Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Design

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

This degree provides a grounding in some of the major aspects of politics and international relations. You'll learn about international systems and global governance political theory, UK, European and US politics, international political economy and undertake area-based studies of Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Why study BA Politics with International Relations at Goldsmiths?

• We offer a distinctive approach that combines the study of politics and international relations, giving you the opportunity to gain broad knowledge and experience of both disciplines.
• The Department of Politics and International Relations provides a lively interdisciplinary environment, specialising in the study of institutions and conflicts in a way that crosses boundaries between traditional understandings of political phenomena.
• You’ll be able to choose from an unusually wide range of module options which explore the aesthetics of terrorism, critical approaches to security, the politics of development, US politics and foreign policy, the geopolitics of the Middle East, and contemporary movements from the Arab Spring to ISIS. We offer a range of area-based modules covering the Middle East, China and East Asia, Africa and Latin America.
• We have a lively events programme that attracts renowned speakers, meaning that you'll have the opportunity to hear the latest political arguments, theories and ideas.
• Our unique work placement module gives you the opportunity to gain work experience relevant to the degree and we also give you the opportunity to study abroad.

This degree brings together the rich work within critical and cultural theory, continental philosophy, cultural studies, and contemporary feminist and postcolonial scholarship.

The MA Sociology (Cultural Analysis) enables you to develop critical and analytical interdisciplinary perspectives on contemporary socio-cultural processes. It offers a sense of the breadth of possible approaches while developing the skills necessary to produce original analyses in a scholarly and inventive manner. You will explore topics like the nature and historical conditions of critique itself, the relations between power and subjectivity, the concept of performativity, cosmopolitics, novel forms of protest, and radical empiricism, among others. These questions cross and connect human and non-human worlds, and involve both aesthetic and historical aspects.

Combine the study of literature with the practice of creative writing. You’ll graduate with the ability to be informed and curious about literature, and with the imagination to turn that curiosity into creativity.

This flexible programme allows you to choose topics related to American literature and culture, comparisons of literature across different cultures and art forms (also known as Comparative Literature), and study diverse aspects of language use in linguistics modules. Your literary and creative studies will be supported by lectures and seminars which will give you practical advice to help you improve your essay writing and refine your research strategies.

Why study BA English with Creative Writing at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll read key literary texts, and experiment with writing prose and poetry. By the end of the creative writing degree you’ll have uncovered your written style and developed an extensive portfolio of creative work.
• We’re based in London, a city that’s full of literary inspiration. Take a look at English student Samantha’s favourite places to write.
• Our alumni have gone on to win prestigious awards including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, the European Union Prize for Literature, and the Dylan Thomas Prize. One of our alumni, Sophie Collins, was awarded a Fellowship by the Royal Society of Literature as part of its inaugural 40 Under 40 scheme in 2018.
• We’re regularly visited by literary guest speakers. Recent visitors have included Ali Smith, Nikesh Shukla, Michael Rosen, Eimear McBride and Howard Jacobson.
• We host an annual literary award – the Goldsmiths Prize – that celebrates work that pushes the boundaries of the novel.

This distinctive degree supports your individual concerns and development and enables you to navigate your way through theory and practice, various fine art media, and thematic strands within the study of art history and visual cultures.

Why study BA Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths?

• You’ll gain the expertise that will help you develop independent thought and confidence in your practice, as well as transferable skills suitable for employment in the creative industries.
• Studying both the theory and practice of fine art means you’ll be able to take a critical approach to your work and think about it in the wider context of art history.
• We're renowned for our strengths in the creative and visual arts, as well as humanities subjects, so you'll be able to benefit from this wide-ranging expertise.
• We're ranked 15th in the world for art and design (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021).
• Staff on the programme are practising artists, curators, academics and writers, here to help you develop your practice, focus your research and respond to the work that you make.
• Our teaching takes advantage of the many galleries, art spaces, museums, cultural facilities and specialist libraries in London and on campus you'll have access to a studio space and excellent facilities including specialist art practice areas, as well as the newly opened Goldsmiths Centre of Contemporary Art.
• Invited artists, curators, gallerists, administrators and funders will provide you with specialist advice and further information to complement your studies and prepare you for professional life after graduation.

The MA will take a distinctively interdisciplinary and critical perspective. It will highlight the concept of “ecology” in an expanded sense and encompass the complex web of interconnections that bind people, animals, bodies, soils, ideas, technologies, practices, institutions, cultures, and histories with their changing environments. Drawing on perspectives from the humanities and the social sciences, this programme explores the many shifting relationships between natures and cultures around the world. It introduces critical new approaches to the connections between humans and animals in more-than-human worlds, and it will enable you to develop a critical understanding of the ways in which ecological issues are intertwined with the question of social justice, cultural difference, and decolonisation.

You will be encouraged to explore the philosophical, cultural, political, and social dimensions that shape our understanding of contemporary socio-ecological issues and to explore imaginative responses to them. You will also learn to develop and apply ecological perspectives on various forms of social, political, and cultural analysis.

This programme will give you a critical understanding of our times and will help you develop key interdisciplinary skills for critical socio-ecological scholarship, creativity, communication, and activism. It will equip you with the insights, concepts, and skills needed to understand and engage with the tangled relationships between nature and culture, and the ethics and politics of our relationships with animals. You will also acquire knowledge and understanding of key concepts such as Anthropocene, anthropocentrism, value, difference, domestication, human exceptionalism, extractivism, decolonisation, radical pluralism, and the arts of living.

