Global Challenges in Context: Energy and Environment

Module overview

In to order address any contemporary global challenge, it is vital that we understand the roots of the problem and its historical context. This module addresses energy and the environment, providing you with a broad overview of the history of energy use including coal, oil, and gas, as well as the rise of environmentalism in the twentieth century. It will explore how energy use has affected the Anthropocene in both broad and specific ways, such as the discovery of human-induced climate change and the impact of colonialism upon environmental challenges. Additionally, the module will consider the future of sustainable development considering this historical context and explore the ways in which future policy can approach these challenges.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

undertake a thorough critical analysis and assessment of a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources.
engage with historiography and theoretical frameworks, contributing to the debates relating to the history of energy and the environment and its relationship to the future of sustainable development.
apply your developed knowledge, structuring your ideas and research findings into well-ordered assignments.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

research complex historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in assignments.
use to good effect textual, visual and material culture sources, synthesising this material to develop cogent and persuasive arguments.
utilise and develop your time-management skills.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

a wide variety of secondary source material relating to the history of energy and the environment, including theoretical frameworks used in the field.
a wide variety of primary sources relating to the history of energy and the environment.
the history of energy and the environment, in particular the effects of energy use on the Anthropocene.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include lectures and seminars. Learning methods include close analysis of a range of primary sources and discussion of key themes and ideas.

Study time
Type	Hours
Completion of assessment task	50
Wider reading or practice	26
Lecture	12
Seminar	12
Preparation for scheduled sessions	50
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Mike Davis (2001). Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. Verso Books.

Amitav Ghosh (2016). The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. University of Chicago Press.

Nick Jenkins (2019). Energy Systems: A Very Short Introduction. OUP.

Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway (2010). Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Bloomsbury.

Assessment

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Resubmit assessments	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	60%
Written assignment	40%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External