Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Anthropology

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

This distinctive degree supports your individual concerns and development and enables you to navigate your way through theory and practice, various fine art media, and thematic strands within the study of art history and visual cultures.

Why study BA Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll gain the expertise that will help you develop independent thought and confidence in your practice, as well as transferable skills suitable for employment in the creative industries.
• Studying both the theory and practice of fine art means you’ll be able to take a critical approach to your work and think about it in the wider context of art history.
• We're renowned for our strengths in the creative and visual arts, as well as humanities subjects, so you'll be able to benefit from this wide-ranging expertise.
• We're ranked 15th in the world for art and design (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021).
• Staff on the programme are practising artists, curators, academics and writers, here to help you develop your practice, focus your research and respond to the work that you make.
• Our teaching takes advantage of the many galleries, art spaces, museums, cultural facilities and specialist libraries in London and on campus you'll have access to a studio space and excellent facilities including specialist art practice areas, as well as the newly opened Goldsmiths Centre of Contemporary Art.
• Invited artists, curators, gallerists, administrators and funders will provide you with specialist advice and further information to complement your studies and prepare you for professional life after graduation.

Fusing Goldsmiths' academic excellence and professional training from the Horniman Museum, the MA in Anthropology & Museum Practice provides you with a uniquely comprehensive set of skills.

Why study MA Anthropology and Museum Practice at Goldsmiths?

• Whether you're a professional looking to expand your subject expertise in anthropology, or an anthropologist looking to move into the museum sector, the course will provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to make a difference in your career.
• This degree is run in partnership with The Horniman Museum and Gardens. You'll learn from professionals who work with the institution's world-renowned anthropology collection, and gain practical skills in curation and conservation, using material and digital archives, running museum education programmes and engaging diverse audiences.
• You'll analyse museums as sites of imagination and distinction and think about how they can be more inclusive places.
• If you haven’t studied anthropology previously, you’ll have the opportunity to sit in on the Masters-level Introduction to Social Anthropology module, which will give you a solid grounding in the subject - and enable you to hit the ground running.

The MA Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy is a trans-disciplinary programme that addresses the theory and practice of cultural policy, cultural relations, and cultural and public diplomacy.

This broad area of study and the terminology applied to it is fluid and expanding. Having culture as the underlying thread, the programme explores areas such as:

• Arts policy and management
• Globalisation
• Cultural relations
• Public diplomacy
• Cultural and arts diplomacy
• External communications
• Place branding

This will provide a unique perspective into this field of study, and will examine topics such as mobility of cultural practitioners, cultural identity, intercultural dialogue, mutuality, propaganda, soft power, hegemony, influence and perceptions.

Goldsmiths' location provides you with a unique experience of living in a multicultural world city, which is of great relevance to the study of cultural policy, relations and diplomacy.

This exciting MSc reflects the broad-ranging and strong neuroscience research profile of our Department, equipping you with a rigorous grounding in the theory and applications of cognitive, clinical, and developmental neuroscience.

The programme provides a thorough coverage of the historical, philosophical and scientific bases of modern neuroscience. The emphasis is on scientific knowledge relating to the specialisms of clinical and cognitive neuropsychology with theoretical and some practical coverage.

During the course of the MSc, students interested in gaining clinical experience will be encouraged to consider possible placements that may be available with one of the several clinical sites we collaborate with. In some cases, there may also be the possibility of carrying out research for their dissertation in these clinical settings.

This Masters programme in Cultural Studies offers you the opportunity to engage with some of the key theorists and the significant debates in Cultural Studies, spanning from its inception in Britain in the mid-1970s, to the present day. Cultural Studies has developed a distinctive set of concepts and methodologies to help better understand social institutions and practices, objects, items, and their circulation in consumer culture. Cultural theory permits close analysis of topics including race, youth, music, fashion, and the creative economy, and embraces the history of sexuality, emotions and affects. This course will consider current permutations on key topics such as music, sound and technology, national identity, the rise of ‘public feelings’, the cultural dynamics of precarity and austerity, art, and cultural expression for the new feminist activism.

Why study MA Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths?

• Explore the impact and influence Cultural Studies has on a wide range of research interests, not only in the English-speaking world, but also internationally. The programme will teach you about a range of Cultural Studies methodologies that you can then apply in your own writing and research. It will also include a Critical Ethnography Afternoon where students explore the place of this kind of research in the cultural studies tradition.
• Examine the effect media technologies have on the cultural practices of production and consumption. As the course has a strong focus on new developments in sonic technology, this might include, for example, emerging local music scenes. This might also involve mean a focus on changes in fashion consumption, such as platform providers, and the role of influencers.

Why study for an MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths?

