Subject taster workshops

This session will give an overview of climate change, including the importance of climate change and key processes that are driving climate change including the burning of fossil fuels and volcanic activity. Students will be challenged to consider the importance of natural and human drivers of climate change which will lead into a class debate on what the largest driver of climate change is. Students will also look at the effects of climate change from rising sea levels to risk to food security, and consider actions that can be taken to tackle global climate change. 

This interactive session will give students an overview of the presence and impact of microplastics in the environment. The aim of this workshop is to develop students' understanding of microplastics, gaining a detailed introduction to microplastic pollution - an issue that has prompted recent headlines due to the scale of the problem. Key themes covered in this session include sources of microplastics, how they are transferred through the environment and their impacts in the environment on living organisms. Students will then apply the knowledge they have gained throughout the session by creating new government strategies to combat microplastic pollution in the environment.  

This session aims to provide students with a basic understanding of human rights. Specially, this interactive workshop will cover definitions and applications of human rights law, with a large focus on international human rights law (i.e. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights), as well as some information about British Human Rights Law (i.e. Human Rights Act 1998). The informational content will be supplemented by various group activities and discussions.

In this interactive and lively workshop you will learn about the idea of Parliamentary debates, the importance of them, and why they are such a key part of democracy. Covering everything from “What’s better, cats or dogs?” right through to “Should euthanasia be legalised?”, you will uncover how debating impacts on decisions made that determine the future of the country.

Please note that this session is available as a series of three separate one-hour sessions (designed to take place across the course of the year)  or as a standalone session.

When you think about pirates, what do you think about? A movie you’ve seen? A book you’ve read? A costume you’ve seen over and over again at Halloween parties? Pirates have been commercialised but the history of piracy seems to have been forgotten.

Did you know pirates held democratic elections for positions of power on their ships at a time when just 3% of people in England could vote, that women and people of colour had significantly more rights on many pirate ships than on nearby continents and that the first health insurance system in recorded history was set up by a pirate?

The session will look at pirates in popular culture, the history of piracy, the role of pirates in the transatlantic slave trade, assessing the argument whether or not pirates were ‘floating proletarians’ and the dark side of piracy.

Online only

The Chivalry Theory states that women are treated more leniently than men by the criminal justice system. Crime Statistics, Media Narratives, Public and Political discourse may contribute as evidence to the claim of chivalry among men towards women, but many scholars have argued otherwise. This session explores the relevance and validity of the Chivalry Thesis in relation to the treatment of women at various stages of the criminal justice system. Students are encouraged to participate and critically engage with sociological theory and concepts to identify the drawbacks of Chivalry Theory and the value of new Sociological Thought. In doing so, students are exposed to the relevancy of Sociology as an ongoing discipline, constantly assessing and discussing issues related to contemporary society.

Online only

With the rise of social media in recent years, more and more people are involved in the shift of social norms towards online means of communication and interaction. In particular, social media offers a new avenue for human interaction, creating new behaviours for sociologists to examine and study. As a result, Sociologists are increasingly interested in the many ways social media has impacted human relationships. This new aspect of sociological understandings has led to an interrogation of new power dynamics that have developed online. Are some voices stronger than others? Are there differences in generational usage of social media?

During this session, through the use of interactive group activities and individual thinking, students are encouraged to reflect on the significance of social media on a micro and macro level.  Students will explore relationship between sociological research and its interest in the media and look  at trends and changes in contemporary society that inform wider action research and policy making.