School of Sociology and Social Policy

Main Menu

Search Sociology and Social Policy:
Sitemap
Contact Us
Faculty Homepage

MA Racism and Ethnicity Studies Course Content

Compulsory Modules

Advanced Ethnicity and Racism Studies will give you the tools to explore conceptual and theoretical debates within the sociology of 'race', and examine their implications for understanding and challenging problems of racism and racial inequality. Through this module, you will investigate the history of racism and ethnic minority settlement, the politicisation of race and the relevant legislation, race issues and the welfare state, and citizenship in a European context.

'Race', Identity and Culture in the Black Atlantic focuses on ‘race’, identity and culture in the Black Atlantic diaspora centring on the Black body in slavery, colonialism, independence and de-colonial thought as a site of political, aesthetic and philosophical contestation. It focuses on the contribution by intellectuals and political activists to this debate in the Caribbean (Fanon’s colonial psyche and Cesaire’s negritude, Rastafarianism and Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement, post- modern Blackness, Caribbean feminisms), Brazil (Candomblé, Afro- aesthetics, blocos afro), USA (Black Nationalism, Black Power, Black feminism) and the UK (the making of Black as a political colour, hyphenated identities, hybridity, African and Asian descent feminism). These specific sites have been chosen not only because of their centrality in Black Atlantic diasporic philosophical thought and cultural production but also because they demonstrate how such thought and cultural production have been included or excluded in how nations imagine themselves: Jamaica as a ‘Black de-colonializing’ state, Brazil as ‘a racial democracy’, the USA as ‘post-race’ and the UK as ‘tolerant multi-cultural’.

Racism and Ethnicity 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 Racism and Ethnicity debates and concerns.

Elective Modules

In addition to the compulsory modules, you also choose two modules from the following list.

Research Strategy and Design
Liquid Sociology
Quantitative Research Methods
Qualitative Research Methods
Issues in Social Policy Analysis and Research
Debates on Disability Theory and Research
Social Policy, Politics and Disabled People
Disability and Development
Evaluation Research
From Conception to the Grave: Health in a Global Context
Contemporary Social Thought

Full-time students may take either three modules in Semester 1 and one in Semester 2, as well as the dissertation, or two modules in Semester 1 and two in Semester 2, as well as the dissertation.

Part-time students have some flexibility as to when they take their modules, but we do advise candidates to consider the credit load between semesters. One pattern may be to take three modules in the first year, with two in Semester 1 and one in Semester 2. This leaves one module and the dissertation for the second year.

Postgraduate Diploma in Racism and Ethnicity Studies

Available on a 12-month full-time or 24-month part-time basis, the Postgraduate Diploma in Racism and Ethnicity Studies 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.