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, both essays 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, both essays of 3000 words.

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

School of English

School of History

Institute for Politics and International Studies

Theology and Religious Studies

School of Geography

School of Media and Communication

Department of East Asian Studies

Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

Department of French (School of Modern Languages)

Leeds University Business School

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

School of Biology