Master of Arts in Politics

How do philosophies and theories of politics differ from theory that is

political? This module engages with the varying historical and cultural

demands of the task of political theorising, to track the changing means of

politics and the political, as domains, discourses, vocabularies, and

disciplines of human experience. Emphasis will be placed on the ordinary

arts of being human that constitute political engagement, and how

attending to these enables us to think of politics, the human, time, place,

thought, and action differently. Assigned readings will be critically

assessed to evaluate their approaches, definitions and arguments.

Through this process, students will (1) become fluent in basic concepts

and relevant terms, and (2) address issues related to what constitutes the

political; when, where and how politics happens; what it means to think,

ask, and act politically; and what being a student or “expert” of politics

may entail.

This module incorporates insights from political science, public policy, political and social theory, history, and cultural studies to inquire into the whats, wheres, whys, and hows of political actions and the institutions in which they emerge and/or are contained. Throughout the module, students will analyse political practices such as community organising, social movements, electoral campaigns, political parties, and other varieties of individual and collective transformative practices. Additionally, students will assess what it means to act politically and the implications of such actions for both individuals and institutions. The relationship between the individual and political institutions will also be evaluated, including topics such as becoming part of an institution, engaging in institutional critique, seeking institutional reforms, calling attention to institutionalised inequalities, or inspiring institutional change.

This module addresses various topics related to international law and politics. Students will assess the history and practice of geopolitics, nationalism, internationalism, diplomacy, etc., within the realms of political science and the wider social sciences. Additionally, students will analyse the circumstances which contribute to the allocation of power within world politics and how these are influenced by paradigm shifts in the production of expertise and knowledge. Throughout the module, students will approach inquiry and research as active participants in history, working through fundamental questions pertaining to contemporary topics. These topics include the concept of the ‘Global South’ as a locus for conversations and studies that have historically been centred on the ‘West’ and the ‘Global North’; the historicisation of various perspectives on geopolitics; the experience of marginalised and colonised peoples within national and international contexts. The module combines theoretical frameworks with practical application to case studies on several central contemporary political issues.

Which political ideas corresponded to which forms of social, political, and economic life? What is the relation between ideas, ideals, and ideologies? How do the results of political imagination correspond to the unfolding of human histories? What are the conditions that make certain kinds of political judgments and philosophies possible? In each iteration of this genealogical endeavour, this module takes on these questions more generally, and then delves into a cluster of ideas, corresponding material and social forms in a specific historical-cultural context before inviting certain comparisons to be made. Topics addressed in the module include: democracy, equality, identity, territory, race, knowledge, citizenship, agency, fascism, property, liberalism, violence, gender, belief, affect, culture, disability. Students will study classical original texts and also key secondary works and anthologies of thematic and regional conceptual and intellectual histories.

This module adopts a range of humanistic and social scientific

perspectives to analyse the relationships that exist between market, state,

economy, polis, consumer, worker, producer, citizen, and subject.

Throughout the module, students will develop a comprehensive

understanding of topics such as production, distribution, development,

growth, globalisation, economic and social policies to more fully

understand the discourse of political economy. Additionally, students will

engage with issues related to labour, race, class, climate, trade, finance,

health, dependency, entrepreneurship, modernisation, obsolescence, and

disposability that affect both micropolitical and macropolitical realms.

Students will assess dominant understandings of the world’s economic

and political systems, and where opportunities for fracture,

transformation, and innovation might be available.

The etymological intersections between politikos (the practice and theory

of influencing other people on a civic or individual level), aisthesis

(perception through the senses and the intellect), and poiesis (the act of

making, producing, bringing-forth), are complex, plentiful, and serve as

the premise of this module.

This module examines the historical and evolving relationship between

aesthetics (as the domain of perception through the senses and the

intellect) and politics (as the statics and dynamics of life within a polis

where individuals need and shape each other and the lifeworld enclosed

by the polis). As such, students will develop a comprehensive knowledge

of poiesis that is being applied to the evaluation of 1) various acts of

artistic and cultural production (understood broadly), 2) the experiences

that provide the material for this production, and 3) the sensing and

sense-making that this production enables for others in the world.

Additionally, students will study the life activities in which relationships

of power, location (both temporal and spatial), and capacities of knowing,

being, and feeling are created and maintained.

Understanding history is essential to critically examine religious identity, war, and conflict, especially since many contemporary arguments concerning the future of these subjects rely on concepts deeply indebted to the past. This module is designed to prompt and refine critical thinking skills related to various issues surrounding the historically problematic relationships between politics and religion and concepts of body or spirit. A political approach to these issues requires asking how these are “problems” to begin with and for whom. Students will engage in discussions surrounding the epistemologies and ontologies, particularly concerning the theory and concept of secularism in modernity and premodernity. Additionally, students will investigate various cultural and intellectual paradigms along with discourses that may propose different relations between politics, race, gender, and religion, and the body/bodies that serve as the ground for these battles. Throughout the module, students will engage with intellectual and

philosophical debates concerning the effect of religious laws and

traditions on the practice of politics and the influence of politics on

religious and theological discourse and practice. Students will study the

theories that influenced significant moments in history such as the

Crusades, development in mediaeval political thought, the invention of

race, Renaissance attempts at secularism, and ongoing issues related to

the separation of the theological and the political, or, the separation of

church and state.

