Cultural Studies MA

Teaching

You will be taught through a combination of seminars, workshops, individual tuition, and online interaction.

All students take an introductory module on advanced concepts and relevant theories in the Humanities, which also provides a grounding in postgraduate research methods and skills.

In the 'Digital Editing Project' module all students also undertake a grounding in Digital Humanities methodologies, researching from databases and recovering and editing historical documents or cultural texts.

You will study a module on the interdisciplinary ‘New Humanities’, including environmental, medical, and scientific themes, which are relevant to cultural scholarship.

'The Cultures of Change' module dedicated to your main disciplinary focus of Cultural Studies, with close examination of four cultural sites: food, fashion, music and (digital) futures.

The 'Professional Development' module allows you to apply your academic skills in a practical work project, either on a university-based project, or with a relevant external organisation, such as a media company, local arts and culture provider or charity. Opportunities for work-based learning will be tailored to students’ longer-term plans and ambitions, for example, some students may choose to work on a creative industries networking event, while others may prefer to devise and run an academic conference.

The culmination of your Masters study is your specialist Dissertation. The taught modules will all help you to prepare for this by building your higher-level research skills and giving you opportunities to put them into practice. You will develop and expand your initial research plan in a workshop setting, in the light of peer and tutor feedback, and work towards the completion of your full Dissertation with the support of an individual advisor, who will be a research-active specialist in your subject.

Staff in the School of Humanities are recognised experts in a wide range of fields. You make all the key decisions relating to your Dissertation, including the subject matter, the intellectual approach, the argument and structure; you own the project from start to finish. You have a totally free choice of theme: the only limitation is that we must be able to provide an expert advisor to support you.

Contact time

In a typical week, a full-time student will have around 6 to 9 contact hours of teaching, and part-time student around 3 to 6 hours. The precise contact hours will depend on the timetabling of modules and is variable. For example, the "Research Approaches in the Humanities and Arts" module is taught in two intensive six-week blocks in semesters 1 and 2 and is therefore not always in session.

In semesters 1 and 2, full-time students will typically study three modules at a given time, and part-time students two modules. Students on both full-time and part-time routes will undertake the final dissertation over the ‘third semester’, between May and September. Regular campus-based and remote supervision will be available during this time.

Independent self-study

In addition to direct contact time, full-time students will be expected to undertake around 30 hours of personal self-study per week; for part-time students, the expectation is reduced in proportion to the amount of credit they are taking at a given time. Typically, this will involve guided reading and research, and/or writing; the Digital Editing Project and Professional Development modules will entail other forms of independent work, such as use of online databases and editing tools, and external liaison and networking respectively.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities, including The Hive university and public library, module Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), and digital learning resources.

Duration

• Full-time: Around 13 months, from early September, to late September of the following year
• Part-time: Around 23 months

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration. Please note that whilst we try to be as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week and some classes can be scheduled in the evenings.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team who are fully research-active and contribute peer-reviewed research to the Research Excellence Framework in subjects such as English Literature, Media and Film, Sociology and History. Many of the School’s academic staff have international reputations in their specialist fields.

Over 90% of academic staff in the School of Humanities have a teaching qualification or full Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments.

Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments, which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments, such as: essays, portfolios, presentations, and a major Dissertation project.

There are no formal timed examinations.

A typical assessment pattern for the course would be as follows:

Professional Development

• Report
• Portfolio

Digital Editing Project

• Position paper
• Digital project

Research Approaches in the Humanities and Arts

• Presentation
• Essay

The New Humanities

• Portfolio
• Conference paper

Cultures of Change

• Portfolio of online discussion
• Critical project

English Dissertation

• Research proposal
• Dissertation

Feedback

You will receive detailed feedback on both formative and summative assessments. Feedback is intended to support learning, and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.

We will provide you with feedback on formal coursework assessments 20 working days after submission.