Course description
Building on the research expertise of the Department of Sociology, this programme offers advanced inter-disciplinary study for those who wish to understand human rights in a rapidly changing global context. The core modules ensure that all students have a comprehensive and rigorous education in human rights perspectives, international human rights law, and human rights research methods. In contrast to other programmes, the City MA also provides students with the elective flexibility to specialise in: the UN and human rights governance; international relations; global political economy; international justice and conflict resolution; crimes against humanity; the criminology of human rights violations; refugee and migration studies; race, ethnicity and minority group rights; social theory, and/or the media, human rights and civil liberties. Independent research is facilitated through a supervised dissertation module. Human rights students also benefit intellectually from being in a research department with a variety of cross-referencing postgraduate study programmes.
The last decade has seen a large increase in the demand for human rights expertise as the UN, nation states, regional political actors, NGOs and multi-national corporations have increased their sensitivity to and interest in human rights. The programme equips students with the theoretical knowledge, practical research skills and substantive expertise necessary to be effective human rights policy makers; researchers with government departments and inter-governmental organisations; and advocates and evaluators working for a range of specialist NGOs and allied groups. The MA is both a qualification in its own right and also prepares students to undertake doctoral research in this rapidly growing professional field.
Modules: MA Human Rights
Students complete six taught modules from a combination of three compulsory core and three elective options. Students also take part in a dissertation workshop and produce a dissertation over the summer period.
Core Modules – compulsory
*
Human rights: concepts and issues (SGM106)
*
International Human Rights Law (SGM234)
*
Approaches to social research (SGM222)
*
Sociology Dissertation (SGM111)
Elective Modules – choose three from this list
*
Global Human Rights (SGM242)
*
Media and human rights (SGM224)
*
An introduction to refugees studies (SGM116)
*
Refugee rights and refugee settlement (SGM117)
*
Globalisation: challenges and transformations (SGM101)
*
Global migration (SGM233)
*
Rights, multiculturalism and citizenship (SGM109)
*
Crime and justice (SGM232)
*
Media, crime and culture (SGM235)
*
Surveillance studies: theories and concepts (SGM237)
*
Surveillance studies: processes and practices (SGM238)
*
Feminisms and the media: representation, technology and change (SGM239)
*
Global conflict and security (IPM004)
*
NGOs, human rights and the UN system (IPM006)
*
International organisations in global politics (IPM005)
*
Theories of international politics (IPM008)
*
Development and international politics (IPM009)
*
Political Islam in global politics (IPM010)
NB. Elective modules choices are subject to availability and timetabling constraints.
Mode of Study
Students may take the MA programme on a full or part time basis.
Duration
Teaching is delivered in the format of lectures, classes and seminars, taking place in the first and second academic periods (September-April).
Full-time students will normally attend for two or three days a week, and complete their dissertation in the third academic period.
Part-time students will normally attend for one or two days each week for two years. In the first year they will take two core modules in the first academic period and two optional modules in the second academic period. In the second year they will take one core module in the second academic period, one optional module in the second academic period and complete their dissertation.
Dissertation
The dissertation of 15,000 words carries 40% of the total marks towards the MA degree. Full time students should present their dissertations by September of the year following entrance.
The weighting of the marks is as follows:
Continuous assessment (coursework) 60%
Dissertation 40%
