Undergraduate
LUCAS administers two discovery modules for first-year undergraduates – one through the Faculty of Arts and one through the School of Politics and International Studies. These are interdisciplinary modules and provide an introduction for students who may choose later to study more specialised aspects of Africa.
FOAH1100 Creative Africas: Culture and the Arts in Modern Africa
Creative Africas (FOAR1100) provides a unique multidisciplinary introduction to Africa’s arts – art, literature, theatre, music, and film – in the past and present. It will discuss how these are both distinctive and diverse, and linked to global trends. The module sets artistic output in its cultural context, with the arts being contextualised by lectures on African history, ethnography and ritual, and representations of Africa in western media. The core of the module focuses on specific themes, including gender and the arts; theatre for development; and film and Africa. It culminates with a group of lectures on southern Africa, focusing on literature and art, so that broad themes are grounded within one particular region. The module is taught through lectures, tutorials and film screenings, and is assessed though two essays.
Teaching
This discovery module runs in the first semester of the academic year.
Each week, you will attend a one hour lecture and a one hour seminar, and in one week there will be film screening.
One of our LUCAS team of Africanist lecturers will give each lecture. African PhD students, or African early career researchers, at the University of Leeds direct the subsequent seminars.
Assessment
We assess your learning through two pieces of coursework, of 2,000 and 3,000 words respectively.
PIED1806 Contemporary Africas: Politics, Society and the Environment
What issues concern Africans in relation to political and social development? What factors shape African identities? What impact did colonialism and the West have on Africa? Are women oppressed in Africa? Is Africa ‘rising’? This module will focus on postcolonial Africa’s environment, history, politics and society. It is intended to be an introductory course for students interested in, but not necessarily particularly knowledgeable about, issues in contemporary African societies. By the end of the module students will have an understanding of a range of key issues relevant to the creation of contemporary societies in Africa. The module will begin with an overview of the recent history of the continent, and will move on to consider key topics such as climatic and ecological change, development, health, politics, gender and theology. In order to help nurture understanding of the range of African societies there will be a certain number of classes focusing on case studies from particular countries such as Egypt and South Africa
Teaching
This discovery module runs in the second semester of the academic year.
Each week, you will attend a one hour lecture and a one hour seminar — and there are three workshops alongside these throughout the semester.
One of our LUCAS team of Africanist lecturers will give each lecture. African PhD students, or African early career researchers, at the University of Leeds direct the subsequent seminars.
Assessment
We assess your learning through two pieces of coursework, of 1,000 and 2,000 words respectively.
Other Undergraduate modules with African content
Academic modules with African content run in various faculties of the University. Current modules for undergraduate students are below. Modules available as a discovery module include (d) in the title.
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
- ARTF2074 African Art I: Context Representation Signification
- ARTF3168 Africa and the Atlantic World: History, Historiography and the Visual Arts (d)
School of English
- ENGL2206 African American Narrative: Eight Major Works
- ENGL32941 ‘Global English’: Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Decolonisation
School of History
- HIST2430 The History of Africa since 1900 (d)
- HIST2434 The Global Caribbean, 1641-1848
- HIST2435 The Popular Caribbean: A History (d)
- HIST2432 Lost Colonists: Failure and Family in Southern Africa, 1880-1939
- HIST3260 Tradition and Modernity in Colonial Africa: Uganda’s Kingdoms 1862-1964
- HIST3287 Caribbean Mobilities: Travel, Culture and Politics, 1838-1939
- HIST3325 The Good Life: Global Commodities of Luxury and Leisure, 1492-1700
- HIST3590 White Africans: Intimacy, Race and Power
- HIST3723 Apartheid in South Africa: Origins, Impact and Legacy (d)
- HIST3724 Caribbean Identity, Society and Decolonisation
Institute for Politics and International Studies
- PIED1201 Global Development Challenges (d)
- PIED1806 Contemporary Africas: Politics, Society and the Environment (d)
- PIED2220 North-South Linkages (d)
- PIED2455 State and Politics in Africa
- PIED3261 Violence and Reconciliation in Africa (d)
Theology and Religious Studies
- THEO1910 Religion in Modern Africa (d)
- THEO2780 Pentecostalism as a Public Religion in Africa (d)
- THEO3780 Pentecostalism as a Public Religion in Africa (d)
School of Geography
- GEOG1500 Global Geopolitics, Migration and Uneven Development
- GEOG3290 Geographies of Global Insecurities
- GEOG3291 Geographies of Global Insecurities: New Dynamics (d)
School of Media and Communication
Department of East Asian Studies
- EAST2480 Japanese Development Assistance in a Globalising World (d)
- EAST3525 Globalising China and the Developing World
Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Department of French (School of Modern Languages)
- FREN2260 Black Atlantic: African and Caribbean Culture in French
- FREN2265 Black Atlantic: African and Caribbean Culture in French
Leeds University Business School
School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
- ARTF2074 African Art I: Context Representation Signification
- ARTF3173 Movies, Migrants and Diasporas