LAGC4000: Languages and Global Cultures Now

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Course Description

This module aims to…

1. Introduce students to the study of languages and cultures at university level, exploring critically the wider global, social and political contexts of languages and cultural study and debates, as well as challenges, and opportunities surrounding language learning.
2. Enable students to interrogate conceptions of the global, including understanding of inter-, cross- and trans-cultural encounters and their power dynamics, multilingualism, cultural hybridity and intercultural communication.
3. Equip students with the knowledge and skills to analyse problems surrounding global challenges, taking into account linguistic and cultural differences and to develop creative, collaborative solutions to these challenges based on detailed awareness of specific cultural contexts.
4. Develop students’ skills in critical self-reflection, critical positionality, critical thinking and building arguments across a variety of different formats, including through speech and writing among others.
5. Empower students with the skills for both independent research and study, as well as for the team-building and leadership necessary for collaborative and interdisciplinary group work.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Analyse inter-, cross- and trans-cultural encounters and their power dynamics, and evaluate diverse conceptions of the world, the planetary, and of the ‘global’.
2. Explain and assess the social, political and cultural contexts of language learning and teaching in the UK and other parts of the world.
3. Describe real-world scenarios in which intercultural knowledge, awareness and competencies are required for problem-solving.
4. Develop creative, collaborative solutions to real-world problems based on detailed understanding of specific contexts.
5. Express own original ideas and arguments independently in a variety of forms, including in both written work and in group presentations.
6. Work effectively and sensitively as part of a group to achieve a shared goal, being responsive to the ideas, expertise, and skills of others.

Outline Syllabus

This module introduces students to the current context of language learning and multilingual cultural study and research, positioning the contemporary language learner as politically aware and critically engaged. You will examine the threats, challenges and opportunities for language learners presented by issues like globalisation, emerging technologies, conflict, war and social change around the world. Throughout the module, you will be encouraged to reflect critically on your role as a language learner and in encounters with other cultures. This module asks the questions: what does it mean to be a linguist today and what is the linguist of the future? Establishing the context of languages and the role of the culturally-aware linguist today, this module serves as a space for students to explore these questions, setting the direction of travel for the degree.

Topics typically covered in the module include, but are not limited to:

- Multilingualism, intercultural communication and language learning, in the UK and around the world.

- Colonialism, decolonisation and neocolonialism and the role of language teaching and learning.

- Languages and AI, science and technology.

- Languages, power, and political resistance: figuring responses to alienation, technocracy, and control

- Language and migration, mobility and globalisation, including critical approaches to the global or planetary.

- Languages and the environment; languages as sites where climate futures are imagined, contested and negotiated across human and more-than-human communities.

- Language endangerment and revitalisation.

- Languages, healthcare, and wellbeing: the role of languages and cultures in global healthcare crisis and innovation.

- Languages and identity, including gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religious, belief, dis/ability, and many other aspects.

- Languages and their cultural expressions across literature, film, media, poetry, theatre, visual art, and many other forms.

- Language and embodiment in the contemporary age: the body, memory, emotions and experience.

Assessment Proportions

• Group assessment:

Drawing upon both the theoretical and methodological skills students have learned in the first half of the module, and the collaborative group work undertaken in the second ‘studio’ half of the module, students will give group presentations in which they will communicate the solutions or proposals they have created in response to the scenario set in the studios.

Presentations will last 20 minutes and will include a 10-minute Q&A session, in which both module tutors and students can ask follow up questions. This element will serve as a short viva, and allow for students to expand on elements of their group work.

• Individual assessment:

The group presentations will be followed by an individual assessment, taken under exam conditions, in which the student will write a critical commentary in relation to a text or artefact provided at the beginning of the exam. Here, students will be asked to draw upon the theoretical, methodological, and contextual knowledge and the critical skills developed in the first half of the module, as well as their experience of group work in the latter ‘studio’ half of the module.

