Masters Degrees in Central American History, United Kingdom

Our MRes programme provide a personalised and focused introduction to postgraduate research allowing you to develop as an independent researcher with the support of an expert in Latin American Studies. It provides a rigorous overview of the current state of scholarship in your selected field, guides you, through a programme of directed, individualised reading, to the selection of a feasible research project, and allows you to complete a substantial piece of research.

As an MRes student you will benefit from your membership of the university research community, both students and academic staff. You will also have access to facilities available to doctoral students e.g. free Interlibrary loans, a print allowance and a research allowance.

Key Facts

REF 2014
We're ranked in top 50% for 4* and 3* research with 90% of environment at 4* and 3* (world leading and internationally excellent).

French
Since 2001, the Department has housed three major AHRC-funded projects in French; it also continues to be one of the leading centres in French studies for innovation in the application of IT and new technology to text-based research and the creation of international research networks. A major new monograph series, Liverpool University Press’s ‘Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures’, is co-edited within Modern Languages and Cultures.

German
Research in German studies at Liverpool continues to develop its breadth and vitality, through new appointments, and through a strategy directed towards promoting cooperation among staff in different subject areas. Colleagues are actively involved in interdisciplinary research centres, namely the Research Centre in Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Centre for the Study of International Slavery, and CAVA (The Centre for Architecture and the Visual Arts). These research centres provide a dynamic context for the development of staff and postgraduate research, and underpin and vitalise interdisciplinary research within the section and department as a whole.

Hispanic Studies
We continue to extend research activity over a broad range of areas in Iberian and Latin American Studies. The School is now at the forefront of high profile research in literary, historical, linguistic and cultural studies. Our research emphasises our understanding of ‘Hispanic studies’ in the broadest sense, as relating to the multiple geographical and linguistic contexts that make up the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds.

Latin American Studies and Italian Studies
The section has recently made new appointments including a new post extending our expertise to North America and the Caribbean. We have consolidated research clusters in American, Brazilian, Hispanic and Caribbean Studies, enhancing the research environment by providing institutional support to colleagues with related and overlapping interests. A University-wide research centre Research Institute of Latin American Studies (RILAS) fosters a robust research environment based in the Department.
Research in Italian studies is a recent addition to the School’s portfolio. The focus is on the contemporary and staff are involved in interdisciplinary research projects which feature, amongst others, the Linguistic Landscape, Italian political cinema and European cinema.

Why Department of Modern Languages and Cultures?

Introduction to Modern Languages and Cultures

We are a smaller department than many, but manage at the same time to maintain a variety of very distinctive areas of strength in research. As a result we are uniquely placed to offer taught programmes which are tailored to the individual in a friendly, supportive atmosphere and, for research students, close contact with your supervisors from the outset.

There is a high degree of interdisciplinary activity, with students and staff from all disciplines interacting through institutional research centres, cross-School reading groups, research groups and seminars.

We offer an MA in Latin American Studies and an MA in Modern Languages (French / German / Hispanic Studies/Italian) and supervision on a wide range of topics for both MPhil and PhD study.

Applications are welcome for both full-time and part-time study. Postgraduate students form an integral part of our research culture, and are encouraged to become involved in conference, workshops and seminar series, in addition, we have postgraduate reading groups and a regular programme of postgraduate workshops involving leading scholars visiting the institution. We have an active and vibrant research community, with staff engaging in research covering eight language areas consisting of French, German, Italian, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Portuguese and Corsican. Research interests range from medieval manuscripts to contemporary cyber literature, and cover a wide geographical remit, with staff working on American, Latin American, and Caribbean, African and Indian contexts as well as European ones.

We are home to three scholarly journals: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Bulletin of Latin American Research, and Migrations and Identities as well as a number of prominent book series.

Research Overview

Our research activities are broadly organised around four research groups in addition to the Research Institute of Latin American Studies. The groups are engaged in interdisciplinary work, taking in literary, visual and historical sources, and collaborating across the language areas.

Latin American Studies

Latin American Studies is one of Modern languages and Cultures' major research specialisms. The six permanent members of staff have research interests in the following domains of Latin American Studies: anthropology, cultural studies, history, literature, politics, and sociology and extend to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Central America, the Caribbean and southern USA. The Sydney Jones Library is an acknowledged centre of excellence for collections in Latin American Studies. Additional facilities for all postgraduates include access to regular seminars and short conferences, language tuition, and use of the University’s networked computer facilities.

Career prospects

Former postgraduates in French, German and Hispanic Studies are currently employed in senior positions at the universities of: Aberdeen, Sussex, Leeds, Sheffield, Kings College London, Loughborough, Salford and Liverpool, as well as in a variety of careers.

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The MA in American Studies offers you the opportunity to develop an expertise in American literature and social and cultural history. Your studies will equip you with the methodological training you need to pursue your interest in America from different disciplinary perspectives.

The world-leading department has particular strengths in race, gender and identity, civil liberties, American cities, American landscape and the environment, popular culture, and comparative American Studies.

The MA in American Studies develops the critical powers you acquired as an undergraduate and provides the rigorous preparation needed for future employment or as preparation for doctoral research.

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The Early Modern Studies MA offers an innovative blend of skills training (palaeography and historical bibliography), object-based learning and museum visits. The core modules cover a wide range of disciplines, giving you a broad understanding of the early modern period. You can then tailor your programme to suit your interests, with over thirty optional modules, covering early modern culture, history and society.

