Introducing you to a diverse range of theoretical perspectives from around the world, this module will analyse how different social theories help us understand the emergence and transformation of our societies.

Through exploring these theories’ historical contexts and contemporary relevance, you will engage with key debates on topics such as capitalism, class, colonialism, globalisation and social reproduction and examine how these issues are theorised across different intellectual traditions.

Encouraging you to think critically about the connections between theories and the contexts in which they develop, you will foster a global and comparative approach to sociological thought.

Through close reading and discussion, you will develop skills in analysing, comparing and applying social theories to contemporary social issues. You will also gain a strong foundation in social theory and the ability to critically engage with the ideas that shape our understanding of the modern world.

Much of what constitutes contemporary media culture is so familiar to us that it makes it hard for us to take a distanced, critical view of our mediatised societies.

In this module, you will develop an understanding of the relationship between the culture that is always all around you, and the overarching structures of power and social contexts that help to explain that culture. We will pay particular attention to the role of media in global systems of power and meaning through various sociological and interdisciplinary lenses, such as:

• media studies
• cultural studies
• critical race theory
• postcolonial studies

We will explore essential theoretical perspectives and longstanding global debates in media and cultural studies, and you will learn how to form your own opinions and arguments concerning the mediated world.

Equipping you with essential research skills to explore pressing social questions, this module will dive into how sociologists investigate the world around us.

You will learn a range of methods, from qualitative approaches like interviews, ethnography and discourse analysis to quantitative techniques such as survey analysis and social statistics. Through hands-on exercises, you will develop your ability to collect, analyse and interpret data. The module allows you to deepen your understanding of specific methods while working independently and in groups, supported by expert guidance.

Whether designing a research project, writing a dissertation, or producing policy reports, this module provides the practical foundations and essential research skills needed to conduct rigorous and impactful sociological research.

Find your critical voice on this module and think and learn to communicate like a media and cultural critic. You will look at how to take key theoretical frameworks and set these to work through the analysis of contemporary media and cultural phenomena.

You will deploy a range of critical approaches, taking into account historical and critical contexts, and the varied texts, audiences and producers we are working with.

Preparing you for independent research, this module will guide you through the process of developing sociological research questions, selecting appropriate methodologies and considering ethical and practical challenges.

You will explore different research designs, from case studies and comparative analysis to trend studies and mixed-method approaches. Through practical workshops, you will refine your ability to justify methodological choices and align them with research aims.

Following on from Research in Action, this module is distinct in its focus on the conceptual and strategic aspects of research design, rather than specific data collection techniques. It will provide you with the necessary skills and confidence to undertake your Independent Research Project at Level 6, ensuring you are well-equipped to conduct original sociological inquiry.

This module aims to prepare you for the final year of study, when you conduct your own personal research project. You will be guided through the skills and techniques needed to design, execute, present, and reflect upon academic research.

This includes how to:

• formulate research questions
• how to write literature reviews
• how to choose appropriate methodologies and datasets
• how to interpret data
• how to conduct ethical academic research

Explore the development of film genres in Classic Hollywood, examining how the studio system shaped genre conventions, storytelling techniques, and audience expectations. You will analyse key genres, such as Silent Cinema, Musicals, and Melodrama, considering their evolution, industrial contexts, and cultural significance.

Through screenings and critical readings, you will assess how genre films establish recurring themes, visual styles and modes of performance. The module also explores how factors such as technological advancements, audience demand and the rise of the star system influenced genre filmmaking.

By the end of the module, you will have developed a strong understanding of genre as both a creative and commercial force in Hollywood cinema, as well as essential analytical skills for further study in film history, theory, and contemporary genre cinema.

This module explores how digital technologies, in their multiple forms, figure in our everyday lives and the global societies we live in. This includes social media platforms, search engines, publicly available artificial intelligence chatbots as well as the multitude of apps that mediate every aspect of our lives, from access to news and information to dating, food and consumption, education, and professional life.

We will analyse the affordances of digital technologies in connection to questions of power, context, and embodiment. This module will stimulate you to start seeing how media and technology do more than transmitting messages and information. Instead, they have an ontological role in shaping social relations, subjectivities, practices and cultures.

Attuning you to this role, this module allows you to understand media as much more than simply channels of representation or communication. The assessments in this module give you plenty of space to articulate your own experiences in everyday life to the theoretical literature and conceptual frameworks that you are introduced to in this module.

Join us as we explore how cinema constructs, reinforces and challenges ideas of gender, race and ideology through global examples. You will engage with key theoretical frameworks, including feminist and queer film phenomenology, psychoanalysis, Marxism and postcolonial theory, to critically examine how films reflect and shape social and political structures.

