Master of Arts in Anthropology, Ecology and Global Justice

at Goldsmiths, University of London United Kingdom

This course will teach you how to use game design to develop aesthetic awareness, and create meaningful experiences. Students learn how to build compelling mechanics, craft innovative narratives, and develop immersive playable environments. Together, we will push games into new territories and intellectual domains.

As technologies have integrated into our everyday lives, elements from games have been woven into everything, from the way museums educate the public, to how scientists do cancer research. With the rise of mobile games, console creators no longer hold a monopoly on gaming platforms. This new-found freedom has resulted in an explosion of independent games – from putting players in immersive augmented worlds, to telling transformational personal narratives, these new experiences are redefining the rules of play.

Games are now part of everyday life. As a result, markets previously dominated by traditional media have begun to leverage the ability of games to tell stories, generate knowledge, and educate the public. An explosion of games and apps has created a new breed of entrepreneur, who uses small teams to create projects accessible to millions.

Why Study MA Independent Games Design at Goldsmiths?

• This MA has several informal focus areas students can choose from:
  • Independent games design and development
  • Mixed reality (XR), playful experiences, and installation design
  • Games for change
  • Machine learning and game user experiences
  • Using Creative Coding and Physical Computing
• You can build skills to start your own game design studio.
• You will be mentored on how to grow in your creative career.
• When you graduate, you can use game design in a wide range of fields both inside and outside the game industry, including independent games, XR studios, interactive film, advertising and media outlets, journalism, non-profits, education, design, and fine arts.
• You will be part of a supportive community of games creators who actively release titles, and have access to a large library of video games and board games.

The MA History is innovative, creative, free-thinking, stimulating, diverse and challenging – everything that is distinctive about history at Goldsmiths.

Why study MA History at Goldsmiths?

• The Department of History’s approach is thematic and interdisciplinary, with staff expertise spanning the histories of Britain, East and West Europe, South Asia and Africa.
• We are on the cutting-edge of our fields and the student-teacher ratio allows us to devote an unmatched amount of time to individual supervision.
• Our focus is primary research and we'll encourage you to follow your own historical interests. You'll be able to develop your specific subject interests through a range of option modules and the dissertation.
• You'll develop your research skills and your understanding of key debates and methods in historiography.
• In addition to the compulsory module (Explorations and Debates) and the Research Skills modules, you'll choose two options, one of which, if you wish, can be from another department at Goldsmiths or from the wide-ranging intercollegiate list (a list of MA modules available at other colleges of the University of London).
• You'll end the programme by writing a 15,000-word dissertation on a topic of your own choice, based on primary research. The process of writing the dissertation includes participating in, organising, and presenting at, the department's dissertation conference.

Develop your digital production skills, and combine them with key anthropological concepts. The BA Anthropology & Visual Practice programme helps develop your understanding of contemporary cultural issues, as well as your practical skills in both research methods and visual practice.

Why study BA Anthropology & Visual Practice at Goldsmiths?

• This programme approaches anthropology from a fresh angle that differs from the 'traditional anthropology' taught at other institutions.
• You’ll receive hands-on training in a range of digital production skills, such as editing, videography, and photography. These new skills will complement your theoretical study, and prepare you for vocational opportunities when you graduate.
• You’ll have the opportunity to investigate anthropology in relation to politics, religion, knowledge, philosophy and psychology – and you’ll learn to apply an interdisciplinary perspective to your work.
• Examine anthropology from a contemporary perspective – what you learn in the classroom will be relevant in a variety of public domains, in Britain, and around the world.
• You'll explore links between theoretical issues and ethnographic studies, enabling you to think critically about your own culture and society, and to apply knowledge learned in lectures to your everyday life.
• Our graduates have gone on to work for the UN, World Bank, NGOs, law companies, media companies and corporate social responsibility (CSR) consultancies, while others have gone on to pursue academic careers.

Explore the nature and social impact of crime and investigate the subject from a critical and sociological perspective. You'll graduate with the skills and experience suitable for a wide range of careers in the policy, legal, criminal justice, academic and civil sectors. You could find a job as a youth worker, counsellor, police or probation officer – or pursue a career in human rights, counter-terrorism or the intelligence services.

Why study BA Criminology at Goldsmiths?

