International development

Colonialism and its Afterlives

Module code: L2003
Level 4
15 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework, Essay

This module explores how development challenges that we face today were hundreds of years in the making. 

We'll study:

• the historical foundations of our unequally developed world, focusing on the colonial relationships between European and North Amercian, Asian, Australasian and African societies of the last three hundred years
• the British Empire in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and settler colonial spheres
• forms of exploitation including trans-Atlantic slavery, coerced labour and rent extraction, along with the multiple forms of adaptation and resistance to them.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of a range of key historical problems and conceptual questions relating to the colonial and post-colonial experience
• Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the core reading, with some appreciation of the subtlety of debates or different interpretations that might be drawn from particular evidence
• Produce an essay showing how to structure and organise writing, make proper use of suitable evidence to formulate a logical and coherent argument.
• Include correct referencing and bibliographies in essays.