Global Affairs, Politics and International Relations and Spanish BA (Hons)

This module introduces students to the field of peace and conflict studies, violence and non-violence in international relations through the study of critical approaches to the study of violence, war, conflict, security and peace. It traces the evolution of the field from orthodox approaches originally rooted in Western political analysis; those developed and practised through international organisations and institutions in international relations; to critical questions about war, violence, conflict and peace; to alternative and indigenous approaches concerned with peace-building, sustainable peace, structural transformation and restorative and reconciliatory justice. In-depth case studies are woven through the module drawn upon from various international relations contexts including the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa and East Asia in order to apply concepts, approaches and theory to practice. 

Indicative content includes:

• Key concepts and theories of violence, war, conflict, diplomacy and peace.
• Critical approaches to understand security, violence, conflict and peace.
• the origins of peace-building as a synergetic process: diplomacy, peace-making, peace-keeping and peace-building
• the seven pillars through the institutional remit of the UN, UNDP, WHO, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNHCR, and an exploration of conflict from the perspective of professional practitioners inside international institutions, including international law and conventions on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• key theoretical approaches of conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict transformation and their application.
• concepts and theories of negative, positive and sustainable peace-building
• structural transformation; reconciliation; restorative justice; inclusivity; rights
• indigenous approaches to conflict transformation

In addition to learning conceptual and theoretical innovations in the field, students will learn and practice a range of professional skills-sets invaluable to those wishing to work in the field of diplomacy, peacebuilding and conflict transformation.

In this module, students will:

• Explore contested conceptualisations of, and approaches to, Global Development and concepts of sustainability within these.
• Examine the most critical challenges to Global development, the risks associated with these challenges, how and why these arise and who is affected by them in the North and the South.
• Understand the professional instruments for Global development (Regulations, standards and agreements; institutions; policies and instruments)
• Explore the ways in which Global development is measured and modelled in practise, and critiques of these.
• Learn the skills and use the tools for professional work in Global development as well as explore examples of good practise.

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce the key foundations, and develop an understanding of the importance and value, of Sustainable Development including its environmental, social, political and economic dimensions, its inherent tensions, and its position in relation to global challenges.
• To introduce key information sources and examples relating to articulating, driving, measuring, modelling and evidencing Sustainable Development.
• To enable understanding of the interconnected nature of global Sustainable Development challenges across Global South and Global North contexts, and at a range of connected scales.
• To develop transferable skills in critical reading; data collection; analysis and interpretation; communication and presentation.
• To equip students with the tools and knowledge to comprehensively examine the most critical challenges to Global Development, including understanding the associated risks, root causes, and their impact on diverse regions, both in the Global North and South.
• To develop students' professional competence in the realm of Global Development by providing insights into the regulatory, institutional, and policy instruments that drive global development efforts. Students will gain familiarity with the professional tools and skills required for impactful work in this field.

This module is an important step in your language learning journey and prepares you for your residence abroad in person or equivalent immersive experience in Spanish. It combines contemporary Spanish history and current societal and cultural issues with developing language skills and competencies related to the workplace which will enhance your employability profile.   The overall aim is to support your success in a Spanish-speaking professional context as well as in your everyday interactions.

Students will advance towards a B2 level on the CEFR. The material is tailored to support your language level.  You will build on key skills such as reflecting on your learning and identifying development opportunities, participating in group work and carrying out research.

The module will provide the opportunity to further develop your language skills, building on your previous learning at intermediate level. The first half of the module includes intensive taught sessions in interactive workshop mode which will prepare you for placements abroad or self-directed language development. The second half of the module includes an placement abroad or, alternatively, a project on a business or tourism issue in a target language country. 

The module will provide the opportunity to further develop your language skills, building on your previous learning at advanced level. The second half of the module includes a placement abroad or, alternatively, a project on a sustainability issue in a target language country. The first half of the module will prepare you for placements abroad where appropriate as well as a deeper understanding of sustainability in target language contexts. 