Through screenings and readings, you will analyse the work of women filmmakers, Third Cinema movements and representations of race and identity across different cultural and historical contexts. The module considers how film style, narrative and spectatorship contribute to ideological meaning, encouraging you to question dominant perspectives in mainstream and independent cinema.

By the end of the module, you will have developed critical tools to analyse cinema through multiple theoretical lenses, deepening your understanding of film as a site of ideological negotiation. This module provides essential skills for further study in film theory, global cinema and cultural analysis.

Explore how gender identities and sexualities are constructed, normalised, and navigated in relation to media and popular culture. Drawing on feminist and queer media research, we examine how representations in the media play a role in reinforcing gender binaries and heteronormative social roles and identities, focussing on how media and popular culture have been co-opted as a space of creative resistance.

The module takes an intersectional approach, examining gender and sexuality within complex relations of class, race, ethnicity, dis/ability and age. We examine these questions by engaging with a wide range of spaces and platforms including film, television, fashion, music, public space, and digital and social media.

Despite widespread beliefs in social progress, racial inequalities and racism persist across the globe. This module equips you with the tools to critically examine race and racism from a sociological perspective, exploring their historical foundations and contemporary manifestations.

You will engage with key theoretical approaches and empirical case studies to understand how racism operates at individual, institutional and structural levels. Topics may include colonialism and imperialism, everyday racism, whiteness and racial capitalism, as well as the politics of resistance and anti-racist movements. The module may also address forms of racism such as Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, misogynoir, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, considering how they intersect with other social inequalities.

By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical understanding of race and racism as central to the organisation of social life and will be equipped to analyse and challenge racial inequalities in various contexts.

In this module, you will collaboratively develop, produce, and complete a short dramatic film while engaging with sustainable industry-standard production practices. The emphasis is on technical competence, creative problem-solving, and reflective collaboration.

At the start of the module, you'll form your own production groups and assign yourself one of the key creative roles within the team—Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Art Director, Sound Recordist/Designer, or Editor. Where needed, roles may be shared or doubled up to ensure all production responsibilities are met.

The module is supported by advanced technical workshops in camera, lighting, grip, sound, editing, and post-production workflows, preparing you to meet contemporary professional standards while reflecting on sustainability and resource-conscious filmmaking.

Explore gender through a transnational and decolonial approach, as this module examines its intersections with race, class, nationality, sexuality, disability, religion and the environment.

You will analyse historical and contemporary examples from around the world, engaging with key debates that shape feminist research and activism. Drawing on diverse feminist perspectives, including Black, Indigenous and queer critiques, the module will challenge you to think critically about complex topics such as:

• Sex work
• Sexual violence
• Islamophobia
• Transgender rights
• Reproductive justice
• Ecofeminism
• Migration

The course also brings these perspectives and positions to bear on what it means design, conduct and reflect the researcher’s positionality in the processes and practices of qualitative research. Through these activities, you will explore how feminist theories connect with lived experiences and shape struggles for social justice.

Our everyday lives are saturated by images of all kinds. This module will introduce you to some key ‘ways of seeing’ our world of images. We will explore questions such as:

• How are images made, who gets to produce them and, importantly, from whose point of view?
• How do pictures circulate?
• How do viewers read and interpret images?
• Who gets to look and through whose eyes?
• How do these processes and practices relate to power?

We’ll consider these questions in relation to a range of media texts, from photographs and advertisements to television and film.

The future of state-funded welfare is one of the most pressing social questions of our time. This module explores the history, purpose and politics of welfare states, examining what social welfare is, who it is for and how it should be funded and delivered.

You will consider the social and political debates that have shaped social welfare and trace their development over time. Topics covered may include education, health, housing, social security and unemployment. You will explore how welfare systems are funded, managed and organised and analyse the impact of social welfare cuts on poverty and social inequality.

The module also examines the moral and political tensions within welfare debates, such as distinctions between ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ recipients. Engaging with diverse sources—including academic texts, policy reports, and media—you will develop critical insights into the past, present and future of welfare provision.

In your third year you will study at one of our international partner universities. This will help you to expand your global outlook and professional network, as well as developing your cultural and personal skills. It is also an opportunity to gain a different perspective on your subject through studying it in another country.

You will choose specialist modules relating to your degree and potentially modules from other subjects offered by the host university that are specific to that university and country.

The availability of places at overseas partners varies each year. In previous years destinations for students in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences have included Australia, USA, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Develop and refine your research question, design an appropriate methodological approach and critically engage with relevant literature, as you conduct an original piece of sociological research on the topic of your choice.

