Master of Science in Education (Policy and International Development)

at University of Bristol - Clifton Campus United Kingdom

Our BA Comparative Literatures and Cultures degree offers an unmatched opportunity to study international cultural production in both depth and breadth. You will study global literatures and cultures in comparative frameworks that draw on methodologies from textual, cultural and visual studies, as well as from translation, philosophy, history, social science and critical theory. Texts will be read in English translation.

Core units in years one and two currently include What is Comparative Literature and How Do We Practise It?; Introduction to Visual Cultures; Popular Representation and Institutions of Culture; Migrations of Culture. Additionally, you will have a wide choice of optional units based in the culture of a single language or a combination of cultures.

You will spend your third year in an Italian-speaking country, where you will undertake university study, a British Council assistantship or a work placement. You will follow a programme of study in Italian, developing linguistic skills enabling you to communicate easily in writing and orally. For more information about the year abroad, visit Global Opportunities.

In year four you will complete an innovative supervised independent project, consisting of an extended essay on a topic of your choice and a public-facing element presented to the entire cohort (e.g. prospectus, interview, museum catalogue entries, newspaper article).

You will be taught by experts in the field and teaching is informed by staff research interests. The course is delivered in varied ways, through lectures, tutorials, seminars, workshops and one-to-one supervision. You will participate in small-group teaching and may be asked to give introductory talks to initiate discussion.

This programme encourages attributes highly valued by employers, including intercultural understanding, analytical and critical thinking, clarity and self confidence in communication, an aptitude for collaborative work and creativity. It will instil habits of curiosity, openness, rigour, self reflection and evidence-based thinking, preparing you for a career in various sectors.

This interdisciplinary program will provide you with the skills, knowledge and expertise to become a practitioner in functional materials research, whether in industry or academia. Our graduates have a strong track record of progressing to full-time employment or further study, with around half obtaining PhD places in Bristol or other leading universities throughout the world.

The program is run by the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials (BCFN), which engages with a network of more than 100 academics from 15 departments in the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Life Sciences. This rich and diverse community provides truly interdisciplinary training and challenging projects at the cutting edge of functional materials research.

The structure of the program - featuring both short training projects and an extended research project - provides multiple opportunities for direct contact with leading academics and industry partners across a wide range of research areas. You will choose your extended research project after exploring BCFN's research network through short projects and the teaching programme. Recent project titles have included ‘Tunable Fluorescent Carbon Dots for Digital Display Technologies', ‘Nanoscale Bi/Sb Chalcohalides for Solar Energy Conversion’ and ‘Silk-Bone: a New Spin on Bone-tissue Engineering’.

Throughout the program you will have opportunities to further your technical and professional development in research skills, delivering effective presentations, scientific writing, teamwork, creativity and entrepreneurship.

This joint honours degree allows you to study two complementary disciplines, both of which ask you to think carefully about texts in their wider cultural and historical contexts. This course combines the broad historical knowledge and well-developed research skills gained in a history degree with the in-depth cultural awareness and advanced linguistic skills that develop through studying a modern language.

You will join two departments with top researchers in a great diversity of fields and will be encouraged to develop expertise and research skills relevant to both disciplines while also considering the relationships between them.

Your third year will be spent abroad, where you will have the opportunity to explore these intersections in the distinct cultural and social context of your host country while studying or working. Those who choose to study at a university will be urged to select history-based options while those who opt for work placements will be encouraged to seek placements in the heritage sector. For further details of year abroad opportunities visit Global Opportunities.

In your final year you will get the chance to explore these intersections independently in a dissertation. You will be required to write a historically-minded dissertation using some sources written in Portuguese.

The combined knowledge of history, language and culture will mean you are uniquely placed to foster and to lead intercultural communication across national boundaries, a skill that is increasingly sought after in a globalised economy.

Our joint honours English and Classical Studies degree combines investigation of the ancient Graeco-Roman world with the study of works from all periods of English literature, many of which reflect or reanimate ancient texts and topics.

Both halves of the course give you the opportunity to follow your own interests and particular enthusiasms through optional units, including Latin or Ancient Greek.

You may also study ancient arts, such as epic or drama, alongside their more modern forms in literature written in English.In all cases – and drawing on the centrality of the classical tradition to Western culture – your study of the literature of antiquity will profoundly inform your reading of later works.

Your dissertation in the third year may draw on your interests and expertise from both departments to address a comparative topic or can alternatively focus on the material from either side of the course.

The study of identity is a burgeoning area of sociological and cultural studies. Over a range of units, this programme provides an introduction to key themes in this field, with identity explored in both theoretical and substantive ways.

On the one hand, there has been an exciting and innovative strand of work that explores and re-theorises the ideas of subjectivity and selfhood in the context of changes brought about by late modern and postmodern society. On the other, the question of identity has come under scrutiny within substantive areas of sociology, such as the sociology of race and ethnicity, the sociology of religion and the sociology of gender relations.

There are also important discussions concerning the ways in which identities are recorded and observed, including debates over new narrative and other qualitative methodologies.