Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History with Military History

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

Journalism is about the world outside. It’s about the story and the people who make it. It’s about being on top of the zeitgeist. And being on top of the deadlines.

What you will learn

• This MA gives you the practical skills to work as a journalist at the highest level in print and online. We will learn what news means, and where it comes from. We will give you the ability to write compelling features and interviews. We’ll also be focusing on the kinds of questions you need to ask – of the individual, the state or the organs of power. And we address how the new digital world has transformed the way we go about journalism, adding new platforms and new technical skills.

This Masters programme in Cultural Studies offers you the opportunity to engage with some of the key theorists and the significant debates in Cultural Studies, spanning from its inception in Britain in the mid-1970s, to the present day. Cultural Studies has developed a distinctive set of concepts and methodologies to help better understand social institutions and practices, objects, items, and their circulation in consumer culture. Cultural theory permits close analysis of topics including race, youth, music, fashion, and the creative economy, and embraces the history of sexuality, emotions and affects. This course will consider current permutations on key topics such as music, sound and technology, national identity, the rise of ‘public feelings’, the cultural dynamics of precarity and austerity, art, and cultural expression for the new feminist activism.

Why study MA Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths?

• Explore the impact and influence Cultural Studies has on a wide range of research interests, not only in the English-speaking world, but also internationally. The programme will teach you about a range of Cultural Studies methodologies that you can then apply in your own writing and research. It will also include a Critical Ethnography Afternoon where students explore the place of this kind of research in the cultural studies tradition.
• Examine the effect media technologies have on the cultural practices of production and consumption. As the course has a strong focus on new developments in sonic technology, this might include, for example, emerging local music scenes. This might also involve mean a focus on changes in fashion consumption, such as platform providers, and the role of influencers.

The best journalism is based on a sound understanding of the history that has shaped the world we inhabit today.

There is a strong and growing tradition of deeper journalistic investigation into issues and events in the recent and more distant past (however that might be defined). This might be to unearth new knowledge, to investigate and reinterpret existing thinking, or to revise and update past ideas and understandings.

This innovative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary programme, jointly delivered by the Department of History and the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, emphasises that the causes and results of events in the past are fiercely contested by historians.

Why study BA History and Journalism at Goldsmiths?

• History - the study, analysis and understanding of the past - is as important today as it has ever been, and it continues to make vital contributions to how we comprehend and interact with the world around us. It is a relevant, dynamic, fascinating and important field of study which, at Goldsmiths, is approached in creative, innovative and exciting ways.
• Understanding past societies fosters emotional intelligence and allows us to appreciate the diversity and adaptability of human life. Understanding our pasts can help us to shape our futures and, crucially, help us shape those futures intelligently, insightfully, fairly, and with compassion.
• The essential skills of researching, interviewing, and writing in a number of different long-form and short-form styles and formats are delivered alongside tuition for a range of digital tools including video reporting, the use of social media for research and dissemination, and how to work in the world of online, multimedia journalism.
• An international body of staff research and deliver modules covering a wide geographical range including Asia, Africa, the Americas, the British Isles, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Middle East. Academic staff in both departments are nationally and internationally recognized award-winning experts in their fields who are at the forefront of research excellence and research-led teaching.

Why study MA Black British Literature at Goldsmiths?

• This degree is a world first. There’s nowhere else you can study black British writing in such an in-depth way – in the actual country where the writing is produced. We trace diasporic and aesthetic routes and draw upon the expertise of literary and drama specialists.
• You’ll analyse an extremely diverse range of texts from novelists, poets, short story writers, essayists, life-writers and playwrights. You’ll also locate these writers in their historical context, gaining an understanding of the history of black people in Britain through how they are represented in literature.

The MA Promotional Media explores the impact of digital platformisation and automation on promotional professions, skills and techniques

You will explore the convergence between public relations, advertising, and marketing roles, as well as hybridised fields such as digital marketing, social media management and UX/UI design. This MA isn’t about studying ads or press coverage, but about becoming a professional who can cross-examine and critique the power dynamics between promotional professions, their client-organisations and today’s platformised media landscape.

