Who were we? Who are we? Who will we be?

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: a critical response to a cultural artefact (40%) and 2500-word essay (60%)

In this module we explore how identities have been imagined at different points in history from the medieval period to the present day and beyond. While the module essentially aims to illuminate British history and arts, we will also will look sideways to different cultures to contextualise and de-centre how the self and the other have been imagined in Britain over time.

The module will allow you understand how the arts and humanities can help us engage with historical conceptions of identity in imaginative ways, allowing us to re-think what it means to be human in the twentieth-first century with reference to where we have come from, where we are now across the globe, and where we might be headed as humans of the future.

Indicative syllabus

• Medieval to Reformation
• Eighteenth century
• Nineteenth century
• Revolution and world war
• After the war
• Who are we now?
• Future bodies, future minds

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of identities as historically contingent concepts
• understand how identities have been conceptualised in distinct ways through history and across culture
• understand how cultural objects can explore and allow us to reimagine self and other
• understand how an engagement with the arts can impact our understanding of historical and social development.