Master of Arts in Social Work

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

Whether your sights are set on being behind the camera as a producer, appearing on screen as a foreign correspondent, or heading off to far-flung parts of the world to make investigative documentaries - it’s vital you get a solid understanding of the basics, from the ground up.

That’s exactly what this programme will teach you: newsgathering, production, reporting skills, writing for broadcast, filming and self-shooting, video editing, presenting, online longer-form current affairs, using social media, mobile journalism, researching stories and verification. We provide a broad curriculum to the highest professional standards, so you’re prepared to work in today’s ultra-competitive, ever-changing media environment.

The programme is accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC), which represents broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV News, Sky, Reuters, Channel 4, and AP. The BJTC also provides valuable input from key figures within television to make sure we teach the skills the industry demands and supports the provision of work placements.

What will you learn as an MA Television Journalism student?

• Employers tell us that when they’re recruiting the journalists of tomorrow, they’re looking for all-round skills, innovative ideas and a can-do attitude. You’ll also get a thorough grounding in media law and ethics, media theory and journalistic research skills and tools.
• You’ll learn your craft from dedicated, hugely experienced media practitioners with careers in broadcasting and extensive teaching experience. Our teaching staff get to know all of our students personally, helping them to achieve their full potential by providing continual feedback and support.

The MA Research Architecture is for graduates from a range of disciplines who want to examine how architecture can engage with questions of contemporary culture, politics, media, ecology and justice and question whether spatial practice can become a form of research.

Why study MA Research Architecture at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll combine studio work with theoretical research. Lectures, seminars and workshops will equip you with a grounding in critical spatial practices and related areas of inquiry.
• The theoretical module provides thorough coverage of the historical, philosophical and technological aspects of the intersection of space, power and conflict in light of changing geopolitical conditions.
• You’ll take part in an annual field trip during the winter break to a site of special interest to Research Architecture, for example, Athens, The Hague, Berlin or Istanbul.
• You’ll join a group of students and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and disciplines and have the opportunity to work collaboratively and benefit from peer-to-peer learning under the guidance of a tutor.
• There are several workshops on the programme as part of the Forensic Architecture or Research Architecture Studio Module. These day-long participatory events are led by invited guest speakers with specific expertise in the field.
• Graduates of the MA will be well-suited for doctoral research or to pursue or enhance their career in the areas of architecture, design, law, journalism, filmmaking, art and curating.

The MSc Consumer Behaviour equips you with a comprehensive grounding in approaches to understanding consumer preferences, judgements, decision-making and behaviour.

You will learn how to use this knowledge to improve organisational strategy and success, in terms of targeting, product placement, advertising, marketing, influencing and protecting consumers.

The programme aims to enhance your employability by fostering the development of the real-life and job-relevant competencies and skills that are required to succeed in today's competitive job market. You will be provided with the strong knowledge base and hands-on research experience needed for succeeding in careers such as marketing, media, communications, advertising, consumer research, consumer insight, entrepreneurship, and public relations.

You will develop the skills necessary to conduct independent research and to understand:

• The psychological and cultural processes underlying consumer behaviour
• The psychology of consumer preferences and choices
• Psychological theories of attitude change, persuasion, and influence
• The psychology and strategy of branding
• How to create and sustain customer experience
• Behavioural economics (including the psychology of pricing)
• The psychological impact of various types of media and advertising

The MA Queer History is a pioneering programme in one of the most exciting areas of historical enquiry, giving a voice to those who throughout much of history have been denied one.

Why study MA Queer History at Goldsmiths?

• This is the world’s first MA in Queer History and it provides a comprehensive introduction to the themes and methods of Queer History as well as laying a solid foundation in general historical study.
• Our emphasis is in the Early Modern and Modern periods: both the Western invention of ‘homosexuality’ in the 1860s and the emancipatory movements, especially of the post-1969, post-Stonewall period, figure prominently.
• You’ll gain a first-rate overview of important thought and methods from the fields of queer theory as well as the histories of gender and the body and sexuality.
• We aim to historicise often binary categories, such as male/female, heterosexuality/homosexuality, active/passive, and uncover the processes through which these categories came to be seen as ‘natural’.
• You’ll also pay close attention to questions of power, including how sexual orientation and race throughout history have often become interlinked in asymmetrical, oppressive ways.
• You’ll be able to choose from a range of option modules so you can tailor your learning to your own interests and get the most out of your year at Goldsmiths.

Why study MA Black British Literature at Goldsmiths?

• This degree is a world first. There’s nowhere else you can study black British writing in such an in-depth way – in the actual country where the writing is produced. We trace diasporic and aesthetic routes and draw upon the expertise of literary and drama specialists.
• You’ll analyse an extremely diverse range of texts from novelists, poets, short story writers, essayists, life-writers and playwrights. You’ll also locate these writers in their historical context, gaining an understanding of the history of black people in Britain through how they are represented in literature.

It’s really important for us that you graduate with a set of core digital journalism skills so half of the degree focuses on the computing side of the discipline and half on media and communications. This means you get a holistic MA, where you study the foundations of digital journalism and practise it in its most current forms.

You’ll have the chance to study multimedia and interactive journalism, look at interactive documentaries, digital reporting, and video journalism. You’ll also learn coding, so you can get to grips with using algorithms and data sets, and do social network analysis to monitor what’s going on behind the screens.

Through our partnerships with BBC news labs and The Times’ development team, we make sure we’re keeping up with industry but also working with it.

