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Department

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Length

1 year full-time or 2 years part-time

Course overview

Goldsmiths' operating principles for 2022-23 have not yet been finalised but should changes be required to teaching in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will publish these as early as possible for prospective students wishing to start their programme in September 2022.

The MA Cultural Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary culture, politics and society.

This Masters programme in Cultural Studies offers you the opportunity to engage with some of the key theorists and the significant debates in Cultural Studies, spanning from its inception in Britain in the mid-1970s to the present day. Cultural Studies has developed a distinctive set of concepts and methodologies to help better understand social institutions and practices, objects, items, and their circulation in consumer culture. Cultural theory permits close analysis of topics including race, youth, music, fashion, and the creative economy, and embraces the history of sexuality, emotions and effects. This course will consider current permutations on key topics such as music, sound and technology, national identity, the rise of ‘public feelings’, the cultural dynamics of precarity and austerity, art, and cultural expression for the new feminist activism.

Why study MA Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths?

  • Explore the impact and influence Cultural Studies has on a wide range of research interests, not only in the English-speaking world but also internationally. The programme will teach you about a range of Cultural Studies methodologies that you can then apply in your own writing and research. It will also include a Critical Ethnography Afternoon where students explore the place of this kind of research in the cultural studies tradition.
  • Examine the effect media technologies have on the cultural practices of production and consumption. As the course has a strong focus on new developments in sonic technology, this might include, for example, emerging local music scenes. This might also involve a focus on changes in fashion consumption, such as platform providers, and the role of influencers. 
  • You will have the opportunity to submit a five-minute iPhone film as part of your assessment.
  • Media, Communications and Cultural Studies is a large and highly interdisciplinary department, and the themes of cultural studies run through the research interests of many academics within it. These span the fields of music, film, digital media, aesthetics, cultural industries, gender and queer studies, postcolonialism, journalism, political economy, critical race studies, and critical theory. 
  • Discover your own path through the fields of Cultural Studies, and apply what you have learned to your own research in the form of your dissertation on which every student receives appropriate guidance and support. Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (MCCS) is an extremely broad and open-minded department – even by Goldsmiths' standards – and we are committed to making your interests as welcome as possible.
  • Access extra-curricular activities with field trips, and Sound System Outernational (SSO) events offering opportunities to meet up with students on other programmes, and become involved in Lewisham’s local music scene. Students interested in the fashion industry will have the chance to visit exhibitions and design studios.
  • Study in one of London’s liveliest and most diverse communities. You will study in a stimulating critical and creative research-led environment, which will prepare you for employment in a range of culture-related professions.
  • The Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies has been ranked 2nd in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 12th in the world (2nd in the UK) in the 2022 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact Professor Julian Henriques.

What you'll study

Overview

This is a programme which in the first compulsory course offers a different topic each week permitting the exploration of various methodologies and approaches. The first five weeks will present you with work from the Birmingham tradition and beyond to the present day, including neo-nationalism, race and ethnicity, policing and the prison system, gender and popular feelings, and the rise of queer theory.

The second five weeks turn to media technologies, sonic cultures, gender and social media and more broadly issues of cultural production and consumption. The second compulsory course provides an intense engagement with questions of cultural theory, capitalist society, new activisms, and the politics of protest and assembly.

The programme’s modules can include the different ways in which culture itself is to be understood in terms of technologies, practices, subjectivities and capitalist social formations. Options modules are available within the department at either 15 or 30 credit levels. Further option modules can also be taken in the Anthropology, English and Creative Writing, History, Politics and Sociology departments. As if not enough, students are also encouraged to ‘audit’ modules – attend lectures (but not seminars), without enrolling for assessment.

Compulsory modules

Module title Credits
Cultural Studies and Capitalism

Cultural Studies and Capitalism

30 credits

The critique of capitalism has been an important horizon for research and theory in cultural studies since its inception. Beginning with an introduction to this (anti-)disciplinary history, this module introduces and engages with past and contemporary critical approaches to the imbrication of capitalism and culture in cultural studies, cultural theory and philosophy.

We will consider the evolution of cultural studies from its early focus on the role of capitalism in shaping class relations and class culture, through its integration of such critiques into a still-expanding range of areas of concern, including issues around gender, race, sexuality, (post)colonialism, posthumanism and ecology. We will engage with key theoretical concepts and paradigms that have been developed in order to better understand the cultural dimension and functioning of capital, such as commodity fetishism, ‘capitalism-as-religion’, gift-exchange, theories of debt, parasitism, neoliberalism, information capitalism, and post-natural ecology.

We will ask how contemporary global phenomena such as the rise of digital networking, climate change and financial crisis may be transforming the relationship between capitalism and culture, and critically examine currently circulating claims that capitalism is giving way to ‘postcapitalism’.

 

 30 credits
MA Cultural Studies Dissertation (Methodology and Research)

MA Cultural Studies Dissertation (Methodology and Research)

60 credits

The dissertation provides you with an opportunity to undertake a research project on a topic of significance to Cultural Studies, drawing on the knowledge, understanding and skills developed through the taught modules studied during the rest of the programme.

General preparation in addressing methodological questions relating to the dissertation, and training on specific research methods, are provided in a 5-week research methods module during the Spring term. This aspect of the module culminates in a 5,000 word essay/report comprised of a critical analysis of research methods.

Students then go on to conduct the research and complete the 10,000-12,000 word dissertation under the guidance of a dedicated supervisor.

 60 credits
Doing Cultural Studies

Doing Cultural Studies

30 credits

This module concentrates on Cultural Studies as a research methodology, a method of engagement and intervention with current debates and practices, and in addition a method of collective working.

