The European Union is the world's most progressive supranational power. In this unit we discuss contemporary Europe, focusing on the regions and ethno-national identities. We look at the EU and the socio-cultural and political forces both holding it together and pulling it apart. We study contemporary materials including films and novels in order to enter into the realities of life in Europe now. No language other than English is required.

Over the past two decades the face of Europe has changed dramatically. In this unit we examine the new ways in which European nations and the European Union negotiate issues of co-operation and co-existence, focusing on aspects of civil society, social change and cultural diversity. Case studies include the implications of Brexit, the re-emergence of the far right, immigration and multiculturalism, generational change, and other latest developments in Europe.

The European Union is currently the world's largest economy and a major player on the international stage in humanitarian policies. It is also the world's most complex supranational political organisation consisting of 28 nation-states, each with its distinct culture, political life and social reality. This unit explores the European Union through the study of its integration processes, bodies of governance, and the main policies instituted over the last seven decades with the ultimate goal of a European federation.

This unit will focus on mobilities, migrations and political asylum in the European Union. It will consider both intra-EU migrations and migrations to and from the EU and associated countries, as well as the increasingly vexed issue of political asylum. The unit will study the impacts of skilled mobilities, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, language and religion in migration patterns as well as the impact of internal and external geopolitical tensions such as EastWest divides, wars and terrorism.

Cinema was born on the eve of a century of conflict in Europe. Celebrated as an avant-garde art form, it was also used for political propaganda and popular entertainment during the 20th century. Most recently European cinema has taken on another function, contributing to the creation of modern European identities through critical self-representation. This unit focuses on a range of recent films in order to study social and cultural change in the new Europe of the past two decades.

The Mediterranean is more than a geographical region. It is a complex set of interconnected geo-political and cultural sites and identities, between east and west, belonging both to the north and south, stretching into the hinterlands of Western and South-Eastern Europe, including the Balkans and the Black Sea, the Middle-Eastern littoral and Northern Africa along with islands such as Cyprus, Malta, Corsica and Majorca. In this unit we explore the historical, cultural and contemporary geo-political encounters around the Mediterranean, as a place of long-term occupation by indigenous peoples, as well as of migration flows and of modern-day mass tourism.

European writers and intellectuals have reflected critically on their own values, attitudes, customs and cultures through comparison with other cultures and societies since the Enlightenment. This long history has
resulted in profound reconsiderations of the concept of Europe and its civilization. The aim of European Encounters is to consider the ways in which Europeans have questioned their own value-systems through
literary and intellectual encounters with other nations, cultures and civilizations since the beginnings of modernity.

This unit introduces some major myths and legends that constitute the foundations of Western European and Middle Eastern cultures. We consider how legends such as the Grail have evolved cross-culturally from the earliest times to the present day, with recent manifestations like the Da Vinci Code. We also examine the transformation of mythical archetypes such as the Quest (seen also in the voyages of Odysseus and Sindbad) and binary pairs (for instance in Ancient Greek and Arabic myth).

This online unit taught completely in English complements your French language studies, offering an overview of the cultural diversity in the French-speaking world. You will acquire the foundations of Francophone culture through modules designed around themes such as popular culture; race, gender and identity in the French diaspora; politics; history; literature; cinema; contemporary French society.

This unit of study will explore German film from the perspectives of film theory and historical culture. Discussions will situate films within the German political and cultural context of their time and study them from the perspective of contemporary cross-cultural critique. The unit may concentrate on the works of a specific director, a period or a genre, or deal with key social and political issues within a selection of German films.

This unit explores the story of Jews under Muslim and Christian rule in Europe, including Christian antisemitism, anti-Jewish decrees, expulsions, the Crusades and the expulsion from Spain. It further explores new centres of Jewish life, especially in Eastern Europe, namely Poland, and concludes with the dawn of emancipation and the re-establishment of Jewish communities in the Netherlands and England.

This online unit is a broad-based introduction to the culture and society of Italy, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Students will study major cultural, social and political trends, events, debates and personalities which help place aspects of Italian culture in their historical perspective through fiction, films, essays, newspaper articles, and television. The sources and meanings of national symbols, monuments, myths and manifestoes are also explored.

This unit discusses the textual, archaeological and socio-cultural evidence for the origins of Christianity; with a particular purpose to analyse how cults centred on the charismatic figure of Jesus of Nazareth led to the construction of such a powerful religious tradition. Tensions within that emergent tradition will be considered, and especially its struggle towards self-identity with both Judaism and the Greco-Roman world.

Spanish society has changed dramatically over the last half century. The restrictions on personal freedoms that were part of the Franco regime have been lifted to reveal a liberal, tolerant European society that nevertheless still shows some elements of its conservative heritage. This unit (taught in English) explores contemporary Spanish society and culture to show the reasons for the changes, and their effects. The areas under discussion will be family, sexuality and gender; class, money and consumerism; and mass/popular culture.

The fate of the European Union hangs in the balance. But the crisis is about more than economics. Do Europeans feel ""European""? Or is Europe just a collection of states with a history of close interactions and devastating wars? Will Europe overcome its dilemmas? How are contemporary social theorists responding to the political, social and cultural questions raised by the crisis? We probe these issues in order to deepen our understanding of Europe in the context of contemporary social theory.

