Film & TV and Philosophy BA (Hons)

Core modules

World Philosophy

Explore philosophical themes and perspectives from around the world.  Develop an appreciation of the global reach and significance of philosophical perspectives and modes of inquiry - focusing on the universalism/relativism debate, the nature of the relationship between western philosophy at its non-western ‘others’, as well as philosophical themes in Judaism, Islam, Chinese Philosophy, Buddhism and Japanese Philosophy.

Putting Film and TV into practice

This module explores the vibrant and varied theoretical landscape that shapes our understanding of the big and small screen. It draws upon canonical work in film theory and television studies, as well as theories that attend to more marginal screens, texts, audiences, and industries, enabling you to theorise classical Hollywood cinema and popular TV genres, as well as films and shows from alternative filmmaking and televisual perspectives and practices.

Transformation: Agency and World

What purpose do the humanities serve in today's society? How can the humanities help in the process of "healing and securing our planet" and "freeing the human race from poverty" as stated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations?

This module focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and encourages you to develop your awareness of how your own field of study as well as cross- and inter-disciplinary actions can result in real, quantifiable change. Alongside a personal reflective portfolio, you will share your knowledge and understanding developed through the module to produce a news reel of how a contemporary sustainability goal relates to your discipline.

In this module you will either undertake an 80 hour placement, supported by the Arts and Humanities employability team, or will engage in an 80 hour project, responding to a supplied employer brief  and producing a solution to the brief given.

Optional pathways

Pathway 1: Extended work-like experience

Get the experience you need for after you graduate, and really understand how the things you study translate into the world of work with a work placement. Your highly experienced Employability Team will help you find a placement to suit your career goals from our huge network of companies, charities, institutions, and beyond.

Pathway 2: An international exchange

Travel the world, meet new friends, and have experiences you will remember for the rest of your life.

Our flexible curriculum has been designed to allow some amazing opportunities for you. Your second year of study is divided into two semesters, giving you the opportunity to take part in an international exchange. You could study with one of international exchange partners in Australia, Europe, USA, Canada, Thailand and many, many more.

Our dedicated team will support you in finding and arranging a suitable exchange. And don't worry about the cost, they will help you apply for any grants or loans you may need, as no one should miss out on the chance to broaden their horizons.

Pathway 3: Taught modules

Interdisciplinary optional modules typically include:

Intercultural Communication at Work

Gain the knowledge, skills and strategies to build your intercultural communication competence. Analyse and reflect on the impact of culture(s) on your values, assumptions, perceptions, expectations, and behaviours. Build successful verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in different intercultural settings.

People and Planet: pasts, presents, and futures

In this module you will develop an understanding of the human impact on the environment from the 15th Century to the present as a form of slow but sustained violence enacted against the planet. It will also explore how such long-term change can interact with social justice in the present day.

Language, Inequality and Social Justice

Whether it’s racial abuse on social media, prejudice against regional accents in schools, or sexist advertising campaigns, discrimination is a social issue that affects us all in one way or another. This module examines how language can be used to both promote social justice and tackle prejudice and discrimination in a range of institutional and everyday contexts. This module will be particularly useful if you are looking to pursue a career in advocacy, human resources or journalism.

Philosophy optional modules typically include:

How to Win Every Argument

Develop the key critical thinking skills needed to assess reasons, solve problems, and construct compelling arguments, with a focus on how to apply these skills in everyday life and in a professional setting.  Learn the skills of persuasive speaking and understand how to detect logical fallacies and critically assess some of our most deeply held beliefs about ourselves and the world.

Ethics, Equality and Human Rights

Examine the philosophical underpinnings of human rights and human equality, considering the development of these concepts in the work of Hobbes, Kant, and Rousseau.  Address the distinctive and complex problems and issues that rights discourse gives rise to today, regarding its application in law, in employment settings, in war, to non-human animals, and its relation to the notion of moral status.

Happiness and Mental Health: Philosophy, Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis

Examine the roots of the current mental health crisis and how key philosophical techniques, both ancient and modern, can be deployed in order to alleviate mental health symptoms. Explore philosophical roots of psychotherapeutic treatments and interventions and learn of how ancient Greek philosophy provide the basis for happier and more fulfilled lives.

Film & TV optional modules typically include:

British Cinema

This module looks at British cinema from 1960 onwards from a variety of perspectives. It considers how ‘British cinema’ is defined and its purpose in terms of representation and diversity in the face of the dominance of Hollywood. We study topics including the Bond franchise, Swinging London, social realism, the British gangster film, Hammer horror, the costume drama, Thatcherism on screen, New Scottish cinema and ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland. We also visit Broadway cinema for a screening and industry talk.

Analysing British Television

This module explores in-depth the specific characteristics of the British TV landscape. It introduces students to the story of British television. It surveys important factors and influences that have historically shaped British television industries and institutions, as well as forms and genres. Second, it explores different televisual mediation of class, gender and race/ethnicity. Third, it explores the key genres which enable us to make sense of British television both in the past and in the present.

Film Programming

This module gives you the opportunity to devise, plan and run your own pop-up film event. Working in groups, and alongside experienced industry professionals, you will be responsible for identifying an event theme, selecting and curating event content, and delivering your film event at one of a series of city venues. Across the module you will gain industry-ready skills in research and curation, pitching and collaboration, licensing and copyright, venue management and setup, PR and promotion, and event production and management, alongside a unique insight into Notts film culture.

