Course summary
The MA Cultural Studies offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary culture, politics and society.
- Explore Cultural Studies’ impact and influence on a wide range of research interests, not only in the English-speaking world but also internationally. The programme teaches you a range of methodologies that you can then apply in your own writing and research. It gives you a background in the tradition/s of Cultural Studies.
- Examine the effect of media technologies, racialisation and gendering on the production, circulation and consumption of popular culture. Topics include music scenes, the prison industrial complex, national boarders, and neoliberalism, for example. Approaches include representation, embodiment and decolonisation.
- 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 chosen dissertation topic on which you will receive appropriate guidance and support from your supervisor.
- 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. We are 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.
- Immerse yourself in a postgraduate environment shared by numerous creative practice-based MA programmes, such as MA Filmmaking, MA Journalism, and MA Script Writing. You will also share interests and activities with students from several sister programmes, such as MA Race, Media and Social Justice, MA Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy, and MA Culture Industry.
- Participate in extra-curricular activities with field trips to the Stuart Hall archive for instance and Sound System Outernational (SSO) events. These offer opportunities to meet up with students on other programmes, and become involved in Lewisham’s local music scene.
- Our department has been ranked second in the UK for 'world-leading or internationally excellent' research (Research Excellence Framework, 2021) and 16th in the world (third in the UK) in the 2024 QS World Rankings for communication and media studies.
- 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.
Modules
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 core 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 Cultural Studies and Capitalism Doing Cultural Studies MA Cultural Studies Dissertation (Methodology and Research) 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 • Visual Cultures 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 spaces available and timetable compatibility. Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Assessment method
Depending on the options chosen assessment consists of coursework, extended essays, presentations, practice-based projects or essays/logs, group projects and/or reflective essays. All assessed work is accompanied by some form of feedback to ensure that your work is on the right track. It may come in a variety of forms ranging from written comments on a marked essay to oral and written feedback on developing projects and practice as you attend workshops.
Entry requirements
You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree, or equivalent, of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject. You might also be considered 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. We accept a wide range of international qualifications. 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.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
No fee information has been provided for this course
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.
Provider information
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
Lewisham
SE14 6NW