LAGC4211: Understanding Culture

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Outline Syllabus

The module starts with an introductory session on ‘What is culture?’, and will then take students onto a learning journey through a range of cultural phenomena and practices. In each case, students will engage with relevant critical and analytical theory from a different discipline and with an experientially grounded ‘voice.’ The theories, phenomena and practices include a selection of any of the below:

• The figure of the Witch and Silvia Federici’s analysis of the European Witch-Hunts: feminist historiography and the critique of popular representations
• The Reactionary Mind: the interplay of disposition and ideology in the study of ultra-conservatism through political theory and programmatic texts
• Power and Bureaucracy: cultural practices, observation and representation: Anthropology, Sociology and Literature
• The Senses as a Source of Knowledge: Art, Philosophy and Neuroaesthetics
• Extremity: photography, poetry and theory that respond to situations of extreme violence
• Culture and Class: Addressing complexity in Sociology and the Literary Essay
• Effects of Racism: Countering Alienation and Saying the Unsayable in the work of Frantz Fanon
• Exploring Gender Diversity and Difference on the borderline of academic theory and the essay through Helene Cixous, Gloria Anzaldua and Paul Preciado
• The Potentials and Limitations of Critical Self-Awareness: Interrogating Whiteness through cultural representations and activist intervention
• Cultural Memory: An Intercultural Exploration of Practices and Social Significance
• The resistance to big Infrastructure Projects in critical writing, organisational practice, and documentary
• The Cultures of the Far Right: Critically exposing the meta-political cultural agenda of the contemporary Far Right
• Interrogating our own implication in Technology: Tech Commons or Big Tech?

LAGC5000: Planetary Histories

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: LAGC4000 or equivalent

Course Description

This module aims to…

• Enable students to critically analyse and evaluate multilingual, transcultural and environmental histories using a range of disciplinary approaches.??
• Empower students with the skills to analyse cultural texts in depth and interpret them within specific historical contexts, demonstrating how the use of cultural, textual, literary and filmic material can lead to the critical understanding of languages, cultures and societies.?
• Equip students with wide ranging knowledge about broad historical themes and scenarios in relation to the language(s) and culture(s) in which they are specialising within the context of their degree, using materials in the target language(s) and in English translation.?
• Enable students to apply their knowledge of multilingual histories to specific scenarios.?
• Develop students’ skills in presenting evidenced arguments in a range of different formats (including, but not limited to, in essays and other forms of writing, as well as other multimedia formats).
• Develop students skills in group work, collaboration, and communication.

Educational Aims

Upon successful completion of this module students will be able to…

1. Critically evaluate multilingual and transcultural histories using a range of disciplinary approaches and research methodologies.?
2. Analyse cultural texts in depth and interpret them within specific historical contexts.?
3. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge about the language(s) and culture(s) in which they are specialising within the context of their degree.
4. Conduct independent research and analysis on an academic topic.??
5. Communicate complex ideas and nuanced interpretations in through a range of different forms, which include both critical writing and/or a range of alternative multimedia formats.?
6. Work effectively within a team, drawing upon skills and methodologies relating to interdisciplinary teamwork and collaborative research.

Outline Syllabus

This module adopts a creative, wide-ranging historical and historicising approach to understanding global languages and cultures today. You will be introduced to historical trajectories of society, culture and politics in a range of multilingual contexts.

Topics covered may include:?

• Historical trajectories of globalisation; idea of ‘world’, ‘globe’ and ‘planet’ in historical and cultural context.??
• Culture, language and power: histories of colonialism and cultural entanglement based on conflict, migration, trade and other forms of intercultural encounter.??
• Language histories and historical language movements; histories of repression and marginalisation; histories of resistance, subversion and creativity;??
• Cultural and linguistic histories of translation, multilingualism, language and identity, mobility and cultural encounter; encounters between epistemologies and world-views.?
• Histories of language teaching and learning: global histories of the modern linguist and languages departments.?

First half of module (plenary workshops and smaller seminar groups):

Cultural texts (films, novels, plays, poetry, songs, graphic novels) are at the centre of the first half of this module as a means of encountering multi- and trans-lingual histories. The teaching in the first half of the module will combine whole-cohort workshops, in which you will learn the skills required to read and analysis cultural texts (e.g. literary texts; films; poetry and song; visual culture), with small-group seminars in which these skills will be practiced. The emphasis on skills development in literary and cultural study also serves as preparation for the final-year project.??The small group seminars will be organised into broad geographical areas, with students allocated to a region in which the language or language(s) they are learning are widely spoken. You may work with material in the target language(s) you are studying, or in English translation. You will thus deepen your knowledge of the language(s) and culture(s) in which you have opted to specialise as part of their degree.

