Senior Fresh
1. Languages
The two languages studied in the Junior Fresh year are continued in the Senior Fresh year. By the end of Michaelmas term, students will be asked to designate one of the two languages as their major language, thereby determining the country to which they will go in their third year (Junior Sophister) and the principal language in which they will be examined in their finals (Moderatorship).
2. Disciplines
Students take the two compulsory modules: The making of modernity 1750-1820, Imperialism to Globalism: Europe and the World, 1860-1970 - and in addition choose a further module in history or the social sciences. Current options normally include; ‘War and Peace in Modern Europe, 1900 - present’; ‘Comparative politics’; ‘Economy of Ireland’, ‘International relations’, ‘The Hundred Years War’, ‘Gender, Work and Family’, ‘Social Theory’ and ‘Power, State and Social Movements’.
2.i (a) The making of modernity 1750-1820
This module will introduce students to key concepts of modernity as they constituted themselves during the saddle epoch around 1800. It will cover the main philosophical and cultural trends in the European Enlightenment and Romanticism and will elucidate how cultural and aesthetic discourses interact with politics and society. It will identify elements of the Dialectics of Enlightenment and the interaction of Enlightenment trends with counter movements and cross currents.
2.i (b) Imperialism to Globalism: Europe and the World, 1860-1970
This module investigates some of the events and processes which have led to a more integrated world order between the mid-nineteenth century and the later twentieth century. For most of that period much of the world was carved up between a number of inter-continental empires centred in Europe. How those empires grew, exerted control and in due course retreated will be the particular focus of the module. But other processes, too, will be considered, as will be the evolution of such ideologies as imperialism or Communism and whether such ideologies impacted upon changing global power relationships. The module is designed on a comparative model, though course reading will be provided in English, and while broadly chronological in approach will focus on a wide range of themes in cultural, economic and political history.