You'll complete the following compulsory modules, including a 60-credit dissertation:
You will also take one of the following modules.
In addition to the compulsory modules above, you'll also choose one 30-credit optional interdisciplinary module. Optional modules change each year, and may be taken from subjects including Music, Theatre and Performance, Visual Arts, Entrepreneurship, or Cultural Diplomacy. Examples of modules previously taken on the programme have included:
Module title |
Credits |
Contemporary African Theatre and Drama
Contemporary African Theatre and Drama
30 credits
In this module, you'll focus on contemporary literary drama and dramatists from the Anglo-phone, Franco-phone and Luso-phone language zones in Africa. One of our major aims is to remove the tendency in previous African theatre and performance scholarship to study these theatre traditions and genres as separate, while in fact, the impulse behind them was essentially the same, and their hybridising strategies follow the same path.
You'll investigate the impact of different forms of colonisation on the creation and direction of the theatre. You'll explore the influences of the indigenous traditions and the function of theatre within African societies - you'll specifically look at theatre and politics, the role of the dramatist in Africa, the playwright and the state, theatre under apartheid and totalitarian regimes, theatre and liberation struggles, theatre and the universities, African audiences, video drama/movie (theatre, technology and innovation).
The module encourages you to explore and extend your perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. You'll be encouraged to research one of the themes identified above, giving you the opportunity to explore a specific concern in contemporary African dramaturgy and theatre and performance practice.
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30 credits |
Cultural Theory
Cultural Theory
30 credits
This module asks the questions: What is cultural studies. and, what is culture? A wide range of cultural theory dealing with issues concerning technology, art media, philosophy, and the economy, are explored in order to address a number of connected questions that span the field of contemporary cultural studies. Can culture be understood per se or may we only ever consider cultures? What is the nature of culture and how should we try to understand what is specific to contemporary culture? What is cultural studies in a changing order, whereby China, India, and Latin America - the East and the South - become the drivers of global change? We look at the cultural foundations of the global economy: at 'individualist' and 'relational' orders of value.
We ask who this non-Western other is and again, this time with new eyes, who is 'the West'? We enquire into the Greek and Jewish-Christian transcendental God and in the process investigate its association with the economic culture of our age; for its messianic ethos; for its critique of law; of neoliberalism and sovereignty and its everlasting obsession with justice; we think it as well for its implicit universalism and ask the broader question: what is universalism? We look at cultures of the East (especially China) and of the South. Here, as opposed to Western ontology, are questions of conduct and 'the way'; as opposed to the Western other-worldly God, immanent this-worldly, non-monotheistic, regimes of religion. We look at the immanent and relation culture of the gift and the clan, the linguistic foundations of Chinese culture. We ask, in this context, whether a new global universalism is possible.
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30 credits |
Cultural Theory, Performance, Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Cultural Theory, Performance, Interdisciplinary Perspectives
30 credits
This module focuses on a selected number of fundamental concepts, categories of thought and methodological issues and problems pertinent to cultural theory and its relation to performance.
The module is based on the premise that performance activity is a social and cultural practice. As such, performance is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its complexity. These terms are provided by interdisciplinary work, which, in this course, will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, the sociology of culture, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, political science, philosophy, aesthetics, and theories of signs and of artistic genres.
Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is dialogically interrelated with the practice of practitioners. It thus uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses theory to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. Apart from the inclusion of contemporary practitioners in the module structure, as indicated below, you'll be expected to engage with performances available to them in London and elsewhere during their studies, and discuss them in the seminar, as appropriate.
The interdisciplinary principles of the module highlight the interdisciplinary dimensions of what is, nevertheless, discipline-specific to drama, theatre and performance studies. The module is designed to allow you to carry the conceptual and methodological grounding provided by this core module across to the options offered by the MA in Performance and Culture. It is also designed to link intellectually with other MA programmes available at Goldsmiths College.
The module is structured on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are cross-referenced, cumulative, and require depth. Its structure fosters initiative in research, independent research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Performance and Medicine
Performance and Medicine
30 credits
This pioneering module (there is no such course in existence) will explore the broader context – historical, cultural, ideological, economic – informing the emerging field of performance (theatre, dance, Live Art, music, digital art) that has addressed/collaborated with/applied both medicine and medical issues through creative practice, in the UK and internationally. Within the context of the growing field of Medical Humanities, the theoretical perspective is framed by Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, in which he articulates the medical gaze and ‘medical couple’ and the rise of the European medical institution. Exploring the field from an interdisciplinary and culturally diverse optic, studies will cover a range of topics that explore mental/physical health, medical institutions/protocols and medico-performance practices, through lecture and seminar:
- Exploration of the braiding of medicine and art across histories;
- Consideration of Shamanistic traditions of healing;
- Comparison of non-Western to Western medical perceptions of the body and illness;
- Exploration of the history of Renaissance European anatomy theatres;
- Investigation into classical/modern/contemporary dramatic texts about medicine/medical characters;
- Practices that overlap healing and the arts (drama therapy/dance therapy);
- The affective turn and the neuroscientific turn respectively as recently applied to thinking through and about creative practice;
- Critical analysis of a range of evidence of medico-artistic practices particularly during the past two decades: artists, projects, contexts, organisations, funding bodies and cultural policies that address how medicine and performance have been, and might be, conjoined in creative innovations, processes and productions.
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30 credits |
Radical Performance
Radical Performance
30 credits
Radical Performance attempts to probe the creative innovations in theatre, performance, and live art practices that intersect with notions of 'radicality'. The topic is approached through an examination of the various creative elements that have underpinned theatrical experiments, challenges, and resistances. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and philosophical aspects, this course aims to enhance students' abilities to critique the ethics and efficacy of radical performance.
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30 credits |
London Theatre
London Theatre
15 credits
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15 credits |
Disability Theatre
Disability Theatre
30 credits
This module will explore Disability Theatre in the UK, focusing on the role that theatre and drama play in the development of a more inclusive society. Students will study the context in which Disability Theatre takes place and develop an understanding of the distinction between the “social” and “medical” models of disability and how this impacts on practice. The module will examine how a range of theatre and performance practices can address the barriers faced by people with physical, sensory and communication impairments, people on the autistic spectrum and people with learning disabilities. Students will develop critical frameworks to study a range of practices; topics covered include: the aesthetics of access, multi-sensory work for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, participatory arts, outdoor performance and institutionalisation. Students will be encouraged to engage with contemporary practice and debates and there will be two guest speakers, Tim Webb (Artistic Director, Oily Cart) and Jenny Sealey (Artistic Director, Graeae) - both leading practitioners in Disability Theatre.
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30 credits |
Eastern European Theatre
Eastern European Theatre
30 credits
What is the significance of distinguishing European theatre culture(s) between East and West? What histories are recalled or forgotten in making this distinction? When did Eastern Europe, or East-Central Europe, become identified as distinct from "the West" - by and for whom? Prior to being the "Other Europe" of the Cold War, and the "New Europe" of the 1990s, "Eastern Europe" was a colonial designation of Prussian and then Nazi empires. And prior to this, these terms designated confessional empires, distinguishing Catholic (then Lutheran) and Orthodox regions, as also Teutonic and Slav domains, while today the nations of the "European home" are all partners of a European Union. Is all Europe "Western" today, with a capital in Brussels (or even Frankfurt)? Is Eastern Europe like Shakespeare's legendary Bohemia, with its imagined deserts and shorelines? Or is it like Jarry's Poland at the end of the nineteenth century - somewhere that is remembered culturally, but which doesn't exist politically? How is a geographical region - with its histories of empires (including the Ottoman), nationalities, minorities, and changing borders - thought of in terms of its theatre practices? This module will explore the emergence of a new critical discourse about "Eastern Europe" (principally in the context of the visual arts) and reflect on ways that twentieth century "art theatres", "experimental" or "laboratory" theatres, National theatres, "director's theatre", ensemble theatre, repertoires, "classic" and "contemporary" plays, have been understood in English translation(s) as "East European".