Second half of module (studios):

The second half of the module occurs in a ‘studio’ format, adopting a historical scenario-led learning approach to understanding global languages and cultures in context. Building on the themes explored in the first half of the module, you will work in small groups to analyse and understand a historical scenario from multiple points of view and using a range of source materials for context. Texts in English or English translation may be used, alongside material in languages taught in the department, in order to develop a transcultural perspective.

Scenarios will vary from year to year depending on staff and student interest but may include:?

• The social and environmental impact of the Chernobyl nuclear incident across Europe?
• The AIDS crisis and queer cultural production in Europe?
• Women’s experiences of hunger under the Franco dictatorship in Spain?
• Political struggle and state terrorism in Central America?
• Disability rights and activism in Africa?
• The struggle of minority languages in China

Assessment Proportions

Module delivery takes a similar approach to LAGC4000, introducing students to a range of learning formats and styles:

The first half of the module is taught across a mixture of plenary workshops and smaller seminar formats, introducing students to key theories, methodologies, and contexts. Students will learn to understand diverse contested histories in their social and linguistic contexts, making use of the language skills developed in other core modules. Text and materials used may include literature and film, journalism, testimony or archival documents. The small group seminars will be organised into broad geographical areas, with students allocated to a region in which the language or language(s) they are learning are widely spoken. Students will thus deepen their knowledge of the language(s) and culture(s) in which they have opted to specialise as part of their degree.?

In addition, the module provides skills training in research methods and research design which will enable students to successfully design independent and group research projects, monitor progress and develop your knowledge, both in the context of the scenario you will work on and more broadly. This might include training on qualitative and quantitative research methods, archival research and media analysis. These skills seminars aim to answer the question: how do we learn about cultures and societies in the past (and present). They will thus inform students’ preparation for their final year project.?

The second half of the module is taught in a ‘studio’ format, in which students will work collaboratively in teams to respond to diverse scenarios relating to the contexts explored in the first half of the module. Students will work in a ‘studio’ format, responding to a scenario or brief in developing a group project. Students will select their preferred project from a short, carefully curated list of options relevant to their language choice (it will be made clear to students at the start of the module which projects enable work in which languages). Groups will typically contain 5-7 students.??

Assessment strategy:

Each project will come with a list of proposed assessments, which may include: policy briefings, academic essays, vlogs, blogs, presentations, creative or practical outputs, which will be designed to fit the theme of the project. The portfolio will be the total of around 4800-5200 words written work or equivalent (e.g. a 1800-2000 word report and a twenty minute presentation; or an anthology of 5 x 650-750 word translations plus co-written introduction). This should equate to 750 word per group member. Each portolio will include an outline of each student’s individual contribution to the group project, reflecting on the process and on learning, both individual and collective. ?

In an unassessed activity to prepare students for the portfolios and encourage peer feedback and support, portfolios will be made available to the entire cohort, and students will all get a chance to read each other’s work. There will be a symposium or roundtable in which students and tutors ask questions and give comments on each of the portfolios.

This will allow students to play to their strengths within set parameters, and to devise and deliver successful projects according to guidelines set by staff.

LAGC5212: Society on Screen: The Language of Film

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Outline Syllabus

This module equips students to analyse films from the UK, Europe, Latin America and China in their socio-historical contexts through core themes, typically migration, the environment, artificial intelligence and gender. Students make use of the ‘language of film’ (cinematic techniques and genre conventions) to explore migration, for example, through sociological concepts of human movement, the role of documentary in representing beneficial and detrimental approaches to the environment, the concept of ‘artificial culture’ through the blurring of human/non-human boundaries in film, and the relationships between masculinities and different forms of violence on screen.

In the process, the following questions, among others, are addressed:

• How do films deal with the complexity of topics relevant to modern society such as migration, the environment, artificial intelligence, and gender?
• Do films which deal with these topics entertain viewers, instruct them, or both?
• How might the aims of these films be obstructed or enhanced?
• What role do production limitations and opportunities have to play?
• In what ways are cinematic techniques instrumental in our interpretations of those topics?
• How relevant are genre conventions and expectations to our readings of such films?
• What can be learned from both traditional and radical forms of cinema?
• What can we learn by applying lenses such as structural violence, community-formation and the gendered gaze?

LAGC5215: Language and Identity in France, Spain, Germany and the Sinophone World

• Terms Taught: Lent/Summer
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: GCSE or equivalent linguistic skill/competence necessary in at least one of the relevant languages.

