module
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
SPA3001: Debates, Issues and Practices
This module descriptor refers to the 2023/4 academic year.
Module Aims
SPA is marked by a variety of disciplines (Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology Criminology, and Science and Technology). The Department is renowned for its inter-disciplinarity. This module serves to present the varieties of work that go on in the Department to students, and how these can cross over in numerous ways. In this respect, one rationale for the module is, through joint lectures in which there is multiple lecturer presentations and interaction around a pre-specified topic or issue, to expose you to the different insights sociologists, philosophers, anthropologists, criminologists, etc bring to bear on the same social issue, but also how they might go about developing a shared understanding of, and a robust common research approach to, that issue. The use of various practical exercises (such as identification of issues, discussion of differences and synergies across discipline-based perspectives, co-formulation of an interdisciplinary research project) will enable you to gain experience working with others from different disciplinary backgrounds, thereby developing skills for practical collaboration with peers with different interests and competences (as are likely to be encountered in post-undergraduate public, private or 3rd sector work settings).
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate knowledge of multiple forms of research perspective as applied to a social issue, problem or debate. 2. show how their particular disciplinary interests are situated within the context of a broader inter-disciplinary environment. 3. discuss a selection of the practical issues that arise when working across disciplines. 4. discuss some of the issues raised in literature on interdisciplinarity. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 5. demonstrate an awareness of the disciplinarity of inter-disciplinary research (ie how knowledges and practices associated interdisciplinarity vary across disciplines). |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. demonstrate competence in collaborating with co-workers with divergent forms of (disciplinary) expertise. 7. demonstrate competence in collaborating with co-workers with divergent forms of (disciplinary) expertise. |