Culture, Diaspora, Ethnicity MA

This innovative, interdisciplinary postgraduate culture, diaspora and ethnicity course stretches across the arts and humanities and social sciences. It offers you the opportunity to explore important subjects such as histories of ‘race’ and racism; the connections between transcontinental histories of colonisation and contemporary social formations and inequalities; postcolonial political communities, social identities and cultures and how local debates on inequality are shaped by global geopolitics.

Why choose this course?

* Birkbeck is a global centre for research and teaching on ‘race’ and racism and histories and legacies of empire.

* This course is taught by award-winning teachers and research-active scholars and consistently achieves high levels of student satisfaction.

* You will be able to pursue your own interests and develop knowledge that will enable you to address the most urgent questions of our time and make an important impact.

What will I learn?

The course examines the connections between intertwined colonial histories and our ordinary, local, everyday life.

We focus on a broad range of subjects such as modern colonial statecraft and histories of ‘race’ and other systems of categorisation; colonial cultures and nationalisms; histories of anticolonial, antifascist and antiracist resistance; migration and diaspora; theorising community and postcolonial belonging; histories of state and corporate negligence and violence; contemporary racial nationalisms and religious authoritarian movements; and race, gender, sexuality and desire.

How will I learn?

This course is available to study full- or part-time, with all classes taking place in the evening. Teaching involves a combination of interactive lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. You will choose from a broad, exciting array of specialist subject option modules as you are guided through the course by a personal tutor and expert in this subject area.

If you choose to study the MA, you will undertake an empirical or theoretical dissertation, or a practice-based dissertation such as a film or an exhibition.

This course gives you the choice of studying on campus, online or via flexible learning.

If you require a Student visa to study in the UK, you will only be able to apply for the on-campus study option for this course. Online and flexible options will not be available to you because they may affect the conditions of your visa.

Highlights

* This course consistently achieves very high levels of satisfaction from Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey respondents. In 2019 and 2020, the student satisfaction rate was 100%; in 2021 the rate was 95%; in 2022 it was 85%; and in the most recent report, generated in 2023, it was 100%.

* Birkbeck is the first higher education institution in London to receive the title University of Sanctuary.

* If you are taking this course part-time, you may be eligible for a Bonnart Trust Master’s Studentship which will cover the cost of your tuition fees. You may also be eligible for a Birkbeck Access to Postgraduate Study Scholarship or an Aziz Foundation Scholarship.

Careers and employability

You will graduate from this course with highly valued, transferable skills including:

* advanced critical writing, analysis and argumentation

* research

* communication.

Graduates have pursued careers in organisations and charities concerned with:

* human rights

* criminalisation and policing

* sexual violence

* migration, refugees and asylum

* homelessness

* imprisonment

* addiction

* youth and community work.

They have also entered fields such as:

* journalism

* IT

* film, fiction, poetry and music

* health and social work

* teaching

* academic research and policy

* cultural heritage and curatorship

* architecture

* law, advocacy and activism

* psychoanalysis and psychotherapy

* postcolonial, cultural and urban studies, history, psychosocial studies and sociology.