MA in Social Research
This programme offers training for those who need to conduct or evaluate sociological research, and provides skills for academic and non-academic researchers. It covers both qualitative and quantitative methods and their application in the study of substantive areas, as well as the relationship of research studies to sociological theory.
Ulla, MA Social Research
1 year full-time or 2 years part-time.
Find out more about applying
You should have an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant subject. If your first language is not English, please check our English Language requirements.
ESRC. The programme is recognised by the ESRC under its ‘1+3’ and ‘+3’ schemes for graduate funding.
The MA is ideal research preparation for an MPhil/PhD and a future academic career in Sociology. It is also suited to those in the public, health and third/NGO sector who might have already undertaken some social research but want to advance their social research skills and training, either as part of their existing work or for their future career development.
Capacity to generate and execute sociological research at an advanced level; ability to examine how social, public and civil policy can be influenced by sociological knowledge; ability to investigate, appraise and communicate empirical information.
Please see Tuition fees.
Convenor
Dr Marsha Rosengarten, Sociology
Please see Staff research interests.
Contact the Postgraduate Programmes Officer
The MA teaching is made up of lectures and workshops during which students are encouraged to try out, evaluate and sometimes combine different approaches. You will be introduced to a range of theoretical perspectives and see how these may be translated into a rigorous methodological approach along with a set of appropriate methods. The range of methods covered include interviewing and observation, archival research, visual methods, ethnographic work as well as statistical analysis of large-scale quantitative data sets. A wide variety of contemporary theoretical traditions - reflecting the specialisms of a high ranking research department - are on offer and range from postcolonial theory, poststructuralism to discourse analysis, actor network theory and feminism. On successful completion of the course, you will be proficient in managing different types of data in addition to being able to design and carry out an original piece of research.
Our dissertation programme of individual supervision by an experienced member of staff and dissertation workshops will guide you as you undertake a substantive piece of research on a topic of your choice.
Below are some of the topics chosen by students from previous years:
- Critical Skateboarding on the Southbank
- An Ethnographic Study into London's Grime and Dubstep Scene(s) and the Politics of Essentialism and Hybridity
- Metaphors of fMRI: the metaphorical framing of a brain scanning technology
- Finding Taces: Modeling End of Life Decision Pathways in Medical Practice: A secondary analysis of quantitative data
- "I don't really think of it as a gated community": investigating security and community in the construction of home among London's gated women
- Political Technologies and (Re) Construction of Disabled People Between 1998 and 2008.
- 'Structure Liberates': Race, Class and the Construction of a School Ethos
“The MA Social Research at Goldsmiths contains a number of distinctive elements: it is strong on more conceptual and theoretical issues; it contains introductions to a wider range of more innovative methodologies than is found elsewhere; it offers a distinctive introduction to quantitative methods, with an emphasis on secondary analysis of real data sets”
Prof Roger Burrows, External Examiner MA Social Research
Assessment
Essays and dissertation.
Register your interest
If you register your interest in this programme we will keep you informed about open days and send you relevant further information. If you subsequently decide to apply for this programme you will be able to use the same login details to apply.
Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London, SE14 6NW, UK
Telephone: + 44 (0)20 7919 7171
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