Understanding the Modern World (HIH1420)

30 credits

This is a global history module that introduces you to the key processes, ideas, and connections that have worked to make and unmake the ‘modern’ world from the eighteenth century to the present. It covers a wide range of key themes: colonialism and postcolonialism; states, ideologies and nationalism; gender, sexuality and the body; science and technology; race, class, religion, and disability; violence and conflict; and development and humanitarianism. The module traces these themes across multiple countries and regions around the world, highlighting connections and differences between them, and exploring the multiplicity of experiences and ideas that have produced numerous, and at times competing, conceptualisations of ‘modernity’.  You will analyse these themes through the study of primary and secondary sources in bi-weekly seminars and study groups, while the broader context and detailed case studies will be provided through lectures or alternative online learning activities.