Masters Degrees in Caribbean Society & Culture

This MSc provides a detailed and systematic understanding of the international relations of the Americas, with regard both to inter-American relations and relations with the world beyond. The programme’s graduates have established careers in research, journalism, teaching and policy formulation and implementation in both government agencies and NGOs.

Degree information

This programme, which is unique in the UK, introduces students to skills essential for the analytical study of the international relations of the Americas and assessment of the hemispherical and global issues currently facing foreign policymakers in the nation states of the Americas.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of three core module (45 credits), three optional modules (45 credits) and a dissertation (90 credits). Please note: all option modules are subject to availability.

Core modules
-International Politics of Latin America
-Post-Cold War US Foreign Policy
-Either Researching the Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean
OR
-Researching the Americas: The United States

Optional modules - students choose three option modules from a selection that includes the following:
-Politics of US Foreign Policy
-The Politics of Human Rights in Latin America
-US Presidents and the Presidency
-The Making of Modern Latin America: History, Politics and Society
-Latin American Economics: Beyond Neoliberalism
-The Culture Wars: Arenas and Issues in Contemporary US Political Conflict
-Confronting the Colossus: US Anti-Imperialism, 1945-present
-Money and Politics in Latin America
-Latin American Political Economy
-Histories of Exclusion: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
-Key Economic Thinkers of Latin America
-Democratization in Latin America
-Social and Economic Development of Contemporary Brazil
-Race and US Foreign Policy

Students may choose elective modules up to a maximum of 30 credits from other UCL departments or University of London colleges, subject to the Programme Director's approval.

Dissertation/report
All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 15,000 words (90 credits).

Teaching and learning
The programme is delivered through a combination of seminars, lectures, presentations, independent reading and research. Assessment is through written assignments including essays and primary source analysis, and a dissertation.

Fieldwork
Many of our Master's students undertake fieldwork in order to carry out research for their dissertation projects. There may be travel costs associated with fieldwork. The institute has limited funds available to students to help towards the costs of fieldwork. These funds are awarded on a competitive basis on the criteria of academic performance to date, the quality of the research proposal and the importance of fieldwork for completing the research.

Careers

Graduates of this programme are well placed to use their skills and knowledge to find employment in government, business, journalism, finance and international NGOs, teaching, or for further research in this field.

Employability
This MSc enhances employability for those interested in careers in the diplomatic service, think tanks, journalism, and business with Americas markets.

Why study this degree at UCL?

The UCL Institute of the Americas occupies a unique position at the core of academic study of the region in the UK, promoting, co-ordinating and providing a focus for research and postgraduate teaching on the Americas - Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.

The institute actively maintains and builds ties with cultural, diplomatic and business organisations with interests in the Americas, and provides resources to the wider academic community, serving and strengthening national networks of North Americanist, Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist scholars.

Students benefit from tuition by world-leading scholars in an academic environment at the cutting-edge of research in the humanities and social sciences.

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The Research Master’s Latin American Studies at Leiden University is a unique and multi-disciplinary two-year programme, that focuses on the topic ‘Latin American Modernities: Resistance, Revival and Change’. It addresses cutting-edge debates around key social, cultural and historical themes in the Latin American and the Caribbean region.

Visit the website: http://en.mastersinleiden.nl/programmes/latin-american-studies-research/en/introduction

Course detail

The appearance of multiple modernities in Latin America is rooted in historical and ongoing experiences and traumas of colonialism, nation building, and the neoliberal trend across the different countries of the region. These modernities are visible in the identities and cultural manifestations of Latin Americans.

Format

You will study the different forms through which modernity is imagined and implemented in Latin America. During the programme you will deepen your knowledge on diverse current issues in the field of modern history and literature, as well as in the social sciences, ethnographic and discourse analysis methods.

During the programme you will focus on culture and identity, state-society relations and literature, arts and media. This research master’s trains you to take a critical view of developments in these fields of study.

Why choose Latin American (research) at Leiden University?

- Join us in an international environment with staff members and students from all over the world, including Latin America and Europe.
Learn from a dedicated team of active researchers in the field of Latin American Studies, who provide constant support throughout the programme.

- Carry out your own research project on Latin American Modernities in a country of your choice. Staff members of the programme are in close contact with different universities and research institutes throughout the region.

- Acquire an outstanding qualification and the foundation for a wide range of future careers or carry out further research work on a PhD programme.

- Benefit from the broad network of active contacts throughout Latin America, established by our staff members.