We want you to reimagine the medium while you’re here, so you get the chance to specialise in your own area of interest for your final project. This could be anything from an interactive website to a video production using interactive story telling and text.  We offer a lot of support when it comes to the coding side of the course. A boot camp before the start of the programme gives you an introduction to some of the techniques and languages.

What you go away with are the core skills for news writing, video, and computational techniques and some amazing industry contacts.

This programme is an exciting opportunity to focus on global issues within the framework of a History degree, crossing continents and chronologies.

History at Goldsmiths is global. It explores the multidirectional travel of people, practices, resources and ideas across boundaries (local, regional, national, continental, oceanic) and the changes occurring along the way. It explores questions of power, domination, and asymmetry, as well as responses to global processes from the people worst affected by them.

This programme will allow you to explore the following themes:

• World history
• Migration
• Empire, decolonisation and race
• Subaltern history
• The global south
• Postcolonialism
• History in transnational perspective

Studying Global History at Goldsmiths involves applying knowledge and understanding of these themes to contemporary issues such as the UK’s changing place in the world, colonial/postcolonial relationships, and complex histories of race and racism around the world. You will develop your skills in multidisciplinary approaches and engage with a range of historical methods/ideas.

You will learn about histories of culture, ideas, politics, and power – beyond boundaries and borders. You will be taught by a multi-national community of scholars whose expertise means that history can be understood globally, and you will develop your understanding of how countries operate within global frameworks, both in the past and today, and how empires of the past continue to affect present-day societies and politics.

History is a relevant, dynamic, fascinating, and important field of study which, at Goldsmiths, is approached in creative, innovative, and exciting ways.

History - the study, analysis and understanding of the past - is as important today as it has ever been and it continues to make vital contributions to how we comprehend and interact with the world around us.

Understanding past societies fosters emotional intelligence and allows us to appreciate the diversity and adaptability of human life. Understanding our pasts can help us to shape our futures and, crucially, help us shape those futures intelligently, insightfully, fairly, and with compassion. History is here and now as well as being there and then.

Students studying History at Goldsmiths have a great deal of choice over what to study, beginning with options in Year One. Our geographic scope covers Europe (including significant British expertise), the Americas, Asia and Africa. Chronologically, we have a strong focus on early modern and modern history, while also covering earlier periods.

Why study BA History at Goldsmiths?

• We are exciting and challenging: our innovative interdisciplinary approaches to the subject encourage our students to approach and explore the past thematically rather than chronologically and we venture into issues, areas and topics that are often overlooked.
• We are global: our international body of staff research and deliver modules covering a wide geographical range including Asia, Africa, the Americas, the British Isles, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Middle East.
• We excel in what we do: our academic staff are nationally and internationally recognised award-winning experts in their fields, they are at the forefront of research excellence and research-led teaching.
• We put you first: our students are always our top priority and our staff are excellent educators who foster independent and progressive thinking in challenging but supportive environments.
• We broaden minds: history stimulates critical and analytical thinking and, at Goldsmiths, we also encourage creative and imaginative thinking that takes our students beyond the traditional boundaries of the subject.
• We think about your future: alongside intellectual and personal development we equip our students with the skills and experience they need to progress into a rewarding career. This might be through our History in Practice work-placement module or through other career-orientated opportunities and forms of assessment.

If you are passionate about pursuing a career as a cinematographer in an environment that promotes innovative filmmaking, this programme is for you. With its unique blend of hands-on workshops, studio and location filming exercises, and high production value collaborative film projects, the MA Filmmaking (Cinematography) elevates your skills as a moving-image storyteller to the level of Director of Photography.

What we offer

• The MA Filmmaking (Cinematography) is a pathway of the Goldsmiths MA Filmmaking. It is housed in a new purpose-built media facility with state-of-the-art teaching spaces including film and photography studios equipped with Arri cameras and lighting.
• You'll learn sophisticated camera, lighting and gripping techniques, and will perform all camera department roles from Director of Photography to Camera Operator, Focus-puller, Gaffer, Camera Assistant, Spark and Grip. You’ll work on a number of exercises and films per term in your specialist role, culminating in a major film production towards the end of the degree. Throughout the degree, you’ll also gain parallel experience in related cine roles by crewing for your fellow cinematographer classmates.
• In addition to developing professional-level skills in your specialist craft area, you’ll attend classes in related disciplines such as Directing and Editing and advance your collaborative skills by working with students across all specialisations, including writers, producers and sound designers. The horizontal framework is designed to stimulate collaborative practice by introducing you to a breadth of filmmaking knowledge combined with a high level of expertise as an accomplished cinematographer.

Photography is a key medium of the 21st century. We record every aspect of our lives with smartphone cameras, consume knowledge through image flows, are exposed to constant surveillance via security cameras while feeding computer databases with our social media images.

Photography itself is undergoing a radical transformation in its encounter with CGI (computer generated images) and AI (artificial intelligence). This MA programme gives practitioners and theorists the opportunity to research and develop the new boundaries of image-making made possible by technological change within the context of post-industrial culture.

The programme joins theory and practice, equipping you to develop and achieve highly in the new image media culture. The practice uses both digital and analogue technology, still and durational photography, as well as the study and production of interactivity.

It also allows for specialisation in photography and/or electronic arts – which, in addition to still photography, can include interactive, durational, and internet work – but encompasses a broader interpretation of practice.

You'll look at the meaning, production, and distribution of images in their present and historical contexts, and at the relationship between theory and practice in image production and management.