Culture, Diaspora, Ethnicity MA

Birkbeck, University of London

This innovative, interdisciplinary culture, diaspora and ethnicity postgraduate course stretches across the arts, humanities and social sciences to allow you to examine connections between colonial histories and our ordinary, local, everyday life. Why choose this course? Birkbeck is a global centre for research and teaching on ‘race’ and racism, so you will join a multidisciplinary community of scholars and students, and research centres committed to the study of this subject area. This course offers you the opportunity to explore important topics in this broad field of study including histories of ‘race’ and racism, multiculture and postcoloniality, and connections between transcontinental histories of colonisation, contemporary social formations and inequalities. It consistently achieves high levels of student satisfaction. You will also be able to evaluate how local debates on inequality are shaped by the global geopolitics of the twenty-first century as well as different postcolonial political communities, social identities and cultures. What you will learn You will be introduced to important historical and political debates and theoretical frameworks and bodies of work in the broad area of 'race' and racism and postcoloniality, focusing on a range of subjects such as: modern colonial statecraft and histories of ‘race’ and other systems of categorisation colonial cultures and nationalisms histories of anticolonial, antifascist and antiracist resistance criminalisation and histories of state and corporate negligence and violence theorising community and postcolonial belonging contemporary racial nationalisms and religious authoritarian movements race, gender, sexuality and desire. How you will learn Teaching on this course involves a combination of interactive lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. If you choose to study the MA, you will undertake an empirical or theoretical dissertation, or a practice-based dissertation such as a film or an exhibition. If you choose to study the Postgraduate Diploma or Postgraduate Certificate, you will study fewer modules and will not complete a dissertation. On completion of the Diploma you can progress to the MA, while completion of the Certificate allows you to progress either to the Diploma or the MA. This course is available to study full- or part-time and follows an evening timetable with all classes taking place in the evening.