporary guide to economic anthropology
20 credits
This module that uses ethnographic evidence from across the world to examine how humans exploit their environments (and each other) to make a living. Focus will be on how 'value' is socially produced, on how different societies people produce, distribute, consume, accumulate, and own resources, and on how economic practices interact with other spheres of society.
100% Coursework
ANT5005
Why so Serious? The Anthropology of Humour and Laughter
20 credits
This module examines the nature and function of humour and laughter across a range of socio-cultural and political-economic settings. Students examine how humour can create, reinforce, shape, and undermine and destroy all sorts of political relationships and structures. Accordingly, we see how mockery, sarcasm, and ridicule can become tools of domination, resistance, and transformation.
100% Coursework
ANT5010
Comparing Cultures, Curating Worlds: Museums, Myths, and Meaning
This module explores the comparative method in anthropology and its application in museum spaces. We examine these debates through the lens of religion, gender, and material culture across Amazonia, Melanesia, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Students design a comparative exhibition, engaging critically with decolonizing museum practice acquiring hands-on, professional skills in museum ethnography and curation.
ANT5012MX
Worlds Otherwise: Science Fiction, Digital Realms and the Anthropology of the Future
This module teaches students how to use ethnographic methods to make sense of the internet, which we now increasingly inhabit. Students learn how to navigate and analyse platforms such as Facebook or TikTok. They study how these technologies transform our relationships, identities, and ideas of truth. The module also examines the socio-cultural and ethical aspects of digital worlds (e.g. Second life).
CRM5011MX
Crime, Criminology and Film
The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.
ENG5020MX
World Literatures
This module examines literatures written in English from around the world, explore what literature can tell us about cultural imaginaries of world, globe and planet in an era in which global interactions have increasingly come to shape our lives.
HIS5017MX
Land of the Samurai: Japan - 1450-1800
This module introduces the history of early modern Japan (c.16th-19th centuries). At one level, it explores key questions shaping the histories of the late Sengoku (‘Warring States’) and Tokugawa Japan. Building on these questions, it then situates the Japanese experience in a trans-regional perspective with reference to early modern China, Korea, Ryukyu, as well as Europe.
LHSS5000
Stage 2 Professional Development, Placement Preparation and identifying opportunities
This module is for students in the School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences who are interested in undertaking an optional placement in the third year of their programme. It supports students in their search, application, and preparation for the placement, including developing interview techniques and effective application materials (e.g. CVs, portfolios, and cover letters).
ARH5009MX
Politics of Renaissance Art
This module offers historically based study in the art and culture of Europe c.1300 - 1600. It uses focused treatments of particular periods/regions/groupings to analyse the relationship between power, patronage and ideology. Attention will be paid especially to closely focused studies of selected historical instances of art practice and/or historiographical and methodological issues of relevance.
LHSS6000
School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Placement Year
Students have the opportunity to gain work experience that will set them apart in the job market when they graduate by undertaking an optional flexible placement year. The placement must be a minimum of 24-weeks (which can be split between a maximum of two different placement providers) and up to a maximum of 48-weeks over the course of the academic year. The placement is flexible and can be undertaken virtually, part or full time and either paid or voluntary. Students will have the option to undertake their placement year abroad. This year allows them to apply and hone the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous years of their programme in the real world.
SSR6000
Dissertation
This module provides students with the opportunity to undertake their own sociological, criminological, professional policing or anthropological research project, working independently but under the supervision of an academic member of staff from the relevant discipline.
ANT6008MX
Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the age of climate change and mass extinction.
20 credits
Using ethnography, we analyse how coastal communities use the sea – not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of cases from across the world – from Polynesian sorcerers, to Japanese whale mourners, to Cornish surfers – we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction.
100% Coursework
ANT6003
Gifts, Commodities and Crises: A contemporary guide to economic anthropology
20 credits
This module that uses ethnographic evidence from across the world to examine how humans exploit their environments (and each other) to make a living. Focus will be on how “value” is socially produced, on how to make sense of the different ways in which people produce, distribute, consume, accumulate, and own resources, and on how economic practices interact with other spheres of society.
60% Coursework
40% Practicals
ANT6005
Why so Serious? The Anthropology of Humour and Laughter
20 credits
This module examines the nature and function of humour and laughter across a range of socio-cultural and political-economic settings. Students examine how humour can create, reinforce, shape, and undermine and destroy all sorts of political relationships and structures. Accordingly, we see how mockery, sarcasm, and ridicule can become tools of domination, resistance, and transformation.
60% Coursework
40% Practicals
ANT6010
Comparing Cultures, Curating Worlds: Museums, Myths, and Meaning
This module explores the comparative method in anthropology and its application in museum spaces. We examine these debates through the lens of religion, gender, and material culture across Amazonia, Melanesia, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Students design a comparative exhibition, engaging critically with decolonizing museum practice acquiring hands-on, professional skills in museum ethnography and curation.
ARH6009MX
Politics of Renaissance Art
This module offers historically based study in the art and culture of Europe c.1300 - 1600. It uses focused treatments of particular periods/regions/groupings to analyse the relationship between power, patronage and ideology. Attention will be paid especially to closely focused studies of selected historical instances of art practice and/or historiographical and methodological issues of relevance.
HIS6017MX
The Secret Cold War: Culture, Espionage, and Identity, 1945-1991
This module examines Cold War competition through cultural, intelligence, and ideological dimensions. Topics include cultural diplomacy, propaganda systems, espionage operations, proxy conflicts, and the weaponisation of race and gender identities. Students analyse primary sources to understand how soft power and covert operations shaped superpower rivalry between 1945-1991 and beyond.
