Block 2: Saturday 6 July - Saturday 3 August 2024
Crime and Justice in Scotland: The Criminal in Scottish Society (ISSU9CJ)
This module will introduce the subject of Criminology through the lens of the Scottish Criminal Justice System. It will provide an overview of the Scottish Criminal Justice System before examining the major avenues by which the public obtain information about crime – as victims of crime and from the media and official statistics. The module examines the processes that have developed our definitions of crime and the broader social and political context in which this crime occurs. You will assess different sources and relate the construction and representations of crime to wider social and political contexts in Scotland.
International Relations (ISSU9IR)
This module explores contemporary issues and debates that shape world politics today. It starts by introducing International Relations (IR) theory before turning to two broad themes that dominate the subject: conflict and peace. By the end of the course, you will be able to describe different perspectives and concepts linked to the study of international politics and employ concepts and theories to analyse global issues and problems.
Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland (ISSU9WS)
This module examines a significant aspect of Scottish history, looking at the phenomenon of witchcraft belief and prosecution in Scotland between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. You will gain an understanding of the dynamic between popular and elite culture, the significance of witchcraft belief to early-modern society and the social, cultural, political, economic and religious tensions that contributed to witch hunting. You will interpret sources and develop a capacity to evaluate conflicting historical interpretations.
Junkies and Jezebels: Scotland and Gender (ISSU9JJ)
As binary understandings of gender and sexuality are increasingly shown to be outdated and outmoded, developments in our understanding of gender and sexuality are making headlines and becoming a regular part of our daily discourse in both our social and working lives. This course enables students to apply their knowledge of identity politics and put them within a Scottish context.
You will study a range of acclaimed Scottish texts that explore gender, across a diverse range of poetry, novels, cinema and drama. We will examine the decline of traditional, industrialist, ‘hard man’ masculinities as well as broken masculinities, resistant femininities, and resurgent Scottish LGBT+ fictions. Along with the primary texts, you will use secondary sources introducing you to iconic theorists, as well as relevant contemporary critics examining Scottish literature from a gendered perspective.
There will be optional opportunities to submit creative work as an alternative to an essay assignment, enabling you to demonstrate an understanding of the stylistic and thematic aspects of the course as a creative practitioner.
Monsters and Vampires: The Impact of British Gothic on Contemporary Popular Culture (ISSU9MV)
From sparkly vampires to blockbuster monsters, Gothic tropes appear to be all-pervasive in contemporary culture. This course aims to introduce you to Gothic literary expression in the British nineteenth century, before exploring the many ways in which this dark heritage continues to affect contemporary cultural production. focusing on three British texts from the Nineteenth century – Frankenstein (1818), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Dracula (1897) – this class will discuss the adaptation, appropriation, and influence on contemporary popular culture narratives such as those found in fiction, film, tv, fashion, video gaming, and music videos. You will gain an understanding in key Gothic concepts of transgression, excess and monstrosity as they pertain to Nineteenth-century literature and its contemporary culture.
Scotland the What? Contemporary Scottish Literature and Identity (ISSU9SC)
With attention focused on the question of independence, recent debates concerning Scottish culture and identity gain a heightened political charge. Literature has not only reflected but actively shaped such debate. What role has writing played in political change, and to what extent has Scottish culture escaped its own stereotypes? This course examines the literary and political currents shaping contemporary Scottish identity, introducing you to key twentieth-and twenty-first-century texts. We encounter and explain a range of cultural debates concerning language, class, democracy and nationhood, attending to the urgency as well as the complexity of recent Scottish writing.
As well as looking at literature and the arts, this class will also look at the role of marketing, tourism and hospitality and look at the role these industries have played in creating, perpetuating or challenging stereotypes of Scotland. The course invites comparisons between the different ways in which Scotland’s literature and its other industries present the nation to the world.
Scotland on the Screen (ISSU9SS)
This module is designed to introduce you to key theoretical debates that have emerged in the study of Scotland’s relationship with the film and television industries. Important questions we will consider include: Who is responsible for constructing Scotland’s identity onscreen? How are Scotland and Scottishness depicted? Why do certain representations dominate over others? This module explores images of Scotland in film and television, in the context of Scottish history. The module covers topics such as Scotland in Hollywood: Brigadoon to Braveheart (Scotland on the American screen); and Filmmaking in Scotland: the Importance of Shorts.