Top reasons to choose this course
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Learn in a vibrant, progressive city with a reputation for radical, environmental and LGBTQI+ activism.
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Your lecturers are internationally recognised researchers on issues including populism, gender studies, the Middle East, environmentalism, migration, housing and political theory.
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You will engage with cutting-edge academic research. The university’s Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Ethics hosts regular talks, seminars, workshops and conferences, and offers an annual undergraduate research prize.
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International exchanges at a partner university – in year 2, students in the politics subject area have the opportunity to spend a semester studying abroad at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Netherlands or the University of Lyon 2, France.
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Guest speakers have included Caroline Lucas and Sue Shanks (Green Party), Yousef Eldin (BBC documentary producer), Nancy Hawker (Amnesty International) and Professor Angie Wilson (ex-chair of the Political Studies Association, researching sexuality and politics), as well as representatives from Make the Shift, The Free West Papua Campaign and ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø & Hove Community Land Trust.
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Assignments don’t just mean essays, you’ll be assessed in lots of ways including films, podcasts, data visualisations, political speeches, social media campaigns – the types of projects that will be valued by employers.
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Graduate with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Our courses offer practical skills and real-world experiences to prepare you for your future careers, with opportunities to undertake placements, design a campaign for a political organisation and learn digital communication skills.
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The university’s commitment to addressing global challenges is the lens through which you will learn and issues such as climate change, equality and inclusivity and sustainability are embedded in all teaching on our politics courses.
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Our decolonised approach to teaching and learning emphasises lived experience, recognising that knowledge is held in communities, not only in academic institutions.
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You will be studying in a thriving community alongside students taking related degrees which informs our delivery.
Year 1
In your first year, you will study six modules that introduce you to the subject area.
Modules
- Politics in Practice
This module introduces you to ideas about how politics is practiced by state and non-state actors at local, national and international levels. You will take part in field trips, Q+As with political actors and engagement with political communications. You’ll also be introduced to methods of data collection as well as forms of qualitative and quantitative analysis.
- Foundations in World Politics
You will examine critical historical perspectives on the modern international political system. You’ll examine how the peoples and governments of the world came to be linked through an imperial system by exploring major world events and processes of global history. Key topics include the origins of the international political system, slavery, imperial and colonial expansion, anti-colonial resistance and liberation, global governance, controversy and historiography.
- Political Ideas
You will gain a broad overview of the academic study of politics by focusing on core concepts of political science and political theory, and then applying those to political processes, institutions, ideologies and the nature of political change. The module covers the core conceptual material needed for degree-level study in politics, but also introduces ideas and approaches that can be applied in philosophy and social sciences.
- Freedom and Truth in Crisis
This module examines the contemporary crisis of freedom and truth. From ‘post-truth’ politics to global apartheid, and from the resurgence of authoritarianism to climate catastrophe, both freedom and truth are increasingly fragile and contested. You will explore what freedom and truth mean, whose freedom has counted, and whose truths have been recognised. You will also consider how attacks on truth and freedom are a key feature of a wider backlash against progressive gains made by liberation movements.
- Comparative Political Systems
This module introduces you to some of the key features of politics, including institutions, political actors and political processes. You will examine the most important political hallmarks – for example the legislature, the executive, political parties and electoral processes – in at least two contemporary states that illustrate democratic, partially democratic, or/and authoritarian political systems.
- Introduction to the  Global Challenges Lab
Supported by a tutor, you will design and conduct a research project that addresses one of the global challenges identified by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. You’ll learn how to create blogs, podcasts and short films to communicate your research and ideas to a non-academic audience.
Year 2
In year two you will explore British politics and theories of government and policy, and begin to learn the fundamentals of research methods and ethics in preparation for your final year dissertation.
You’ll also choose the subjects that interest you most through option modules.
Modules
Core modules
- Authority, Democracy and Justice
Authority, Democracy and Justice builds on your understanding of political theory, bringing in key authors in their historical context and examining core concepts in depth. It focuses on critiques of democracy, addressing the question of political obligation and the social contract, and bringing to the fore Marxist and anarchist analyses of democracy. You will also explore social justice, entitlement theory and economic democracy.
- UK Politics
You’ll develop your understanding of the role, form and evolution of the contemporary British state. Taking the post war settlement and the ‘Westminster Model’ as a starting point, you will look at key developments in the form of the state and their influences, including the rise of the New Right, globalisation, complex governance models and devolution. You will examine where power lies in British politics, how much power governments have and how this manifests in policymaking decisions.
