GEO3168 : Geographies of Power and Resistance
- Offered for Year: 2026/27
- Available for Study Abroad and Exchange students, subject to School approval at module registration
- Module Leader(s): Dr Alice Cree
- Co-Module Leader: Dr Olivia Mason, Dr Malene Jacobsen
- Owning School: Geography, Politics & Sociology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Pre-requisite
Modules you must have done previously to study this module
| Code | Title |
|---|---|
| GEO2047 | Political Geography |
| GEO2145 | Social and Cultural Geography |
Pre Requisite Comment
Prerequisites for this module will be either GEO2047 Political geography or GEO2145 Social and Cultural Geography.
Co-Requisite
Modules you need to take at the same time
Co Requisite Comment
N/A
Aims
Geographies of power and resistance aims to develop students' understanding of key terms in political geography such as power, resistance, sovereignty, colonialism, militarism, and abolition. It will enable students to explore how power and resistance are practiced, and how they intersect, through an examination of contemporary case studies and examples. These will include student solidarity movements, climate activism, migrant resistance, antimilitarist movements, and non-movements. Students will be encouraged to critically engage with current (geo)political issues and to connect theoretical concepts from political geography to the current political moment. The module will begin with an examination of ‘power’, in particular through the specific lens of military power, and how it is practiced through various sites, spaces, and bodies. It will then move to exploring the concept of resistance, how it is practiced, and how it intersects with power. This will be done through a variety of case studies and examples, beginning with antimilitarism and then moving to other resistant movements such as those listed above. While the module will begin with ‘power’, students will develop an understanding that power and resistance are intimately entangled, and so both power and resistance will be themes that run throughout.
Outline Of Syllabus
This module will consist of an introductory lecture where students will be introduced to geographers’ engagement with the concepts of power and resistance, followed by three empirically focused blocks, and a concluding lecture:
Introduction to geographers’ engagement with power and resistance, including how power and resistance have been conceptualized. Key theoretical concepts in relation to power and resistance will be introduced (Alice Cree, Olivia Mason and Malene H. Jacobsen)
Military power and resistance: sites, spaces, bodies (Alice Cree)
Anti-colonial geographies: indigeneity, environment, mobility (Olivia Mason)
Abolition geographies: from prisons to borders (Malene H. Jacobsen)
Assessment workshop: We will deliver an assessment workshop.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 7 | 1:00 | 7:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 5 | 2:00 | 10:00 | N/A |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 167 | 1:00 | 167:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 6 | 2:00 | 12:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 4 | 1:00 | 4:00 | N/A |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The first lecture will act as an introduction to the module and the concepts of power and resistance. The first block of the module will focus on military power and resistance, in which students will be introduced to the ways in which military power is implicated in everyday lives and the different spaces of resistance of dominant narratives and sites. The second block of the module will focus on anti-colonial geographies and the ways in which colonialism has shaped power asymmetries in the world and the sites of resistance to this with examples of indigenous resistance, environmental resistance, and mobile ways of living. The third block will centre abolition geographies and the way in which repressive forces including enslavement, incarceration, and border enforcement have shaped the world and how abolition geographies imagine a world otherwise in spaces from prisons to borders.
Each week will have 3 hours of contact time (divided into lectures and small group teaching). The teaching sessions will include a mix of teaching methods, including lectures, small group activities, as well as film screenings, podcasts, art, and interactive websites.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Presentation | 2 | A | 75 | A pre-recorded oral presentation- 12 minutes |
| Essay | 2 | M | 25 | Visual essay on geographies of power |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The assessment will involve two summative components (25% and 75%). The first summative assessment will be a visual essay on geographies of power, introduced in the first lecture alongside some examples. One of the small group sessions will introduce the second summative assessment which will be a pre-recorded oral presentation. This presentation will require students to focus on the geographies of resistance, expanding on their learning from assessment 1.
Assessment 1: Visual essay (25%):
The students will produce a visual essay, which will include three visuals accompanied by an 800-word essay on the geographies of power. The visual essay will enable students to reflect on the materials and their own learning and how the module connects to events happening in the
Assessment 2: Pre-recorded oral presentation
A pre-recorded oral presentation (75%):
Students will explore an act or movement of resistance. Students will be asked to describe the act or movement of resistance and analyse it in relation to at least one of the theories that is covered in the module. The presentation should be 12 minutes long, individually-prepared, and recorded via a PowerPoint presentation (uploaded to Turnitin on Canvas). Through this assessment, students will be assessed on their ability to select and describe a relevant act and/or movement of resistance and analyse it in relation to relevant concepts of power and resistance.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- GEO3168's Timetable