The module takes examples from a diverse range of topics in the field of media and cultural studies, such as policing and the military-industrial prison complex; racialised, gender and identity politics and intersectionality; media platforms and technologies; the production and consumption of popular culture; feminist and post-feminism; elites, political power and hegemony; visual and sound arts et al.

Particular interventions in these areas are taken as examples of a range of methodological approaches such as textual and visual analysis, conjunctual analysis, ethnographies and case studies.

 30 credits

Optional Modules

You will take option modules to the value of 60 credits chosen from across Goldsmiths departments. There are several Media modules available to you on this programme.

You may also be able to take modules from across many other Goldsmiths departments, such as:

• Anthropology 
• English and Creative Writing
• History
• Politics
• Sociology

Please note that module availability can change from year to year, and not all modules listed may be open to you. Your final selection will depend on the spaces available and timetable compatibility.

Download the programme specification. If you would like an earlier version of the programme specification, please contact the Quality Office.

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

For 2021-22 and 2020–21, we have made some changes to how the teaching and assessment of certain programmes are delivered. To check what changes affect this programme, please visit the programme changes page.

What our students say

Talitha Isabel, MA Cultural Studies
It doesn’t matter what you're interested in, there will be a society, a group or event that you will want to take part in – there are often more things to do than your schedule will allow.

"Even though I had applied for other universities, Goldsmiths was always my number one option. I had the opportunity to visit the campus on the open day earlier this year, and after talking to the students and a few of the professors, I was sure that Goldsmiths was the right choice for me.

The ‘Welcome Week’ was a great preparation for what was coming. There is always something interesting going on. It doesn’t matter what you're interested in, there will be a society, a group or event that you will want to take part in – there are often more things to do than your schedule will allow. And what I found brilliant is that even when you feel that there is a topic not covered in the events offered, you can always approach one of the Student Union officers and make a suggestion to bring the theme to a future event. The Student Union does not only encourage it, but it also gives us the support and advice to make things happen.

Being back in academic life has been awesome. The MA Cultural Studies has an interdisciplinary structure and a variety of optional modules. Every lecture is a new challenge and I have learned so much. I feel that I am surrounded by great minds, and the university offers an international environment with a strong student community."

Andrea Giuseppe Ragno
"I reckon that Goldsmiths offers one of the few courses in the whole world where it is possible to advance a critique of present-day technology with the tools offered by different philosophical approaches."

"I mostly chose Goldsmiths because of the intellectual environment that it seemed to provide. My expectations were matched on every level. Working with professors like Luciana Parisi and Matthew Fuller has helped me in acquiring a critical method which I was lacking and which I was feeling the urge of gaining it.

Furthermore, I have been able to meet enthusiastic and passionate students with whom I share many philosophical, artistic interests. With them, I am currently developing several projects which span from contemporary philosophy to critical studies around Artificial Intelligence.

In fact, I reckon that Goldsmiths offers one of the few courses in the whole world where it is possible to advance a critique of present-day technology with the tools offered by different philosophical approaches. This convergence of methods is what makes Goldsmiths a unique epistemic ensemble which is fundamental for young theorists and researchers."

Entry requirements

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at upper least second class standard in a relevant/related subject. 

You might also be considered for some programmes if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level.

International qualifications

We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme. If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate-level study.

Fees, funding & scholarships

Annual tuition fees

These are the fees for students starting their programme in the 2022/2023 academic year.

  • Home - full-time: £8620
  • Home - part-time: £4310
  • International - full-time: £16600

If your fees are not listed here, please check our postgraduate fees guidance or contact the Fees Office, who can also advise you about how to pay your fees.

It’s not currently possible for international students to study part-time if you require a Student Visa, however this is currently being reviewed and will be confirmed in the new year. Please read our visa guidance in the interim for more information. If you think you might be eligible to study part-time while being on another visa type, please contact our Admissions Team for more information.

If you are looking to pay your fees please see our guide to making a payment.

Additional costs

In addition to your tuition fees, you'll be responsible for any additional costs associated with your course, such as buying stationery and paying for photocopying. You can find out more about what you need to budget for on our study costs page.

There may also be specific additional costs associated with your programme. This can include things like paying for field trips or specialist materials for your assignments. Please check the programme specification for more information.

Funding opportunities

Find out more about postgraduate fees and explore funding opportunities. If you're applying for funding, you may be subject to an application deadline.

How to apply

Apply now

You apply directly to Goldsmiths using our online application system. 

Before submitting your application you’ll need to have:

  • Details of your education history, including the dates of all exams/assessments
  • The email address of two academic referees who we can request a reference from, or alternatively an electronic copy of your academic reference
  • A personal statement – this can either be uploaded as a Word Document or PDF, or completed online.

As well as telling us about your own interests and ambitions, please include in your personal statement why you want to study this particular MA Cultural Studies programme at Goldsmiths in the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies department. What are the particular parts of the programme that interest you? Which staff research area are you most interested in?

          Please see our guidance on writing a postgraduate statement

  • If available, an electronic copy of your educational transcript (this is particularly important if you have studied outside of the UK, but isn’t mandatory)

You'll be able to save your progress at any point and return to your application by logging in using your username/email and password.

When to apply

We encourage you to complete your application as early as possible, even if you haven't finished your current programme of study. It's very common to be offered a place that is conditional on you achieving a particular qualification. Late applications will only be considered if there are spaces available.

Find out more about applying.

Careers

Careers

Around half of students completing this programme progress to PhD level, and others go into practical work – in the creative industries and in NGOs in a great number of countries.

Skills

High-level knowledge of cultural research; transferable skills within social and critical theory, aesthetics and performance, communication and multimedia; ethnography skills; critical appreciation of current debates in the media, the culture industries and the wider contemporary cultural environment.

Find out more about employability at Goldsmiths. 

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