Entrepreneurship and Business
This module presents a formal analysis of entrepreneurship in theory and practice leading on to a consideration of creativity and business concept generation. You’ll have 11 two-hour lectures with the module concluding with the practical application of these theories and concepts in a business planning and business concept presentation.
Work and Society
The module explores the nature of work and society. The module will look at the development of our understanding of work and society. The development of the industrial and the post-industrial society will be explored and its impact on the nature of work, organisation and management.
There will be a historical and critical review of the schools of thought and key writers. Examples of research into individual and group experiences of work, organisation and management will be discussed.
New Venture Creation
This module will engage you in the more practical elements of innovation and enterprise activity, in terms of creating new businesses and entrepreneurship within the corporate environment. You will become prepared for enterprise activity across a variety of contexts.
Organisational Behaviour
This module will introduce you to the basic ideas of organisational behaviour. The content will encourage you to develop an understanding of managing and developing people within business organisations.
The module will draw its primary material from the major theorists and theories of both organisational psychology and organisational behaviour. The module will also develop links with other aspects of the business school curriculum such as general management and international business.
Students on this degree course will typically take core modules in the first year of study and select from a range of optional modules in the second and final year of the course. Beginners normally follow a set programme in their beginners’ language in the first two years of the course, with the same range of optional modules available to them in their final year. For more details of optional modules in your particular language combination, please see the pages for our single honours languages degrees.
Introduction to French and Francophone Studies
You will receive a firm grounding in the structures of French through the core language module. You will also follow a core module 'Introduction to French and Francophone Studies' which will prepare you for studying the range of topics and skills you will develop in your degree course. You will also choose optional modules in French literature and the history and politics of contemporary France.
This module will focus on a selection of themes: French political institutions, with particular emphasis on the presidency; political parties in France; immigration and identity, including questions of identity in contemporary French culture.
Introduction to French Literature: Representations of Paris
This module aims to introduce students to the comparative study of literature and culture, inviting students to consider how Paris is represented in a range of texts (poetic, narrative and filmic) in the modern period (post-1800). Students will learn reading techniques adapted to different genres and media, and to consider representations of the city within their broader social, historical and critical contexts.
Introduction to German Studies
This is the core module for first year students of German. We look at the history of German and introduce you to the linguistic study of the language, and at a range of themes and styles in German literature linked to key areas of German and Austrian culture (such as gender relations, migration, and race). Further topics address the study of German film, and German history with a focus on recent history since German reunification in 1990. The module gives students insight into the different areas we teach and also the skills to explore these areas in more depth in subsequent modules.
Linguistics: The Sounds of German
This module will introduce students to selected topics in the history of the Low Countries from the sixteenth century to the present day. It will focus on a number of key events and periods such as the fall of Antwerp in 1585, the Belgian Revolution of 1830, the Flemish Movement and the Second World War. You’ll spend two hours per week in lectures and seminars studying for this module.
Hitler and the Third Reich
Although the Third Reich is very well researched, it still raises many questions: How could Adolf Hitler gain so much power? How could a whole nation ‘fall’ for the Nazi ideology? Why the Jews? In this module we will discuss and research Nazi politics as well as its society and culture. We will consider propaganda, the press, youth and women’s organisations, as well as the role of films, art and literature. Theoretical writings on fascist ideology will provide us with relevant background knowledge and we will work with original German materials such as documents, newspapers, photos, posters, films and speeches.
Nation, Myth, Identity: Introduction to Russian and Slavonic Studies
This module introduces students to important areas and topics in Russian and Slavonic Studies, examining important aspects of the histories and cultures of the region, as well as aspects of the languages, cultures and literary traditions. You will learn to analyse a wide range of cultural phenomena, including pictures, music, film, literary texts and other kinds of written sources.
From Tsarism to Communism: Introduction to Russian History and Culture
This module introduces the development of Russian history and culture, starting with the reign of Peter the Great (1682-1725), following the development of Russia into a modern state through to the end of the 19th century, and ending with a survey of the Bolshevik Revolution and the early Soviet period (1917-c.1928). Alongside the history of Russia, students learn about aspects of Russian culture relevant to different periods of its history (such as painting, architecture, music, folklore and religious beliefs).
Modern Russian Literature: Texts, Contexts, Approaches
This year-long module introduces Russian literature of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries through study of texts by canonical writers such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Zamiatin, Bulgakov and Akhmatova, as well as by some exciting contemporary authors. Alongside insights into the changing culture of Russia over this dynamic period of history, the module equips students with skills for analysing and discussing prose, poetry and drama.
Introduction to Literature in Spanish
You’ll read a series of key texts from Spain and Spanish America. Its purpose is to impart an essential body of literary-historical and cultural knowledge relating to the main periods, genres and conventions of literature in Spanish from the Middle Ages to the modern period. You’ll spend two hours per week in lectures and seminars studying for this module.
Spain and Portugal in the Twentieth Century
In this module you’ll study the evolution of Spanish and Portuguese history, politics and culture from 1898 to the present day. You’ll be encouraged to draw links between the Portuguese and Spanish experiences, and place both countries’ experience of the twentieth century within the broader context of European and wider global history in this period. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the development of both countries from a (perceived) position of ‘difference’ and ‘backwardness’ to relatively prosperous, economically developed and culturally diverse members of the European Union. You’ll spend around four hours in lectures each week.