University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 2

Availability restrictions: Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable: 10.00 am Wed

Objects appear and disappear in the political lives of nations and people but are rarely analyzed in detail. Why do nations argue about historical artefacts? Why do groups tear down monuments? How do functional things such as bridges acquire historical value? When do everyday objects acquire political meaning? The course argues that politics need to incorporate the material into its analysis and the study of objects in turn needs to take more seriously their political content. This content is not essentialised but is forever changing in relation to its subject and interpreter. The course encourages students to take a quite different range of objects, from the everyday examples of cigarettes or the telephone to ones of practical use such as bridges and canal pipes to those of aesthetic value such as a painting through to ones of overtly political ideology, such as public monuments. The module is assessed through a variety of innovative techniques and approaches.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass IR2006

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 hours of lectures (x 10 weeks), 2 consultation hours with Coordinator (x 12 weeks), 2 hours of seminars over the semester

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100% (including 30% In-Class Test)


Re-assessment: 3-hour Written Examination = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Professor S N Cummings
Module teaching staff: Prof S Cummings
Module coordinator email snc@st-andrews.ac.uk