MA in Cultural Studies

Students take 180 credits, 60 of which are a dissertation and a 120 from taught modules. You may take a 30 credit language acquisition module at appropriate level as one of your modules.

Please follow the structure below.

• Cultural studies theories and the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East
• Dissertation in Cultural Studies

Students can take 90 credits from List A or 60 credits from List A and 30 credits from either List B or List C. The options below are recommended due to their relevancy to the programme. However, students are allowed to take any postgraduate optional module that SOAS offers (see individual web pages for list), provided they receive the approval of the degree convenor and the relevant course convenor.

• Turkey:Continuity and Change
• Selected Topics in 20th Century Turkish Literature
• Arabic Women's Writing: Theories and Practices
• Curating Africa: African Film and Video in the Age of Festivals
• Travelling Africa: Writing the Cape to Cairo
• Japanese Traditional Drama (Masters)
• Modern Japanese Literature (Masters)
• Modern Chinese Literature in Translation
• Modern Chinese Film and Theatre (MA)
• Modern Film from Taiwan and the Chinese Diaspora
• Traditional Chinese Literature in Translation
• Literatures in African languages
• Literatures of South Asia
• The Politics of Culture in Contemporary South Asia
• Modern Arabic Literature and the West
• Film and Society in the Middle East
• Post-crisis Thai Cinema (1997-2007)
• (Post) Colonialism and Otherness in South East Asia on Screen
• Genders and Sexualities in South East Asian Film
• English Literatures of South East Asia
• The Story of African Film: Narrative Screen Media in Africa
• Aspects of African film and video 2
• Realism and Magical Realism in the African Novel (PG)
• Sci-fi and Afrofuturism in the African Novel (PG)
• Japanese Television since 1953
• Indian Cinema: Its History and Social Context
• Indian Cinema: Key Issues
• Indonesia on Screen(PG)
• Vietnam on Screen (PG)
• Under Western Eyes: European Writings on South East Asia (PG)
• Directed Readings in a South East Asian Language
• Identity and Language in Hebrew Literature

• Culture and Society of China
• Culture and Society of East Africa
• Culture and Society of Japan
• Culture and Society of South Asia
• Culture and Society of South East Asia
• Culture and Society of Near and Middle East
• African and Asian Diasporas in the Modern World
• African and Asian Cultures in Britain

• Theoretical Approaches to International Journalisms
• Transnational Communities and Diasporic Media:Networking, Connectivity, Identity
• Japanese Transnational Cinema: From Kurosawa to Asia Extreme and Studio Ghibli
• Japanese Post-War Film Genres and the Avant-Garde
• Mediated Culture in the Middle East: Politics and Communications
• International Political Communication
• Theoretical and Contemporary Issues in Global Media and Post-National Communication

• Pop and Politics in East Asia (Masters)
• Gender and Music (MMus)

• Muslim Britain: Perspectives and Realities

• Histories of Ethnicity and Conflict in South East Asia 1 - Making States and Building Nations
• Histories of Ethnicity and Conflict in South East Asia 2 - Non-National Perspectives
• Social and Cultural Transformations in Southern Africa Since 1945
• Japanese Modernity I
• Japanese Modernity II
• Knowledge and Power in Early Modern China
• Nationhood and Competing Identities in Modern China

• Modern and Contemporary Arts in Africa
• Diaspora Contexts and Visual Culture
• Representing Conflict: A Cross-Cultural and Inter Disciplinary Approach
• Islam and the West: Artistic and Cultural Contacts
• Painting and Visual Culture in China

You may only take 30 credits from List B.

• Gender theory and the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East
• Postcolonial Theory and Practice
• Theory and techniques of Comparative Literature

You may take 30 credits from List C.

• Amharic 1 (PG)
• Amharic 2 (PG)
• Hausa 1 (PG)
• Hausa 2 (PG)
• Somali 1 (PG)
• Somali 2 (PG)
• Swahili 1 (PG)
• Intermediate Swahili 2A (PG)
• Swahili 3 (PG)
• Swahili 4 (PG)
• Yoruba 1 (PG)
• Yoruba 2 (PG)

• Elementary Spoken Cantonese (PG)
• Elementary spoken Hokkien (Minnanyu, Taiwanese) (PG)
• Chinese 1 (PG)
• Chinese 2 (PG)
• Chinese 3 (PG)
• Chinese 4 (PG)
• Special Course in Chinese: Reading Classical and Literary Chinese (PG)

• Japanese 1 (PG)
• Japanese 2 (PG)
• Korean 1 (PG)
• Korean 2 (PG)
• Korean Readings (PG)
• Japanese 3 (PG
• Japanese 4 (PG)

• Elementary Persian Texts (PG)
• Elementary Written Persian
• Elementary Written Turkish
• Intermediate Modern Turkish Language (PG)
• Modern Hebrew Language: Elementary (PG)

• Bengali Language 1 (PG)
• Bengali Language 2 (PG)
• Hindi Language 2 (PG)
• Hindi Language 3 (PG)
• Hindi Language 4 (PG)
• Nepali Language 1 (PG)
• Nepali Language 2 (PG)
• Punjabi Language 1
• Sanskrit Language 1 (PG)
• Sanskrit Language 2 (PG)
• Prakrit Language 1 (PG)
• Urdu Language 1 (PG)
• Urdu Language 2 (PG)

• Burmese Language 1 (PG)
• Burmese Language 2 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 1 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 1 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 2 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 3 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 4 (PG)
• Indonesian Language 4 (PG)
• Thai Language 1 (PG)
• Thai Language 2 (PG)
• Thai Language 3 (PG)
• Vietnamese Language 1 (PG)
• Vietnamese Language 2 (PG)

If you are a current student you can find structure information on Moodle or through your Department.

• MA Cultural Studies Programme Specification 2012/2013 (pdf; 40kb)

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules