MA Disability and Social Policy Course Content
Compulsory Modules
Debates on Disability Theory and Research gives you the opportunity to critically evaluate recent debates and developments within social research on disability. Not only will you discuss positivist, interpretative and 'emancipatory' methodologies, alongside associated data collection and analytical strategies, you will also examine their significance for disability research.
Through the module, you will investigate theoretical perspectives, the various definitions and approaches to impairment and disability, and disability as an equal opportunities and policy issue. You will explore the impact of myths and prejudices, industrialisation and the welfare state upon cultural representations of disability.
Issues in Social Policy Analysis and Research explores the intellectual paths and means available for analysing and investigating policies and practices, taking recent developments in welfare arrangements and social policy institutions as material.
The module will introduce you to a range of analytical starting points and theoretical perspectives; it will ask you to consider views about causation, the problem of 'proof' and the kinds of enquiries that arise through particular positions, values and settings.
Disability and Social Policy Dissertation allows you to tailor your own programme of training and research in consultation with a member of staff drawn from the department's MA/PhD supervisory panel. Through the dissertation, you demonstrate your ability to develop and complete an in-depth analysis, select and use appropriate research methods, deploy advanced theoretical concepts and relate a focused study to broader Disability and Social Policy debates and concerns.
Elective Modules
In addition to the compulsory modules, you also choose two modules from the following list.
- Research Strategy and Design
- Social Policy, Politics and Disabled People
- 'Race', Identity and Culture in the Black Atlantic
- Disability and Development
- Evaluation Research
- Negotiated Study in Disability Studies
- Contemporary Social Thought
Postgraduate Diploma in Disability and Social Policy
Available on a 12-month full-time or 24-month part-time basis, the Postgraduate Diploma in Disability and Social Policy covers similar ground to the MA, but does not include the dissertation module.
On the basis of a good performance in a full-time student's first semester, or a part-timer's first year, students initially registered for the diploma may be transferred onto the corresponding MA.
Key Information
Start Date: 24 September
Duration:
12 months full-time
24 months part-time
Entry requirements:
a good honours degree in a social science discipline.
Scholarships
Funding information
Admissions Contact
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Tel: +44 (0) 113 343 8056