The term, ¿civilisation¿ has aroused powerful responses since its emergence in the 18th century as a means of identifying large-scale human cultural identities. When US political scientist Samuel Huntington introduced the idea of the 'clash of civilisations' as the key to international relations in the 21st century, a storm of controversy arose. How do we compare and contrast societies, civilisations and cultures? What is ¿civilisation¿? Is it valid to judge one culture or civilisation by the standards of another? Is objectivity possible? In this unit we familiarise ourselves with, and critically question, influential modes of comparative analysis with respect to global regions, civilisations and cultures.

Balkan Identities focuses on the development of the Balkan nations as a geopolitical space in the broader context of Europe. The social, religious, cultural, and political identities of the Balkan peninsula are studied with reference to the effects of Ottoman occupation as the primary defining influence into the 20th century. Literature and film are used as the primary means of understanding the main issues of ethnic and national identities over this period. The formation of the Republic of Yugoslavia and its disintegration in the wars of the 1990s are studied with reference to contemporary source documents.

What is Europe? A geographical region? A political project? Where does it begin and end? What are its characteristics? These questions have occupied thinkers within and beyond Europe for millennia. The answers they have found shape our ideas of Europe today. This unit introduces students to ideas of Europe from antiquity to the present day. Reading texts by figures from Aristotle to Immanuel Kant, Napoleon Bonaparte, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Winston Churchill, it provides an overview of European history of ideas by examining the history of the European idea itself.

Contemporary Europe is marked by political extremism, notably the increased legitimation of far- to extreme-right party families at national and European levels, and Islamist terrorism. However, many, even most, of these movements have emerged from longstanding activist or intellectual traditions. Moreover, political extremism has not always been confined to the right: radical left movements have also marked contemporary European history. In this unit we study these various political extremisms, and responses by national governments and the European Union.

This unit studies Machiavelli as a political strategist, writer, philosopher and observer of his time. Discussion of his and other Renaissance authors' works will demonstrate the social and cultural conditions of literary production, the ideas and debates surrounding philosophy and politics, and topics including sexuality, ethics, the self, and the classical tradition during the Italian Renaissance.

Dante Alighieri's 'Divine Comedy' will be read as an enduring work of poetry, a major text of the European literary tradition, and the most comprehensive synthesis of medieval culture. Along with that of other major contemporary thinkers such as Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's works will be placed in the historical and political context of the Italian peninsula between the thirteenth and the fourteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to his use of philosophical and theological language as well as extensive references and allusions to the Bible and classical poetry.

This unit provides an in-depth study of the Holocaust. Special emphasis will be placed on the development of Nazi ideology, in particular racial antisemitism, and the gradual implementation of this policy towards the Jews and other victim groups from 1933 to 1945. Other themes focus on the responses of the victims and the role of the by-standers, as well as post-war politics of memory and other issues, including Holocaust denial and war crimes prosecution.

This unit explores the history of European Jewry from the late eighteenth century until the eve of WW2. During this period ancient traditions met the modern forces of enlightenment and emancipation, industrialisation, democratisation and nation building. External pressures provoked profound internal responses as the challenges and opportunities of modernity radically reshaped Jewish thought and life. Students will develop an understanding of the intricacy of relations between Jews and non-Jews and an appreciation of the mosaic of European Jewish life destroyed during the Holocaust.

Few historical events have inspired as many literary and artistic interpretations as the Holocaust. This unit will explore and critically assess how a broad range of forms, including but not limited to literature, film, fine arts, museums and memorials represent the Holocaust. In addition to a critical evaluation of these diverse artistic representations, the historical development of these forms will be considered as well as their national and transnational contexts.

Focusing on a selection of modernist poets including G. Seferis and O. Elytis, this unit explores the profound change brought to Greek literary life during the 1930s. Together with the analysis of specific poems, it will also examine the epistemological historical and social factors which facilitated this change, and it will explore the reasons behind the belatedness of Greek modernism by comparing it to its broader European counterpart.

This unit explores the political life in Greece after the establishment of the Modern Greek state (1828). It examines the main political parties, ideas, practices and personalities that shaped modern Greek state and nation-building from the inception of the Greek as a modern nation-state until today. The unit also explores major personalities and their impact on forming social policies in the country. Finally, the unit explores the most significant ideological movements that influenced modern Greek political life and social consciousness, investigating theories about the state, the nation and cultural identity as formed by structures and institutions introduced by successive Greek regimes.

This course aims to examine the marginalised attempts to modernise Greek literature of the beginning of the 20th century as an alternative to what is considered to be the dominant discourse of Greek modernism, i.e the so-called generation of the 1930s. This will involve the study of C. P. Cavafy, K. G. Karyotakis and some of the minor poets of the same period as well as new trends in Greek criticism put forward by younger critics such as T. Agras and Kl. Paraschos.The course will also attempt to draw parallels to the appropriate European context and to take into account relevant developments in Greek political life.

Contemporary Spain is a very diverse country with several distinct cultural and linguistic groups. In some cases, this has given rise to minority nationalisms that challenge the sovereignty and hegemony of the Spanish state. This unit introduces students to the advantages and challenges of such diversity, including some of its political aspects. Specific topics include language planning, regional cultures, ethnicity, minority nationalism, and independence movements. No knowledge of Spanish is required to take this unit.

Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

This interdisciplinary unit provides students with the opportunity to address complex problems identified by industry, community, and government organisations, and gain valuable experience in working across disciplinary boundaries. In collaboration with a major industry partner and an academic lead, students integrate their academic skills and knowledge by working in teams with students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. This experience allows students to research, analyse and present solutions to a real¿world problem, and to build on their interpersonal and transferable skills by engaging with and learning from industry experts and presenting their ideas and solutions to the industry partner.