Masters Degrees (Interrogation)

The MA Teaching and Learning is designed to enable classroom practitioners to continue to develop and refine their skills as teachers. The course encourages students to think deeply and critically about the efficacy of their classroom behaviours, how these create particular kinds of learning environments and the impact these have on learners. The course content and structure is underpinned by two key philosophical and pedagogical principles. The first, that the process of professional learning and enquiry is keenly aligned to processes of reflection and the rigorous analysis and interrogation of personal and professional experiences. The second, that fundamentally, learning is a communicative and collaborative process. As such, students are the main providers of (experience-based) data for sessional discussions that seek to further personal awareness into individual practices. Students are encouraged to participate in a lively discourse concerning the meaning of ‘effective’ classroom practice and the ways in which our understandings of such can be shaped by and evolved through attentiveness to, and interrogation of, the wider educational context (including for example educational theory and the various and plentiful policy initiatives).

The course also seeks to (re)position students as being in charge of their own practice, as ‘change agents’, capable of exerting professional agency. As such, students will identify areas of practice they wish to develop and subsequently explore research methodologies which are best suited to affecting personal and professional development as well as instigated organisational change.

This award is part of the Manchester Met Faculty of Education postgraduate Professional Development Programme.

Features and benefits of the course

-The opportunity to discuss and debate practice with colleagues working in similar professional situations.
-A philosophically principled approach which values experience as a source of learning and enquiry.
-A structure which is easily tailored to individuals’ professional priorities and personal interests.
-Flexibility, encouragement and support to use the focus and structures of the award to develop expertise in self-selected areas.
-As part of the Manchester Met Faculty of Education postgraduate Professional Development Programme, MA Teaching and Learning students enjoy the benefits and features associated with belonging to a wider community of learners.

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About the course

MA Journalism (NCTJ-accredited) offers you one of the best ways to launch your journalism career – whatever the medium you hope to work in.

Our programme is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, ensuring you get a qualification that really counts when you apply for your first position. Unlike other single-medium Journalism MAs, you will be taught journalism from the basic building blocks of online reporting and writing through to substantial news and feature projects in video, audio and print and multi-platform.

You will be studying not only for your prestigious Brunel Master's degree but also the NCTJ Diploma, which examines you in Reporting, Public Affairs, Law, Video, Teeline shorthand and a Portfolio. We work in close consultation with senior journalists, ensuring our syllabus provides a rigorous foundation to a career in this dynamic, challenging and often controversial industry.

This programme is distinctive in allowing you to develop your own cutting-edge journalistic practice, whether it's exploring 3G news, or on-screen page make-up. At the same time you learn about the impact of technological change, cultural developments and political issues surrounding different forms of journalism.

Particular attention will be paid to factors such as ethics, professionalism, media ownership, the regulation of the media, and the role of journalism in the political process.

The Journalism Diversity Fund is aimed at people from diverse backgrounds who need help funding their journalism training. Candidates must be from a socially or ethnically diverse background, be able to demonstrate genuine commitment to becoming a successful journalist and have secured a place on an NCTJ-accredited course. For more information, please visit http://www.journalismdiversityfund.com/

Aims

You will gain a systematic understanding of the field of contemporary journalism and a critical understanding of the current problems in the field.

You will acquire an understanding of the main theoretical approaches and techniques of journalism. You will be encouraged to use these critically, both in their studies of journalism and their own critical practice.

You will be provided with a critical understanding of the journalistic field that will enable you to use most effectively the skills which they acquire on the programme.

Course Content

MA Journalism consists of a common core of study in journalism, with an offer of specialist study in print or broadcast journalism in the second term, which will facilitate your entry into different aspects of the industry. This is particularly relevant in the context of a converging media industry requiring multi-skilling and the ability to adapt to new media environments.

The programme will consist of five modules - two that provide cutting-edge journalism skills essential for the new entrant to the industry, coupled with two that offer in-depth analysis of the recent history and political economy of the industry, critical evaluation of the cultural, political, ethical and legal frameworks within which journalism operates, and academic interrogation of current and emerging journalistic issues.

The fifth module, a major project, requires a synthesis of practice and theory. Through undertaking these modules, you will be enabled to identify and apply the most useful practical, theoretical and contextual approaches to help you to produce “good” journalism. In this way, you can enter journalism confident of your abilities, with highly-developed research skills, ethical judgement, the necessary contextual knowledge and an ability to navigate successfully an increasingly market-led industry.

The MA consists of compulsory modules, a typical selection can be found below. Modules can vary from year to year, but these offer a good idea of what we teach:

Journalistic Practice 1
Journalistic Practice 2
Issues in Journalism
Major Research Project

Contact Hours

Full-time: Minimum four days attendance per week

Part-time: Three days in year 1 and 1-2 days in year two provided the 100wpm Teeline exam has been passed in year 1.

These are the attendance hours for terms 1 and 2. Terms 3/4 are more varied and flexible as this is when you will have assignments, exams and supervision.