This module provides the opportunity to achieve the University of Cambridge’s CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) qualification, which is an internationally recognised initial ELT (English Language Teaching) teacher qualification. The standards of teaching required in this are in accordance with CELTA standards. The CELTA is assessed on a Pass/Fail basis for the purposes of the University of Chester. There are pass grades A, B & C Pass, which are applied by Cambridge and will be indicated on the certificate issued by them on completion of the course. These grades do not apply to the grading of the university.

This module is designed to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge required to excel in research, practice, and professional life. Emphasising a transdisciplinary approach, experiential learning and practitioner tools and approaches, the module aims to enhance critical thinking, research abilities, and practical skills essential for careers in Global Affairs, International Relations and related fields. Students will engage with theoretical concepts, practical and practitioner-based tools and applications, and professional development, with an emphasis on current global challenges and trends, enabling them to become informed, effective, and adaptable professionals. 

Indicative content includes:

• In-depth analysis of contemporary global challenges, such as climate change, conflict resolution, humanitarian crises, and global health issues.
• Examination of current geopolitical trends and their implications for international relations.
• Case studies on the role of international organisations (e.g., UN, IMF, World Bank) and regional organisations in addressing global issues.
• Analysis of real-world policy documents, international agreements, indicators and schematics.
• Use of qualitative and quantitative tools and information eco-systems for research, practice and professional work.
• Communication skills for effective writing, public speaking, and international negotiations.
• Intercultural awareness and competency to navigate diverse international environments.
• Ethical decision-making and the importance of professional ethics

This module provides a structured, university-level work placement for 4, 5 or 7 weeks as one continuous block / period with a placement provider (i.e. industry appropriate sector). It is designed to enhance your professional skills in a real-world job setting.

The placement can either be organised by you or with support from university staff.

All work placements within this module must be university-level; this means:

• Undertaking high-skilled work commensurate with level 5 study (e.g. report writing, attending meetings, delivering presentations, producing spreadsheets, writing content on webpages, social media, marketing services/products etc)
• Physically placed (albeit part of it can be hybrid) within an employer setting in one continuous block / period for 4, 5 or 7 weeks for a minimum of 140-147 hours over the course of the entire work placement
• Where applicable, your existing part-time employer can be approached/used as the placement provider, if the high-skilled work criterion above is fulfilled for the full duration of the placement.
• All quality assurances/agreements provided by the University are adhered to, by you and the employer.

The work placement context may not necessarily, reflect your degree discipline per se, but rather, it will give you an enriched experience to enhance your professional skills in a real-world job setting.

The module will provide the opportunity to further develop your language skills, building on your previous learning at beginner level. The first half of the module includes intensive taught sessions in interactive workshop mode which will prepare you for placements abroad or self-directed language development. The second half of the module includes a placement abroad or, alternatively, a project on a cultural issue in a target language country. Students of more than one language may take one language in the first half of the module and spend their time abroad developing a different language.

Part A:      

Preparation for Experiential Overseas Learning will take place at the University of Chester during level 5 and will include:  

• The multiple facets of Global citizenship
• Ethical engagement and practice
• Cross-cultural issues and sensitivity
• Intercultural communication

Theories, models and strategies of learning

• Theories and models Intercultural competence
• Theories and models of Integration and Multiculturalism
• Critical thinking skills and models of Reflection

• Experiential learning models
• Self-directed experiential learning

Personal and placement-related skills

• Enhanced independence
• Improved command of multicultural behaviour
• Increased knowledge and confidence in their individual facets of personal identity
• Effective time management and organisational skills
• Project management – working away from University and independent study
• Self-management and personal development
• Team building and team work

Part B:            Overseas

Students will engage in experiential learning activities overseas for at least 150 hours 

• The multiple facets of global citizenship
• Ethical engagement and practice
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Cross-cultural issues and sensitivity
• Intercultural communication
• Culture shock
• Cultural adjustment
• Self- assessment of needs: identification of the range of transferable skills, competencies and attitudes employees need and employers expect graduates to possess-with a strong focus on understanding the intercultural competencies (ICC) needed to live and work abroad.
• Critical analysis/evaluation of individual requirements in relation to culture/cultural adjustment/culture shock/visas/medical.
• Critical analysis/evaluation of skills already acquired in relation to key skills related to ICC.
• Devising strategies to improve one’s own prospects of working abroad in the future.
• Devising an action plan to address gaps in transferable skills based on organisational analysis and sector opportunities.

