Module POL3222 for 2018/9
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3222: Biopolitics in Practice
This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will introduce you to historical and contemporary ideas about biopolitics (as biology of politics/politics of biology), but with the ultimate aim of asking whether this binary can be overcome to create more productive debates into the future. In so doing, it will introduce key scientific, philosophical and theoretical debates about politics and the life sciences in the broadest sense, working through a series of case studies drawn from across the world since the early 20th century. The module will enable you to understand, explore and evaluate how interfaces between biology and politics become articulated, debated and campaigned for in policy contexts and the wider public sphere.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Articulate the multiple meanings of biopolitics and understand how and why these interpretations have been so politically contested. 2. Identify and critically evaluate one or more case studies of biopolitical debates across a range of domains |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Deploy key theoretical ideas about biopolitics in the contexts of contemporary and historical debates over human nature; environmental politics; biomedicine; and technological futures. 4. Think critically, analyse debates and present coherent arguments about the broader political issues raised by developments in the life sciences. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Present written material in a coherent and accessible manner; evaluate ideas and debates. 6. Demonstrate critical media literacy skills search for, contextualize and evaluate mass media content 7. Produce a public presentation and policy briefing; engage constructively in discussion and evaluate others performance. |
