To offer students an introduction to some key aspects of European culture and society in the eighteenth century;

To make students who come from a range of major subject areas aware of the ways in which study of that period is approached by and can enrich a range of disciplines.;

To help students to grasp and reflect on the historical dimensions of their own shared and contested culture(s) and the contemporary political and global order;

To develop students' capacity for asking questions (curiosity) as well as for answering them (research skills) by engaging them in active and interactive learning.

(LO1) A sound knowledge of key aspects of European culture, society and politics in the eighteenth century and insight into the historical dimensions of European and global modernity

(LO2) An understanding of the ways in which study of the eighteenth century is approached by scholars in a range of disciplines and in working with people from disciplinary backgrounds different from their own

(LO3) Ability to analyse and respond to primary texts critically in terms of their historical and geographical context

(LO4) Ability to devise and carry out an independent research project, deploying both data and imagination

(LO5) A sound knowledge of aspects of material culture of the eighteenth century and ability to analyse artefacts of material culture critically and in their geographical historical context

(S1) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Presentation skills - visual

(S2) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Presentation skills – oral

(S3) Communication (oral, written and visual) - Academic writing (inc. referencing skills)

(S4) Critical thinking and problem solving - Critical analysis

(S5) Research skills - All Information skills

(S6) Global citizenship - Cultural awareness

(S7) Personal attributes and qualities - independence

Topics covered during the module may include:

Introductory / presentation training;

Introductory seminar: Choosing a character;

Field trip in 18th century Liverpool;

Museum workshop: Consumption and taste (material culture and its production; the reception of antiquity);

Seminar: Our hero / heroine goes shopping;

Background session: Reading and reflecting (ideas about human nature and their circulation in print) [Athenaeum];

Seminar: Our hero / heroine chooses reading matter / gets the news;

Background session: Britain, Europe and the wider world (globalising modernity);

Seminar: Our hero / heroine travels (merchant, tourist, soldier, trafficked, transported);

Museum workshop: Progress (dissent, reform and revolution);

Seminar: Our hero / heroine takes a stand.

Lecture:
Lectures will be delivered online as asynchronous podcasts

Seminars and workshops:
Seminars and workshops will be delivered as synchronous sessions (either in person, or via Zoom/Teams),

Field Work:
A walking tour of Georgian Liverpool introduces students to key features of the 18th-century city and prepares them for seminar work that calls for knowledge of the city's geography.