Assessment

Assessments will take the form of practical projects and tasks, essays, exams, case studies, presentations, reflexive reports and dissertations.

Assessing students’ knowledge and understanding of theoretical debates, hermeneutic skills and understanding of the historical and institutional context of different international journalism practices will be undertaken via written essays.

The assessments covering these cognitive skills are practical exercises, written work and productions which test the acquisition of practical skills and strategies; essays which test theoretical and historical knowledge; and the final journalism project (and accompanying written analysis) which requires a summation of the critical, creative and practical skills learned during the programme.

The Major Project will test students’ theoretical knowledge and practical skills (with supporting reflexive practice) to a level commensurate with a Master's qualification. Dissertations are usually agreed in advance with the supervising tutor.

Special Features

We are industry accredited
This means you will study for the NCTJ Diploma as well as your Masters degree – two qualifications in one. The NCTJ Diploma doesn’t just prepare you for local media – BBC, Sky and The Guardian are on the Board.
You will become a multi-platform journalist by learning how to work in online, print, audio and video journalism in our fantastic, 24-hour, state-of-the-art digital newsroom and studios. You will develop the mindset to find lots of ways to report and present a story or feature to deadline using the very latest techniques.

You will be highly employable
Editors come to us when recruiting journalists. Brunel Journalists are now working as staff in top newsrooms across the globe, including the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, news agencies, glossy consumer magazines, business-to-business journals, websites, local and regional press and broadcasting. Several are award winning journalists. Find out more about where our graduates are now working.

You will receive individual attention
All full-time lecturers are available at least four hours per week for personal consultation on academic issues. A structure of senior tutor and year tutors provides students with an easily accessible system for addressing queries about the programme. Each student has access to top journalists for career guidance.

We have top weekly guest speakers
We have an impressive range of high-profile industry guest speakers, giving you the chance to network with some of the leading journalists in the country. This year we have speakers from Cosmopolitan, the Guardian, BBC, Sky, Daily Express, C4 News and more.

Great work placements
Brunel journalists land all the best placements, gain enviable referees and see their bylines in leading publications. We have one of the best university Professional Development Centres in the UK who coach our students not only in CV and application writing but also help them develop the necessary skills to exceed at job interviews.

You are taught by top industry names
Our staff team and visiting lecturers comprise some of the biggest names in the business, such as leading investigative journalist Paul Lashmar (World in Action, The Observer, The Independent), Jacquie Hughes (Granada, BBC) and many more. You get the very best expertise preparing you for your career.

London-based campus environment
Brunel’s campus is a lively and attractive environment that buzzes with creativity and diversity. There is always something going on and a wide variety of amenities ranging from the bars and cafés to the computing clusters and the library. Our students also benefit from the fantastic links to London and its local, national and global media, not only through expert speakers but also via excellent work placements.

There’s great student media on site
Whether you fancy going on air, online or in print, you can do it here at Brunel. There’s student radio, a student newspaper and a host of online opportunities at your fingertips to enhance your CV and boost your employability. You will also have the opportunity to compete in national student media awards.

But it’s not all hard work..
There are days out, screenings, quizzes, networking events to build your contacts, confidence and just to have fun.

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ABOUT MA SCENOGRAPHY

Some of the major innovations in performance practices over the past hundred years have been drawn from scenographic developments. This MA/MFA approaches scenography from multiple practical and theoretical perspectives to create new opportunities for performance design experimentation and authorship.

This is a dynamic course for highly motivated artists and practitioners looking to extend their practice and for those wishing to develop design-led processes for and within performance. Students will engage with scenography through immersion in the process of relating bodies with space, sound, light and objects.

Students will discover, discuss and engage with past and present approaches to performance design informed by a variety of disciplines, for example, video, puppetry, architecture, choreography, sound and scientific enquiry. Existing skills and practice will
be challenged, extended and refined as students investigate speculatively the creative use/misuse of tools and media. Concerned with the body, movement, spatiality and temporality, the course includes a particular attention to, and interrogation
of, the scenographer’s subjective and physical approach to design processes.

There is a mix of collaborative and independent work, exploring the interplay of conceptual and practical thinking. This includes undertaking experimental and laboratory-based case studies, as well as studying the histories and theories of perception, representation and aesthetics within historical and philosophical frameworks.

Drawing on the expertise of current staff and visiting fellow researchers and practitioners, students explore a range of methods in the design studio/rehearsal room and the lecture theatre and have the opportunity to present their work through performance and exhibition. Students work within Central’s existing studio system alongside other courses and, through negotiated learning agreements, in professional contexts.

ASSESSMENT

This is by practical conceptions and realisations, written assignments and research presentations.

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This multidisciplinary, visual theory-based course is established around the belief that visual literacy and the impact of visual forms of thinking and working now play significant roles in society. The course introduces you to a range of historical and contemporary debates that inform the theories and practice of visual culture, and enables you to develop a conceptual framework within which to evaluate the role of the visual arts, and other forms of visual production, in contemporary society and culture.

