Level 2

This module explores change in the contemporary United Kingdom and how a geographical perspective can help us to make sense of this change. At the heart of this exploration is the idea that the United Kingdom exists as a contested geographical entity, marked by shifting borders and boundaries and patterns of local and global circulation and connection. From connections to an ancient British past to contemporary relations with Europe, you'll develop geographical skills to help you consider how places are made, re-made and understood. You'll also consider how change has occurred within Geography as a discipline.

This module introduces you to the art and visual cultures of the modern period. It consists of five blocks, each centring on a crucial topic or issue that helps to define the distinctiveness of art and visual cultures as they have developed between the mid-eighteenth century and the present day. Each block includes familiar examples such as the Pre-Raphaelites and Impressionism as well as more unexpected material such as taxidermy and satellite imaging. Each block also addresses the local and the global, with material relating to the United Kingdom, its regions and nations, and to more distant contexts and diverse cultures.

This is a foundational module for studying art history, exploring the many and dynamic roles that art, architecture and other artefacts played in human life from prehistory up to 1800 CE, from cave paintings through Byzantine icons to artists’ etchings. In the period before 1800, artworks were not unchanging objects of appreciation destined for museum walls. Instead, they were closely connected to people’s social, economic, political and spiritual lives. In this module, you'll study key examples of this dynamic relationship and learn how to analyse artworks methodically and thoughtfully in their historical contexts.

In this module you'll think about literature in the light of key contemporary concerns: representation and identity, the environment, politics, and the imagination. Along the way, you'll read books in a diverse range of literary genres, including novels, drama, short stories, poetry, and essays. In your literary encounters, you'll travel in time from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century and read texts from Britain and around the world.

In this module, you’ll take a journey across the social research process, exploring what social research is, how it’s conducted, and why it’s important. Social research forms a crucial part of efforts to shape and improve societies, and you’ll consider the many different ways that social researchers use their research to make a difference. You’ll also learn about gender, race and social class, which are core themes throughout. The module has been designed to leave you feeling curious, inspired, and empowered to think critically about the process of producing knowledge about the social world.

Technology has always been a part of society but the digital revolution of recent decades means that we are living through a period of particularly rapid change. This module is for anyone curious about the societal impacts of digital technology. Throughout the module you'll learn core sociological theory that will help you unpack and understand the societal, political and environmental impacts of digital technology. You'll consider digital societies in relation to three broad technological themes: individuals and society, power and inequality and, people and things.

This is an introduction to the way that the theories and tools of economics are used in the workplace and everyday life. Using interviews with working economists and real-world examples, such as tackling flood risk, planning for climate change and using sugar taxes to improve public health, it'll demonstrates how economics is used and embedded in the lives that we lead. Moreover, it'll give you a taste of what it might be like to work in one of the many careers where aspects of economics would be utilised on a daily basis.

This module locates counselling within the broader field of mental health and provides a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the often controversial debates around mental health/illness and the main theories and practices in counselling. The module will critically examine the definitions and understandings of mental health issues and the ways they are treated in the related fields of practice, especially in counselling and psychotherapy. You'll be presented with recent theoretical debates and contemporary international research to inform and help you develop a critical understanding of the themes and issues related to mental health and counselling.

This introduction to the fundamentals of music will allow you to understand and use music notation. You’ll study the elements of music and how these are assembled into larger musical structures, focusing on music encountered in Western traditions (popular and classical). You’ll learn to make sense of a wide variety of notated music, and you’ll be encouraged to make meaningful connections between the topics you study and your own experiences and tastes through independent study. You’ll develop practical musicianship skills, using professional music-notation software, that will provide you with a grounding for arranging and composing.

How have writers chosen to tell their stories, and why? What techniques do they use to make us believe in the reality of the worlds they create? If you’re interested in finding out in depth about how literature works this module is for you. You'll read gripping stories from across literary history, from Shakespeare to science fiction, from Thomas Hardy to Arundhati Roy, with a particular focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels.