- UCAS course code
- PW30
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Film Studies and Music
Duration: 3 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: PW30 / Institution code: M20
- Typical A-level offer: AAB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: ABC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 35 points overall with 6,5,5 at HL
Fees and funding
Fees
Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £26,500 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.
Policy on additional costs
All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).
Scholarships/sponsorships
- Find out more from student finance
- Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
- Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
- Many students work part-time or complete a student internship
Course unit details:
Black on Screen
| Unit code | DRAM20092 |
|---|---|
| Credit rating | 20 |
| Unit level | Level 2 |
| Teaching period(s) | Semester 2 |
| Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This course introduces students to the study of Black representation in screen culture. The course will focus on selected films and television programmes, including from the US and UK. Students will be encouraged to consider key areas of debate, including race, culture and politics, intersectionality, multiculturalism and post-coloniality. A key concern running through the course will be self-representation. ‘Blackness’ as defined by the course is an inclusive term to refer to individuals and communities of African and Caribbean heritage.
Pre/co-requisites
| Pre-requisite units | Any L1 Film core unit: DRAM10031: The Art of Film or DRAM13331: Introduction to Early Film Histories or SALC11002: Introduction to World Cinema |
| Co-requisite units | Any L2 core Drama module – Theatres of Modernity; Screen, Culture and Society |
Aims
- To consider the historical and contemporary representations of people of African ancestry on screen, predominantly in the US and the UK
- To consider the social, cultural and political contexts of Black representation and self-representation in screen media
Teaching and learning methods
The lectures for this course unit will be delivered online.
Knowledge and understanding
- Contextualise the history of Black representation primarily in US and British screen media
- Analyse the aesthetics of Black representation
- Demonstrate a developed understanding of how Black representation can be considered as part of the struggles for Black settlement and advancement in the Western worldancement in the Western world
Intellectual skills
- Demonstrate independent thinking in analysis
- Demonstrate cultural, historical and theoretical understanding of screen texts and related sources (posters, trailers, reviews etc)
- Demonstrate an enhanced ability to undertake close screen textual analysis
- Extrapolate socio-cultural concepts from close analysis and reading
Practical skills
- Work effectively in group work contexts
- Present ideas and intellectual arguments in class discussions
- Demonstrate critical writing skills
- Research academic and non-academic materials, and evaluate the effectiveness of these materials as supporting evidence for assessments
- Produce a group poster
Transferable skills and personal qualities
-
Demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively with others about intellectually demanding concepts, topics, materials
-
Demonstrate an ability to draw with accuracy, focus, detail and precision on complex materials in independent and group work
-
Demonstrate an ability to effectively present – through discussion and in writing – complex topics, drawing convincingly on oral, written and visual media as appropriate to the topic
Employability skills
- Group/team working
- ability to work productively as part of a group and independently in learning environments that present complex challenges
- Project management
- an ability to develop detailed, planned and multi-layered approaches to tasks
- Oral communication
- an enhanced ability to effectively adapt self-presentation to different audiences/contexts, especially when communicating complex topics
- Problem solving
- a good level of critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Assessment methods
Group poster 30%
Assessed essay 70%
Feedback methods
| Feedback method | Summative |
| Group Poster – written | Summative |
| Essays – written | Formative and summative |
| Consultation on essays and presentation - oral | Formative |
Recommended reading
- Bogle, Donald. (1988). Blacks in American Film: Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and Bucks. New York: Garland
- Diawara, Manthia. (1993). Black American Cinema. New York: Routledge
- Dyer, Richard. (1997). White. London: Routledge
- Everett, Anna. (2001). Returning the Gaze: a Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, Durham, NC: Duke
- Fanon, Frantz. (1986). Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. London: Pluto
- Guerrero, Ed. (1993). Framing Blackness: African American Image in Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
- Hall, Stuart. Ed. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage: OUP
- Hooks, Bell. (1992) Black Looks: Race and Representation. London: South End
- Ross, Karen (1996) Black and White Media: Black Images in Popular Film and Television. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Shohat, Ella and Robert Stam (1994) Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London: Routledge
- Young, Lola (1996) Fear of the Dark: `Race', Gender and Sexuality in the Cinema. London: Routledge
Study hours
| Scheduled activity hours | |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 11 |
| Seminars | 22 |
| Independent study hours | |
|---|---|
| Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
| Staff member | Role |
|---|---|
| Darren Waldron | Unit coordinator |
Additional notes
Plus one film screening per week