Languages Immersive Year Option

With tutorial guidance, you will create a personalised learning agenda through SMART targets and a Learning Agreement, aligned to your individual context and supported by a series of online tutorials. This will include immersive learning experiences. If you study in person, these may be modules studied at partner universities, work placements or English Language Assistantships. If you study all or part of the year virtually, this will include a number of the following: a selection of MOOCs and online learning from the virtual residence abroad menu; tandem learning partnerships, digital language learning tools, Languages for All evening classes and research into socio-cultural issues. 

Languages Immersive Summer (40 Credits) Option

Choose this if you are NOT taking the full academic year abroad

This flexible module enables students taking the course in 3 years to undertake a placement or equivalent virtual study which will equip them to progress to the final year with the required linguistic development and cultural and intercultural knowledge. 

OR

Study Abroad Immersive Year Option

Preparation for the year abroad will take place in Chester during level 5 and will include:

• Cross-cultural issues and sensitivity
• Host-country orientation, study methods– economic, political and social reality of the country
• Orientation specific to exchange – health, education, gender issues
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Practical matters relating to living and studying in the wider world

Theories, models and strategies of learning

• Critical thinking skills, experiential learning and models of reflection

Personal and placement-related transversal skills

• Effective self-motivation and independent resourcefulness
• Effective time management and organisational skills
• Project management – working away from University and independent study
• Self-management and personal development

Whilst abroad:

You will undertake study at one of the University of Chester's partner universities or undertake and approved work placement or virtual placement. If you are a student,  it is expected that you will choose a series of modules at the university abroad which must be agreed by the host institution and the Module Leader. you must supply details of you modules on a learning agreement within 4 weeks of arrival at the host university.

The module centres on the study, translation and post-editing of written texts, as well as the practice of interpreting.

Texts for translation will be linguistically demanding, illustrating different genres, styles and registers, and will cover varied subject matter, including current affairs, advertising, and contemporary literature. With a view to developing your employability profile, you will be introduced to current practices in professional translation, such as revision, post-editing and the use of appropriate Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools and of artificial intelligence. You will also study methods and principles of translation and related terminology to be able to reflect critically on translation processes.

Additionally, the module will focus on interpreting as a vocational skill. You will explore different methods of interpreting and will practise applying these in simulated professional contexts, for example business meetings and public sector environments. In so doing, you will develop an awareness of the specialised language and register appropriate to each.

The Major Independent Project in Global Affairs is designed to provide an opportunity for sustained and independent study in the final year of the Global Affairs, Politics and International Relations Programme. It intends to develop knowledge of, and critical insight into, a topic of the student's choice within the subject area under study. Students are enabled to undertake first-hand enquiry and encouraged to develop an analytical and reflective approach to the subject identified for study. The module aims to encourage the articulation of a critically informed perspective on the subject being studied. It also intends to enable the production of a coherent document of rigorous academic standards.

There are three routes within this module, each producing a major piece of written work through different methodologies and formats.

Route 1: Major Independent Project in Global Affairs: Dissertation

Route 2: Major Independent Project in Global Affairs: Policy Document

Route 3: Major Independent Project in Global Affairs: Field/Archival Immersion and Publishable Research Article

Each of these routes combine scheduled teaching and learning, individual supervision, and independent research. The number of hours for each, depend upon the route taken. In addition, those on the Field/Archival Immersion route will spend dedicated hours on this. The total number of hours for the module add up to 400.

The module concludes with a Professional Conference for students to showcase their work.