- Immerse yourself in the current reality of Latin America through Spanish-taught lectures. A substantial part of the programme is taught in Spanish, while some courses can be in English. You can choose to write your papers and thesis in Spanish, English or Portuguese.

Careers

Upon graduation, you will be well-equipped for conducting independent research at a high academic level. As a graduate of a two-year research master’s degree you are qualified to work as a junior academic researcher in an academic environment or carry out further research work on a PhD programme. However, there are various other highly-rewarding career options available.

The experience and knowledge you acquire carrying out independent research in the area makes you an attractive candidate for a position at specialised state agencies, ministries, development organisations, NGOs, European companies which operate in Latin America or the Caribbean, or as a junior lecturer at any of the universities that provide related programmes.

Positions you could hold after your studies:

- Communication specialist at Driscoll’s, an international concern dealing in fruit
- Teacher of Spanish at a university of professional education
- Freelance fundraiser/client relationship manager
- HR Management Trainee for Unilever
- Mobility Consultant at Crown Worldwide, an international removals company
- Project Officer at the Expertise Centre for Literary Translations
- Sales Manager for a travel agency
- Translator/administrative officer at an embassy
- Supervisor, South America Team at Riksja Travel, a travel agency
- Economic Policy Officer at the Dutch Embassy in Brazil

How to apply: http://en.mastersinleiden.nl/arrange/admission

Funding

For information regarding funding, please visit the website: http://prospectivestudents.leiden.edu/scholarships

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This degree offers the possibility of following advanced study in the histories of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American cultures in the light of contemporary theoretical developments in the fields of literature, cultural studies, cultural geography, film and the history of art and media. You may specialise in either Spain and Portugal or Latin America, as well as in different historical periods and media, or combine interests.

Birkbeck is a world-renowned centre of Iberian and Latin American Studies. Our work is distinguished by its innovative character, its engagement with other disciplines and its challenge to received ideas. We are committed to a continual rethinking of the fields we research and the subjects we teach, creatively and critically.

We are also known for our unique student population, including a high number of Spanish and Latin American undergraduates and postgraduates. This brings a particular richness and variety of experience and knowledge to our courses and seminars.

Our international staff specialise in diverse aspects of cultural history and critique, with a strong emphasis not only on the literary and linguistic but also the audiovisual expression of Latin America and the Iberian peninsula past and present.

Why study this course at Birkbeck?

Can be taken as a first step to doctoral research, to enhance your career prospects or simply for interest.
Our School of Arts is one of the best centres of Iberian and Latin American studies in the country.
Our work is distinguished by its innovative character, its engagement with other disciplines and its challenge to received ideas.
The department hosts the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS), offering a unique environment in which to undertake collaborative, cross-disciplinary and comparative research on visual subjects in the Hispanic and Lusophone world, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The School has achieved notable success in obtaining external funding for research. In addition we have an excellent team of research students (just over 20 at present), several of whom attend MA modules out of interest, ensuring a high level of intellectual discussion and allowing you to benefit from being part of a lively postgraduate community. You are in turn welcome to attend Research Seminars and the Postgraduate Conference, as well as all talks and conferences organised by the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS). As about a third of our students come from Spain, Portugal or Latin America, you also have easy access to native speakers of Spanish and Portuguese, socially as well as academically.
Postgraduate research seminars are held throughout the year, offering a stimulating forum for discussion among our research students, MA/MRes students, staff and invited speakers.
We offer a lively student experience, as well as student support and facilities.

Our research

Birkbeck is one of the world’s leading research-intensive institutions. Our cutting-edge scholarship informs public policy, achieves scientific advances, supports the economy, promotes culture and the arts, and makes a positive difference to society.

Birkbeck’s research excellence was confirmed in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, which placed Birkbeck 30th in the UK for research, with 73% of our research rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), Modern Languages and Linguistics achieved 100% for a research environment conducive to producing research of the highest quality, while 73% of our research was recognised as world-leading or internationally excellent.

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The MA Postcolonial Studies Programme offers a focus on the historical relationships of power, domination and practices of imperialism and colonialism in the modern period (late nineteenth-century to the present) through the study of literature and culture.

The core module will introduce a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the literature, film and media of these areas. A range of literary, filmic and theoretical texts from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Near and Middle East will normally be included in the reading list. These will address representations of colonialism and decolonisation, neo-colonialism, nationalism in postcolonial societies and diasporic experiences, allowing us to explore the heterogeneous meanings, intersections and strategies of analysis that have emerged with reference to postcolonial studies.

Attention will be paid to colonial and postcolonial constructs such as: the Oriental, the Global, the Cosmopolitan, the Third World and the multicultural. The core module of the programme introduces and analyses interdisciplinary theories and ideological practices around a set of historical and current issues from various regions of Asia and Africa. The range of minors offers students more opportunities to explore interdisciplinarity and regional specificities.

Why this programme is special at SOAS

Postcolonial MA Programmes offered in London and other UK institutions are located within the field of English Studies or the Social Sciences. The Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) is uniquely positioned to offer an inter-disciplinary Postcolonial Studies MA programme which gives students an opportunity to understand and negotiate the field of postcolonial studies with recourse to interdisciplinarity and to theoretical explications from the regions of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. SOAS offers a unique range of regional expertise available amongst the CCLPS’s faculty membership. The Programme also offers a timely intervention at a time when there is a national and international crisis in the understanding of multiculturalism, race relations and religious and national affiliations.

Visit the website http://www.soas.ac.uk/cclps/degrees/mapostcolstud/

Programme Specification

MA Postcolonial Studies Programme Specifications 2012-13 (pdf; 39kb) - http://www.soas.ac.uk/cclps/degrees/mapostcolstud/file68679.pdf

Employment

MA Post Colonial Studies graduates gain competency in intercultural awareness and understanding. Familiarity with the subject wiill be developed through the study of literature, film and media of these areas. Graduates leave SOAS with a portfolio of widely transferable skills which employers seek in many professional and management careers, both in business and in the public sector. These include:written and oral communication skills; attention to detail; analytical and problem-solving skills; and the ability to research, amass and order information from a variety of sources. A postgraduate degree is a valuable experience that provides students with a body of work and a diverse range of skills that they can use to market themselves with when they graduate.

For more information about Graduate Destinations from this department, please visit the Careers Service website (http://www.soas.ac.uk/careers/graduate-destinations/).

Faculty of Languages and Cultures

Six of the academic departments are devoted to teaching and research in the languages, literatures and cultures of Africa, China and Inner Asia, Japan and Korea, the Near and Middle East, South Asia, and South East Asia, with the seventh teaching and conducting research in Linguistics. The Language Centre caters to the needs of non-degree students and governmental and non-governmental organisations. It maintains a huge portfolio of courses, including year-long diploma programmes, weekly evening classes in about 40 different African and Asian languages, and tailored intensive one-to-one courses. The Language Centre also offers courses in French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Their teaching is in three main areas:
- language competence acquisition;
- textual and cultural studies - both comparative and language-specific, and covering not only 'literature' in a strict sense but also visual media, performance, folklore, translation etc.;
- language studies with linguistics at its core - including the prestigious Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project.

The Faculty is also home to the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) (http://www.soas.ac.uk/cclps/).

While SOAS as a whole represents the most substantial concentration in the Western world of expertise dedicated to African, Middle Eastern and Asian studies, the Faculty of Languages and Cultures is heavily committed to teaching and research grounded in a knowledge of the principal languages and cultures of two thirds of humankind.

Find out how to apply here - http://www.soas.ac.uk/admissions/pg/howtoapply/

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This is a trans-disciplinary Masters that builds expertise in understanding the role played by the cultural sector (arts, theatres, heritage etc) in developing and managing tourism and hospitality as major engines of growth, regeneration and job creation in the 21st century- http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-tourism-cultural-policy/

The programme offers the possibility of engagement with the study of the cultural sector in developing and managing tourism and hospitality.

Cultural policies designed to support the arts sectors to enhance high value added tourism and to increase lengths of stay and repeat visits are increasingly being adopted by governments worldwide with the support of the tourism and hospitality sector.

This degree applies to those wishing to work in the arts and tourism sectors or perhaps in galleries and theatres associated with the hospitality sector. It is also for art practitioners and cultural professionals who wish to develop careers involving cultural tourism, cultural policy, culture-led regeneration and destination, city and country branding. It is also relevant to work in NGOs or the cultural policy arms of government and intra-governmental organisations and consultancies.

Specialists from academia and industry

The MA is run by the Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) and is designed for students from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. It is taught by specialists from academia and industry, ensuring a high level synthesis of practice based knowledge and cutting edge research. Both the staff and student body at ICCE have extensive international experience, enhancing peer-to-peer learning and providing an excellent base for networking and gaining contacts worldwide.

