Program Overview

CHILDHOOD & YOUTH

Childhood & Youth is an exciting, multidisciplinary subject in which you will explore a range of issues and challenges faced by children and young people in contemporary society, both here in the UK and on a global level. Drawing on key ideas from sociology, politics, history, social policy and cultural studies, the degree examines important questions about children and young people and the social contexts in which they live.

Topics studied include: how children and young people’s place in society has changed over time; how social class, poverty, gender, ethnicity, disability, social policy and so on impact children and young people’s lives; the role of risk and risk-taking in children and young people’s everyday lives and; how children and young people make sense of and help to shape their social worlds. In exploring such issues you will also look at various political debates and policy initiatives, as well as learning about various ways of researching with children and young people that aim to help them overcome the many challenges that they face.

With its strong emphasis on social justice and welfare, the degree will enable you to develop as critical social scientists who value their role within the academic community at Hope and who, as graduates, will be able to use their skills and knowledge to the benefit of their local community and society more broadly.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Every day, international issues are in the news headlines – this is your chance to become an expert on relations between states, economies, ideas and societies. In a world where nuclear weapons remain primed for use, the world economy teeters on the brink of collapse and delicate ecosystems are under threat, it is little wonder that our International Relations degree is proving a popular choice among students who wish to better understand the world’s most challenging problems.

International Relations is a multidisciplinary subject, which draws in contributions from politics, history, media, sociology, law, economics and religion. Global issues dominate the news headlines on a daily basis and International Relations will allow you to focus on this dimension of politics. This is an opportunity to become an expert in international issues in a historical, political and cultural context.

All our academics are conducting internationally published research. Our key strengths are in Theories of International Relations; Peace and Conflict; British and US foreign policy and EU and UN politics. Our subject deals squarely with some of the most daunting, intractable but important challenges of today.