You will acquire creative and professional research skills, such as the ability to work from exhibitions, art works and institutional archives, to be able to operate within different artistic and conceptual frameworks.

Course content

This Masters balances historical and theoretical debates in the field of visual culture studies with a rigorous interrogation of cultural practices across a range of topics, including: activism and popular politics; contemporary visual arts, capitalism and culture; globalisation and new media technologies; institutions and their archives; and the material culture of the city. The course also draws upon the cultural institutions and intellectual resources of central London, and has established contacts with other galleries and organisations for work placements.

Modules

The following modules are indicative of what you will study on this course.

Core modules
-DISSERTATION
-VISUAL CULTURE: PRODUCTION, DISPLAY AND DISCOURSE
-VISUAL CULTURE: THEORETICAL AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Option modules - Choose four from:
-CAPITALISM AND CULTURE
-ENGAGING THE ARCHIVE
-EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY
-INTERPRETING SPACE
-REPRESENTING WORLD CULTURES
-URBAN CULTURES
-WORK PLACEMENTS IN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

Associated careers

Graduates will be equipped for roles in the creative industries, including museum and gallery work, education, arts administration and marketing, or could pursue further study to PhD level. The course is also suitable for practising artists wishing to further their research.

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This practice-based course is designed and delivered through collaboration with the museum and heritage sector and in partnership with a number of institutions, sites and agencies reflecting the diversity of the sector, including: Museum Development East Midlands, East Midlands Museums Service, Nottingham City Museums and Galleries, Museum of the Mercian Regiment, The Canalside Heritage Centre, The Galleries of Justice Museum, the National Videogame Arcade, and Barker Langham.

Why choose this course?

Museum and Heritage Development is a progressive, interdisciplinary course that combines the academic interrogation of museums and heritage as ideas, organisations and experiences with creative, practice-based approaches to their ongoing development in the 21st Century.

The course encourages and supports you to re-think and re-imagine museums and heritage through critical engagement and reflection and experimentation and creative practice; to develop the confidence and courage to see yourself as a scholar-practitioner leading the field. In doing so the course integrates academic and professional practice of what is an increasingly international, interdisciplinary field with the intention of establishing a new benchmark in postgraduate provision.

Special features

The course is developed and delivered through collaboration and engagement with leading organisations within the city, the region, the UK and internationally. You will work on live projects throughout the taught elements of the course as the core component of your academic and professional development. This is further supported by guest keynote speakers, visiting professors, field visits, and professional student mentors from organisations across the region.

A strong international dimension to understanding museums and heritage runs throughout the course and is supported by an optional not-for-credit international field visit, in addition to case studies and literatures encountered in the classroom. Museum and Heritage Development introduces students to the realities of professional practice whilst at same time providing opportunities to speculate on the future of the field.

Working with Barker Langham, a leading international museum and heritage consultancy, each academic year culminates with a Degree Show; an exhibition in Nottingham based on the ideas and work students have developed during the taught components of the course.

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The MA in Theology and Religion serves both the specific needs of students focussed on progressing towards doctoral research and those of students looking to continue relatively broad-based studies in Theology and Religion to Level four, perhaps in support of a career in teaching.

Course Structure

Choice of one of the three core modules, Three option modules, Dissertation.

Core Modules

One of the following:
-The Bible and Hermeneutics
-Classic Texts in Christian Theology
-Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
AND
-Dissertation

Optional Modules

Optional Modules in previous years have included (2-3 choices from):
-Advanced Hebrew Texts
-Advanced Aramaic
-Middle Egyptian
-The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
-The Bible and Hermeneutics
-Paul and his Interpreters
-Gospels and Canon
-Patristic Exegesis
-Patristic Ecclesiology
-Christian Northumbria 600-750
-Classic Texts in Christian Theology
-The Anglican Theological Vision
-Liturgy and Sacramentality
-Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
-Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology
-Christian Gender
-Principles of Theological Ethics
-Theology, Ethics and Medicine
-Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
-Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
-Literature and Religion
-Catholic Social Thought
-Ecclesiology and Ethnography
-Doctrine of Creation

Plus up to 1 choice from:
-Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry programme
-Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1 – 2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
-30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study)

Learning and Teaching

Most MA teaching is delivered through small group seminars and tutorials. These exemplify and encourage the various skills and practices required for independent scholarly engagement with texts and issues. Teaching in the Department of Theology & Religion is ‘research led’ at both BA and MA levels, but particularly at MA level. Research led teaching is informed by staff research, but more importantly it aims to develop students as independent researchers themselves, able to pursue and explore their own research interests and questions. This is why the independently researched MA dissertation is the culmination of the MA programme. Such engagement with texts and issues is not only an excellent preparation for doctoral research, it also develops those skills of critical analysis, synthesis and presentation sought and required by employers.

Many MA classes will contain a ‘lecture’ element, conveying information and exemplifying an approach to the subject-matter that will enable students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and improve their own ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments. Seminars enhance knowledge and understanding through preparation and interaction with other students and staff, promoting awareness of and respect for different viewpoints and approaches, and developing skills of articulacy, advocacy and interrogation. Through small group discussions and tutorials, feedback is provided on student work, with the opportunity to discuss specific issues in detail, enhancing student knowledge and writing skills.

