Objectives
This degree will give you an up-to-date postgraduate orientation in film and visual media studies, within a progressive history of art and media environment. It is aimed at people who have already studied film and/or visual media as undergraduate students or who would like to enter this growing field from another academic or professional area. The programme places strong emphasis on the historical understanding of technology, institutions and culture, and on their theorisation and practice into the digital era. Teaching and supervision are informed by current staff research interests, which include nineteenth-century ‘new media’ and their relationship to today’s digital media, cinema and television history, as well as contemporary artists’ moving image work. This degree will give you a solid foundation for further research, for a career in teaching or arts administration, as well as for many kinds of arts and media practice which require advanced research skills, and a broad knowledge of history and theory.
Course description
The MA programme consists of a combination of core courses, a choice of option modules, a research project or placement, and a dissertation. Subjects covered include early photography, pre-cinema media, early cinema, sound recording, early television and digital media. It also offers options on European post-war cinemas, avant-garde film and video, British film and television of the 1960s and 1970s, contemporary US cinema, European cinema, melodrama in Bollywood and world cinema, and early modern media. More detailed information about the course and about changes to the course structure will be made available on the website.
The core provision of study is designed to introduce you to the basic methodologies and issues involved in the area concerned, as well as research skills and methods. Option modules allow you to pursue specific interests and areas of research.
A unique feature of the programme is the placement, which offers you the experience of working within a prominent media company or institution. Alternatively, the research project gives you the chance to undertake independent research and reflect on research methodologies. You will complete the programme with a 10,000-word dissertation.
Teaching
Lectures, screenings and seminars. Some modules will include organised visits to archives and collections.
Assessment
Three coursework essays of c.5000 words each, a placement or research report, and a dissertation of 10,000 words, due in September of the final year.
