Courses and structure

Over the period of the degree you take courses to the value of 360 credits, 120 credits in each year.

Year 1

Media Theory
Two compulsory 15 credit courses:

• Key Concepts and Debates in Media
• Representation and Textual Analysis

Media Practice
You take one of the following introductory-level courses:

• Print Journalism
• Writing Short Fiction

Modern Literature
You study two compulsory 30 credit courses (each lasting two terms):

• Approaches to Text
• The Short Story

Year 2

Media Theory
Two compulsory 15 credit courses:

• Communications Psychology
• Experience, Culture Society and the Individual

Media Practice
You take either Print Journalism or Writing Short Fiction, whichever you did not take in your first year (30 credits).

Modern Literature
You take either Post-Victorian English Literature or Moderns, and one additional 30 credit course from a range of approved Level 5 courses.

Year 3

Media Theory
You are required to take two option courses (each 15 credits) from the range offered by the Department of Media and Communications. These vary from year to year and the following have recently been offered for third year study:

• Political Economy of the Mass Media
• Structure of Contemporary Political Communications
• Media Audiences and Media Geographies
• Media Ethnicity and Nation
• Music as Communication and Creative Practice
• Contemporary Cultural Practice
• Explorations in World Cinema

Media Practice
You take one of the following specialisation-level courses (30 credits):

• Journalism
• Writing Short Fiction

Modern Literature
You take the equivalent of two 30 credit courses from a range of approved Level 3 courses such as the following:

• Modern American Fiction
• Aspects of the Novel
• Caribbean Women Writers
• Modern Poetry
• The Emergence of Modern America
• Postcolonial Literatures in English
• Literature in Question: Writing since World War II M
• odernism and Drama (1880-1930)
• Decadence

The Department of English and Comparative Literature also offers each session a small number of 15 credit courses (each taught for a term). These are to be paired to form the equivalent of a full-course unit. Typical courses of this kind have included:

• The American South
• Dustbowl to Dream factory: American Cinema and Writing in the 1930s
• Language and Gender
• Writing, Gender and Anxiety

About the departments

The Department of Media & Communications

The Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths is one of the UK’s leaders in the field of media theory and media practice.

This reputation teamed with a thriving research and postgraduate community makes Goldsmiths a lively and challenging place to study Media and Communications. The Department offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and has over 700 students.

Key facts

• An internationally recognised Department. The 2008 RAE exercise places Goldsmiths’ Department of Media and Communications among the top four in the country for this subject area. 80% of work submitted fell within the two highest bands in the new system – that is to say ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’.
• Commitment to teaching of the highest standard resulting in a score of 22/24 in the Teaching Quality Assessment Exercise, with an emphasis on high quality lectures and small group work.
• Teaching is led by research active staff including some of the leading names in media, cultural and communications studies.
• We concentrate on high quality lectures, small group work and all our teaching takes place on one site.
• We attract students from a wide range of backgrounds – mature students, international students, students from the South East of London and from all over Britain. We welcome every student’s contribution to the Department.
• Research strengths include: the political economy of the mass media, transnational media, political communications, popular music, new technologies, new media economies and cultures, news journalism, film, feminism, critical psychology, contemporary British art and the fashion industry.

Facilities

The Department has up-to-date facilities in all of its media areas, and aims to provide practice facilities that emulate current industry use.

These include:

• digital and analogue acquisition for time-based media and photography,
• radio and TV Studios,
• photography studios,
• digital video and audio editing,
• ENPS facility,
• animation and image manipulation software and hardware,
• traditional darkrooms,
• computer rooms for student production

Rutherford Building

The audio-visual collection held on campus in the (RB) has an exceptionally good music section and thousands of videos and DVDs to supplement those shown on the programme. Long opening hours mean that you can be flexible in terms of when you choose to study.

New Academic Building

Opened in September 2010 and located at the top of the College Green, the New Academic Building is the new centre for the Department of Media and Communications.

The new facilities maximise students’ ability to develop their skills through modern technological and purpose built accommodation and equipment. The new building houses a large lecture theatre, meeting spaces and a cafe with outside seating.

Find out more about the Department of Media & Communications

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The Department of English & Comparative Literature

We combine the wide-ranging research interests of our staff in English, European and American literatures. You will therefore benefit from a stimulating context for the study of literatures, linguistics, literary theory and creative writing.

Our staff come from a variety of cultural backgrounds – and, with their diverse research interests, they are ideally equipped to help you develop your own interests whether they lie in American, British, Caribbean, Irish, French, Spanish, German or Postcolonial literatures.

One of Goldsmiths’ major strengths is the way in which our departments (and smaller centres and units) co-operate to offer new perspectives and insights on each other’s subjects – this is the case, for example, with BA Media and Modern Literature.

In the last Research Assessment Exercise, 65% of the research/writing produced by the academic staff in ECL was judged to be of 3* or 4* standard, which means that our research publications have been judged to meet international standards of excellence. Additionally, selective reviews of our programmes continue to produce a clear 'vote of confidence' in the teaching provision in ECL.

You’ll find a list of our staff and their research interests here.

Key features

• We're large enough to provide a wide range of courses and specialists, but small enough to let you get to know other students and staff.
• Degree programmes are structured to give you a broad foundation in literature/cultural studies, and the opportunity to study the topics that interest you.
• A diverse range of courses from which to select, such as The Art of the Novel; Shakespeare; The Emergence of Modern America: American Literature 1890-1940; Oedipus: Myths, Tragedies and Theories; Studies in Literature and Film; Postcolonial Literatures in English, alongside courses exploring every period of writing in English.
• Every student has a personal tutor to provide advice and support.
• Our strengths include 20th-century literature, creative writing, European literatures, 18th-century literature, Renaissance literature, socio-linguistics, Romanticism, American literature, Caribbean writing, postcolonial writing and literary theory.
• Each year the Department runs a series of special lectures/readings for the benefit of its students. In the Richard Hoggart Lectures in Literature, major international writers and critics present and talk about their work; they have included: Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing, Seamus Heaney, Alan Bennett, Will Self and Germaine Greer.
• The Department is making increasing use of learn.gold – Goldsmiths’ resource for on-line learning.
• You can also use the University of London Library, which has over one million volumes, over 5,000 learned journals, a number of special collections, plus slides and music recordings.

See for yourself

If you’re thinking of studying at Goldsmiths, we recommend you come and visit us to have a look around. Our Open Days are ideal opportunities to find out more about what Goldsmiths can offer you. If you’d like further information please visit www.gold.ac.uk/opendays.

The Department of English and Comparative Literature also runs Applicant Days in the Spring Term for applicants who have received an offer of a place or an interview.

Student profiles

"Since moving into halls of residence last year to study Media and Modern Literature I could probably only describe the atmosphere here to be a fusion of eccentricity and libertarian expression.

If you want to be an individual then there is nowhere that will encourage you more. When I looked at my course it appeared to endorse this notion of diversity and has given me a freedom to choose what I learn."

Alex, BA Media & Modern Literature