- We, the People
This module introduces the notion of the people into modern history and looks at its relationship to sovereignty, nationalism, revolution, colonialism, decolonial projects, and the academic study of politics as a discipline. You will critically examine debates over the people emerging in various historical contexts and political practices. You’ll also consider critiques of the people developed from decolonial and black critical theory.
- Researching Politics
In this module you will study the research methods commonly used in politics, focusing on basic research design, ethical considerations and positionality, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, and case study research. You will explore the positivist paradigms dominant in politics research, focusing particularly on decolonising research methods.
Options*
- Unruly Bodies: Understanding and Contesting Normativity
In this module you will explore the historical production of dominant ideas of the body, specifically the production of raced, classed, gendered and normative bodies in relation to the histories and legacies of colonialism, capitalism and empire. You will examine alternative concepts of bodies and embodied practices that challenge dominant ways of thinking and being.
- Contemporary Issues in International Relations
You will be introduced to a range of contemporary issues in world politics and explore how various international relations (IR) theories can be used to explain and understand these topics. The module gives you the opportunity to explore issues such as war crimes, the arms trade and nuclear weapons, among others, drawing on examples from today’s global politics.
- Nations and Nationalism
This module will introduce you to political understandings of the nation and the phenomenon of nationalism. You will explore the historical construction of nationalism as imagined and analyse how nationalism matters for states and societies. You'll differentiate between the state and the nation and analyse the impact of nationalism in terms of conflict, identity, power and representation. The module will focus on the key thinkers on nationalism and seminal texts on the subject.
- Development and Sustainability
This module offers an overview of global development and explores contemporary issues including poverty, foreign aid, hunger and the global land grab. You will explore alternative development strategies and alternatives to development by looking at issues including the rise of China, cash transfers, food sovereignty and gender-equitable development. You will also examine the interrelationship between development and sustainability and critically interrogate the limits of sustainable development.
- Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community
This 40-hour community engagement module provides you with the opportunity to explore workplace practices and recognise your role as a global citizen. You will put into practice what you have learned in relation to policies, politics and communication, and reflect on issues such as gender, race and class representation. Through the placement you will acquire transferrable employability skills and abilities, including professional conduct in the workplace, teamwork and problem-solving.
- International Institutions
This module focuses on key contemporary international institutions including the United Nations and the European Union and examines how different actors – including states, diplomats, non-governmental organisations and social movements – interact within these institutions. By looking at how decisions are made, you will explore questions of power, democracy and governance in a changing international order. The module will include at least one model United Nations event.
- Gender, Race and the Environment
This module explores the gender, race and class aspects of the climate crisis by looking at theoretical approaches examining these connections. You will look at debates and theoretical approaches such as environmental justice, ecofeminism, feminist political ecology, Black critical theory, critical Marxism and postcolonial feminism to see how the climate crisis is absorbed and impacts different political locations and spaces.
*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.
Final year
Modules
Core modules
- Activism and Social Change
With the aim of exploring how civil society groups can intervene in the political sphere, you will plan a political campaign during this module. You will study the social issues involved and design and run a campaign that meets a live brief provided by a third sector campaigning organisation. You’ll learn a range of skills to help you run a successful political campaign and draw on the digital and creative skills you have acquired in the Global Challenges Lab.
- Politics Dissertation
With expert guidance, you will take on a research project you’ve designed and refined through a series of research lectures and supervisions. You will examine primary sources, analyse theoretical debates and use research methodology aligned with your course requirements, including quantitative and/or qualitative methods. The culmination of your research will be presented in a comprehensive dissertation.
Options*
- Radical Political Economy and Anarchist Politics
This module provides an in-depth and critical examination of political economy and anarchism theories, introducing classical theories of political economy and presenting a range of alternatives from the political left and right. It also assesses the contribution of anarchist politics from different established perspectives.
- Neoliberalism, Imperialism and Resistance
In this module you will examine the spread of global neoliberalism and its relationship to US hegemony and imperialism, using an international political economy perspective to understand power and patterns of accumulation. You will assess challenges to this model, including the rise of BRICS+ countries and a resurgent Russia, and explore local resistance to neoliberal expansion, with a particular focus on Latin America.
- Race and International Relations
The place of ‘race’ and its different connotations in the discipline and practice of international relations (IR) is currently the topic of a lot of scholarly research and debate. This module will investigate how conventional IR is subjectively racialised as white and how the production of whiteness in IR significantly constrains our collective capacities to understand world politics.
- Human Rights and Humanitarian Intervention
This module explores human rights and humanitarian intervention, examining the role the international community plays in causing, preventing and responding to human rights violation. You will study human rights issues in the context of military intervention and the prevention of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity, and question if and how human rights are being protected in a changing international order.
