Course summary

Our BA Film Studies and English Language course will enable you to study film from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives while delving into the unique human faculty of language - an everyday phenomenon which impacts our lives on an individual and a global scale. You will learn through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world. You will study both mainstream and non-mainstream films to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future. You will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context, as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium. The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production, encouraging you to develop as an independent critical thinker able to work in a diverse range of assessment scenarios, taking in solo written assignments, presentations and, on certain units, group work and creative projects that enable you to put theory into practice. Through your English Language units, you will explore the history of the English language and the variation between English dialects in the UK and further afield.  You will acquire the skills required for analytical language study alongside the means to apply those skills to the study of historical and present-day English.  In addition, you will practise key transferable skills, such as essay writing and how to give a presentation.