Module description
What impact does war have on changing societal norms, such as sexual behaviour and the roles and status of women? How have societies altered the conduct of war, through the mobilisation of technologies and resources or the persecution of minorities, for example? This module addresses these questions, exploring the dynamic relationship between culture, conflict and change to fully explore people at war. Through both a thematic and case study approach, it draws on a wide range of historic and contemporary conflicts to investigate the destructive and transformative power of conflict on social, cultural, and political life, as well as the ways that societies shape the motives, methods, and constraints of conflict.
The module consists of one-hour lecture sessions, coupled with seminars designed for students to engage with key academic debates, build practical skills through weekly learning tasks and critically engage with the concepts of social, cultural and political change.
Assessment details
| Public History Account |
500 words |
20% |
| Essay |
2000 words |
50% |
| Public history exhibition |
7 minutes |
30% |
Educational aims & objectives
- Develop a thorough and nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationship between war, culture and change.
- Consider how various wars have affected political, social and cultural structures.
- Examine how societies have shaped the conduct and retrospective memory of war.
- Critically engage with diverse sources to study the dynamic relationship between war, culture and change, including photographs, films and museum exhibitions.
- Offer detailed case studies in both modern history and the contemporary period.
- Foster an understanding of the impact of/on war in relation to broader aspects of conflict.
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module should have:
- demonstrated a firm understanding of empirical approaches to studying the relationship between war, culture and change.
- demonstrated a firm understanding of theoretical approaches to studying the relationship between war, culture and change.
- developed the ability to critically analyse a wide range of scholarly texts about the relationship between war, culture and change.
- developed the ability to critically analyse both historical and contemporary sources about the relationship between war, culture and change.
- gained practice and knowledge in analysing academic arguments, specifically in relation to the relationship between war, culture and change.
- engaged in a variety of reflective learning activities to critically engage with their own understandings of the relationship between war, culture and change, both at the time and subsequently.
- the ability to research and analyse chosen aspects of the module in some depth.
- enhanced skills in team working, independent research, written and oral presentation, debate and argument formulation.