Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier
GS22920
Module Title
Placing Culture
Academic Year
2025/2026
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 1
Reading List
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Essay 2  2000 Words  50%
Semester Assessment End of module assessment  50%
Supplementary Assessment Essay 2  2000 Words  50%
Supplementary Assessment End of module assessment  50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. Identify and describe contemporary debates in the fields of cultural and historical geography.

2. Critically interrogate a range of sources and texts, ranging from written texts to cultural images.

3. Demonstrate clear evidence of extensive reading around debates in cultural and historical geography.

4. Demonstrate a critical awareness of written arguments about specific key themes within cultural and historical geography.

5. Demonstrate a clear understanding of the ways in which cultural and historical geographers have communicated their ideas with a range of non-academic publics.

Brief description

This module introduces students to the concept of culture, examinign how it has been studied by scholars in geography, cultural studies and sociology. The module will start with a lecture which introduces the historical development of the sub-fields of cultural geography and cultural studies, stressing the ways in which the subfields have developed, and the relations which have emerged between them. The module will then be split into three sections, studying themes such as landscape, the body, the senses, architecture, mobility, cultures of representation, and more-than-human geographies.

Content

This module introduces students to contemporary debates about culture in the social sciences and humanities, covering key debates in cultural geography, cultural studies and cultural sociology. The module will include sessions on topics such as: key approaches to culture in the social sciences; the body and subjectivity; the morethan-human; mobility; landscape; representation; museum cultures; nature; and race and ethnicity.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number Not explicitly developed in this module.
Communication The module will develop the students' skills of written communication, both in writing their assessed essays and in completing their written examination. In addition, students will develop their oral communication skills through in-class discussions.
Improving own Learning and Performance Student attendance and participation in the lectures, and their undertaking of an assessed essay, will help them to enhance a range of learning skills. The module requires students to undertake extensive self-directed study. Feedback on the essay will enable students to reflect upon their own learning and performance, and to build upon (and improve upon) this performance.
Information Technology The assessed essay requires students to undertake independent research using bibliographic search-engines and library catalogues. The module will enable students to enhance their research skills and practise their IT skills when writing the essay.
Personal Development and Career planning The module will help students to develop a range of transferable skills. The course discusses themes which will be invaluable for students wishing to undertake postgraduate study in geography.
Problem solving The module will develop students' problem-solving skills in a number of ways. Students will be required to analyse a range of sources and texts, and they will be required to complete small problem-solving exercises during the lectures and in the preparation of their assessed group presentation. Students will also have to address problems associated with research design when undertaking their assessed essay.
Research skills Students are expected to research and synthesize a range of academic source material in completing their written assignments, and in preparing for their written examination.
Subject Specific Skills The module will enable students to develop and practice subject-specific skills which they have developed in year one and in concurrent year two modules such as 'Research skills in human geography', including techniques for analyzing historical and cultural texts. Students will develop their analytical skills through their assessed essay and examination, and possibly in class-based discussions.
Team work The lectures may include class-based problem-solving exercises and discussions which will provide opportunities for students to develop team-working skills and discuss their thoughts with the class.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5