The programme offers the possibility of engagement with the study of the cultural sector in developing and managing tourism and hospitality.

Cultural policies designed to support the arts sectors to enhance high value added tourism and to increase lengths of stay and repeat visits are increasingly being adopted by governments worldwide with the support of the tourism and hospitality sector.

This degree applies to those wishing to work in the arts and tourism sectors or perhaps in galleries and theatres associated with the hospitality sector. It is also for art practitioners and cultural professionals who wish to develop careers involving cultural tourism, cultural policy, culture-led regeneration and destination, city and country branding. It is also relevant to work in NGOs or the cultural policy arms of government and intra-governmental organisations and consultancies.

This challenging and ground-breaking degree introduces you to core ideas and issues in politics, philosophy and economics (PPE). It will help you understand how the economy is governed, how public policy gets made, and the ideas which shape our world.

Why study BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Goldsmiths?

• We offer a distinctive, fresh and critical take on the well-established combination of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), drawing on our strengths in social science and theory. You'll gain an introduction in the ideas and concepts that have shaped the world you live in, and learn to challenge established political and economic policies, institutions and methods.
• As one of the top political universities in the UK as voted by students (Which? University 2019), Goldsmiths offers a dynamic undergraduate culture, with active student media and politics groups. By the time you graduate, you will have gained a wealth of practical experience, and discovered what excites you for your career ahead.
• You’ll be taught by highly engaged lecturers working across politics, philosophy and economics, all of whom are active researchers and accomplished writers in their fields.
• The programme includes a basic introduction to economics, so you don’t need any prior experience of economics or an A-level in Mathematics before you start.
• Over the three years, you’ll be introduced to alternative approaches to the economy, drawn from anthropology and sociology. You will be encouraged to think more broadly and imaginatively about the way in which markets, states and public policies operate in the 21st century.
• You’ll focus on contemporary, real-world problems, such as financial and environmental regulation, which will prepare you for a career in public policy, NGOs, media, consulting or social innovation.
• In addition to the taught curriculum, you will have the opportunity to hear from experts and policy-makers at special guest lectures.

There has never been a more exciting time to study media and communications. The digital age has transformed our experiences from shopping, to chatting to friends, to searching out information, to political activism. Our mediated worlds impact upon the rhythms and rituals of our daily lives changing the way we think about things, the way we create things, even the way we conceive of ourselves.

We encourage you to look at issues holistically. Alongside lectures and seminars we run workshops, screenings and cultural trips to encourage you to explore the role of the media in our lives as widely as possible – from the individual and organisational level to corporations, the state, and the market across both the public and private sectors.

This is a theory-driven MA, but you also have the opportunity to do a practice option in a range of areas including Journalism, Campaigns and Design, and the Screen School. Plus you get the chance to apply your knowledge to a subject that ignites your interest and do your own independent research as part of your dissertation. From how people mediate the self through body piercing to how we form intimate relationships through social media, your dissertation topic is entirely up to you.

This pioneering Masters offers interdisciplinary perspectives on international performance, and aims to understand performance in relation to the culture to which it contributes.

Why study MA Performance and Culture at Goldsmiths?

• The programme takes in diverse forms of theatre, including multicultural and street theatre, and practices such as:
  • Performance art
  • Dance
  • Ritual
  • Site-specific performance
  • A wide range of hybrid forms
• You will explore performance as a sociocultural process, using analytical principles from sociology, cultural theory, anthropology, history, philosophy, politics and theatre and performance.
• We have numerous links, locally and internationally, with a wide variety of theatres, companies and performers, all of which enhance your research possibilities.
• The programme will provide you with the appropriate categories of thought and methodological procedures for analysing, understanding and explaining performance processes as sociocultural practices: how and why they emerge from specific sociocultural and historical time place and space.

MA Filmmaking (Sound Recording, Post-Production & Design), is housed in a new purpose-built media facility equipped with state-of-the-art teaching spaces including a film studio for sound shooting, Pro Tools suites, Audio Postproduction facilities with Foley recording studios, Avid Media Composer, screening rooms and an Avid ISIS SAN network linking all teaching spaces.

You'll learn the fundamental technical skills necessary to begin a career in screen sound, both as a location sound recordist and post-production sound designer. But equally importantly, you will gain an understanding of how a film’s narrative relies on the precise partnership between image and sound.

Within this MA programme you'll expand your existing knowledge of sound. Through recording and design you'll investigate what it means to listen with awareness and to translate that experience to your audience. And you'll study how sound is created, how you can manipulate its form, whether it’s natural, synthesised, digitised or analogue, and how to work with sound as a storytelling medium.

The Sound curriculum focuses on the structure of the soundtrack, deconstructing it from its beginnings in pre-production to the final mix, experimenting with the ways in which different components (dialogue, atmospheres, sound effects, music) allow an audience to engage with a film’s story. Through iterative exercises, group reviews and regular feedback, you gain the awareness and ability to construct soundtracks that interpret stories through sound.

As a sound specialist you work on one film each term, ending with a major production. You learn about related fields such as directing, editing, producing and documentary, and work with students across specialisms within Goldsmiths Screen School. As well as developing your awareness of the discipline and learning software such as Pro Tools, the Options modules provide the opportunity to learn the concepts and debates informing the wider filmmaking industry. This means you have the chance to explore your craft with other filmmakers and get used to the unique dynamics of the industry