Digital Anthropology MSc

UCL (University College London)

The MSc in Digital Anthropology is the first and most well-established degree of its kind worldwide. The degree equips students with the skills to research and analyse the social and cultural dimensions of digital technologies and practices. This includes social media, data and algorithms, digital infrastructures, 3D printing and museum collections, and online politics. Combining the cross-cultural and comparative study of digital phenomena with anthropological theories and research methods, the MSc prepares students to practice as digital anthropologists across a broad range of policy, industry, government and academic environments. The Digital Anthropology MSc is the first of its kind: placing digital technologies, platforms and practices in social and cultural, and comparative context. Based in one of the largest and most comprehensive anthropology departments in the UK, students study core anthropological theories (including kinship, materiality/immateriality and embodiment) with emphasis on their relevance for understanding digital culture. A strong emphasis on research and ethnographic methods allows students to gain skills in digital ethnography, social media analytics, social data analysis, mapping, digital design, user research methodologies and applied digital anthropology. Overall, students develop an understanding of digital cultures through the ethnographic study of their social and regional impact in a global and comparative context, as well as a critical understanding of their imbrication with other cultural and social systems and are able to develop this knowledge base in the context of a wide range of different career pathways and applications.