The Dissertation module includes training in generic research skills, from the use of the Library to issues in referencing and bibliography. The subject specific core module introduces students to questions of interpretation and argument in the disciplines encompassed by theology and religion, and helps them to develop their own interests and questions that will issue in the MA dissertation. The latter is a piece of independent research, but it is fostered and guided through individual tutorials with a supervisor, with whom students meet throughout the academic year.

Other admission requirements

*The two principal exceptions to this rule are as follows: graduates of other disciplines who have studied at undergraduate or equivalent level in one or more of the areas in which they hope to work, through their first degrees, through training for the ministry of the churches, and so on; students from overseas universities who have successfully reached a point in their theological studies comparable with completion of a British BA at the standard noted above - for example, on the German model, passing the Zwischenprüfung or Kolloquium and two semesters at the Hauptseminar level.

When applying, please ensure that your two chosen referees send their confidential academic references (using the reference form [Word]) to us in a timely manner. Please note that we are unable to accept ‘open’ references submitted by yourself. The referees may send the references by email directly from their institutional email addresses to [email protected] provided they are signed, or by post to the address provided on the reference form.

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This course focuses on the context and interpretation of biblical and pseudepigraphal texts, along with the study of biblical languages. Durham has a long tradition of outstanding biblical scholarship, providing a wide range of distinctive approaches to biblical studies, including historical, critical and theological.

Course Structure

The Bible and Hermeneutics core module; three option modules; dissertation.
Core Modules:
-The Bible and Hermeneutics
-Dissertation

Optional Modules
Optional Modules in previous years have included:
2-3 choices from:
-Advanced Hebrew Texts
-Advanced Aramaic
-Middle Egyptian
-The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
-Gospels and Canon

Plus up to 1 choice from:
-Paul and his Interpreters
-Patristic Exegesis
-Patristic Ecclesiology
-Christian Northumbria 600-750
-The Anglican Theological Vision
-Classic Texts in Christian Theology
-Liturgy and Sacramentality
-Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
-Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology
-Christian Gender
-Principles of Theological Ethics
-Theology, Ethics and Medicine
-Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
-Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
-Literature and Religion
-Catholic Social Thought
-Ecclesiology and Ethnography
-Doctrine of Creation
-Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry programme
-Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1 – 2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
-30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study)

Learning and Teaching

Most MA teaching is delivered through small group seminars and tutorials. These exemplify and encourage the various skills and practices required for independent scholarly engagement with texts and issues. Teaching in the Department of Theology & Religion is ‘research led’ at both BA and MA levels, but particularly at MA level. Research led teaching is informed by staff research, but more importantly it aims to develop students as independent researchers themselves, able to pursue and explore their own research interests and questions. This is why the independently researched MA dissertation is the culmination of the MA programme. Such engagement with texts and issues is not only an excellent preparation for doctoral research, it also develops those skills of critical analysis, synthesis and presentation sought and required by employers.

Many MA classes will contain a ‘lecture’ element, conveying information and exemplifying an approach to the subject-matter that will enable students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and improve their own ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments. Seminars enhance knowledge and understanding through preparation and interaction with other students and staff, promoting awareness of and respect for different viewpoints and approaches, and developing skills of articulacy, advocacy and interrogation. Through small group discussions and tutorials, feedback is provided on student work, with the opportunity to discuss specific issues in detail, enhancing student knowledge and writing skills.

The Dissertation module includes training in generic research skills, from the use of the Library to issues in referencing and bibliography. The subject specific core module introduces students to questions of interpretation and argument in the disciplines encompassed by theology and religion, and helps them to develop their own interests and questions that will issue in the MA dissertation. The latter is a piece of independent research, but it is fostered and guided through individual tutorials with a supervisor, with whom students meet throughout the academic year.

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This course involves the study of historical and systematic theology across a range of Christian perspectives. Durham has long-established strengths in both Greek and Latin patristics, the medieval Church and Reformation, contemporary Catholic and Anglican theology, theological ethics, and philosophical theology.

Course Structure

Classic Texts in Christian Theology core module, Three option modules, Dissertation.
Core Modules:
-Classic Texts in Christian Theology
-Dissertation

Optional Modules in previous years have included:
2-3 choices from:
-Paul and his Interpreters
-Gospels and Canon
-The Bible and Hermeneutics
-Patristic Exegesis
-Patristic Ecclesiology
-Christian Northumbria 600-750
-The Anglican Theological Vision
-Liturgy and Sacramentality
-Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
-Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology
-Christian Gender
-Principles of Theological Ethics
-Theology, Ethics and Medicine
-Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
-Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
-Literature and Religion
-Catholic Social Thought
-Ecclesiology and Ethnography
-Doctrine of Creation

Plus up to 1 choice from:
-Advanced Hebrew Texts
-Advanced Aramaic
-Middle Egyptian
-Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
-Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry programme
-Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1 – 2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
-30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study)

Learning and Teaching

Most MA teaching is delivered through small group seminars and tutorials. These exemplify and encourage the various skills and practices required for independent scholarly engagement with texts and issues. Teaching in the Department of Theology & Religion is ‘research led’ at both BA and MA levels, but particularly at MA level. Research led teaching is informed by staff research, but more importantly it aims to develop students as independent researchers themselves, able to pursue and explore their own research interests and questions. This is why the independently researched MA dissertation is the culmination of the MA programme. Such engagement with texts and issues is not only an excellent preparation for doctoral research, it also develops those skills of critical analysis, synthesis and presentation sought and required by employers.