Amongst topics to be considered will be: the relation between romanticism and modernism; realism, socialist realism, and the avant-garde; the impact of two pan-European wars and the aftermath of foreign occupation; censorship, exile, "inner emigration", and dissidence; organisations and festivals for exchange, such as the ITI, UNIMA, IETM, and BITEF; the haunting figure of "Hamlet"; and besides the dramatic canon, examples of cabaret, performance art, and puppet theatre. Amongst artists (besides Craig), we will consider the example of two, exiled Poles as professors of theatre at the College de France (Mickiewicz and Grotowski); the particular history of Stanislavsky in Poland (in the contrasting legacies, pre- and post-war, of Limonowski and Witkacy, Grotowski and Kantor); the legacies of Brecht and Müller, both during and after - but also across - the division of Berlin (where, in a real sense, 1945 only occurred in 1990); the European Yiddish legacy, with the example of Ansky's The Dybbuk (read with Derrida, Krall, and Warlikowski); the changing situations of Vaclav Havel's theatre work; and the example of two theatre critics, historians, and theorists, Jan Kott and Dragan Klaic. The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity.
The terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Asian Theatre
Asian Theatre
30 credits
Theatre or the practice of drama has an extraordinarily long, ruptured and variegated history in India. The module will examine this history of practice along a few different lines - classical, colonial, traditional, regional, English, Parsi, urban, contemporary and global. We will begin with a critical study of the unique aesthetic theory of Rasa concerned with production and communication of theatrical experience by the actor and its reception and enjoyment by the spectator. It is the core proposition of the Natyasastra (lit. Drama Principles), the drama manual from India, ascribed to a sage called Bharata, dated 200 BCE-200 CE and recognised as the world's oldest treatise on dramaturgy. The study will draw upon commentary from scholars as ancient as Abhinavagupta, as modern as Adya Rangacharya and as trangressive as Richard Schechner, and more, and take a look at renowned plays from pre-Christian eras and early Christian eras such as 'The Clay Cart' and 'Sign of Shakuntala', the latter being the first ever translated Sanskrit play leading to the creation of early 19th operas and ballets based on the story. We will then swiftly move to gain familiarity with still current traditional forms of theatre, often akin to storytelling with words, movement and dance, such as Ram Lila, Bhagavatha Mela, Koodiyattum and Kathakali.
A second part of the module will focus on urban and urbanisation of forms and means of production and presentation examining the impact of the colonial period which re-introduced written plays after a gap of nearly 1200 years when non-written, improvised theatre was favoured. A regional sweep will take in the focus and politics of theatre practice and plays in regional languages in the '60s-'70s through the works of playwrights such as Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, and Habib Tanvir, who were also translated into English and other languages. Bombay's Parsi theatre will come in for special consideration for their Gujarati theatre and contribution to India's English theatre featuring Brecht and Chekov and more. Conversely, we will look at India's popular regional language translations and re-renderings of Brecht and Shakespeare in urban and rural modes -- the latter most recently at the Globe to Globe festival in London.
The module is based on the premise that performance is essentially a social and cultural practice. As such, it is to be analysed, understood, explained and questioned in terms commensurate with its composite nature and socio-cultural complexity. These terms of this analysis are provided by an interdisciplinary approach which will draw, notably, on theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, anthropology, ethnography, philosophy, and aesthetics, among others. Although the module is primarily theoretical, it assumes that theory is constantly in dialogue with practice. Thus, it uses the latter to explore and develop points of theory; and uses the former to foreground aspects of theatre and performance practice. The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion and practice workshops.
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30 credits |
Corporeality, Embodiment, Alternative Spaces
Corporeality, Embodiment, Alternative Spaces
30 credits
The emphasis is on the interrelationship between the issues discussed in class and students' analysis of live and video performances, as well as of performance in the fieldwork of special interest to them. This module cross-refers to the theoretical and conceptual knowledge acquired in modules in the Autumn Term and builds on these acquisitions. As in these preceding modules, practice and conceptual reflection go hand in glove, and the perspective is interdisciplinary. The main groupings of concern here are corporeal and very much of the present: rituals (including urban ritual), shamanism, healing and performance, dance, hybrid forms (especially movement-based hybrids), and manifestations in alternative spaces such as site-specific performances, street and square performance, festivals, multi-ethnic performances, community theatres, and theatres of exclusion, including theatre of the homeless. The module encourages students to explore the multiple performances available to them in London and which will extend their perception and understanding of performance practice and cultural dynamics. You will be encouraged to do some fieldwork in a chosen performance area, which will give you the opportunity to explore types of current performance that challenge well-accepted practices and notions and extend your understanding and analysis of sociocultural dynamics.