Outline Syllabus

Spanning the linguistic and cultural contexts of France, Germany, Spain, and the Sinophone world, this module explores how language functions as a primary site of identity formation, political contestation, and cultural power. Topics covered include language standardisation and stigma, minority and regional languages, multilingualism and migration, linguistic nationalism, colonial and postcolonial language politics, and the relationship between language, class, and social reproduction. Through sociolinguistics, cultural theory, and the analysis of film and literature, this module investigates:

• The ways in which language policies reflect and reproduce relations of power, and how their human costs and exclusions are narrated from the point of view of language users in film and literature
• How literary texts and films represent linguistic variation, regional difference, and cultural belonging through visual and narrative strategies
• The relationship between linguistic prestige and social inequality, and how minority voices are marginalised or amplified
• How colonial and migratory histories have shaped the linguistic landscapes of France, Germany, Spain, and the Sinophone world, and how individuals within those landscapes receive and negotiate that inheritance
• The ways in which regional and minority languages (Alsatian, Catalan, Galician, and others) are negotiating their place within, and against, the dominant language policies of their respective national contexts
• How diasporic and multilingual communities navigate questions of linguistic identity and belonging, as lived experience and as artistic subject matter
• What the comparative study of language politics across different cultural contexts reveals about power, resistance, and cultural survival

LAGC6338: Sciences and Cultures Lab

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Outline Syllabus

This module explores relationships between sciences and cultures in an experimental “laboratory” environment, spanning scientific and humanistic knowledge in diverse linguistic and cultural settings across the world. Topics covered include Spirits and Matter, Neoshamanism, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Futures, Transformations in Medical Science, Hospitals, Healthcare, Witchcraft, Cosmologies, Technocracies etc. It asks in what ways are sciences and cultures assembled into novel forms and practices that provide visions of science-culture synthesis and/or frictions? Sources come from multiple genres, such as speculative fiction, graphic novels, film, philosophical essays, and online talks. Focusing on diverse humanities perspectives and renderings of scientific goods and harms, this module asks intriguing questions relevant to the twenty-first century human condition:

• How do sciences and cultures interact, assemble and co-create in the world, and how do such co-creations shape and transform the world?
• How can we imagine the future of the relationship between sciences and cultures, and what is our role as interdisciplinary arts, humanities and social sciences scholars in imagining this relationship?
• How do diverse works explore the relationship between sciences and cultures?
• In what ways docultural ideas and practices inspire new modes of engagement with science and technology?
• What unseen matters (e.g. microbes, particles) and horrors can science fiction render visible and comprehensible?
• Where is AI taking humanity: unexplored territories and are we the robots of a post-human future?
• What are the ways in which contemporary philosophy, literature and film dialogue and co-innovate with biomedical science, changing how we think and delivering real impact in healthcare?
• In what ways can contemporary technocracies be informed by ancient and new cultural traditions to ensure that the societies of the future forefront human-centred wellbeing?
• What are some of the diverse ways in which sciences and cultures, spirits and materials have interacted, co-created, and transformed in tandem across different contexts?
• In what ways can the humanities productively appropriate and reposition techniques and approaches from the sciences, and vice versa?
• What conditions facilitate the creation of new “formulas” that blend/explode/remould scientific and cultural ideas, norms, practices?

LAGC6340: Autocrats, Dictators and Caudillos: Dictatorship and Representation in the 20th and 21st Centuries

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas
• US Credits: 5
• ECTS Credits: 10
• Pre-requisites: None

Outline Syllabus

What do we mean by 'dictatorship' in the 20th and 21st centuries? We will explore distinctions between totalitarianism and authoritarianism, single party rule, military and personalist dictatorships, for example. We will discuss the political, social and ideological conditions that enable dictators to come to power, consider the structures they put in place to establish and maintain their rule, and reflect on why so many dictators have clung onto power for so long.

How have dictators represented their political projects to the people? What is the importance of rhetoric to the dictator? What kind of language have they used? What is the role of 'official literature' in representing the regime to the people? We will read extracts from speeches, political tracts and literary material produced by dictators in order to explore the relationship between discourse and power.

The module will also consider how writers, poets and film makers have critiqued dictatorship in their cultural production. What narrative strategies do cultural producers use to express their opposition to a dictator while writing under the control of the regime? What is the power of writing? How does writing from a position of exile change the way in which writers critique dictatorship? Does the writing of and author reproduce the same structures they are trying to counter? Does the writer, therefore, assume the role of a dictator?