The quest to understand the contemporary politics and international relations of the African continent often appears elusive. That this should be so is not surprising since it has frequently been driven by a need to approach the complexities of the continent from an explanatory scheme that is congruent with Westernisation and liberalism and rooted in western epistemological traditions and experience. Instead, this module explores African politics and international relations from "the inside", through the concepts, theories, paradigms and contexts in which the political, economic and social logic of Africa come together and which engage and challenge contemporary thinking and dominant discourses about society, peoples, cultures, international relations and global affairs.

Content will include reference to: 

• A postcolonial "African" critique of the disciplines of politics and international relations, the Global system, its origins and nature.
• Africa in, and of, the Global South and BRICS and at the centre of Critical International Political Economy.
• The Political Instrumentalization of Disorder - Modernity, Tradition, Power, Progress and Legitimacy in Africa.
• The Postcolonial African State and Post-State - Political Thought and Philosophical Critique; the state as a Matrix; Crisis States, Collapsed States, New States, developmental and post-developmental states.
• Being and Belonging: Origin and culture, land, ethnicity, religion, social class.
• The Productivity of Economic and Political Failure: Migration, Trade and the Informal Economies of the African Sub-Regions; Debt, Trade and Aid; development and Post-Development.
• Conflict, Peace and Justice in Africa - Restorative, Distributory, Reparative, Reconciliatory and Indigenous African Approaches and Practices.
• Modernity: Africa as a critical site of modernity and legitimacy in the world.

The primary aims of this module are:

• To provide a critical understanding of the historical, political and economic positionally of Africa, in and of the world, as seen through multiple paradigms, theories, concepts and contexts which shape our understanding.
• To offer perspectives and insights that engage with, stand in contrast to, and challenge, dominant paradigms of the global North about politics and international relations, as seen through the lens of 'the other'.
• To develop critical thinking amongst participants about the subject of inquiry.
• To develop research capacity appropriate to level 6 of study and as foundational to success for postgraduate studies.

This module will re-engage you in studying more formally and put in context all your previous experiences whether in your placements or taught modules at level 5, by taking a more analytical and in-depth study of salient societal changes in the Spanish speaking world.  This module will also offer the possibility of developing your target language skills in a practical, immersive and interactive way. The module offers plenty of opportunities for oral practice and student input through class presentations, discussions and debates.

This module will offer you the opportunity to examine thematically some of the challenges of representing identity and giving voice to diversity in contemporary global societies. You will explore a range of literary, visual, audio and cinematic texts (all available in English translation) from across the different language cultures studied on this course. These texts will be structured around dominant themes drawn from, among others: decolonising the intellectual; ableism, hip hop and oral traditions in the 21st century; visual representations of difference; young voices in protest; identity politics in action. You will analyse and discuss cultural representations of contemporary identities and be invited to suggest and present ideas for new texts to include.

The module centres on the study, translation and post-editing of written texts, as well as the practice of interpreting.

Texts for translation will be linguistically demanding, illustrating different genres, styles and registers, and will cover varied subject matter, including current affairs, advertising, and contemporary literature. With a view to developing your employability profile, you will be introduced to current practices in professional translation, such as revision, post-editing and the use of appropriate Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools and of artificial intelligence. You will also study methods and principles of translation and related terminology to be able to reflect critically on translation processes.

Additionally, the module will focus on interpreting as a vocational skill. You will explore different methods of interpreting and will practise applying these in simulated professional contexts, for example business meetings and public sector environments. In so doing, you will develop an awareness of the specialised language and register appropriate to each.

This module allows you the space to explore an area of language, culture or professional practice in greater depth, giving you the opportunity to steer your degree in a direction of your choosing. With your tutor's support, your guided project can be designed to suit your individual goals. This is an opportunity for you to find out more about a possible career path you may be considering or the scope of using your language in business and industry, you may wish to carry out further academic research on a topic related to languages and cultures or undertake a more practical project in the application of your language skills. Your guided project will consolidate skills and knowledge you have acquired elsewhere on the course and possible categories include: translation revision and post-editing; investigating freelance subtitling; pedagogical practice with school liaison linking theory and practice; business projects and academic research essays. The module allows you greater independence and choice in your final year and further develops transferable and employable skills.

