LHIST6221 Political Thought Beyond Europe Course Descriptor 

Course Overview

This course will introduce students to key aspects of modern political thought beyond Europe, or “the West”. It will enable students to expand their understanding of ideas of sovereignty, gender, power, freedom or justice beyond the European canon and compare and contrast ideas across “cultural” borders.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies. 

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are: 

Lectures/seminars 

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group.

 OR 

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups.

OR

Directed study  

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and  the proposed  topics,  readings, and specific tasks. 

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.  

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study. 

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150 

Assessment

Summative Assessments

In the written coursework students will assemble data and analyse it using understanding of the political ideas they contain and the cultural context in which they were written. In the exam, students will answer questions utilising their understanding of the ideas under discussion and the cultural contexts of texts and authors. 

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus. 

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours). 

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only. 

• Luna Sabastian, ‘Women, Violence, Sovereignty: “Rakshasa Marriage by Capture in Modern Indian Political Thought’, Modern Intellectual History (2021) 
• Shruti Kapila, “Global Intellectual History and the Indian Political”, in Rethinking Modern European Intellectual History, edited by Darrin M. McMahon and Samuel Moyn, 253–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2014). 

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only. 

• Political Thought in India
• Anti-Colonialism 
• Gender and Political Thought