Undergraduate Sixth Century Courses 2015-2016

• this 6th century course considers brain and mind from a variety of cross-disciplinary perspectives, with teaching delivered in an interactive and innovative manner; 
• the themes covered in the course include elementary brain structure and function, language, consciousness, and creativity; 
• assessments types are varied to increase the scope and diversity of the module design, and the transferable skills it delivers; 
• taken together this novel and exciting course enhances curricular breadth, develops graduate attributes and widens perspectives beyond discipline boundaries in a unique and dynamic manner as we explore this fascinating subject  

The course aims to help the student understand how technological changes of the past have influenced subsequent social development and how social attitudes of the past have provided drivers and inhibitors of technological advance. The student will then be able to apply their understanding of these interactions to the analysis of modern society so as to identify and address threats and opportunities presented by technological change.

A variety of “fearsome engines” are studied, from technological and social standpoints and provide the student with examples of the process of technological development. The course is continuously assessed.

This course provides you with a multi-disciplinary understanding of (1) The impact of the digital society on individuals, organisations and society as a whole; and (2) The main issues and challenges of the digital society. This course uses a problem-based learning approach. Each of the four main topics is introduced by a lecture, followed by tutorials in which you work on a specific problem in a group. For example,  you will investigate the Digital Divide in a particular country and produce a poster with your findings.

The course explores the meaning, challenges and opportunities of sustainability, through a multi-disciplinary approach, including elements from education, politics, international relations, sociology, philosophy and biology.  We explore competing definitions of sustainability; the impact of personal, technological and economic actions and decisions on the environment; political strategies designed to improve sustainability; the emergence of international cooperation; and the roles and responsibilities of world citizens. Global and local case studies are used to illustrate the interconnectedness of the issues involved e.g.  climate change, food systems, energy, and economic development.

Investigating an array of real-world problems will allow you to explore past, present and future relationships between society and the oceans in the real-world scenario of an interdisciplinary team.

Field trips and lectures provide the framework for considering ocean ecology, seafaring and ocean governance, and will introduce you to different approaches to knowledge and demonstrate how different disciplines work.

Supervised workshops provide a diverse set of learning experiences with feedback from teaching staff and your peers.

Choice of the form of presentation of your project work gives you an opportunity to play to your strengths and develop transferrable skills.

What is the place of religion in the 21st century? How does religion contribute to major, global political issues? Will secularization eventually make religions obsolete? Can you be a scientist and be religious? Is religion bad for the environment? How does religion relate to human rights? How can the religions engage in dialogue? These pressing questions for our world are explored in this course from a variety of academic disciplines and methods, with tutorials focused on debate and interrogation of the place of religion in the contemporary world. Assessment is through two short reflection papers and a poster project.

What makes an argument convincing? What gives our language meaning? Are there limits to reason? What are the laws of thought? 

Formal logic has proved itself an exceptionally powerful tool in contemporary philosophy, computer science, psychology, linguistics and mathematics.  This course will provide an introduction to the tools of formal logic including: the assessment of arguments; the symbolic representation of language; and the abstract representation of meaning. It will then apply these tools to topics including: the Sorites paradox (philosophy); everyday reasoning (psychology); description logic (computer science); systematic translation (linguistics); and continuity (mathematics).

The course begins with an historical perspective and looks at how development has been portrayed in academic texts as well as in novels, films and music. Throughout the course will be a focus on human rights, equity and social inclusion, good governance and resource allocation. Case studies will be used to demonstrate good practice and different cultural, social, economic and political barriers to progress will be identified. The course will conclude with a focus on the need for information, systems, community participation, empowerment and political commitment for the realisation of the MDGs.

This is a course about human relations with other animals.  We begin by looking at how people have thought about humans and animals as both different and similar.  Then we explore the history of relations through hunting, domestication and social attitudes, before examining ethical and political questions about welfare, rights and conservation.  The course places a big emphasis on students debating ideas and thinking about their own relations with animals and is taught through a mixture of lectures, films and tutorials by staff from across the University.  

This course invites students to explore the natural world from a range of different disciplinary perspectives. Students engage with knowledge and theory as well as personal explorations of urban and natural environments, group discussions and excursions in nature. The course focuses on knowledge, experiences, interpretations and feelings about nature.

 

Delivery: lectures, individual exploration of natural/urban environments, group discussions and field trips. Sessions include: attitudes to nature, observing and exploring the natural world, interpreting the natural world, spirituality and well-being, nature in film, ethics.  

Students do three field trips (from a choice of several), forming an inspirational part of the course.

• as a 6th century course, this is designed to consider the often complex and conflicting interface between science and the media from a variety of discipline perspectives; 
• as such it complements the development of graduate attributes and enhanced study by providing an opportunity to move outside disciplines and consider broader contexts; 
• the themes addressed are topical for today’s society including scientific and media methods, genetically modified foods, vaccination, global warming and fracking; 
• varied and novel assessment strategies further enhance the student experience providing a range of challenges for students from any discipline

The course aims to help the student understand how technological changes of the past have influenced subsequent social development and how social attitudes of the past have provided drivers and inhibitors of technological advance. The student will then be able to apply their understanding of these interactions to the analysis of modern society so as to identify and address threats and opportunities presented by technological change.