With guidance from an academic supervisor, you will collect and analyse data, interpret your findings, and produce a well-structured research report or dissertation. This project allows you to apply the knowledge and skills you have developed throughout your degree, demonstrating your ability to work independently, think critically and contribute to sociological debates.

It is an essential opportunity to deepen your expertise in an area of personal and academic interest while developing transferable skills in project management, problem-solving and analytical writing.

In this module, you will undertake an in-depth study on a topic of your own choice. The module is designed as a culmination of your learning journey on the programme, and to undertake the research, you will draw on the knowledge you have gained throughout your studies. You are expected to conduct your final project independently, with the support of an allocated academic supervisor, and will demonstrate skills in designing, planning, managing, and producing a substantial piece of work. The final project may focus on academic literature, empirical research, or incorporate elements of media practice.

Take an advanced look at how sociologists use paradigms, theories and concepts, as this module takes a deep dive into every stage of research.

Each week, you will explore a contemporary sociological study to see how key theoretical ideas shape research—from selecting topics and framing questions to choosing methods, interpreting data and influencing change. You will engage with a range of social theories, critically examining how they inform methodological strategies, site selection, sampling and the dissemination of research.

Running in parallel with your Independent Research Project, this module supports you in refining your conceptual approach and applying theoretical insights to your own work. By the end of the module, you will have developed a deeper understanding of the role of theory in sociological research and gained the confidence to use complex sociological ideas to shape and strengthen your own projects.

How has the experience of being part of a media audience transformed in recent years? How do we make sense of being a fan nowadays? In what ways do fan culture and audience community manifest social transformations on both local and global scales? This module aims to provide you with a critical understanding of fandom and audiences in a global and transnational context. The module will focus on issues such as participation, pleasure, performance, and power by investigating fan culture and audience communities of a wide range of transmedia texts in a global perspective. You are encouraged to analyse the multi-layered dynamics between individual fan, fan community, audience participation, media texts, and industries through interdisciplinary lenses, for example, feminist studies, queer studies, and postcolonial studies.

This advanced, practice-based module provides an industry-informed approach to documentary filmmaking.

Working in small groups, you will research, develop and produce a short documentary, choosing either to pursue an independent concept or respond to a stakeholder brief. The module supports a broad range of documentary genres and styles, encouraging experimentation with form while maintaining professional standards.

Through workshops and practical training, you will refine your skills in cinematography, sound recording and editing, while gaining awareness of ethical considerations, industry expectations, funding opportunities and distribution strategies across traditional and digital platforms.

Collaboration is central to this module, requiring you to navigate real-world production challenges, from research and planning to post-production. By the end of the module, you will have created a completed short documentary and developed the technical, conceptual and professional skills essential for careers in documentary filmmaking and beyond.

Current environmental crises demand urgent sociological attention. This module explores key sociological theories and methods for understanding environmental change, justice and sustainability. You will examine how social structures, cultural practices and economic systems shape environmental problems—and how they might be transformed to create more just and sustainable futures.

• Topics may include:
• The changing relationships between humans and animals
• The sociological study of consumption and waste
• The social lives of objects
• How climate change exacerbates inequalities
• How communities respond to environmental disasters like storms and floods

Throughout the module, you will critically engage with real-world cases and develop your own sociological manifesto for environmental change. By the end, you will have the tools to analyse environmental challenges from a sociological perspective and to contribute to debates on sustainability and social transformation.

This hands-on module uses engaging workshops to explore Experimental Cinema and discover how it challenges mainstream narratives and disrupts traditional modes of spectatorship.

Through a combination of critical discussions on selected films and hands-on creative experimentation, this module challenges you to rethink film form beyond conventional storytelling while encouraging you to bring your visions to life through practice.

You will study key movements and approaches, starting from the historical avant-gardes – the influence of artistic movements like Dada, Surrealism and Structuralism- to contemporary artists’ moving image.

By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical and practical understanding of experimental cinema, gaining experience in challenging the boundaries of film aesthetics and spectatorship. Emphasising creative risk-taking and critical inquiry, this module encourages an expanded approach to filmmaking that transcends conventional modes of production and exhibition.

Discover cinema as a dynamic socio-cultural institution, exploring how films are circulated, exhibited and received. You will analyse the role of mediators such as programmers, distributors and critics, as well as the spaces where films are consumed and preserved, including cinemas, festivals, archives and digital platforms.