Study in London

Studying the role of culture in tourism in a London setting is a unique experience, providing access to some of the world’s most renowned culture and event led regeneration projects that include the legacy of the London Olympics and many other major projects. ICCE also has links with an extensive network of organisations, businesses, policy advisors, consultancies and cultural practitioners that provide exceptional research and study opportunities, such as Creative England, Tourism Concern and visitbritain.org.

Tailor your interests

The Masters is flexible and you can tailor your interests by choosing options from other departments across the College, including Anthropology, Sociology, the Centre for Cultural Studies, Politics, English and Comparative Literature, Educational Studies, Media and Communications, Computing and the Confucius Institute for Dance and Performance.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact ICCE.

Modules & Structure

Core modules:
Cultural Policy and Practice- 30 credits
Cultural and Creative Tourism- 30 credits
Culture, Tourism and Regeneration- 30 credits

Option modules:
Entrepreneurial Modelling- 30 credits
Enterprising Leadership: An Introduction to the Discourse of Contemporary Leader- 30 credits
Interpretation, Education and Communication in the Art Museum- 30 credits

Option modules available from other departments:
In addition to the option modules available within ICCE, you can also opt to take 30 CAT modules from other departments within Goldsmiths.

Anthropology:
-Anthropological Perspectives on Tourism
-Critical Voices in Development
-Borders, Migrants, and the National Imaginary
-Anthropology and Cultural Politics
-Anthropology of Art
-Social Anthropology of the Caribbean

Sociology:
-Urban Cultural Policy and City Branding:

Politics:
-Global Political Cultures 1: Knowledge, Power, Culture
-Global Political Cultures 2: Body, Gender, Politics
-Theories of International Relations

Centre for Cultural Studies:
-Globalisation: Policy, Politics, Critique

English and Comparative Literature:
-Global English
-and other modules to be confirmed

Educational Studies:
-Spaces of Practice (in association with the Whitechaple and Showroom Galleries)
-Culture, Language and Identity in Education
-Race and Education
-Masculinities, Femininities and Identities in Education
-and other modules to be confirmed

Media & Communications:
-Race, Empire and Nation
-Structure of Contemporary Political Communications

Computing:
-Social Media Campaigning (tbc)

Confucius Institute for Dance and Performance:
-Chinese Language

Funding

Please visit http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/fees-funding/ for details.

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This MA offers students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the diverse societies of both the South American continent and the Caribbean from a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective. The programme’s graduates have established careers in research, journalism, teaching and policy formulation and implementation in both government agencies and NGOs.

Degree information

Students will gain a broad empirical knowledge of the diverse societies of Latin America and the Caribbean from the perspective of at least two disciplines, together with an awareness of the general patterns of differences and commonalities in the histories, politics, economies and cultures of the different linguistic territories of the region.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of two core modules (30 credits), four optional modules (60 credits), and the research dissertation (90 credits). Please note: All option modules are subject to availability.

Core modules
-The Caribbean from the Haitian Revolution to the Cuban Revolution
-Researching the Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean

Optional modules - students choose four option modules from a selection that includes the following:
-Democratisation in Latin America
-Histories of Exclusion: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
-The International Politics of Latin America
-Key Economic Thinkers of Latin America
-Latin American Economies: Beyond Neoliberalism
-Latin American Political Economy
-The Making of Modern Latin America: History, Politics and Society
-Money and Politics in Latin America
-The Politics of Human Rights in Latin America: Transitional Justice
-Politics, Society and Development in the Modern Caribbean
-Society and Development in Latin America
-Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean
-Latin American Economics: Beyond Neoliberalism
-Environmental Issues, Movements and Policies in the Americas
-International Politics of Latin America
-From Silver to Cocaine
-Social and Economic Development of Contemporary Brazil
-State and Society in Latin America: Ethnographic Perspectives
-The Latin American City: Social Problems and Social Change in Urban Space

Students may choose elective modules up to a maximum of 30 credits from other UCL departments or University of London colleges, subject to the Programme Director's approval.

Dissertation/report
All students write a dissertation of 15,000 words (90 credits) on a topic relating to the Caribbean, or Latin America and the Caribbean.

Teaching and learning
The programme is delivered through a combination of seminars, lectures, presentations, independent reading and research. Assessment is through varied assignments including essays, an oral presentation and the dissertation.

Fieldwork
Many of our Master's students undertake fieldwork in order to carry out research for their dissertation projects.
There may be travel costs associated with fieldwork. The institute has limited funds available to students to help towards the costs of fieldwork. These funds are awarded on a competitive basis on the criteria of academic performance to date, the quality of the research proposal and the importance of fieldwork for completing the research.