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30 credits |
World Shakespeares
World Shakespeares
30 credits
This module will be concerned with the adaptations, re-readings and responses to the drama and performance of Shakespeare from around the world, in particular the non-English speaking world.
Adaptations, reinterpreting, and reworking of plots and characters have been employed in many instances by writers to re-read historiography and intentions of/in political and cultural contexts. This exercise or reinterpretation is often designed to respond to the text or to transcend contexts of Shakespeare, and to comment on contemporary affairs. In most parts of the world, dramatic re-readings of Shakespeare tend to review metaphysical or existential agendas in the texts from a political and materialist position, to challenge ideas about literary influence and intertextually question historical perspectives. The aim of this module is to explore the methods employed in creating this drama and performances in terms of political and cultural contexts, and how each not only recreates its environment but also responds to Shakespeare’s dramaturgy. The module is designed to provide a base theoretical underpinning and practical grounding to help achieve the stated aims of the MA programmes as a whole as well as introduce the interpretations of Shakespeare to the students. It also aims to address the tendency to view adaptations of Shakespeare as direct dramatic responses to the plots and characterisation. The module will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops, using the texts by dramatists as well as drama and performance from different parts of the world, including such as Federico Garcia Lorca, Bertolt Brecht, Welcome Msomi, Femi Osofisan, Wale Ogunyemi, Heiner Müller, Vishal Bhardwaj, Augusto Boal, Gonçalves Dias, Ching-His Perng, Sulayman Al-Bassam, and Julius Nyerere.
The module is anchored on the idea that learning and critical inquiry are based on cross-referencing, cumulative and in-depth acquisition of knowledge. Its structure fosters initiative and independence in research and presentation of work, and collaborative effort in class discussion.
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30 credits |
Module title |
Credits |
Entrepreneurial Modelling
Entrepreneurial Modelling
30 credits
This module will introduce students to a range of business modelling tools, and provide insight in to the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and enterprises. The module has evolved from NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Programme and will use the Modelling Techniques that were designed and have evolved from The Academy and Insight Out which provide approaches to commercialising creativity.
It will critically review the key characteristics of successful enterprises, entrepreneurs and leaders, within the cultural and more commercially focused creative industries. It will look at the range of business models that exist and review how best to build a financially sustainable organisation.
Students will be introduced to a range of techniques:
1. Relationship Modelling – this will assist students to understand the range of business models in the creative industries, and to create the most appropriate route to market; it will consider the relationship that the originator of the creative idea has to the production, distribution and the audience/customer/client; it uncovers the student’s relationship to “reward”.
2. Evidence Modelling – this model uses Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad Model to review the likely impact of the idea; it helps makes the enterprise tangible and to ensure that the entrepreneur remains in control of the effects of their ideas. Using the modelling technique helps students to articulate their values and the benefits of their ideas.
3. Blueprint Modelling – an approach to creating an operating plan which will move their idea to market, articulating all of the activities and responsibilities required. Consequence Modelling – using all of the knowledge from the modelling techniques, this will uncover the financial consequences of the decisions made. It will introduce them to basic financial modelling concepts, and ensure they are comfortable with the financial language of creative entrepreneurs.
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30 credits |
Interpretation, Education and Communication in the Art Museum
Interpretation, Education and Communication in the Art Museum
30 credits
Although art museums use the words interpretation, education and communication as a way of differentiating between individual departments and the type of responsibility staff members have, there are important fundamental differences inherent within each term that are rarely examined or explained. This module will seek to explore these differences, and look closely at each of the three main concepts: interpretation, education and communication.