This module on International Political Economy is concerned with the (re)production of power and wealth within the contemporary world order. The module explores complex questions and global challenges that are rooted in an understanding of power, international relations and economy. Students are asked to think critically about how the politics of the international economy is governed and through an evaluation of power and inequality. Such questions include: Why and how does the politics and economics of the world take its current form? In what ways do the structural features of the world economy shape power and visa versa, and with what consequences? In what ways does the international political economy create uneven consequences and shape interactions in the international community?  Case studies will be drawn from across the world and, in particular, from Latin America. Indicative content includes:

• Theoretical Approaches of IPE: Orthodox, Critical and Radical theories.
• The Subject of International Political Economy and its Methods
• The Evolution of the IPE: Empires and mercantilism; economic liberalism; the liberal economic order; Pax Britannica, industrial capitalism and imperialism; Power, Contemporary capitalism and global governance – who does the governing?; contemporary imperialism.
• Bretton Woods Institutions; the Washington Consensus, Post-Washington Consensus and Critique; Dismantling Embedded Liberalism; States, Markets and Institutions.
• Key issues, global challenges and responses in the IPE: Globalization and its discontents; North-South Relationships; International Trade, Finance and Development; Transnational Production; Global Division of Labour; Sustainable Development; International Security, Conflict and Migration; Culture, Indigeneity and IPE; Resistance to the Global norms; Climate change and energy security; the IPE of ideas and knowledge production

The aims of this module are four-fold:

• To provide an in-depth understanding of the historical development of the IPE.
• To provide a critical analysis of the main institutional and structural contours of the global political economy and the effects of these.
• To offer perspectives and insights that engage with, stand in contrast to and challenge dominant paradigms about power dynamics within the global political economy.
• To provide a sophisticated understanding of global issues and challenges through mainstream, critical and radical theories of IPE.

The overarching aim of this module is to develop in students an in-depth understanding of  how  media stories, whether factual or fictional, are generated globally: by whom, why and in whose political interests are a multiplicity of stories circulated and competing? What is at stake when some stories are amplified, whilst others are invisibilised? What methods of journalism whether transnationally-disseminated  or citizen -led, serve to obscure or enlighten? How are stories  received or resisted  in distinct parts of the globe?  In what ways do popular culture narratives serve as a form of  cultural imperialism? Students will  critically analyse and evaluate the role of communication in the political sphere.

The module will cover the following areas: political and media organisations and their relationships with one another; propaganda and disinformation; globalisation, popular culture and power; theories and practice of political marketing; political campaigning; new campaigning methods; the role of spin doctors, media managers, polling companies. The role of lobbyists and public affairs agencies; political representation; theories of media analysis,  and visual decoding. Implications of new and social networking media in a range of global contexts will be considered.

In this module students will learn about the challenges that changes to the global climate brought about by human activity presents. Students will examine policy responses to climate change and political barriers to implementing climate action. Students will also analyse major issues and debates in the theory and practice of environmental sustainability. You will be asked to consider key questions such as: Is infinite growth on a finite planet possible? How can we create a more just and sustainable future for humanity? How are politics, society and the economy necessarily linked to sustainability?

Indicative content may include: The Anthropocene (the era of humankind); The impacts of human-induced climate change; Strategies of climate mitigation and adaptation; Definitions and practices of sustainability; The three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, environmental); Green Theories (e.g. Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism, Ecofascism); Green Concepts (e.g. Green Pragmatism, Green Growth, Green Parties); Key Debates (e.g. Decoupling vs Degrowth, Sufficiency vs. Efficiency)

Through this module students will gain knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a society which reduces the impact of human activity on the environment (Green Skills, UK Parliament).