Moodle

This module provides an interdisciplinary, critical, and practical engagement with the increasingly digital world we live in. The digital revolution is changing a number of fundamental aspects of our world, ranging from surveillance and privacy considerations to what it is to be a citizen, from changing business models to how research and development takes place and how people will work in the future, from warfare to medicine, from how we relate to ourselves to how we construct communities, from how we protect human rights to how we promote humanities.

In early modern Europe (ca. 1550-1815), people believed that there was a permeable boundary between the natural (what could be readily observed and explained by natural philosophy) and supernatural worlds (what was hidden, or lay beyond the natural world). We’ll explore the shifting meanings of the natural and supernatural worlds during a period that encompassed three major shifts in intellectual outlook: the Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment. This was an age of collecting and classifying knowledge, objects… and wonders! Not only did the relationship between science and God undergo profound changes, but the shifts simultaneously resulted in many supernatural beliefs (e.g. werewolves) becoming less plausible while raising the possibility of other mysterious creatures (e.g. vampires). But to what extent did the intellectual framework of the educated elite shape popular belief (or vice versa)? We will explore the way in which early modern people understood the boundaries between human and animal, body and soul, life and death, science and religion, and reality and imagination.

This module provides an introduction to the study of History at university level. Students will practise a number of skills relating to the research and writing of history, including use of the library and the Internet, critical reading and note-taking, planning and constructing an argument, summarising and paraphrasing, as well as issues related to style and presentation. By the end of the module students should be well equipped to research and write a good history essay.

Here's our space to share resources, build a community/network, and get some feedback! We hope you use it often!

Best Regards,

Your PhD SU Representatives

Overview

This module is designed to give an overview of three areas of film and media study: form and aesthetics (and the close analysis of film images); history and contexts, spanning from the 19^th to the 21^st century; and film and media theory, looking at moving images both as cultural products and as texts received and consumed by audiences. Starting from the origins of cinema and leading to more recent trends in camera and special effects, the module explores the evolution of film language, including montage, mise-en-scène, deep focus, sound, and light and colour. In other weekly units we continue our work with these concepts while delving more deeply into issues of genre, auteur theory, alternate modes of cinematic narration, and cinematic ‘possible worlds’. 

How it works

All students should attend the weekly lecture/screening in LTB10 and their allocated weekly class. For each week, there are readings to be read in advance of the class. (For details, please see the week-by-week schedule below). Wherever possible, you should bring your copy of the reading to the class and be prepared to refer to it, or to your notes. Regular attendance, informed contribution to classes, and a viewing diary are expected and assessed through a participation mark.

Module Description.

This 10-week module will explore writing for radio. We will listen to a wide range of radio drama, and discuss the possibilities that radio offers the writer – from the artistic to the practical.  Students will be introduced to the basics of writing drama for radio.  Topics will include creating location, characterisation, dialogue, and plotting. We will also cover how to format and set out a radio script, and students will be introduced to the radio drama schedule: what kinds of dramas are broadcast, when, and for whom!

Much of what we discuss will focus on techniques of writing drama that can be applied to other media such as theatre, television or film. However, throughout the module we will be thinking about the particular possibilities and the constraints of radio: how does the listener know where they are? How many characters can we have in one scene without confusing the audience? How do sound effects work and when should the writer organise and select them?

We will also explore the possibilities offered by what Angela Carter calls ‘The Amazing Picture Palace’: the freedom to travel to exotic or impossible locations; the opportunities for the poetic or interior; the intimacy. We will look at key figures in the history of radio drama who have expanded its potential, from Dylan Thomas to Samuel Beckett to contemporary writers such as Simon Armitage, whilst also looking closely at the state of radio drama today - thinking about opportunities for new writers and looking at the practicalities of how to explain and pitch ideas. Teaching is by a weekly seminar that will involve listening to and reading radio plays, tutor talks, discussion, individual writing exercises and group work.

This module will help you get started as a writer, with the idea that the more you practise and the more you read, the better you can become. Key skills applicable to a variety of genres will be explored through warm-up exercises, workshops, reading and discussion of literary texts, and peer review. Topics to be covered will range from key skills such as handling Beginnings and Endings, Image, and Voice, to the study of particular genres, where the emphasis will be on short fiction and poetry.

This is a ten week module conducted in nine or ten two hour sessions, so you will be covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. It is essential, therefore, that you come to each session well prepared: each week there will be set readings and/or writing exercises, from Imaginative Writing and other sources, which should be completed in your own time in advance of the following session. The course is participatory: this will involve writing and reading in class, as well as contributing to written exercises and discussion. Like all LiFTs courses there is a participation mark.

Description of course here.

LT203 United States Literature Since 1850 

This module looks at the history of writing in the United States from before the Civil War to the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and beyond: that is, from the beginnings of a conflict that first threatened and then confirmed the United States as a nation state to the civil conflicts that have erupted over the assertion by the United States of its global and imperial power as well as over the continuing denial of civil rights to the descendants of the slaves, the original inhabitants of North America and others.

The web is becoming a defining platform for publications, reading, listening and watching communities, as well as a place for showcasing creative work. This module is an introduction to the creative use of social and multimedia for artistic endeavour, web profiling and critical understanding.

This module introduces students to some of the practical and theoretical aspects of writing for the screen. It will investigate script form and structure in feature and short films, as well as examining techniques of ideas generation and creating memorable characters and plots.

This is the discussion area for LT367, accompanying the main course materials in the CMR.

LT901 Research Methods in Literary and Cultural Analysis.

An introduction to how to be a journalist, concentrating on the basics of reporting and production.

The basics of media law, which will prepare you for the National Council for the Training of Journalists exams.

This module comprises production from scratch of a supplement for the Colchester Gazette.

This module develops and broadens the production skills you learned in the LT131 Practical Journalism module in the first year.