Individual sessions will examine the way in which art museums define their relationship to content, meaning and context, how they communicate their message, their interest in creating a suitable brand and image, the role of library and archive, development, fundraising and conservation. There will be an emphasis on examining education and learning, the importance of access, diversity and the range of activities museums develop to attract new visitors and address the diversity and needs of an increasingly large visiting public.
The module tutor will introduce theories which relate to the writing of interpretative text, and consider how the experience of looking at art might be different if text were not available. There will also be a discussion regarding the role of the aesthetic in art education and the range of expectations visitors have from a museum visit.
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30 credits |
Cultural Relations and Diplomacy II: Explorations
Cultural Relations and Diplomacy II: Explorations
30 credits
This module places emphasis on the discussion of current themes and issues at policy and practice level in this transdisciplinary area. It fosters a reflexive and entrepreneurial approach to international cultural relations, by encouraging students to actively engage in the area by developing their own research and projects, relating them to wider debates. The module thus allows for the development of critical, creative, practical and reflexive skills complementing other elements of the MA Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy programme.
The module covers a range of trans-disciplinary contemporary issues that concern those researching and practicing in the areas of cultural relations and diplomacy. It will consider key questions faced by countries, regions, cities, organisations and individuals in creating and delivering policy and projects. The topics are broad and changeable responding to the current issues concerning policy makers, practitioners and the public engaged in the field – an indicative list of topics to be covered in the sessions is provided below.
While providing space for student led education through individual and collaborative presentations, the module works around topical and geographical sessions, each representing a contemporary issue and/or area of current interest in cultural relations and cultural diplomacy. These include for example: culture and international development policies and practices; the role of the cultural and creative industries in cultural relations and diplomacy; migration and (transnational) cultural citizenship; language, communication and identity in international cultural relations; international cultural policies and cultural co-operation; sessions with a geographical focus e.g China’s cultural diplomacy, EU strategy for culture in external relations; project planning, monitoring and evaluation for cultural relations and diplomacy.
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30 credits |
Culture, Tourism and Regeneration
Culture, Tourism and Regeneration
30 credits
In this module, you'll explore the relationship between culture, tourism, and regeneration. Tourism has long played a role in the economic, social and physical transformation of towns, cities and rural areas. However, in recent decades the nature of tourism, particularly city tourism, has changed, and concerns with sustainability have become of utmost importance.
You'll analyse the growth and increasing diversity of cultural tourism, the role it plays in urban centres and their regions and the ways in which cities, regions and rural areas, have reinvented and rebranded themselves as centres of leisure and recreation consumption using major cultural infrastructure investment, heritage commodification, events, and festivals.
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30 credits |
Tourism in Asia
Tourism in Asia
30 credits
Recent research in Asia has questioned the widely held assumption that tourism arose in the UK during the mid-19th century as a result of Thomas Cook’s introduction of the ‘package’, a combination of the cost of travel and another service.
It has been shown that travel and leisure existed in early Han Dynasty China as scholars and priests explored mountainous areas giving rise to one of the civilizations most enduring art forms, the landscape painting. Travel and leisure also seem to have gone hand in hand with that other widespread phenomenon, the pilgrimage, with the attendant development of hostelries, storytelling and souvenir production.
Industrial forms of tourism were introduced to Asia by European colonial powers in the late 19th and early 20th century with the development of hilltop stations to provide relief for officials and merchants working in tropical areas. Grand hotels were introduced with the Sarkies brothers opening up famous establishments in Myanmar (Burma), Singapore and Indonesia (Dutch East Indies). The inter war cruise ship industry made Asia accessible to wealthy Europeans and Americans with perceptible impacts on Asian hospitality traditions and visual and performing arts.
Western artists used the opportunities provided by tourism to open studios in Asia, notably Bali, often working alongside indigenous artists to create hybrid and highly creative art forms. The post-war era opened up parts of Asia to Western mass tourism, notably the so-called ‘rest and recreation’ of the US military in Thailand.
Tourism was also used as a nation building strategy by Asian leaders such as Suharto in Indonesia to encourage his countrymen to travel and to get to know their country and to project a tourist friendly external image of stability.
