Curriculum

Modules

The Making of the Modern World

Most accounts of the modern world define it in relation to the processes of industrialization and democratization in Western Europe in the long nineteenth century. Such narratives fail to address the broader colonial and imperial contexts of these transformations. In this module, we look at the significance of colonial processes to the making of the modern world.

British Citizenship, Race, and Rights

This module examines the ways in which notions of Britishness and citizenship have been historically constructed since 1948. In particular, it aims to outline how Britain’s colonial history frames contemporary debates around citizenship, rights and race.

Colonial Global Economy

This module examines the ongoing significance of historical colonial relations to both the establishment and continued reproduction of global political economy.

Policing ‘Crime’ and ‘Violence’

This module will examine what policing does in modern Britain, who is policed and why, as well as what the implications of this are for anti-racist activists

Modern Social Theory

In this module on Modern Social Theory, our focus on Tocqueville, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Du Bois addresses what they have bequeathed to sociology and the social sciences. We look at how that legacy is structured by a failure to treat colonialism and empire as central to the development of modern society. As such, our purpose is to ‘decolonise’ the concepts and categories they have given to us, rather than simply critique the canon itself. This requires a process of contextual understanding and reconstruction.

Migration, Borders, Diaspora

This module explores the ways in which colonial histories continue to shape contemporary immigration policies, particularly in Britain. The module aims to explain how immigration policies result in racially stratified policies of mobility, immobility, inclusion and exclusion. It examines the hostile environment policy approach taken since 2010 through the case studies of Go Home vans, family migration, and asylum policy. It also examines ideas of diaspora.

The Environment and Climate Change

This module examines how climate change works through, and also exacerbates long-standing inequalities and exploitation. It suggests that to tackle environmental problems, climate change must be understood in relation to colonial histories. Sessions will focus on extractivism, pollution, the Anthropocene and more.

The Politics of Inequality

This module explores the politics of inequality. Sessions will focus on non-doms, food banks, deep poverty, health inequalities, the rich, corporate welfare and more.