How are we to create totalities and frames that connect without colonising? Is it possible to read and harness our recent history in a way that impacts how we name, understand, and solve political problems? To answer these questions, this module addresses the differences and specificities that are often sacrificed to achieve grand theory, toward a method of addressing the theoretical, temporal, and spatial intersections of political life. A dynamic treatment of bodies, affect, memory, identities, cultures, institutions, power, and lifeworlds in contemporary geopolitics marked by old and new regimes of capital and colony will be explored in depth. This module invites students to take one aspect of their contemporary political experience and unpack it using various tools and methods at their disposal to create and articulate their own methodological

framework. The module encourages students to analyse their political,

social, and cultural lifeworld in a way that is honest and forthright about

prominent epistemologies and methods that affect their political

existence.

A distinctive part of the curriculum is Further Studies in Politics, a module that runs in parallel with the other modules of the program. Further Studies allow students to integrate course material from new perspectives. Students take Further Studies twice, and have the ability to select a customised assessment package to make their program more relevant to their educational and career goals. The overall purpose of Further Studies is to allow Cohort Members to delve into subjects of interest that complement the core ten-module curriculum. Invariably, the speaker profile involved in the delivery of Further Studies content is expert practitioners who share tailored insights and practical guidance. The exact content of the Further Studies module changes every year in response to contemporary political issues. Students take Topics twice, albeit with different content each time.

A distinctive part of the curriculum is Further Studies in Politics, a module that runs in parallel with the other modules of the program. Further Studies allow students to integrate course material from new

perspectives. Students take Further Studies twice, and have the ability to

select a customised assessment package to make their program more

relevant to their educational and career goals. Further Studies in Politics

II is not a more “advanced” class than part 1; it is just a fresh set of topics

aligned with the other aspects of the programme’s curriculum.

The overall purpose of Further Studies is to allow Cohort Members to

delve into subjects of interest that complement the core ten-module

curriculum. Invariably, the speaker profile involved in the delivery of

Further Studies content is expert practitioners who share tailored insights

and practical guidance. The exact content of the Further Studies module

changes every year in response to contemporary political issues.

Students take Topics twice, albeit with different content each semester.

The Politics Dissertation contains both a research planning phase, ‘The Research Plan’, and a research execution phase ‘The Dissertation’. The Research Plan The Research Plan for the Politics Dissertation prepares students to embark upon a substantial, sustained, unified piece of research at the MQF 7 level. The module is taught by the proposed dissertation supervisor as a form of preparation specific to the dissertation and the requirements of its subject matter. This module is not a general introduction to research or research methodologies, but a practical preparation for students embarking upon the dissertation for the MA in Politics. Although these skills are highly transferable to other research domains, it remains the case that the purpose of the module is scoped to the needs of the specific dissertation for which it prepares the student. This module marks the end of the taught portion of the degree and the transition to the research portion. It is expected that the topic of research, which is refined during the planning phase, will have arisen out of one of the taught modules’ assignments, projects, or essays. The planning phase provides a highly structured plan for embarking upon independent research in the subsequent dissertation and more broadly at the MQF 7 level. In order to provide context for the submission of the ‘Research Plan’ (which is the purpose of this phase of the module), the student will gain a proficient knowledge of relevant research methods and planning. Thus in connection with the core learning outcomes resulting from the research plan, the student will additionally gain a proficient understanding of the wider context of research methods and evaluate the fittingness of the chosen method. In this plan a student must:

1. Propose their dissertation topic

2. Identify a provisional title

3. Evaluate research methods and select a strategy

4. Write an abstract of the proposed research5. Compose a provisional table of contents for the dissertation

5. Write a literary survey covering the primary and secondary sources

6. Schedule a timeline to completion

7. Compose an annotated bibliography The dissertation supervisor finally prepares the student for external examination of the proposed dissertation. At the end of the Research Plan is submitted a portfolio containing six elements:

8. Provisional dissertation title

9. Abstract

10. Expanded table of contents

11. Literature survey

12. Timeline to completion

13. Annotated bibliography The Research Plan provides students with a clear framework to guide their research question, a structure into which they can fit their scholarly research, and a pathway to the completion of the dissertation. During the module, students meet with their supervisor at regular intervals determined in advance by both parties. The student’s attention is directed to literature on the topic of the proposed dissertation, and thus methodological research guidance, beyond the oral instruction of the student’s supervisor, will be provided within the domain of study specific to the student’s dissertation. This will vary considerably, depending upon the topic of the dissertation, and it forms a natural component of the literature survey. (Thus it is neither appropriate nor possible to list here the bibliographic references that will be needed by the student. We have, however, provided valuable works of general research guidance and reference, and works to aid the student in evaluating the best research method for the dissertation.) Dissertation Writing Upon completion and approval of the ‘Research Plan’, students will have a well-defined research topic, a clear structure to organise their proposed research, a firm grasp of the relevant literature, and a practical timeline in which to conduct their research. The dissertation will constitute a substantial, original, independent piece of research, which is clearly articulated in relation to the primary evidence and secondary literature, and which is organised in relation to the plan first envisaged as part of the ‘Research Plan’. Regular supervision meetings keep the student on-course with the timeline agreed in the Timeline to completion. Supervisory meetings concentrate on a pre-submitted piece of research in a pattern that continues until the first draft of the dissertation is complete. Although students may request twice-weekly meetings during the first 2 weeks of the dissertation, it is expected (and students typically prefer) not to meet more than twice per month thereafter. This allows the student time to develop their independent research and writing. After the completion of the first draft, meetings focus on the harmonisation of the parts, adjustments to the overall argument, and the supervisor seeks to ensure that the student guides the dissertation with a single, coherent line of enquiry. The final meetings with the student focus on polishing the editorial aspects of the dissertation, and helping the student prepare for examination.