Module manager: Dr Maša Mrovlje
Email: M.Mrovlje@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is approved as a discovery module
This module addresses the complexities, challenges and dilemmas involved in resisting oppression, including those that have been neglected in hegemonic visions of resistance. We will be looking at some of the key ways in which resistance has sought to challenge the existing relations of power and inequality as well as some of the difficulties that arise when trying to challenge status quo. We will do that by examining a range of thinkers coming from Marxist, decolonial, feminist, postcolonial, existential, and intersectional perspectives.
To introduce students to the complexities and challenges of thinking about resistance and political action more broadly.
To enable students to develop an ability to critically engage with complex ideas through reading and analysing both primary texts and secondary sources.
To develop students' understanding (i.e. a knowledge of structure and connections and an ability to ask new and relevant questions about this structure) of the links between the political ideas examined here, and the past and present examples of resistance.
To challenge students to develop a critical understanding of the theoretical assumptions underpinning different arguments on the themes covered in the course.
Command a range of research and transferable skills necessary to write a seminar paper and participate in class discussions.
On completion of this module, students should be able to demonstrate:
1. A knowledge of key ideas and texts of the thinkers under review, and the traditions of thought that they represent.
2. An understanding of how the primary political ideas of those thinkers link together, and how they also link with wider problems/aspects of the radical alternatives under review.
3. An understanding of the problems that the texts are seeking to identify and address, and their relevance for contemporary and conventional views of politics.
On completion of this module students should also have developed :
4. The ability to produce a reasoned argument and synthesise relevant information and use communication and information technologies to retrieve and present information.
5. Exercise critical judgement, and manage and self-critically reflect on, their own learning and make use of constructive feedback.
6. Be able to communicate effectively and fluently in spoken and written English.
Syllabus is dependent on the thinkers selected for study.
Indicative thinkers may include:
Marx, Nietzsche, Schmitt, Foucault, Spivak, Kristeva, Mbembe, Butler
Indicative topics arising from the texts of the thinkers may include:
anti-Semitism, aristocracy, BDSM, communism, cyborgs,‘death’ of God, decentred subject, democracy, equality, Eurocentrism, exploitation, fascism, feminism, foreignness, friendship, Freudian theory, gender, heteronormativity, identity, inclusion and exclusion, national identity, nihilism, postcolonialism, power, psychoanalysis, queer theory, race, representation, sexuality, slavery, sovereignty, the state, the subaltern, subjectivity, and work and production.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-line Learning | 8 | 1 | 8 |
| Student-led discussion | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Seminar | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Private study hours | 170 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 30 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Students are asked to read excerpts from the core texts listed in the module bibliography in preparation for seminar discussions, their formative work, and their essay.
Students will be provided with lecture and reading notes.
Students will be provided with voluntary 'worksheets' to help guide them through the texts.
Students will be given the opportunity to submit an essay plan and a sample of writing and to receive and discuss written/verbal feedback on this writing.
This module uses both formative and summative assessment.
Formative assessment (which is voluntary and does not count towards the final grade):
Student contributions to class discussion.
Weekly worksheets guiding students through the readings and enabling them to identify the key points.
Tutor-led peer discussion in seminars.
Opportunities for individual discussions outside seminar times.
Opportunity to submit a short essay plan and to receive written/verbal feedback and guidance.
Opportunity to submit a short sample of an essay and to receive written/verbal feedback and guidance.
Summative assessment (which is compulsory and does count towards the final grade):
A single 2750 word essay after the module has been completed. The essay will take the form of a comparative question around either the juxtaposition of two thinkers, or the engagement with a theme (e.g. power, the state, identity) which students will be asked to address in a critical fashion using the thinkers on discussed on the module.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 1 x 2750 End of Term essay | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 13/06/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team