Core modules
This joint degree is 50:50 between Politics and Modern Languages, with an optional split of 75:25 in the final year.
We strongly recommend that you take a year abroad as part of your modern languages degree. If you are unable to take a year abroad, you will move to a three-year degree. You will be required to complete further language reinforcement work, and you will also be encouraged to spend time abroad in other ways, such as during vacation periods.
You will usually spend your year abroad doing one of three things:
- Working as a language assistant teaching English in a primary or secondary school
- Studying full-time at a partner university in your chosen country
- On a work placement
We will tackle areas in this degree including how political ideologies affect culture and society, and how theoretical perspectives can help us understand global problems like hunger, poverty, and war.
Year One
Introduction to Politics
Introduction to Politics gives you a broad overview of the main issues and theoretical perspectives within Politics. You'll learn first to understand and then apply the core concepts of comparative political science and theory to processes, institutions, ideologies and practical policy-making. You'll conduct a comparative study of different political systems and political change, both in writing and in open debate.
Read more about the Introduction to Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
World Politics
In this module, you'll be introduced to world politics and the role that international relations plays in the interactions between nations. You'll gain a solid understanding of the historical underpinnings of the structure and systems of states, and become familiar with major theories of international relations post-1945. You'll analyse contemporary writings on world politics and engage critically, both orally and in writing, with key concepts and theoretical debates on the nature of international political systems.
Read more about the World Politics moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Modern Spanish Language 1
Do you have A Level or an equivalent in Spanish and want to consolidate, extend and refine your skills? This module will equip you with sound grammatical and linguistic foundations, with the aim of increasing your confidence in reading, listening, speaking and writing in Spanish. You'll use authentic resources in a variety of media from around the Hispanic world, including books, articles, newspapers, television, music, and podcasts, as well as taking part in our virtual language exchange with students at the Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, Colombia, a fantastic way to expand your linguistic and intercultural skills outside the classroom. During the module, you will develop your skills through a combination of classroom sessions, guided learning activities and appropriate self-study resources. Weekly classes will cover reading, language in use, grammar and functional aspects of Spanish such as translation, extended writing and oral expression, which are reinforced through complementary activities on Moodle, our multimedia VLE.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 1Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Modern Spanish Language for Beginners
As a beginner in the acquisition of the Spanish language, you’ll gain a keen grammatical awareness, a sound understanding of cultures and societies across the Hispanic world, and most of all, confidence in reading, listening, speaking and writing in Spanish. Using authentic resources, including newspapers, television and radio, you are expected to end your first year able to sustain everyday conversations in Spanish, read authentic texts, follow TV extracts and write at an intermediate level in Spanish. You'll also work on basic translations to and from Spanish as a means of consolidating your knowledge.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language for BeginnersLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
A Hispanic Studies cultural module:
Language, Text and Identity in the Hispanic World
How has the Spanish language travelled around the world and what happens when it co-exists with other languages? How do writers use language to explore identity, and what happens when they work between two (or more) languages? What skills do we need as readers to interpret the nuances of texts that travel between languages? This module will equip you with an understanding of the cultural and sociolinguistic diversity of the Hispanic world, and a strong grounding in the literary and cultural analysis of texts that address this diversity.
Read more about Language, Text and Identity in the Hispanic WorldLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Icons and Representations of the Hispanic World
Have you ever wondered where the familiar stereotypes of Spain and Latin America come from? How have they circulated and been received at different times and in different places? And how have Spaniards and Latin Americans represented themselves to travellers, tourists, artists, and even invaders? The module will introduce you to a wide range of written and visual representations of the Hispanic world, and some of its most influential and iconic cultural figures. We investigate topics which, in different ways, pose important questions about studying other languages and cultures.
Read more about Icons and Representations of the Hispanic WorldLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Two
You can spend this year studying abroad, or on a work placement. Alternatively you can study the following modules this year, and spend the next year abroad instead.
Foundations of Political Theory
The aim of this module is to introduce you to some of the foundational arguments and debates in modern (mainly) European political theory, as well as some of the discipline’s most important primary texts. To this end, you will critically examine claims about freedom, equality, democracy, revolution and crisis made by some of the most important political thinkers from 1640 onwards.
Read more about the Foundations of Political Theory moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Topics in Political Theory
Politics considers how the political world operates, and how it ought to operate. In this module, we consider the “oughts” of politics. Building on Foundations of Political Theory, the module examines key thinkers and topics in contemporary normative political theory. The module is divided into two parts: key thinkers in contemporary normative political theory, including John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Susan Moller Okin; and key topics in contemporary normative political theory, including issues such as immigration, education, representation, microaggressions, and climate change.
Read more about the Topics in Political Theory moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Modern Spanish Language 2
On this module, you'll extend your competence in Spanish. You'll deepen your understanding of advanced grammatical and linguistic structures, increase the range and sophistication of your vocabulary, and refine your use of register in authentic spoken and written discourse. You'll use resources from a variety of media from around the Hispanic world, and take part in our virtual language exchange, where you will have the opportunity to work online with students in Spain and Latin America. At the end of the course, you should have sufficient mastery to discuss different topics, report on your independent reading and support your opinions with solid arguments.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 2Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Modern Spanish Language 2 (Post-beginners)
This module for students who started as beginners follows the first-year module HP102 and seeks to consolidate the language skills gained in students’ first year of study. The aim of this module is to further extend and refine competence in modern Spanish. It covers the main linguistic skills (oral, aural, reading and writing), and seeks to promote the continued acquisition of grammatical awareness and essential communicative competences. At the end of the course, you will be able to understand discourse on concrete and abstract topics, to give presentations about different subjects, to report on the results of your independent reading and research, and to state your point of view and support it with solid arguments.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 2 (Post-beginners)Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Three
Your third year will normally be spent abroad. If you did not spend your second year abroad, you will spend this year studying abroad, or on a work placement. If you spent your second year abroad, you will then follow the syllabus below for your third year.