A variety of “fearsome engines” are studied, from technological and social standpoints and provide the student with examples of the process of technological development. The course is continuously assessed.

This course provides you with a multi-disciplinary understanding of (1) The impact of the digital society on individuals, organisations and society as a whole; and (2) The main issues and challenges of the digital society. This course uses a problem-based learning approach. Each of the four main topics is introduced by a lecture, followed by tutorials in which you work on a specific problem in a group. For example,  you will investigate the Digital Divide in a particular country and produce a poster with your findings.

We hear about human rights at every turn these days, but there is much confusion and controversy about what human rights are, how they came to be, and what they can offer us. In this course, students are confronted by approaches to human rights from across the arts and social and physical sciences, including history, politics, philosophy, anthropology, law, medicine, and environmental and development studies. They learn to consider and compare the different approaches, reaching their own conclusions about the present and future of human rights in the world.

How do we know what we know?  How do we judge what we know?  How do we make sense of what is around us, and how do we make informed judgements? Can we be truly objective?

The first half of this course will look at objectivity as viewed by science, philosophy and religion.  This will challenge any preconceived notions that there is a single way of viewing the world about us.  The second half will take objectivity into some topical, controversial and sometimes emotive issues (e.g. climate, evolution, ethics, genetics) examining these in the light of our studies on objectivity.

The course begins with an historical perspective and looks at how development has been portrayed in academic texts as well as in novels, films and music. Throughout the course will be a focus on human rights, equity and social inclusion, good governance and resource allocation. Case studies will be used to demonstrate good practice and different cultural, social, economic and political barriers to progress will be identified. The course will conclude with a focus on the need for information, systems, community participation, empowerment and political commitment for the realisation of the MDGs.

Science is constantly in the news, but how much do you know about how research gets to be news? How do you know you can trust what you read? If you have a great idea, do you know how to protect it and start a company? Science and Society will explain how the scientific media work and how to critically assess what you read. You will learn about scientific ethics by studying high profile cases of fraud. You will learn about intellectual property, how to protect it and how to use it from real-life entrepreneurs and those who support them.

This course provides an introduction to ethical thinking in relation to biological topics.  Many of the issues discussed have relevance to the everyday lives of the general population, and students are encouraged to take an active role in the course.

Teaching by staff from across the University gives a diverse range of topics and viewpoints.

Discussion sessions allow exchange of thoughts and opinions with both staff and peers on the course which give the opportunity to experience different ideas and take part in debate on controversial issues.

In this course, students will learn about the mathematics which underpins our everyday lives. Each lecture will be taught by a different member of staff, some from the mathematics department, and some from other departments. Actual topics covered will depend on the staff involved, but may include Cryptography, Robotics, Probability and Special Relativity. Students will also learn how to use the computer program Mathematica.

This course focuses on northern European light and northern European landscape, with emphasis on how these vary through the seasons, the chief focus is how these are reflected in fine art (mostly painting, but also recent land art and photography) from the late eighteenth century to the present day. There will be some reference in the course to the relation between northern climate and northern society, including discussion of the health and wellbeing of the northern individual as influenced by these factors, and of art as a positive force in the life of the dweller in the north.

Food in general and nutrition in particular has become a hot topic in recent years and has been a subject for countless articles, books and TV programmes. Food is no longer perceived only as a source of energy. Throughout the centuries people have developed a special relationship with food, through culture, customs, belief and politics. This course will highlight the physiological, societal, geographical, historical and cultural impacts of food and diet in our society.

This is not a course on Roman mythology, but it is designed to dispel some of the scientific myths associated with volcanism, many of them generated by that hotbed of scientific rigour, the Hollywood movie industry.  With the aid of some common-or-garden substances (like golden syrup, custard, ball bearings and a lava lamp), and using information from Google Earth and NASA, the physical properties of lava flows will be investigated. Many eruptions are catastrophically explosive.  So, we need to know why some, but not all volcanoes cause explosions. It's actually all down to some straightforward physics. 

The mystery of consciousness is one of the most exciting and challenging fields in human endeavour. Consciousness provides a truly inter-disciplinary topic with relevance across both the sciences and the humanities. This Sixth Century course aimed at level 3 and level 4 students will present cutting-edge research using a clear inter-disciplinary perspective. The course brings together the disciplines of divinity, psychology, and medicine, with a particular focus on the clinical and health-based aspects of consciousness studies. The assessment is a mixture of non-traditional (e.g. Self-reflective journal) and a traditional (essay).

This course will enable students to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of food that is scientifically, geographically and historically informed. The course is structured around the concept of food security (comprising production, availability and access), which is one of the key policy and resource issues facing the world.

Globalization encompasses the processes and awareness of increasing international integration and interdependence. This course will examine key theoretical, economic, social, political, cultural and environmental aspects of globalization. Issues of space (e.g. empirical, network, embodied) and scale (e.g. globalization) are inherent to globalization and will provide the unifying theme of the course.