This module is not currently running in 2021 to 2022.
A key element of a Liberal Arts education is the ability to critically understand and respond to current affairs. 'Understanding the Contemporary' will enable students to think critically about their own period, and analyse the forces and events shaping contemporary culture and society. Students will consider texts from a range of disciplines and will be selectively introduced to key ideas in contemporary theory and philosophy. They will apply insights drawn from their readings and discussions within analyses of contemporary situations. The focus of the module will be on the period since 2000, though where necessary it will reach back before that date to contextualise current issues. Students will be required to think critically about the ways different disciplines are formulating representations of the contemporary period, and to discuss themes and ideas that cross those disciplines. Seminars and lectures will address topics that define the present period and it is in the nature of the module that its study topics will vary from year to year.
Total Contact Hours: 20
Private Study Hours: 130
Total study hours: 150
BA in Liberal Arts (Honours) and Liberal Arts with a Year Abroad
• Reading journal (30%)
• Essay, 2,500 words (70%)
Reassessment Instrument: 100% coursework reassessment
• Agamben, G. (2009). 'What is the Contemporary', in What Is An Apparatus Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Harvey, D. (2007). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Lorey. I. (2015). State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious. London: Verso.
• Mavelli, L. (2017). 'Governing populations through the humanitarian government of refugees: Biopolitical care and racism in the European refugee crisis,' Review of International Studies, Vol 43, No. 5: 809-832.
• Muggia, M. (2016), ‘Affective computing: how ‘emotional machines’ are about to take over our lives,’ The Times, January 15, 2016.
• Popper, K. (2002). ‘The Conspiracy Theory of Society,’ in Conjunctures and Refutations. London: Routledge.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1 Identify and describe key forces and events shaping contemporary thought and behaviour.
8.2 Identify and describe key ideas informing representations and critiques of the contemporary period.
8.3 Summarise key aspects of the varying ways in which different disciplines conceptualise the contemporary period and its concerns.
8.4 Respond to, and comment on, the problems and challenges shaping contemporary culture and society.
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