About this degree

The MA will teach you critical reading skills, the ability to assess and weigh evidence, and construct persuasive arguments. It combines training in book history, bibliography, and paleography with a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the early modern period.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of three core modules (45 credits), between two and four optional modules (45 credits) and a dissertation (90 credits).

Core modules

• Reframing the Renaissance
• Forging the Early Modern
• Unstitching the Early Modern: Archival and Book Skills

Optional modules (indicative list)

Students choose up to 45 credits from a list which varies each year. An up-to-date list is available on our department website. Below is an indicative list, showing modules that have been offered previously.

• Shakespeare in his Time
• Sex and the Body in Early Modern Europe
• Confessional Cultures in the Dutch Republic & England, c.1500-c.1700
• Early Modern Science
• Web 0.1: Early Modern Information Culture, c.1450-c.1750
• Aztec Archaeology: Codices and Ethnohistory
• Continental Connections: Britain and Europe in the Eighteenth Century
• I.T. for Graduate Research
• Paradoxes of Enlightenment: German Thought from Leibniz to Humboldt
• Beginners Latin for Research
• Metamorphosis: The Limits of the Human
• Seeing Through Materials: Matter, Vision and Transformation in the Renaissance
• Wolfram von Eschenbach's 'Parzival'
• Men on the Moon: Cosmic Voyages in the Early Modern Period

Dissertation/report

All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 18,000 words.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through a combination of tutorials, seminars, workshops, presentations, class discussions and library, archive, museum and gallery visits. Assessment is through essays, annotated bibliography and the dissertation.

Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Early Modern Studies MA

Careers

Many of our students have been accepted to undertake further study as research students both at UCL and elsewhere, including the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, York and Swansea. In addition our students have been successful in obtaining funding and prizes including the Bryce-Jebb and Doris Russell Scholarships and the prestigious John Edward Kerry Prize awarded by the Malone Society. Graduates may also find careers in the heritage or cultural industries.

Recent career destinations for this degree

• Research Intern, Opus
• PhD in English and Digitisation, Swansea University
• PhD in History, University of Cambridge
• Editorial Assistant, Law Business Research
• DPhil in English, University of Cambridge

Employability

This MA will give you a very specific skill set, including manuscript handling and archival research. Depending on the optional modules you select you may also develop language skills and knowledge in information technologies and database use. These transferable skills will make you very employable within the heritage or cultural sectors, as well as library work, the arts, and other roles which require intensive research and/or information management.

Careers data is taken from the ‘Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education’ survey undertaken by HESA looking at the destinations of UK and EU students in the 2013–2015 graduating cohorts six months after graduation.

Why study this degree at UCL?

This is a bespoke programme of study, unique to your interests with over thirty optional modules, all taught by leading scholars, in a wide range of subjects including art, history, law, literature, politics and science.

Practical, hands-on modules, with ‘traditional’ skills such as palaeography and textual bibliography are taught alongside the latest techniques in databases and XML. The programme includes field trips to museums, archives and galleries.

Our central London location provides privileged access to a wide range of world-class museums, rare-books libraries and archives. Located in Bloomsbury, it is a short walk to the exceptional resources of the British Library and the British Museum.

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.

Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.

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Visit our website for more information on fees, scholarships, postgraduate loans and other funding options to study American Studies at Swansea University - 'Welsh University of the Year 2017' (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017).

The MA by Research in American Studies helps to develop an understanding of the forces that have moulded and continue to shape America, and helps us to make sense of our contemporary world. The comparative study of the history and culture of the United States addresses themes such as immigration, democracy, slavery, imperialism, multiculturalism, religion, the economy and, more recently, terrorism. These issues do not just concern the past; they are directly relevant to the world we live in.

MA by Research in American Studies

The MA by Research in American Studies is ideal for those who want:

- an MA qualification in areas where taught programmes are not offered;

- the experience of a research degree without committing to a PhD at the outset.

Research proposals are invited on any topic in American Studies for which staff in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies can provide supervision. It is a good idea to enter into discussions about your research project in American Studies with the Department's Director of Postgraduate Research, Professor Roland Axtmann ([email protected]), before drawing up an initial proposal and starting the application process.

Department of Political and Cultural Studies

The Department of Political and Cultural Studies (PCS) boasts a dynamic research environment with a committed staff all of whom are research-active. Academic members of staff have a very considerable range of research interests on which we offer supervision for research degrees in American Studies.

An MA by Research in American Studies gives you the chance to pursue a major research project based around your own passions and interests in American Studies, leading to a qualification which can open the door to an academic career or boost employment prospects outside academia. It will give you the freedom to explore a topic of your choosing and develop a methodology under the close supervision of two experienced academics but without attending regular classes as required in taught programmes.

Typically as a student of the MA by Research in American Studies programme you will work closely with your supervisors, meeting them regularly, in many instances fortnightly, in the first term and at regular intervals thereafter. Meetings are logged and goals agreed each time.

Students enrolled in the MA by Research American Studies are required to attend skills and training courses at College and University level. You may also be expected to give presentations to other research students and staff at departmental seminars and attend the postgraduate conference of the College of Arts and Humanities which is held in October.

Departmental Research Expertise

At any one time, the department has over forty research students who work together with their supervisors on their projects.

In the area of American Studies, staff have expertise in the American Civil War; US foreign policy; the US ‘War on Drugs’; US politics and government; surveillance and urban America; American conservatism; the Spanish Civil War; American military history; the American West; New South; 20th century American literature, film and popular culture.

Discover more about the Department of Political and Cultural Studies:

http://www.swansea.ac.uk/politics

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