Many MA classes will contain a ‘lecture’ element, conveying information and exemplifying an approach to the subject-matter that will enable students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and improve their own ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments. Seminars enhance knowledge and understanding through preparation and interaction with other students and staff, promoting awareness of and respect for different viewpoints and approaches, and developing skills of articulacy, advocacy and interrogation. Through small group discussions and tutorials, feedback is provided on student work, with the opportunity to discuss specific issues in detail, enhancing student knowledge and writing skills.

The Dissertation module includes training in generic research skills, from the use of the Library to issues in referencing and bibliography. The subject specific core module introduces students to questions of interpretation and argument in the disciplines encompassed by theology and religion, and helps them to develop their own interests and questions that will issue in the MA dissertation. The latter is a piece of independent research, but it is fostered and guided through individual tutorials with a supervisor, with whom students meet throughout the academic year.

Other admission requirements

*The two principal exceptions to this rule are as follows: graduates of other disciplines who have studied at undergraduate or equivalent level in one or more of the areas in which they hope to work, through their first degrees, through training for the ministry of the churches, and so on; students from overseas universities who have successfully reached a point in their theological studies comparable with completion of a British BA at the standard noted above - for example, on the German model, passing the Zwischenprüfung or Kolloquium and two semesters at the Hauptseminar level. When applying, please ensure that your two chosen referees send their confidential academic references (using the reference form [Word]) to us in a timely manner. Please note that we are unable to accept ‘open’ references submitted by yourself. The referees may send the references by email directly from their institutional email addresses to [email protected] provided they are signed, or by post to the address provided on the reference form.

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In this course, the focus is on religion in its anthropological and sociological perspectives. Durham has particular strengths in the study of Mormonism; death, dying and disposal; shamanism; religion and emotion; religion/faith and globalisation; religion and politics; contemporary evangelicalism and post-evangelicalism; and religion and generational change. It also boasts the Centre for Death and Life Studies and the Project for Spirituality, Theology and Health.

Course Structure

Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion core module, Three option modules, Dissertation.

Core Modules

-Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religion
-Dissertation

Optional Modules

Optional Modules in previous years have included:
2-3 choices from:
-Ritual, Symbolism and Belief in the Anthropology of Religion
-Theology, Ethics and Medicine
-Literature and Religion
-Christian Northumbria 600-750
-Ecclesiology and Ethnography

Plus up to 1 choice from:
-Advanced Hebrew Texts
-Advanced Aramaic
-Middle Egyptian
-The Bible and Hermeneutics
-The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament
-Paul and his Interpreters
-Gospels and Canon
-Patristic Exegesis
-Patristic Ecclesiology
-The Anglican Theological Vision
-Liturgy and Sacramentality
-Classic Texts in Christian Theology
-Conceiving Change in Contemporary Catholicism
-Christian Gender
-Principles of Theological Ethics
-Catholic Social Thought
-Doctrine of Creation
-Selected modules from the MA in Theology and Ministry programme
-Level 3 undergraduate module, or any Level 1 – 2 language module offered by the Department of Theology and Religion, taken in conjunction with the Extended Study in Theology & Religion module
-30 credits from another Board of Studies (including appropriate credit-bearing language modules offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study)

Learning and Teaching

Most MA teaching is delivered through small group seminars and tutorials. These exemplify and encourage the various skills and practices required for independent scholarly engagement with texts and issues. Teaching in the Department of Theology & Religion is ‘research led’ at both BA and MA levels, but particularly at MA level. Research led teaching is informed by staff research, but more importantly it aims to develop students as independent researchers themselves, able to pursue and explore their own research interests and questions. This is why the independently researched MA dissertation is the culmination of the MA programme. Such engagement with texts and issues is not only an excellent preparation for doctoral research, it also develops those skills of critical analysis, synthesis and presentation sought and required by employers.

Many MA classes will contain a ‘lecture’ element, conveying information and exemplifying an approach to the subject-matter that will enable students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and improve their own ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments. Seminars enhance knowledge and understanding through preparation and interaction with other students and staff, promoting awareness of and respect for different viewpoints and approaches, and developing skills of articulacy, advocacy and interrogation. Through small group discussions and tutorials, feedback is provided on student work, with the opportunity to discuss specific issues in detail, enhancing student knowledge and writing skills.