Careers

Graduates of this programme will be well placed to use their skills and knowledge to find employment in government, business, journalism, finance and international NGOs, teaching, or for further research in this field.

Employability
Students will have excellent opportunities to expand professional networks enhancing their future employability. Through Institute staff members' extensive contacts in the region, and through meeting those interested professionals who participate in the institute's extremely active events programme, students will meet potential colleagues in government and the diplomatic service, development agencies and the international NGO community, business and finance, and print and electronic media. On the basis of such contacts, recent graduates have found employment in government (Foreign & Commonwealth Office), NGOs (Amnesty International, Caritas) and political risk-analysis firms, while others have undertaken PhD research.

Why study this degree at UCL?

The Institute of the Americas occupies a unique position at the core of academic study of the region in the UK, promoting, co-ordinating and providing a focus for research and postgraduate teaching on the Americas, including Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.

The institute actively maintains and builds ties with cultural, diplomatic and business organisations with interests in the Americas, and provides resources to the wider academic community, serving and strengthening national networks of North Americanist, Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist scholars.

Students benefit from tuition by world-leading scholars in an academic environment at the cutting-edge of research in the humanities and social sciences.

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Our Centre’s aim is to stimulate teaching and research on the Caribbean, helping you to develop your awareness of the region and of its historically interdependent linkages with Britain and the world. We encourage the study of the Caribbean in an Atlantic context, emphasising African, North and South American, Asian and European influences from a comparative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective.

The Centre is an umbrella unit of academics drawn from different departments. If you are writing Caribbean dissertations supervised by these academics, you may be registered at the Centre or in the departments of the respective academics.

Research Areas

Current areas of research expertise are: Slavery and empire in the 18th and 19th centuries; Caribbean maritime worlds and networks; white identities; Caribbean writing in French and Spanish; postcolonial Caribbean texts; pre-1900 English Caribbean literatures; women's writing and feminist theory; disaster law and culture; slavery and law; the Haitian Revolution; postcolonial studies, world literature, literary and cultural theory; gender and slavery; enslaved runaways and maroons. Students will be supervised by faculty members with expertise in these areas.

Regular term-time seminars in Caribbean Studies and Comparative Caribbean Literatures are run within the Faculty of Arts, and form a compulsory element of our research degrees.

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Our Centre’s aim is to stimulate teaching and research on the Caribbean, helping you to develop your awareness of the region and of its historically interdependent linkages with Britain and the world. We encourage the study of the Caribbean in an Atlantic context, emphasising African, North and South American, Asian and European influences from a comparative, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective.

The Centre is an umbrella unit of academics drawn from different departments. If you are writing Caribbean dissertations supervised by these academics, you may be registered at the Centre or in the departments of the respective academics.

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The United States remains the most powerful nation in the world, in terms of its economic, military and cultural influence. A glance around us will reveal the enduring appeal and enormous popularity of things American.

This degree will offer you an exciting as well as sophisticated programme which will encourage you to reflect critically upon the predominance of the United States over the last century or so in political, cultural, historical and literary terms and contexts. As a result, you will reflect on the unique status of American Studies as a truly inter-disciplinary subject area.

Course detail

This degree offers a tightly integrated programme with a selection of modules that will enrich your research methods and approaches in the American Studies subject-area. Whilst concentrating on the core aspects of American Studies you will be encouraged to pursue your research through avenues of related subjects (History, Literature and Film) forming a holistic, yet inter-disciplinary, approach. The modules offered emphasise a cross-fertilisation of subject areas, promoting an international perspective towards America, such as global concerns and transnational considerations, thus shifting from the original constructs of America, ‘American uniqueness’ and ‘exceptionalism’ (Brian Edwards, Globalising American Studies, 2010).

This programme is, therefore, well-suited to those students who prefer diversity to the narrower focus of a single-subject Master’s degree.

The suite of taught modules have been carefully constructed to take you on a series of journeys - from a discussion of American Studies itself as an approach, and then from the immediate localities, regions and borders of the United States, to the wider national and international settings. This will offer multi-perspective interpretations of the United States, internally, with its neighbours and with the rest of the world.

You will engage in an inter-connected sequence of debates which will lead you to a greater understanding of the complexity of the United States as a cultural construct as well as a geographical and political entity.

Format

American Studies has a historical, literary, cultural and evidence-based approach which requires wide, critical reading and intelligent synthesis of ideas and information. It requires you to construct arguments in writing. You will receive critical and constructive comments on your progress as an integral part of teaching and learning, through individual meetings with tutors, feedback on written work or specific coursework tutorials.

We place importance on presentations so, as a transferable skill, you will present seminar papers extensively throughout the course of your modules. These will be used as a basis for feedback and will then feed into your written work. These exercises will develop your critical abilities as well as widen your familiarity with, and confidence in handling, a range of sources, preparing you for the modules’ summative assessment stage, and the final dissertation.

This programme places a strong emphasis on the development of independent research and writing. The programme’s assessment strategies are designed to develop independent research skills; the ability to structure and write a sophisticated critical essay and longer academic monographs, and the opportunity to pursue your own intellectual interests within each module’s thematic scope.

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please see the following link:
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/how-to-apply/

Other sources of funding

Information on alternative sources of funding can be found here:
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/student-services/money/funding-my-course/postgraduate-/postgraduate-funding-/

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The MA by Research in American Studies gives you an opportunity to develop your research interests in the history, politics, literature and/or culture of the United States in a supportive environment, with the guidance of a supervisor who is an expert in their field. At CCCU, we have a small team of experienced American Studies MA by Research supervisors who are committed to supporting research students to reach their potential.

Visit the website: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/courses/postgraduate/american-studies-by-research.aspx

Course detail

You will study your own research area under the guidance of an experienced supervisor in your field. We recommend that you contact potential supervisors when you are developing your research proposal so that we can advise you on the feasibility of your project and provide support and guidance through the application process.

Suitability

The programme is aimed at both recent graduates and returners to education who are passionate about a research area related to the United States. If you enjoyed researching and writing your undergraduate dissertation, have a desire to expand your knowledge of a US topic that has sparked your interest, or you want to pursue an established interest through a formal degree, then an MA by Research in American Studies may be for you.

Students who complete an MA by Research often go on to MPhil or PhD study in American Studies or a related discipline, such as History, Political Science, or English Literature.

Format

The emphasis of this programme is on independent research. That said, you will have regular meetings with your supervisor, and you will have the opportunity to attend sessions with the Graduate School’s Researcher Development Programme.

All supervisory teams will include access to an experienced supervisor. For information on our supervisors’ fields of interest, please see our staff profiles: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-humanities/school-of-humanities/american-studies/our-team.aspx

You will also be invited to attend the regular American Studies Research Seminar—a guest speaker programme—which will allow you to network with academics in the field, and hear about some of the cutting edge research taking place in American Studies both in the UK and Internationally.

Assessment

The MA by Research is awarded by dissertation.

Supervised by a panel of experienced researchers, you'll meet regularly with your first supervisor and present your work in progress to the full panel halfway through your registration period. Following advice from this Review meeting you'll complete the writing up of your 25-30,000 word dissertation.

What can I do next?

On this programme you will gain research, written communication, time-management, and independent study skills that are invaluable to a range of careers.

You could also continue to further study, such as an MPhil or PhD.

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please follow this link: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/how-to-apply/how-to-apply.aspx

Funding

-Masters Loans-

From 2016/17 government loans of up to £10,000 are available for postgraduate Masters study. The loans will be paid directly to students by the Student Loans Company and will be subject to both personal and course eligibility criteria.

For more information available here: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/funding-your-degree/funding-your-postgraduate-degree.aspx

-2017/18 Entry Financial Support-

Information on alternative funding sources is available here: https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/study-here/funding-your-degree/2017-18-entry-financial-support.aspx

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The Master of Arts in American Studies at Western is an interdisciplinary program focusing on the literature, popular culture, history, and politics of the United States. The purpose of the program is to help students increase their understanding of the meaning and significance of the American identity, and to prepare them for advanced research in the study of the United States. Students will choose from two fields of study: American Cultural Studies or Canadian-American Relations. The MA in American Studies at Western is the first of its kind in Canada.

Visit the website: http://grad.uwo.ca/prospective_students/programs/program_NEW.cfm?p=4

How to apply

For information on how to apply, please see: http://grad.uwo.ca/prospective_students/applying/index.html

Financing your studies

As one of Canada's leading research institutions, we place great importance on helping you finance your education. It is crucial that you devote your full energy to the successful completion of your studies, so we want to ensure that stable funding is available to you.
For information please see: http://grad.uwo.ca/current_students/student_finances/index.html

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