5B018B - Environments on the Edge 01 Sep 2027 - 31 Aug 2033 | Version 0

Associated Module Information

Module Code: 5B018B
Module Title: Environments on the Edge
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Film and TV
Faculty Sub Group: Film and TV
Module Leader: Christopher Hill
Module Team: Ruth Atherton, Rachel Lock-Lewis
First Intended Intake: SEP 2027 Final Year of Intake: 2032
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 30 Credit Level: 5
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 30
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100302 - history
HECOS Code Weighting: 100

Document Version Information

Version 0
Valid From 01 Sep 2027
Valid To 31 Aug 2033

Module Aims

  • Introduce learners to a new paradigm in the study of history by thinking about the interactions between humans and the natural world. 

  • Raise learners’ awareness and understanding of present-day environmental issues and dilemmas through studying examples from the past.   

  • Nurture learners’ competence and confidence in applying their research findings to achieve a societal good.   

Content Summary

This module explores the perpetual and mutually transformative relationship between humanity and the natural / non-human world.   Through selected case studies, you will examine how this interaction has manifested itself in different places and at different times thus affording the opportunity to shift attention to neglected places, spaces, and subjects.  Studying the impact of humans on their environment, exploring how humans have understood and interpreted the environment around them, and examining attempts to modify that impact links the past with ongoing environmental and humanitarian effects, and present-day challenges.  Exploring the role nature has played in shaping human affairs offer valuable insights into how environmental, ecological and geographical conditions have shaped, enabled or restricted human activities and enriches our understanding of the past with obvious contemporary application.  At the same time, the attitudes of humans towards nature over time, including myths, ideologies, even scientific discourses.   Case studies could include: ‘Signs, Omens and Portents: Interpreting the Environment in Early Modern Europe’; ‘Exractivism: A Planetary History; Green Imperialism’; ‘Atomic Environments’; and ‘The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp’.     

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Seminar 25
Practical Classes and Workshops 31
Guided Study 10.5
Groupwork 12
Problem-challenge based learning 151.5
Formative assessment 10
Summative Assessment 60
Total Hours Selected 300

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 Assess the nature and extent of examples of human-made problems
LO2 Critically evaluate the success if attempts to address or reduce threats to the environment

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Literature/book/paper review Written Work (Literature Review) 0 2400 40 No 40
Asynchronous Assessment  Project Output  Creative Digital Output (Interactive Map) 0 1500 60 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Literature/book/paper review ✔ ✔
Project Output  ✔ ✔

Reading List

Christopher Hill, The Nuclear Imperialists: British Power at the End of Empire (2023) 

Becky Alexis-Martin, Disarming Doomsday: The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons since Hiroshima (2019) 

Martín Arboleda, Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism (London: Verso, 2020). 

Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021) 

Richard Grove, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600–1860 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 

J.W. Moore, ‘The Capitalocene, Part I: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis.’ Journal of Peasant Studies 44, no. 3 (2017): 594–630. 

Neil S. Oatsvall, Atomic Environments: Nuclear Energy and the Global Ecology of Radiation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023) 

Richards, John F. The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World. 1st ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. 

R. Vermij , Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe: Firm Beliefs on Shaky Ground (Taylor and Francis, 2021) 

Alexandra Walsham, Providence in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 1999) 

Shampa Biswas, Nuclear Desire: Power and the Postcolonial Nuclear Order (2014) 

Gabrielle Hecht, Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade (2012) 

Richards, John F. The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)  

Penna, Anthony N. The Human Footprint: A Global Environmental History. (Second edition. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015) 

Engels, Jens Ivo. The Turning Points of Environmental History. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)