The Dissertation module includes training in generic research skills, from the use of the Library to issues in referencing and bibliography. The subject specific core module introduces students to questions of interpretation and argument in the disciplines encompassed by theology and religion, and helps them to develop their own interests and questions that will issue in the MA dissertation. The latter is a piece of independent research, but it is fostered and guided through individual tutorials with a supervisor, with whom students meet throughout the academic year.

Other admission requirements

When applying, please ensure that your two chosen referees send their confidential academic references (using the reference form [Word]) to us in a timely manner. Please note that we are unable to accept ‘open’ references submitted by yourself. The referees may send the references by email directly from their institutional email addresses to [email protected] provided they are signed, or by post to the address provided on the reference form.

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Why take this course?

The Master of Architecture provides a vibrant, challenging and expansive programme aimed at equipping you with the professional and creative skills for a successful career as an architect and leads to Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Part 2 exemption. Through the design studios you will be exposed to a range of related architectural interests, including urbanism, landscape, practice, sustainability and culture, providing a cross-disciplinary learning environment that is appropriate in today’s professionally complex architectural world. We can also provide all incoming, full-time MArch students with funding toward a Course field trip.

What will I experience?

On this course you will undertake studio-based design projects, with opportunities to:

Engage with current collaborative projects with academic institutions in other countries – in the past these have included Turkey, Spain, Denmark and Australia
Work on projects with 'live' clients through our RIBA registered Project Office practice
Opt to study at a choice of European universities through the ERASMUS exchange scheme

What opportunities might it lead to?

This course is professionally accredited by the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). It is structured to ensure the integration and synthesis of contextual, technical and professional complexities inherent within the design process, helping you to engage with the prescribed ARB/RIBA criteria, and attain RIBA Part 2 exemption.

Module Details

The design curriculum is delivered through studios, each having a distinct research topic relating to the research and practice of the studio tutors. The studio topics and pedagogy provide a framework and guidance for student projects in Year One and support in Year Two as you develop your particular thesis questions into design propositions. Studios topics change annually in response to current issues in practice and society, challenging the architectural profession, and offering variety in scale,content and context in the UK and abroad.

Please see our proposed 2016/17 MArch studios below. You can find more information on our course blog and see output in our MArch Gallery.

MArch Studios 2016-17*

Latent Culture- Exploring the Reading, Mapping and Making of Place: Mapping, reading and drawing out, Studio 1 will explore cartography, archaeology, memory, narrative and material of place. Through a series of thematic studies – text and making based – the studio will bring together an understanding of place using artefacts, films, maps and narratives.

Littoral Landscapes: Change Labs for Coastal Experimentation: This studio will experiment with the ‘seeds’ of transformation, focussing on littoral landscapes – coastal villages, towns and cities in the UK and abroad. The studio is the Lab, the seeds are about speculation, growth, invention and entrepreneurialism - small changes which can lead to revolutions.

Urban Futures. Cities constantly change in response to changes in society: Today, major environmental and economic challenges we are facing require new models for the built environment that are capable to be resource efficient, adaptable to environmental modifications and designed to facilitate placemaking.

The Emergent Studio: Architecture of, on and around the Edge: The Emergent Studio explores the idea of making architecture within cultural contexts that are not ‘our own’; always in a location that in some way exemplifies an edge condition. Our theoretical platform for exploring these conditions has been, and continues to be, rooted within phenomenology, drawing from the writings of the humane Nordic modernist tradition, in informing our methodologies of interrogation and design.

Portsmouth: The Anatomy of "The Island City”: This studio continues our reflections on Portsmouth's response to climate change induced rise in sea levels adding an analysis of infrastructures and their impact on developing Urban & Architectural visions for the city.

Tactical Urbanism: Tactical Urbanism will investigate, in a radical and provocative way, how a university environment will change in the future and create alternative and hypothetical social scenarios as starting point for your design project. The aim is not to create a futuristic environment but to challenge the current paradigms and try to address the real problems and issues that our society will face in a near 2050 future.

Coastal Latent Dynamics: Material Voids: This new studio will frame the architectural process, starting with a close up of the Micro (the detail, the material qualities of place, prototyping), continuing to a wide shot of the Macro (the notion of municipality in a coastal context) and then zooming into the Meso (dealing with the opportunities of voids, empty buildings and their environs).

*Please note: studio offers may change due to staff and student numbers.

Programme Assessment

You will be taught through a combination of individual and group tutorials in your selected studio, while year-wide units are lecture-based, complemented by seminars and workshops. Our studio-teaching method will mean that you will be working with tutors with professional and academic experience in their field and all unit programmes are complemented by contributions from external professionals.

Studio programmes will often entail shared sessions with European and, sometimes, other overseas institutions, in countries such as Denmark, Turkey, Morocco, Italy and Spain. Representatives of local public and private bodies and agencies frequently contribute to studio tutorials and crits. All this helps to ensure that your learning and studio research outputs can have regional impact and global reach.