Modern Spanish Language 2
On this module, you'll extend your competence in Spanish. You'll deepen your understanding of advanced grammatical and linguistic structures, increase the range and sophistication of your vocabulary, and refine your use of register in authentic spoken and written discourse. You'll use resources from a variety of media from around the Hispanic world, and take part in our virtual language exchange, where you will have the opportunity to work online with students in Spain and Latin America. At the end of the course, you should have sufficient mastery to discuss different topics, report on your independent reading and support your opinions with solid arguments.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 2Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Year Four
Modern Spanish Language 3
This module will consolidate your linguistic skills acquired in the intermediate year and extend them through translation, writing, reading, speaking and listening activities. A range of assessments will be offered for students to track and reflect on their progress through the provision of regular feedback. Students will also be provided with complementary autonomous learning and grammar activities and directed to appropriate activities for self-study in order to develop independent learning strategies.
The aim of this module is to refine fluency in spoken and written Spanish, working towards a C2 standard of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Emphasis will be placed on sophisticated translation and writing, as well as oral and comprehension skills, using an appropriate range of complex linguistic structures, vocabulary, register and style.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 3Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Optional modules
Year Two - optional modules in Politics
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Politics of International Development
- Politics in the UK
- Politics of the USA
- Theories of International Relations
- Politics of Contemporary China
- States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy
- International Security
- Core Issues in Comparative Politics
- Themes in European Integration
- Capitalism and its Alternatives
- Political Economy and the Liberal Democratic State
- Introduction to Comparative Public Policy
- 21st Century Challenges and Public Policy Solutions
- The Political Economy of Southeast Asia
- Introduction to Casual Inference in Quantitative Political Analysis
- Gender Matters in International Relation
Year Two - optional modules in Hispanic Studies
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Latin American Counterpoints: Cultural Representations of Slavery in the 20th Century
- Illusion and Reality, Doubt and Deceit: The Baroque Obsession with Unc
- Screening Spain: Spanish Film in Context
- Postmodernism and Popular Culture in Latin America
- Love, Death, and Desire in the Golden Age
- Journeys and Cityscapes in Latin American Film
- Climate Fictions in the Hispanic World
- Gender and Translation in the Hispanic World
- Memory and the Spanish Civil War
- The Disappeared: Literature and Culture from Argentina and Chile
- Crime and Punishment in Spanish Film
- Knowing Women: Gender, Education and Power in Hispanic Writing
Year Three - optional modules in Politics
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Politics of International Development
- Politics in the UK
- Politics of the USA
- Theories of International Relations
- Politics of Contemporary China
- States and Markets: An Introduction to International Political Economy
- International Security
- Core Issues in Comparative Politics
- Themes in European Integration
- Capitalism and its Alternatives
- Political Economy and the Liberal Democratic State
- Introduction to Comparative Public Policy
- 21st Century Challenges and Public Policy Solutions
- Introduction to Qualitative Method
Year Three - optional modules in Hispanic Studies
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Latin American Counterpoints: Cultural Representations of Slavery in the 20th Century
- Illusion and Reality, Doubt and Deceit: The Baroque Obsession with Uncertainty
- Screening Spain: Spanish Film in Context
- Postmodernism and Popular Culture in Latin America
- Love, Death, and Desire in the Golden Age
- Journeys and Cityscapes in Latin American Film
- Climate Fictions in the Hispanic World
- Gender and Translation in the Hispanic World
- Memory and the Spanish Civil War
- The Disappeared: Literature and Culture from Argentina and Chile
- Crime and Punishment in Spanish Film
- Knowing Women: Gender, Education and Power in Hispanic Writing
Year Four - optional modules in Politics
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Gender and Development
- European Union Policy-Making
- Politics of Globalisation
- United States Foreign Policy
- Critical Security Studies
- Vigilant State: The Politics of Intelligence
- State, Power, Freedom: European Political Theory
- The Political Economy of Money
- International Relations of the Americas
- Latin America: Democratisation and Development
- War in the 21st Century
- Politics and Culture in the Middle East
- Violence, Rights, Justice and Peace in the Middle East
- The Global Energy Challenge
- The Politics of Climate Change
- Public Opinion
- Determinants of Democracy
- Dissertation
- The Politics of Religion
- Gender, War and Militarism
- Race and International Politics
- The Political Economy of Islam in Southeast Asia
Year Four - optional modules in Hispanic Studies
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Latin American Counterpoints: Cultural Representations of Slavery in the 20th Century
- Illusion and Reality, Doubt and Deceit: The Baroque Obsession with Uncertainty
- Screening Spain: Spanish Film in Context
- Postmodernism and Popular Culture in Latin America
- Love, Death, and Desire in the Golden Age
- Journeys and Cityscapes in Latin American Film
- Climate Fictions in the Hispanic World
- Gender and Translation in the Hispanic World
- Memory and the Spanish Civil War
- The Disappeared: Literature and Culture from Argentina and Chile
- Crime and Punishment in Spanish Film
- Knowing Women: Gender, Education and Power in Hispanic Writing
Find out more about Politics modulesLink opens in a new window
Find out more about Hispanic Studies modulesLink opens in a new window