Core module

Major project

You have the choice of writing a Critical Dissertation, a Practical Dissertation, or Staff-Student Research Project Pathway:

The Dissertation

The Critical Dissertation represents a unique opportunity in your degree to explore a subject over a sustained period of time and in depth. You will be able to choose a topic in which you have a special interest, whether or not it is covered by other modules on offer, to get to grips with it, to read around it and to produce an argument of your own. You will also have the chance to discuss your ideas with your dissertation supervisor, perhaps in a more systematic and specialised way than in the seminar and tutorial discussions you have already experienced.

The Practical Dissertation

As an alternative to the critical dissertation, you may wish to do a creative project supported by a extensive essay. .For example you may produce a specialist podcast or blog series, host a showcase or networking event, write a screen play, or produce a series of video essays.

Staff-Student Research Project Pathway

Staff-Student Research Project Pathway: this alternative major project assigns the student to a member of staff's research project, providing them with research aims and questions. The student works with the staff member to produce original research on the topic, culminating in a written project detailing findings and analysis.

Transformation: Agency and Social Change

In this module, you will engage in a 'live partnership' with a cultural festival that is designed to deliver social change through the Arts and Humanities: the Counterpoints-run initiative, Refugee Week. Over the course of the module, you will gain insight into the sociocultural challenges faced by refugees in the C21st, and will explore the work of Counterpoints Arts as an organisation that seeks to address those challenges via cultural activity. Drawing on these insights, you will work in interdisciplinary teams in order to create a Refugee Week campaign that champions positive social change in attitudes or behaviours towards refugees. Ultimately, the module invites you to consider how your disciplinary knowledge of the Humanities enables you to become a responsible global citizen, and to assume responsibility for championing positive social change, whatever your chosen career.  The main assessment for this module is the creation of a ‘campaign tool’ (blogpost, podcast, social media post series, educational pack or other, that will be presented as part of a team ‘campaign’ at the end-of-module ‘festival’. You will also complete the Developing with NTU Award.

Interdisciplinary optional modules typically include:

Artificial Intelligence: Human Factors

This module will introduce you to problems and issues associated with technological change, automation and digitization, with a specific emphasis on the likely future impact of artificial intelligence on the wider human dimension, both individual and collective. Providing you with expertise required to become managers and policy-makers in the AI future, the module will take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the insights of philosophers, literary theorists and practitioners, historians, and social theorists.

Humanities in Action

What is the value of 'Humanities'? Answer this question from multiple perspectives - knowledge and intellectual value, economic value, humanities and "hard" and "soft" skills, social value, the value to the individual - and find it's place in society.

Philosophy optional modules typically include:

Philosophy, Film and Media

Examine the specificity of film and media and their relationship with philosophy by exploring the power of mediating processes and their role as a transmitter of philosophical material. Consider the status of the media artefact and its capacity to shape and inform contemporary identities and experiences.  You will also have the opportunity to study philosophical films. Understand the way in which philosophical discourses are able to shape, inform and critique contemporary media practices, experiences and cultures.

Being Good: The Foundations of Morality

Why be morally good? This question has been at the centre of philosophical debate for over two thousand years and has received a host of radically different and distinctive answers from thinkers across space and time. This module will examine and critically assess a key selection of these different views, and then consider their applications to contemporary ethical paradigms regarding moral status and equality.

Language, Communication and Power

What is the nature of linguistic meaning? How does language encode thought? How is language used as a tool for getting things done? Each of these questions have received considerable attention from philosophers, and this module will cover some of the main themes. You will address key issues in semantics and pragmatics, and study philosophical work in this area, including that of Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Grice, and Foucault.

Film and TV optional modules typically include:

American Television since 1950: from broadcast to narrowcast

This module examines American television from the 1950s to the present. It follows key developments in the industry, such as the formation of the classic network system, the arrival of cable and the development of on demand and streaming services, each of which has characteristic sorts of programming associated with it. We focus on key genres and cycles during this period to investigate how television responded to changes in wider American society.

Rubbish Film

Rubbish, garbage, trashy – we all occasionally use these words to describe films. Salvaging such throwaway responses, this module explores questions of equality, sustainability, climate change, industry and innovation through rubbish and its relationship to film. From films made from rubbish, and films that take garbage as their explicit thematic concern; to fake found footage films, bad biographies, the ‘dirt’ of B movie cinema, and Hollywood’s penchant for ‘recycling’ via superhero sequels and franchise reboots, you will come to understand the wastefulness of film without getting your hands too dirty.

American Cinema Since 1949: Margins and mainstreams

1949 marks the enactment of key legislation which had some far-reaching effects on American cinema over time. This module covers the period from that date to the present, identifying key trends in the industry as it responds both to these changes and to changing American social contexts in a wide variety of ways. We examine both mainstream Hollywood cinema, the independent sector, and the increasingly complex relationships between the two.

Global Screen Cultures

On this module, you will engage with a dynamic range of global screen cultures that will encourage you to challenge familiar intellectual frameworks and integrate such alternatives into your own ways of being, knowing and thinking. While the module explores style, form and socio-cultural and political contexts, it also examines the policy and industrial frameworks within which global screen cultures are produced and circulate.