- Politics of the Right
This module examines the history and theory of the right to shed light on its contemporary political manifestations. It considers the history, theory and practice of conservatism, nationalism, fascism, neoliberalism and the New Right and examines the new modes the right has utilised in the twenty-first century and what impact these have had.
- Politics in the Middle East
This module focuses on key debates in the study of Middle Eastern politics, taking a largely thematic approach to politics in the region and exploring relevant case studies within these themes. Topics under analysis include the legacies of colonialism; independence movements and nationalism; political economy; the role of religion in politics; and questions of democracy and authoritarianism.
*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.
Placements
Spend a year on placement
Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, real-world experience and valuable contacts.
A placement year significantly improves your CV, giving you a distinct advantage over others when applying for jobs and starting your career. It will also help you to develop the softer skills such as communication and teamwork.
For the assessed part of your placement, you will create a reflective piece of work on professional practice and skills.
The university has links with a wide range of organisations including in health, culture and heritage, housing, councils, the police, the probation service, policy think tanks and charities.
Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that meets with your interests and career ambitions. They can help with CVs and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well.
Other placement opportunities
In your second year you can gain real-world experience on placement with the option module Experiencing the Workplace: Practices and the Community.
You’ll spend 40 hours working with an organisation and put into practice your learnings in relation to policies, politics and communication, reflecting on issues such as gender, race and class representation.
Through the placement you will develop transferrable employability skills and abilities, such as teamwork and problem-solving, and gain an insight into potential career paths – all while actively contributing to the community.
We will help you find a placement that suits your interests and support you to build your CV and with interview preparation.
Our politics students have spent their placement with organisations including:
- Sussex Prisoners Families.
Lab facilities
Mithras House has a series of lab rooms which can be used for teaching on your course or in your independent research work.
Life lab
A skills-based lab for practice-based teaching, social work, psychotherapy and counselling, and employability. The Life lab is fitted with lounge furniture to provide a comfortable space for conducting qualitative research with larger groups. The lab can be used to conduct research activities with children of all ages and can be used for meetings and events. The room also contains a dedicated space to conduct assessed role play or interviews with children.
City lab
This is a qualitative research methods and creative methods resource for all students, staff and researchers, as well as research participants, including children, community groups and the general public. It can also be used for meetings and events. The City lab contains a kitchen, a teaching/meeting room with enhanced acoustic isolation and two meeting spaces that can be separated with a screen or combined to accommodate larger groups.
Design lab
Housing our extensive collection of historic dress and textiles, which are used in some teaching on our History of Art and Design courses, this has the space and equipment for you to work on textile projects. Displays created by students on these programmes are on view in the social spaces of the building.
Community lab
The Community Lab is a flexible teaching space designed for collaborative student learning and for working on qualitative research projects with a range of participants.
Stats lab
The Stats Lab is a specialist workspace for carrying out statistical analysis, and video and audio editing projects. The Stats Lab is also used for workshops, demonstrations and seminars and can be used by students as a study space.
Applied cognition lab
A dedicated research space for psychological research involving measures such as electrodermal activity (EDA) and electroencephalography (EEG). The space is designed to allow the participant and researcher to sit at separate desks whilst psychophysiological data is being collected.
VR and eye tracking lab
The VR and Eye-Tracking Lab is used for psychological research using equipment, such as eye-trackers and virtual reality headsets. The space has adjustable lighting and a blackout blind for maintaining consistent lighting conditions during eye-tracking research, as well as sensors set up in the room to allow individuals to move freely around the room during virtual reality research.
Take a video tour of the labs with technicians Andrea and Grace
Meet the team
Dr Andy Knott – course leader
Andy works in political theory, with a specific interest in political subjects, especially individualism and the people of populism, as well as debates across contemporary democratic theory.
Andy teaches and has published several recent books on populism and is currently writing a book entitled Rethinking Left and Right in Contemporary Politics.
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Robin Jervis
Robin’s research focus is in the field of political economy. He is interested in ideas of ownership of resources, particularly in alternative models of public ownership informed by anarchist and Marxist traditions and how these approaches can relate to radical understandings of democracy and ‘ideal’ or ‘developmental’ conceptions of liberty.
Robin’s teaching style blends learning technologies with more traditional seminar teaching approaches. Robin is currently working on a series of projects which focus on alternatives to capitalism, as well as an ongoing research project examining perceptions of social justice using psychological techniques. .
Other staff who teach on the course include: