Course overview:
This interdisciplinary course offers you the rare opportunity to study how cultures translate across a wide range of fields. Critically combining the disciplines of translation and cultural studies, it breaks new ground both practically and theoretically in exploring a variety of different issues across the humanities and social sciences. It gives you the opportunity to shape the emerging field of translating cultures through independent in-depth research, and will appeal if you aspire to work at the cutting edge of debates and practices dealing with cultural interaction and transformation in the contemporary world.
Modules are taught and supervision given by expert staff who are specialists in a number of languages and disciplines, offering you the chance to follow particular themes in areas that most interest you. Recent work by staff includes books and articles on issues in translation, literature, migration, gender, religion, visual culture and museum studies to name a few, in Chinese, French, German, Russian, Spanish and other cultures.
We explicitly welcome applications for collaborative research projects and are happy to exploit our links with public and third sector partners to assist students in developing projects that fit with both the partners’ research needs and the demands and expectations of a Masters dissertation. The student will take the lead in the development of any such collaborative research project, but will be guided and assisted by the supervisory team and, where appropriate, other members of the course team.
Course content:
You will take two core modules: Translating Cultures, which establishes frameworks for the close analysis of transcultural and translation concepts; and the Research Dissertation module, which provides training and personal supervision for the writing of an in-depth dissertation on an appropriate topic of your choice. The Research Dissertation module offers you the innovative possibility to develop your research project through an internship with a relevant external organisation. You will also choose an option module that matches your interests from a selection of modules offering advanced study in specialised areas, including translation, intercultural communication, diaspora, cultural identity, globalisation, democratisation and restorative justice. You are encouraged to attend the research seminars in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, particularly the Translating Cultures series run by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, at which visiting speakers, creative practitioners and teaching staff present their current work.