At its core, this masters looks at how you can better serve society by improving communications across the promotional disciplines, and how public relations (PR), advertising, and marketing professionals can best develop within a challenging digital world. You’ll learn how to reflect on contemporary intellectual theories – including digital media studies, sociology, feminist theory and algorithmic culture – and apply them to workplace realities so you plan the next decade of your career.

The MSc Data Science will provide you with the technical and practical skills to analyse the big data that is the key to success in future business, digital media and science.

The rate at which we are able to create data is rapidly accelerating. According to IBM, globally, we currently produce over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data a day. This ranges from biomedical data to social media activity and climate monitoring to retail transactions. These enormous quantities of data hold the keys to success across many domains from business and marketing to treating cancer or mitigating climate change.

The pace at which we produce data is rapidly outstripping our ability to analyse and use it. Science and industry are crying out for a new generation of data scientists who combine the statistical skills of data analysis and the computational skills needed to carry out this analysis on a vast scale.

Studying this Masters, you will learn the mathematical foundations of statistics, data mining and machine learning, and apply these to practical, real-world data.

As well as these statistical skills, you will learn the computational techniques needed to efficiently analyse very large data sets. You will apply these skills to a range of real-world data, under the guidance of experts in that domain. You will analyse trends in social media, make financial predictions and extract musical information from audio files.

The programme includes:

• A firm grounding in the theory of data mining, statistics and machine learning
• Hands-on practical real-world applications such as social media, biomedical data and financial data with Hadoop (used by Yahoo!, Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, IBM, Amazon, and many others), R and other specialised software
• The opportunity to work with real-world software such as Apache

This exciting MSc reflects the broad-ranging and strong neuroscience research profile of our Department, equipping you with a rigorous grounding in the theory and applications of cognitive, clinical, and developmental neuroscience.

The programme provides a thorough coverage of the historical, philosophical and scientific bases of modern neuroscience. The emphasis is on scientific knowledge relating to the specialisms of clinical and cognitive neuropsychology with theoretical and some practical coverage.

During the course of the MSc, students interested in gaining clinical experience will be encouraged to consider possible placements that may be available with one of the several clinical sites we collaborate with. In some cases, there may also be the possibility of carrying out research for their dissertation in these clinical settings.

The MA Global Political Economy explores the dynamics of our changing world. You will work in small groups with world class experts at the Political Economy Research Centre (PERC), as well as across a number of other Goldsmiths departments, and learn how to hold the world up to scrutiny.

Why study MA Global Political Economy at Goldsmiths?

• Learn about the political economy of ecological break down, the challenge of building a sustainable world, and how to make these issues central to the analysis of politics and economics.
• Learn about the relationship between global financialised capitalism, global inequality, and the possibility of a sustainable future.
• Work closely with academic experts in small-group workshops and seminars.
• Learn in a truly interdisciplinary programme that allows you to see the global political economy from a variety of perspectives.
• Choose from a wide variety of options to build the bespoke degree programme that best suits your interests and ambitions.
• Join the series of job talks from insiders at policy Think Tanks, NGOs and the private sector.

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.

This programme will equip you for working life in the arts and cultural industries, with a specific focus on working in and managing the arts.

Why study BA Arts Management at Goldsmiths?

• Culture and the arts are vital to the global economy. You'll develop a powerful combination of theoretical insights and professional practice skills to help you navigate these important and expanding sectors.
• You’ll learn how to understand arts and creative organisations, from small community endeavours through to world renowned flagship organisations. This will prepare you for a career in this fascinating subject, in settings such as museums, galleries, theatres, dance and live music venues, festivals, and cultural centres.
• The programme includes talks from experts and visits to cultural organisations, so you’ll gain direct experience of professional practice. You may also benefit from a work placement as part of your studies in, for example, an audience development, fundraising or event management context.
• We're based in London - a global leader in the arts and one of the most important cultural centres in the world. London is the perfect place to study this subject, giving you unrivalled access to a diverse range of arts organisations. The city will become your classroom.
• You can tailor the degree to your unique interests, through independent work in your final year.