Design assessment is through studio review (crit) as work progresses and portfolio assessment at the end of the academic year. ‘Taught’ units, in support of the design curriculum, are assessed through various forms of illustrated written coursework – both individual and group, such as reports and the Dissertation.

Student Destinations

Careers in architecture are demanding ever-increasing specialism and professional competence.

The unique learning experience we offer on this course will enable you to develop as an expansive, creative and professional individual capable of success in a range of creative and professional environments. The breadth of engagement with the discipline and range of studios ensures that you will become confident in responding to the demands of the profession. The regional, national and international destinations of the School’s alumni are testament to this, as are our graduate employment take-up statistics.

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About the course

You’ll develop skills in textual and theoretical interrogation of narrative film, in both popular and art cinema. Close textual analysis of the moving image is supplemented by a range of optional national cinema studies, including Australian cinema and British visual culture. You’ll complete one core module, optional modules and a dissertation.

Your career

You’ll examine early modern texts, language and culture. Staff expertise includes palaeography, rhetoric, news writing, the sermon, drama, and issues of political, sectarian and national identity between 1400 and 1700. Modules (including modules from History) can be tailored to suit your interests. You’ll complete one core module, optional modules and a dissertation.

Cultural life

There is always something going on, and there are plenty of chances to get involved. We have extensive links with arts and heritage organisations including Arts Council England and Sheffield Theatres. Recent poetry readings featured Carol Ann Duffy and Ciaran Carson. Our Arts/Science Encounters events bring together musicians, writers, architects and academics to explore ideas. The English Society, run by our students, organises theatre trips, guest lectures, and seminars. Students also get the chance to take part in drama and readings.

First-rate facilities

We’re based in a brand new building at the heart of the campus. There are computer workstations especially for postgraduates and a DVD library with viewing facilities. Our theatre workshop is a fully equipped teaching/performance area with excellent film-viewing facilities and audio suites.

Specialist resources

The University Library subscribes to the major periodicals and full-text electronic archives, including Early English Books Online and Eighteenth-Century Collections Online. Special collections include an outstanding collection of Restoration drama, the Hope Collection of eighteenth-century periodicals, the Jack Rosenthal scripts collection, and papers of contemporary writers such as Anita Brookner, Marina Warner, Fay Weldon and Peter Redgrove.

Funding

There are a number of studentships and fee bursaries available, funded by the University. Deadlines for funding applications are usually in winter/early spring. For details, see our website.

Research training for PhD

If you intend to progress to a PhD, your course can be tailored to include essential research training. The same applies to students on the online course.

Part-time study

Part-time students usually take one taught module in each semester. In the second year, you’ll also take a dissertation module. For most courses, you’ll need to come in for one half-day per week. The MA Creative Writing is taught in the evening. Some modules, such as Theatre and Performance, may require greater time commitment. We try to be as flexible as possible to accommodate the different needs of our students.

Examples of optional modules

Modules may include: Analysis of Film; Approaches to the American Gothic (spring semester); Postwar British Drama, Film and Television.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching is by seminars. You’ll be assessed on your essays, coursework and a 15,000-word dissertation.

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The new Joint Erasmus Mundus programme in Flood Risk Management integrates the complementary topics of global changes and monitoring natural processes, modelling their behavior and interaction, formulating the decisions based on interrogation of these integrated models and implementing these decisions in the context of socio-economic and institutional framework.

The subjects covered include hydrology, meteorology, monitoring, hydroinformatics, modelling, various types of flooding (fluvial, urban and coastal), risk management, spatial planning and socio-economic and institutional framework.

The Erasmus Mundus Programme in Flood Risk Management is offered by a consortium consisting of:

•IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (the Netherlands)
•Technical University of Dresden (Germany)
•Technical University of Catalonia (Spain)
•University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

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The traditional military threats which defined global security matters for the best part of the 20th century have been quickly replaced by new and re-emerging security challenges. This programme offers you the opportunity to examine many of these contemporary threats..

Why this programme

◾You will develop your knowledge of the security challenges impacting our rapidly changing social and political environment at a local, national and global level. These range from terrorism and cyber warfare to disease, migration and climate change.
◾You can combine a broad spectrum of subject areas into your degree, including politics, sociology, Central & East European studies, war studies, archaeology, computing science, geography, law, business and education.
◾You will have the opportunity to take part in policy development exercises: working with government officials and policy-makers to simulate the process of responding to major international security crises.
◾The programme will also include a series of master classes from high profile professionals and academics working in the field of security.

Programme structure

You will take four core and selection of optional courses. You will also complete a dissertation as a piece of independent research. In addition to the general degree programme, you have the opportunity to study one of three specialised pathways.

Core courses
◾Comparative approaches to warfare and violent conflict
◾International security and global politics
◾Research design OR Qualitative methods
◾Thematic issues in global security.

Optional courses

Pathways

Cyber security and intelligence

Provides you with the opportunity to examine how cyber issues and information communications technologies challenge the way states and citizens alike attempt to use and constrain information in a range of societies for security purposes. Specialised courses within this pathway include
◾Human-centred security
◾Information systems and databases
◾Systems and networks.