As the Asian economies developed, countries like Japan became major sources of outbound tourism with accompanying impacts on Western retail practices, especially with regard to fashion and luxury. By 2014 China had become the largest outbound and inbound tourism market with the introduction of China-friendly hotel ranking systems in Europe, such as the 5-dragons scheme, began to be experimented with in Europe.
Indian outbound tourism also became significant with some novel characteristics, such as an interest in the hybrid Indian-British culinary tradition of the ‘curry house’. Tourism is also one of the drives that has spread Asian culinary traditions around the world.
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30 credits |
Creative Social Media
Creative Social Media
30 credits
This module provides students with an in-depth engagement with the principles and practices of creative social media. The course introduces the foundations of a marketing approach to social media, but moves beyond this, focusing on the creative use of social media for storytelling, political campaigning, audience engagement, multiplatform and interactive production. From a theoretical perspective, it will look at how digital identities are created, and how we perform ourselves online. By specifically referencing the work of Douglas Rushkoff, Sherry Turkle, Jose Van Dijk, most recently looking at the ideas of ‘Lively Data’ (Lupton:2016) we examine the uses and abuses of the information that we leave behind. It will also take in the work of Goldsmiths’ Liz Moor and the rise of brands in modern culture and how this has impacted on the idea of ‘personal brand’. On a practical level, it will explore creative uses of tools and techniques such as GIFs, live streaming, pre-roll advertising, click-bait, social storytelling and virality. The syllabus will respond to developments in the creative industries and fields of research related to social media. It will also ground students in the relevance and significance of social, aesthetic, theoretical, political and historical contexts in which social media operate. This provides students the opportunity to develop proficiency in the techniques and relevant software packages for realizing and analysing creative projects. Students will develop an ability to generate and develop social media strategies, they will understand the process by which a digital brand is created, and the production techniques to that respond to a range of different creative ideas – led by themselves and others working across different platforms – and potential client needs. They will learn how to translate narrative, conceptual and some marketing ideas into creative social media form.
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30 credits |
Contemporary Issues in Cultural Policy
Contemporary Issues in Cultural Policy
30 credits
Contemporary Issues in Cultural Policy explores a range of trans-disciplinary topics that concern those researching and practicing in the areas of cultural policy. The module will consider key questions faced by all countries, regions and cities in creating and delivering policy. As globally most cultural ministries and their agencies are also responsible for a range of areas of policy often including international cultural relations, tourism, information and broadcasting and sport and also cross over with other ministries responsible for foreign affairs, education and creative industries the scope of the module will be broad.
Those topics will be addressed in a rigorous and structured way using methodologies conducive to student in depth and collaborative learning. Learning will be delivered through lectures, seminars, case studies, group work and presentations. Students will be taught in a single lecture environment each week before breaking off into smaller groups to conduct topical seminars, discussions or group work.
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30 credits |
Museums and Galleries as Creative Entrepreneurs
Museums and Galleries as Creative Entrepreneurs
30 credits
Some might say that Museums and Galleries of art have been forced to develop an entrepreneurial strategy so that they can remain free, look after their buildings, realise ambitious new projects, compete with other forms of entertainment, including educational and leisure venues and establish themselves as important players on the international art scene. It may be unsurprising that working in an entrepreneurial way has come naturally to those in the creative industries and museums and galleries have enthusiastically embraced the challenges before them to increase audiences, embrace issues of diversity and offer a visitor experience that is both educational and enjoyable.
This ten-week module takes place on Friday early evenings and focuses on Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Individual sessions examine how museums use their collections for education, interpretation and event programming and have successfully developed a dedicated communications strategy to market, promote, fund-raise and attract sponsorship.
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30 credits |
Museums and Galleries as Cultural Entrepreneurs
Museums and Galleries as Cultural Entrepreneurs
30 credits
Museums and art galleries make an important contribution to income generation in the UK. To achieve this successful outcome it is necessary for them to understand the role that culture plays in our society. The manner in which they display works of art, provide information and education, are committed to making their collections more accessible and generally strive to be welcoming, entertaining, friendly and rich in diverse opportunities shows how well they have understood the part they play in establishing culture at the heart of all that we do.
