Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3292: LGBTQ+ Policies and Politics in the UK

This module descriptor refers to the 2023/4 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level	6
Credits	15	ECTS Value	7.5
Term(s) and duration	This module will run during term 2 (11 weeks)
Academic staff	Professor Claire Dunlop (Convenor)
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
Available via distance learning	No

In recent years in the UK, there have been unprecedented policy developments affecting LGBTQ+ citizens. While some of these have been emancipatory and welcomed by LGBTQ+ communities, others have been harmful or partial. Whether good or bad, these policy moves have not come from nowhere. They are not ‘out of the blue’. LGBTQ+ individuals have long been the targets of various policies – national and local. This module focusses on the major policy developments and the politics surrounding them since the 1960s. How have LGBTQ+ citizens been characterised by powerful policy actors? In what ways has this community reacted to prejudicial policies to create a more equal society? Is political backlash against progressive policies and politics for LGBTQ+ peoples inevitable?

The module has both scientific and practical value. The ability to appreciate inequalities and the experiences of marginalised populations is essential in our world across all professions and walks of life. Such sensibility and empathy can be honed by spending time discussing, reading and thinking about how policies impact specific groups of people and the political reactions they provoke. The module offers you the opportunity to explore these themes both through academic research as well as the lived accounts of LGBTQ+ activists and citizens.

Module created	06/02/2023	Last revised	06/02/2023