Social and cultural perspectives (not running in 2017-18)

Provides you with the opportunity to examine global security from a critical perspective, reflecting on social and cultural aspects and constructions of 'security'. Important to this pathway will be an interrogation of the relationship between security, vulnerability and the ethics of care. Specialised courses within this pathway include:
◾Critical perspectives on securities and vulnerabilities
◾A range of related optional courses.

Strategy and defence

Provides you with the opportunity to examine shifts in Western strategic thought in both a historical and contemporary setting. Particular attention will be given to how strategy and defence is currently developing within a new interdependent global context. Specialised courses within this pathway include
◾Comparative approaches to warfare and violent conflict
◾The American way of war: from Revolution to the War on Terror
◾A range of related optional courses.

Career prospects

You can move into careers such as working with governmental and non-governmental organisations, business and international/transnational organisations. Recent graduates have gone on to work for the BBC, the United Nations, the UK armed forces, a US based research agency and UK based private security and risk analysis companies. Others have gone to undertake a PhD.

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Introduction

MA Fine Art determines and challenges the boundaries of art while locating theory at the centre of practice. In a dynamic learning culture that celebrates diverse backgrounds and ambitions, you’ll develop a critical art practice that will shape your career as an international artist. The MA Fine Art studios are located in an independent building in Archway, so the course offer allows students a self contained studio building facilitating their independent working practices and self-organisation alongside all the benefits of the King's Cross campus.

Content

Synergies in our Fine Art Programme - incorporating BA Fine Art, MA Fine Art, MA Photography, MA Art and Science, MRes Art: Exhibition Studies, MRes Art: Moving Image, and MRes Art: Theory and Philosophy - create a dynamic context for exploring practices and issues within contemporary culture.

In its extended full-time mode MA Fine Art gives you the flexibility to access London's richly varied opportunities for work and study while maximising your personal and professional development.

MA Fine Art provides an extensive final unit of 120 credits (45 weeks) enabling continuous development and realisation of a significant programme of work.

MA Fine Art supports and is shaped by:

Diversity of professional directions, aspirations and cultural perspectives

Reflective research-based practice including writing as practice in fine art

An interrogation of what informs making and how making generates knowledge

Independent study and practice and critical reflection on definitions of art and its potential within social space

Exploration of the parameters of contemporary art, building on knowledge of the contexts and frameworks of practice

Dialogue to determine the conditions of possibility for contemporary art.

Structure

MA Fine Art lasts 60 weeks structured as two consecutive periods of 30 weeks each (i.e. two academic years) in its 'extended full-time mode.'

MA Fine Art is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises 3 units. Unit 1 (40 credits) and Unit 2 (20 credits) run concurrently and last 15 weeks. Unit 3 (120 credits) follows after the completion of Units 1 and 2 and runs for 45 weeks.

Students successfully achieving Units 1 and 2 may exit at this point with the award of Postgraduate Certificate.

All three units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from the mark for Unit 3 only.

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MA Communication Design is currently undergoing a name change to become MA Graphic Communication Design. If you are a prospective student, you will be applying to MA Graphic Communication Design with an updated curriculum.

Introduction

Graphic Communication Design is the carrier signal for the twenty-first century. MA Communication Design at Central Saint Martins brings together design-led and research driven approaches to an increasingly important practice and field of study. We take a critically informed and widely experimental approach to the production, form, and circulation of knowledge. We facilitate our students to become versatile makers, astute commentators, and positive agents of socio-economic, cultural, and technological change.

Content

In 1964, Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan famously flattened the distinction between ‘medium’ and ‘message’ and our understanding of communication has never been the same since. In the same year, British designer Ken Garland published the first version of the 'First Things First Manifesto' in which he challenged a new generation of graphic designers to reclaim purpose and meaning. Fifty years later, the time has come to more fully integrate and thus amplify these two powerful proclamations.

As the 'operating system of the 21st century', communication design touches every sphere of human and political interest, impacting profoundly on culture, technology, social justice, economics, the built environment, globalisation, policy, sustainability and much more. MA Communication Design promotes a shared exploration of an ever-changing subject whilst encouraging and supporting the development of individually negotiated projects.

Unit 1: Shared Language

This unit acts as an induction into the college and the subject. You will participate in a range of taught coursework including design briefs, workshop introductions, and history and theory lectures.

Unit 2: Communication question

The emphasis of this unit is interrogation of both your practice and the broader field. Tutorials and critiques focus on continuing your development of a well-contextualized body of written and visual outcomes.

Structure

MA Communication Design is offered in a two-year, 60-week, extended full-time (EFT) mode.

MA Communication Design is credit-rated at 180 credits, and comprises two units:

Unit 1 (60 credits) lasts 20 weeks and includes a range of taught coursework

Unit 2 (120 credits) lasts for 40 weeks, from term 3 in year one, and contains regular formative assessment opportunities.

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