PIR6013MX
Foreign Policy: Issues, Actors and Explanations
This module introduces students to the study of foreign policy. It explores a range of theories to explain how and why foreign policy decisions are made, and it then seeks to apply them to case studies drawn from international politics. The aim is to improve understanding of how foreign policy decisions are made, and to subsequently provide explanations.
ARH5002MX
Imagery in Online and Offline Worlds: Film, Television and Video Games
20 credits
This module provides students with a comprehensive understanding of current approaches towards mass media and visual culture. Particular emphasis will be put on medium-specificity, content analysis and audience studies.
100% Coursework
ARH6002MX
Questions in Contemporary Art
20 credits
The module introduces and examines selected questions raised in the last three decades in contemporary art. Case studies drawn from art history, critical and cultural theory, and where appropriate related disciplines, will be examined.
100% Coursework
ENG5010MX
Writing Creative Nonfiction: Autobiography, Travel Writing, Reportage
20 credits
This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in contemporary works of creative nonfiction, or 'life writing'. Included in our readings will be works of memoir and autobiography, travel writing, personal essays and reportage. The module is entirely taught in workshops where we experiment with producing our own works of creative nonfiction and learning to refine them, as well as critically evaluate and contextualise them.
100% Coursework
ENG6008MX
Features Journalism Workshop
20 credits
This module offers students an in-depth experience of professional writing. We will explore technique in features and literary journalism; music reviews, opinion columns and longer immersion features as well as other contemporary works of non-fiction feature writing, both short- and long-form, from sub-genres including profiles and interviews, autobiography and columns, travel writing, and reportage. We will learn to research and produce our own works of professional nonfiction and critically evaluate them.
100% Coursework
ENG6005MX
American Crime Writing
20 credits
This module considers the development of twentieth-century American crime fiction from hard-boiled detectives, to myths of the mafia, and postmodern reinventions of the genre. This module will explore the cultural contexts of American crime writing, prevailing conventions of the genre, as well as challenges to those conventions.
100% Coursework
HIS5014MX
Dunkirk to D Day: The Second World War in Europe
20 credits
The module examines the Second World War in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean from 1940 to late 1944.
Explore this module100% Coursework
HIS6002MX
Piracy and Privateering, c.1560-1816
20 credits
This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.
Explore this module100% Coursework
CRM6016MX
Green Criminology: Climate Justice and the Planetary Crisis
This module will address theoretical perspectives, methodological issues, and empirical research related to the field of green criminology, including applied concerns, such as policy and social/political praxis, through a range of concepts, topics, and themes that are central to green criminology.
PIR5009MX
Refugee Studies
20 credits
This module focuses on the political, economic and social context of forced migration and considers the complex and varied nature of global refugee populations. It analyses responses at international, national and regional level and engages with a range of challenging questions around international co-operation, the framework of international protection, humanitarianism and the causes of displacement.
100% Coursework
PIR6009MX
Mao to Now: the Politics of Modern China
This module introduces students to politics in China. It provides them with the analytical skills and historical understanding to examine the structure of the contemporary Chinese state, looking in particular at Maoist legacies, nationalism and ideology, the relationships between party, law, state and market, and China’s involvement in international affairs.
PIR5013MX
Politics Beyond Parliaments
20 credits
This module analyses the role of civil society and the public sphere in democratic governance and in democratization from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
100% Coursework
SOC5005MX
Globalisation and Social Justice
20 credits
This module investigates the key debates of globalisation and critically evaluates, in terms of its economic, political, socio-cultural and legal dimensions, the causes and consequences of a globalising world. It furthermore explores a range of international social justice issues to examine the relationships (causative and ameliorative) between policies and (in)justice
60% Coursework
40% Practicals
SOC6004MX
Health, Medical Power and Social Justice
20 credits
This module considers a range of issues concerning health, illness and medical power in contemporary society. The module seeks to develop an understanding of the impact of ‘medicalisation’ on everyday life, as well as the importance of social divisions, such as age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. There will be a focus on a range of sociological perspectives on health with an opportunity to focus upon areas of particular interest.
100% Coursework
LAW5009MX
Environmental Law
20 credits
The module provides an examination of key themes in environmental law, with a focus on the generation, application and enforcement of this law within a critical and applied context.
100% Coursework
LAW5011MX
Intellectual Property Law
This module focuses on the law and concepts of intellectual property, examining in addition related legal themes of information access, dissemination and control.
LAW6012MX
Public International Law
20 credits
A module that focuses on the primary legal principles of the public international legal order, before exploring a range of substantive areas, such as, for example, the use of force, the law regulating the conduct of war, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law and International Environmental Law.
100% Coursework
CRM6011MX
Security Management
20 credits
This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.
70% Coursework
30% Tests
CRM5009MX
Crime, Harm and Culture
20 credits
The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.
100% Coursework
Our lecturer has always been on hand both to aid us academically and care for us as individuals.
Dr Brian Campbell
Lecturer in Anthropology
Dr Péter Bokody
Associate Professor of Art History
Dr Darren Aoki
Associate Professor of World History and Oral History
The overall vibe of the city is perfect. You are by the sea so it is still laid back, but you have all the conveniences of living in a city.
Having a degree is great, but having experience will put you above other applicants. If you’re unsure of what you want to do after university, then consider applying for an internship to help make that decision easier.
As an anthropologist, you will possess many skills which will allow you to pursue many different career options.
3 years
(+ optional placement)
Full-time
The following courses are available as routes into this programme.
Explore diverse cultures from day one of your foundation year. Learn by doing – interview refugees in the region, learn how communities connect through sport and use our coastal location to understand the sea’s role in shaping local life.
3 years
(+ optional placement)
Full-time