Master of Arts in Independent Games and Playable Experience Design

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

The MA Visual Anthropology offers a unique combination of anthropological theory and visual practice. It provides you with a strong foundation for producing visual work informed by anthropology.

Why study MA Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll approach visual anthropology through the study of the politics and aesthetics of representation, documentary and ethnographic film, and anthropological perspectives on art.
• As a practice-oriented MA, there is a clear emphasis on applying anthropological knowledge to the actual making of visual artefacts, and not just their analysis.
• The MA is open to people with a range of backgrounds in anthropology and related fields, so you’ll join a diverse group of students with varying perspectives.
• As a graduate, you’ll be well-placed to pursue a career in visual anthropology (be it research- or practice-oriented) as well as to bring an anthropological sensibility to the visual to other disciplines.
• You’ll have hands-on training in the use of digital camcorders, sound recording equipment and video editing, preparing you for your final visual project – a 20-minute film – as well as giving you practical vocational skills for after you graduate.

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.

The programme will introduce you to a range of psychological theories, methods and processes within the context of the legal, criminal and civil justice systems.

Based at a research-led London university with strong links to forensic services, you’ll be taught by world-class researchers, and experienced practitioners from the NHS, and the prison and probation service.

Led by chartered forensic clinical psychologist Dr Caoimhe McAnena, the MSc also includes contributions from world-class researchers and practitioners who will teach on the programme and supervise research projects.

We have been awarded full British Psychological Society (BPS) accreditation, which will give you the opportunity to gain Graduate and/or Chartered Membership of the Society.

Combine the study of literature with the practice of creative writing. You’ll graduate with the ability to be informed and curious about literature, and with the imagination to turn that curiosity into creativity.

This flexible programme allows you to choose topics related to American literature and culture, comparisons of literature across different cultures and art forms (also known as Comparative Literature), and study diverse aspects of language use in linguistics modules. Your literary and creative studies will be supported by lectures and seminars which will give you practical advice to help you improve your essay writing and refine your research strategies.

Why study BA English with Creative Writing at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll read key literary texts, and experiment with writing prose and poetry. By the end of the creative writing degree you’ll have uncovered your written style and developed an extensive portfolio of creative work.
• We’re based in London, a city that’s full of literary inspiration. Take a look at English student Samantha’s favourite places to write.
• Our alumni have gone on to win prestigious awards including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, the European Union Prize for Literature, and the Dylan Thomas Prize. One of our alumni, Sophie Collins, was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Society of Literature as part of its inaugural 40 Under 40 scheme in 2018.
• We’re regularly visited by literary guest speakers. Recent visitors have included Ali Smith, Nikesh Shukla, Michael Rosen, Eimear McBride and Howard Jacobson.
• We host an annual literary award – the Goldsmiths Prize – that celebrates work that pushes the boundaries of the novel.

Conceived in the context of world-systemic transformation, this MA will give you the analytical tools to understand contemporary developments and world(s) through an encounter with post-colonial theory and international political economic issues.

We're witnessing today a tectonic shift in global geopolitics. The emergence of China, Brazil and India as global players, the development of global governance, the financial crisis, climate change – are all symptoms.

On this Masters you’ll grasp concepts like race, diaspora, hybridity, difference, grassroots development, HDI, multitude, immanence, and human rights.

These concepts are used to analyse practical, policy and activist issues arising from globalisation: global civil society, the role of international organisations (the IMF, WTO, UN and World Bank and global NGOs), intellectual property rights, social capital, financialisation, global governance and deep democracy.

You'll deal with issues like terrorism, microfinance, indigenous people, gender and sexuality, multiculturalism and environmental justice.

This MA is designed for students interested in new ways of exploring and understanding the social world through the use of visual, sensory, and other experimental approaches. You’ll study sociological issues alongside innovative methods and gain the tools needed to examine, represent and intervene in the social world.

Why study MA Sociology (Visual Sociology) at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll join students from a wide variety of backgrounds, including art, design, anthropology, media and communications, cultural studies, geography, and sociology.
• You’ll develop the ability to carry out empirical research and present it publicly in a variety of media and materials. You’ll engage with sociology as an inventive research practice, using creative research methods to address classic and changing sociological problems.
• You’ll be introduced to the range of debates in visual research and encouraged to build on these by using visual, sensory and inventive methodological practices to carry out critical social research in your areas of interest, whether this is science and technology, contemporary capitalism, gender and sexual cultures, race, human rights, globalisation, or other aspects of social life.
• Combining lectures and seminars with practical sessions and workshop-based projects, this MA will help you develop a hands-on approach to sociological research. You’ll gain a skills base in methods which could be used in public sector contexts, art or media research, design or commercial application.
• As well as presenting your ideas through writing, you’ll have the opportunity to produce different outputs, including film/video, photography, sound and multimedia pieces. You’ll also have the opportunity to organise and curate some of this work in an exhibition.

Develop your ability to contextualise, critique, and create. This MA addresses the historical, political, theoretical and ethical issues of applied theatre, and explores the ways in which theatre and performance are created by diverse groups of people.

Why study the MA Applied Theatre at Goldsmiths?

• The Masters is aimed at early-career practitioners with a background in theatre, education, activism or social change, as well as at more established practitioners who want to reflect, refresh and develop their skills.
• Develop your skills as a collaborative, responsive, imaginative, politically engaged and culturally-aware artist practitioner.
• Explore how theatre is created in schools, on the streets, in children’s homes, care homes, conflict zones, creches, youth clubs, prisons, women’s refuges, and refugee centres – anywhere groups of people meet and interact.
• The degree is structured so that practice and theory constantly respond to one another through practical classes and seminars. You will undertake a placement in a recognised host organisation, where you'll work with experienced practitioners and learn how participatory arts organisations function, from an insider’s perspective.

The MA Contemporary Art Theory is for those with a special interest in contemporary art, and an aptitude for theoretical work in the subject.

Why study MA Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths?

• This degree explores a range of theoretical perspectives that shape art and visual culture, and attitudes towards them in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
• You’ll be encouraged to conceptually and creatively explore the ways in which contemporary artistic practice and urgent theoretical and political matters intersect.
• You’ll expand your knowledge of contemporary artistic developments and deepen your understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of academic discourses on visual culture.
• The programme draws on the shifting fields of performance studies, art history, continental philosophy, ecology, feminist theory, queer theory, postcolonial/decolonial studies, and cultural studies in addressing the critical challenges posed by artistic practice, and you’ll be able to focus on an aspect that particularly interests you.
• You’ll take part in an assessed symposium, which provides you with a chance to present your dissertation topic at an early stage in order to define and progress your final project.

The MA Luxury Brand Management equips you with the management, entrepreneurial, marketing and professional skills to work in the luxury goods and experiential luxury industry.

The luxury brands sector encompasses the fashion and retail industry, as well as sectors such as tourism, hospitality, food and beverage, film, digital media, dance, music and theatre. This MA debates the concept of luxury in a historical and cross-cultural context, and offers a strong academic underpinning on theories of luxury and consumption.

You will explore the role of luxury in conserving traditional arts, especially with regard to Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The programme combines formal teaching with dissertation research, underpinned with visits to key luxury brand enterprises in London and elsewhere, and draws on Goldsmiths’ alumni for inspirational talks. This programme offers practice-based assignments and voluntary intern opportunities in various cultural organisations and luxury corporations that have established links with Goldsmiths.

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.