Focusing on both historical and contemporary perspectives, the module considers how film cultures evolve within local and global contexts. Examples may include:

• The introduction of movie theatres in colonial settings
• The rise of multiplexes
• The role of film festivals in shaping regional industries

You will also explore how exhibition and distribution shape audience engagement and film heritage.

By the end of the module, you will have developed advanced research, analytical and communication skills, enabling you to engage critically with film institutions and cultural industries. This will prepare you for further academic study or careers in film curation, distribution and exhibition.

This module examines the evolving structures, practices, and challenges of film industries across different historical and global contexts. You will explore key industrial processes such as censorship, marketing, promotion and sustainability, while also engaging with major film movements that have shaped contemporary cinema.

Through case studies, you will analyse how national and transnational film industries adapt to technological, economic and political shifts. Topics may include digital cinema, green production initiatives and the role of institutions such as the BFI in shaping industry standards. The module also explores movements like Hong Kong and New Wave cinemas, assessing their impact on filmmaking practices and global circulation.

By the end of the module, you will have developed a critical understanding of the forces shaping film industries, equipping you with analytical skills applicable to film production, distribution and policy. This module provides a strong foundation for further study in film culture and industry practices.

Examining the evolution of film genres in a global context, this module focuses on the ways contemporary filmmakers innovate within established and classic genre traditions. You will analyse key genres (which may include Science Fiction, Horror and Comic Book films), considering their artistic, industrial and technological developments across different cinematic traditions.

Through case studies, you will explore how genre conventions adapt to national and transnational influences, addressing topics such as digital effects and world-building, genre hybridity and the role of franchises in global media. The module also considers how streaming platforms, audience reception and fan cultures shape contemporary genre filmmaking.

By the end of the module, you will have gained an advanced understanding of modern genre as a dynamic cinematic form. You will be equipped with critical and analytical skills essential for further research or careers in film criticism, curation and media industries.

How are health and illness shaped by society? This module explores sociological perspectives on health, illness and healthcare, focusing on how social structures and inequalities influence health outcomes.

You will engage with key debates on medicalisation, health inequalities, mental health and the politics of healthcare provision, considering how forms of social organisation shape access to care and the experience of illness. The module also examines how health is central to social reproduction—the processes that sustain daily life and future generations—including the role of care work, reproductive labour and biopolitics.

Drawing on contemporary and historical examples, you will critically analyse how power operates in medicine, how bodies are regulated and categorised and how definitions of ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ are socially constructed. By the end of the module, you will be equipped to analyse health and medicine as deeply embedded in wider social and political contexts.

In this module, you’ll delve into the structure, function, and evolution of ‘traditional’ and digital media industries, ranging from journalism and consumer industries to streaming services and online content creation. You will consider the economic, cultural, and technological forces driving these industries, and their societal impact. You’ll debate the role of media regulation and policy in shaping the ever-changing media industries today.

‘The body’ is a key site of both control and resistance in media culture. This module explores how media representations, cultural norms, and societal structures shape perceptions of the body, identity, and agency. Thinking about body politics through an intersectional lens, you’ll critically examine issues like gender, sexuality, race, disability, class, and body type, unravelling the intricate connections between media and the lived experience of the body. We’ll think about what kinds of bodies fit social and cultural norms, how these norms are circulated and embedded in the public imaginary, and whether bodies can be re-imagined as sites of resistance.

Migration is a mainstay of public and political debate. This module offers students an opportunity to apply key sociological theories and concepts to the study of migration and to develop the critical and analytical skills needed to understand and evaluate it as a distinctly social phenomenon.

Focusing on the relationships between migration, inequalities and societies today, the module explores sociological understandings of why people migrate, migrant experiences and the impacts of migration on both sending and receiving communities. It explores the strengths and limits of the key theoretical approaches and conceptual frameworks within the sociology of migration including:

• Transnationalism and diaspora
• Coloniality
• Criminalisation and securitisation
• Politicisation
• Bordering and migratisation

Through a range of empirical case studies, it demonstrates what these approaches reveal about inequalities, identity and belonging, migrant networks, rights, racism and harms.

• What will our digital future look like?
• How could AI transform global societies?
• What media will we watch, listen to, wear, be tracked by, or collaborate with – whether in smart cities, virtual workplaces, or even in outer space?

These are the big questions that this module will explore, addressing how past visions of technological futures inform the speculative digital landscapes we imagine today. This module examines the social, cultural, and political implications of these technologies, addressing issues such as personalisation, surveillance, platform governance, and digital inequalities. You will explore critical debates on issues such as automation, data governance, digital labour, and ethics while reflecting on the future of digital media in everyday life.