Global Challenges in Historical Context: Identity and Rights

Module overview

In to order address any contemporary global challenge, it is vital that we understand the roots of the problem and its historical context. This module examines human rights and identity by broadly exploring the history of poverty and wealth from antiquity to the present day. It considers how political systems of economic control, such as capitalism and communism, have shaped human history. This module also investigates the post-war human rights movement and explores the contemporary challenges to these rights. Finally, the module takes a broad view of justice and identity by considering race, gender, and sexuality, and exploring the historic and contemporary challenges posed to these identities.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

undertake a thorough critical analysis and assessment of a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources.
apply your developed knowledge, structuring your ideas and research findings into well-ordered assignments.
engage with historiography and theoretical frameworks, contributing to the debates relating to the history of identity and rights and its relationship to historic and contemporary challenges.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

utilise and develop your time-management skills.
research complex historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in assignments.
use to good effect textual, visual and material culture sources, synthesising this material to develop cogent and persuasive arguments.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

a wide variety of secondary source material relating to the history of identity and rights, including theoretical frameworks used in the field.
the history of identity and rights, in particular historic and contemporary challenges posed to identities.
a wide variety of primary sources relating to the history of identity and rights.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include lectures and seminars. Learning methods include close analysis of a range of primary sources and discussion of key themes and ideas.

Study time
Type	Hours
Seminar	12
Preparation for scheduled sessions	50
Wider reading or practice	26
Completion of assessment task	50
Lecture	12
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Micheline Ishay (2004). The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era. University of California Press.

Charlotte Lydia Riley (ed.) (2021). The Free Speech Wars: How Did We Get Here and Why Does It Matter?. Manchester UP.

Andrew Clapham (2015). Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction. OUP.

Shoshana Zuboff (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for A Human Future at the Frontier of Power. Profile Books.

Robert C. Allen (2013). Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction. OUP.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External