• This is an MA in Creative Writing like no other. If you want to thrive as a creative writer and are passionate about learning, then this unique programme is for you. You will not only progress exponentially as a writer, but also learn how to research and teach writing in a wide range of contexts. You will study how writing can be used in dynamic, real-world settings such as charities, prisons, schools, creative and mental health organisations, and the cultural/corporate sector.
• The programme will provide you with an invaluable toolbox of writing, teaching, and research strategies that will help you personally and professionally. You will grow as a writer, and gain skills and experience which could open doors to creative professions such as publishing and arts management, as well as roles in educational institutions. Alumni include some of the most significant writers to emerge in recent years such as Raymond Antrobus, Dean Atta, S.K. Perry and Sara Hirsch – read what our students and graduates had to say below.
• You will be taught by some of the best known prize-winning authors and innovative teachers in the country, including Ros Barber, Maura Dooley, Blake Morrison, Francis Spufford, Ardu Vakil, and Erica Wagner. The Head of Programme, Francis Gilbert, has taught creative writing to all ages, and is the author of best-selling memoirs, novels, and educational guides.

Why study MA Politics, Development and the Global South?

• This degree responds to a need for a fresh, innovative approach to the study and pursuit of development, which has grown from major changes in recent decades – for example the emergence of new geopolitical powers on the international stage, growing challenges to neoliberal dogmas, heightened concern with increasing global inequality, and the recognition of the danger of ecological devastation.
• You’ll study the Global South as a producer of theory, and as a site where novel forms of political struggle are emerging. You’ll gain an understanding of the relationship between discourses of development and specific issues, such as gender, ecology and sexuality.
• The MA reflects Goldsmiths’ interdisciplinary academic spirit, drawing on expertise in the Centre for Postcolonial Studies, the Department of Politics and International Relations, and other departments from across the university.
• You’ll be able to choose options from a wide range of modules across the Department of Politics and International Relations, Anthropology, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, and Sociology ­– so you can tailor your degree to your own interests and aspirations, and get the most out of your time at Goldsmiths.
• You’ll learn from scholars with an international reputation across a diverse range of research and area specialisms including Latin America, India, China, Japan, the Middle East and Africa.
• Alongside the compulsory modules, you’ll also gain insight into development as a career through a series of industry and activist seminars. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the speakers, format and content of these events to explore different facets of development, such as politics, activism, policy, journalism, charities, consultancy and NGOs.

Working from a materially diverse basis, this programme engages with a range of empirical, aesthetic, conceptual and material issues that traverse and exceed both 'art' and ‘politics’ to speak with our current contemporaneity.

Why study MA Art and Politics at Goldsmiths?

• Explore practices and issues related to our current contemporaneity in terms of public space, democracy, equality, participation, states of exception, collectivity, performance and justice.
• Examine a range of material practices and strategies which, in the encounter between art and politics, play out in numerous forms and very different kinds of social spaces.
• Develop frameworks and spaces that are mixed and mobile, and which can operate in trans-disciplinary settings. You'll join students from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, meaning that the political character of both theory and material practice take on renewed vigour and urgency.
• Investigate the potential of art, material practice and trans-disciplinarity in times of political and cultural crisis. You will have the opportunity to interrogate the relationship between material practices and theoretical work, to work within constraints but also within the interstices of artistic, cultural, social and political practices.
• Choose from a range of option modules that encourage you to work across areas of particular interest to you including practice-based Individual and Group project work, the politics of space, gender politics and human rights.

Our MA Culture Industry will allow you to explore the interface between contemporary economics and culture, from the scale of a start-up or artwork, to that of governmental policy, a city, or the global marketplace. It will also provide the approaches in critical and theoretical analysis that will enable you to conduct further academic research in areas ranging from art history, to urban studies and critical theory.

In distinction from postgraduate programmes in the Cultural and Creative Industries, this Master’s programme focuses on the paradoxes and potentials of the relationship between culture and capitalism evoked by the term ‘culture industry’.

Taking full advantage of the UK’s leading role in the creative industries, and London’s status as a world city, this course creates opportunities for you to:

• Make projects
• Go on field trips
• Do placements
• Carry out academic learning and research
• Meet diverse creative practitioners and theorists

This will give you first-hand experience of the fast moving creative economy, as well as giving you indispensable skills in understanding that economy from a cultural, philosophical and political standpoint. By combining theoretical and practical approaches to study, the course will not only help you to prepare for a career in the cultural sector, but also to engage with it imaginatively, critically and tactically.

Why study MA Race, Media and Social Justice at Goldsmiths?

• Goldsmiths is a centre of pioneering critical race scholarship and you will be taught by leading figures in the field.
• You’ll examine a range of different theoretical and philosophical approaches to race and ethnicity, including postcolonial and critical race theories, poststructuralist approaches, and theories of intersectionality.
• The degree is underpinned by a focus on the cultural industries and you’ll learn to apply these theories to understand why representations of race and ethnicity take the shape that they do in news, film and social media.
• You’ll expand your practical and academic knowledge of diversity in the media and other sectors through a series of industry talks from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) practitioners working in the industry.
• This MA is taught across two departments – Media, Communications and Cultural Studies and Sociology – that are recognised as world-leading in their respective disciplines.
• As a postgraduate student you will join a thriving intellectual community at Goldsmiths, while learning the skills that you will be able to apply to a range of careers, from media, to policy, to charity/NGOs and other forms of social enterprise.