HS2S067 - A Global History of the Nuclear Age 01 Sep 2021 - 31 Aug 2027 | Version 1

Associated Module Information

Module Code: HS2S067
Module Title: A Global History of the Nuclear Age
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Culture and Animation
Faculty Sub Group: Culture
Module Leader: Christopher Hill
Module Team:
First Intended Intake: SEP 2021 Final Year of Intake: 2026
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 5
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes:
HECOS Code Weighting:

Document Version Information

Version 1
Valid From 01 Sep 2021
Valid To 31 Aug 2027

Module Aims

The module aims to introduce students to global history and the nuclear cycle, with a view to ‘de-centring’ nuclear history and shifting attention to its neglected places, spaces and subjects. It aims to evaluate ethical debates and issues in nuclear history and research and problematise knowledge of nuclear history and politics, highlighting the links between nuclear pasts, their ongoing environmental and humanitarian effects, and current trends in global nuclear disarmament.

Content Summary

This module begins by reflecting on our own perspectives and positions in order to make sense of the global. From Wales, the nuclear age may seem fantastical and remote. Yet it was in Wales that the only ever inland nuclear power station in the UK was commissioned in the 1950s. Similarly, it was in Snowdonia that livestock businesses had to cease operations due to fallout from the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl in 1986. How the nuclear age connects us across space and time – and what it can mean in those changing contexts – is a question that lies at the heart of this module and shapes understandings of ‘the global’. The structure of this module mirrors the nuclear cycle, beginning with uranium mining in the Congo and ending with the environmental and humanitarian impacts from nuclear tests around the world. Along the way, students will be joined by artists, campaigners, filmmakers and nuclear veterans who continue to experience and inform us about the legacies and present-day politics of the nuclear age in the twenty-first century.

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 12
Seminar 16
Practical classes and workshops 12
Independent Study 80
Directed Study 72
Formative Assessment - Scheduled 8
Total Hours Selected 200

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Engage with and evaluate the role of the ‘global’ in nuclear history, particularly with reference to hidden geographies, neglected subjects and transnational processes.
LO2 Identify and analyse the epistemological issues in nuclear history and research, including ethics, the politics of disarmament and science communication.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Project Output 1 A digital map which combines narrative and cartography to explore a site of nuclear history anywhere around the world 0 N/A 50 No 40
Asynchronous Assessment Essay 1 An essay on an aspect of the global history of the nuclear age 0 2000 50 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Project Output 1
Essay 1

Reading List

Becky Alexis-Martin, Disarming Doomsday: The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons since Hiroshima (2019)
Shampa Biswas, Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (2014)
Gabrielle Hecht, Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade (2012)
Christopher Hill, The Nuclear Imperialists: British Power at the End of Empire (2023)