This course will focus on the growing importance of cultural organisations, how key texts still have relevance for cultural studies today, how taste is shaped by museums and galleries and how commercial organisations are keen to engage in large-scale cultural projects as a way of attracting a new, younger audience and establishing themselves as key players in a modern society.
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30 credits |
Module title |
Credits |
Enterprising Leadership: An Introduction to Leadership, Enterprise, and Innovation Theory
Enterprising Leadership: An Introduction to Leadership, Enterprise, and Innovation Theory
30 credits
The discourses of contemporary 'Leadership' and 'Enterprise Theory' are, much like the wider discourse of Management Theory itself, in a state of critical transformation. The authority, validity, and appropriateness of that type of scientifically influenced or 'positivist' thinking that informed so much of the early 'Taylorist' and 'Fordist' influenced work of the so-called 'first age' (Snowden, 2005) of Management Theory has been thrown into disrepute, as have many of the premises of that more contextually aware and 'constructively' influenced work that informed the so-called 'second age'.
Undermined by both the universalising and de-contextualising tendencies of that type of thinking that defined the 'first age', and the still latent problems of the 'implementation' or 'internalisation' (Nonaka, 1995) of the insights of that thinking that defined the 'second age,' we are now in a position in which – in what is increasing being recognised as the 'third age' of Management Theory – all of the principal discourses of Management Theory from Knowledge Management, to Organisational Theory, Enterprise Theory, Innovation, and Leadership, are having to come to terms with the difficult question of how they can still deal with their various objects of analysis, whether that be the essential nature, qualities, or conditions of successful Leadership, Enterprise, or Innovation, in a relatively organized, structured, and predictable way, and yet a way that does not undermine, foreclose, or delimit the essential 'complexity', unpredictability, and 'emergent' qualities of these phenomena and the contexts in which they arise. This is a problem that has seen a pronounced emphasis in recent years on the analysis of the role that the individual 'creative', 'entrepreneurial', or 'self-actualising' subject plays in the 'narrative' construction of their own relationships to those contexts in which they exist, innovate, lead, or learn (Tsoukas, 2005).
This module will introduce students to all of the main theories that have contributed to the evolution of this discourse from the early scientifically orientated, 'positivist', and 'essentialist' theories of Frederick Winslow Taylor in The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), to Joseph Schumpeter’s work on Innovation as “creative destruction” (1934), to Gordon Allport (1921) and Kurt Lewin’s (1935) early work on 'Trait Theory' and 'Situational' theories of personality as they have been applied to Leadership, to Ralph Stacey (2001, 2003, 2010), and Henry Chesborough’s (2003, 2006, 2010) recent work on 'Organisational Complexity' and 'Open Innovation', to more recent 'Transactional', 'Transformational', and 'Organic' Theories of Leadership, to Ikujiro Nonaka’s (1995) and Hubert Dreyfus’ (1997) 'ontologically' orientated theories of Innovation, and Roger Martin (2009) and Armand Hatchuel’s (2010) recent work on the value of various 'design thinking' lead creative research methodologies to the articulation of how we can most ‘productively’ act, think, innovate, and lead, within the ever increasing 'complexity' of current business environments.
The principal objective of this archaeological analysis of the history of the evolution and development contemporary Management Theory, and particularly as it has been applied to the discourses of contemporary 'Enterprise' and 'Leadership' Theory, is to enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of not only the history of the discourse but also how the insights of these theories can be practically applied to the conceptualisation and analysis of their own projects—thus overcoming the much debated 'relevancy gap' in so much contemporary Management Theory and education.
Particular emphasis will also be placed on the 'cross-cultural' significance of this work in relation to both Gert Hoftstede (2001) and Richard E. Nisbett’s (2005) work on the differing 'dimensions' of cultural belief, value, and understanding.
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30 credits |
Please note: some modules may be required that you have a background in the area you wish to study as they are primarily concerned with the discipline rather than its administration/management – for example in music.
There are many ways of doing this degree part-time. We recommend having a conversation with the programme convenor about how to proceed, and to determine time commitments.
Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Between 2020 and 2022 we needed to make some changes to how programmes were delivered due to Covid-19 restrictions. For more information about past programme changes please visit our programme changes information page.