• Issues of social inequality and justice are brought to the foreground in this degree. You’ll learn how race, gender, class and nationality connect to crime and control, taking an international perspective to explore differences across the globe.
• You'll be taught by researchers at the cutting edge of criminological and sociological research on urban crime, control and security, and globalisation and crime. And, as part of a tight-knit group of students, you'll benefit from the support and expertise of your teachers throughout your degree.
• Modules such as Criminal Justice in Context give you the opportunity to meet and learn from leaders in criminal justice, policy and campaigning sectors, offering up to date knowledge.
• You’ll have access to a range of work placements and volunteer opportunities and we’ll help you find an organisation that suits you. You might take part in training to support a victim of crime, attend court, or mentor young people.
• You'll learn how to research. Being able to gather and analyse different types of information from a wide variety of sources is a vital skill in the digital age where there is a lot of information but a shortage of truth.
• You'll be taught by experts in the social sciences, as well as those involved with and who have experience of criminal justice.

The MA Anthropology, Ecology and Global Justice is an exciting interdisciplinary programme that explores the contemporary crises of global inequality, climate change, and ecological breakdown, and equips you with the tools to respond.

Why study MA Anthropology, Ecology and Global Justice at Goldsmiths?

• Identify and grapple with the structural drivers of global inequality, climate change and ecological breakdown.
• Develop your understanding of these crises in historical perspective, with reference to patterns of colonial power and the formation of the capitalist world-system over 500 years.
• Work with insights from dependency theory; anti-colonial movements; degrowth; ecological economics; and post-development thought.
• Engage with classic texts in critical theory and ecological anthropology, with a focus on thinkers from the global South and Indigenous political ontology.
• Learn about concrete policy alternatives for the 21st century, drawing on the Department of Anthropology’s commitment to building a public anthropology.

Radio and audio have the potential to be transformative, to further the human experience. It’s a medium that creates a sense of intimacy while continually generating questions. This is a programme that empowers you to create something permanent, something with a life beyond your own – something only sound can achieve.

The MA poses questions about the influence of radio as a medium and the power it has to stir emotions, evoke feelings, and conjure vivid mental images. We look at the ways in which recording technologies can preserve and hold on to an aspect of our existence – be that a cultural exchange or an artistic communication – and how we can inspire future generations with the work we create.

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 BA in Drama and Theatre Arts is designed to foster creative, radical theatre-makers and thinkers. It is adventurous in form, international in scope and hands-on in practice.

The Complete Theatre Maker

• This degree supports you to become the complete theatre maker. At the heart of the programme is a balanced integration of theory and practice. Knowledge gained through making and doing adds to your conceptual understanding, while the insights gained in writing about theatre and society inform the choices you make in your practice-based work.
• Tutored by our diverse and talented team, you will develop technical skills in acting, directing, writing, sound, lighting, scenography, and costume. Bringing these skills together, you will learn how to collaborate and operate in companies, ready to take your own show on the road.
• You will be introduced to a wide range of theatre thinkers, and explore the history and cultural diversity of performance. You will develop a complex understanding of what it means to make theatre in an increasingly global 21st-century society. And with London’s rich theatre culture on your doorstep, you can draw on an exciting range of contemporary practice to inform your thinking and making.

The BA Drama and Theatre Arts is a radical and innovative degree. The curriculum is responsive to the global reach of our teaching staff, including expertise in African, American, Francophone, Japanese, and South Asian performance, as well as British, European, and Russian theatre traditions. We prepare theatre-makers who are socially, culturally, and politically engaged.

The degree explores what it means to perform in contemporary culture, mobilising a range of theatre and performance practices from the interpretation of play texts to devised ensemble work and the possibilities opened up by political protest, live art, and the avant-garde.

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

Events managers of the future need to be versatile and confident, managing a wide array of events in innovative ways. This degree equips you to take your place in the events industry, leading the way in events and experience management for the fast-paced creative and cultural industries.

From immersive theatre performances to pop-up gigs, there is an increasing demand for events management skills and knowledge to bring these projects to life. The MA Events and Experience Management at Goldsmiths is a truly unique course that will focus on creative and cultural industry events experiences. Combining theoretical knowledge and practical experience this degree is specifically aimed at enabling you to run creative events in this constantly changing environment.

The MA Events and Experience Management at Goldsmiths is rare in its close linkage with the creative and cultural industries, and offering modules across three departments. This approach will allow anyone wishing to pursue a career in the cultural and creative industries to gain valuable and cutting edge experience and knowledge.

You’ll benefit from close connections to the events industry throughout your time at Goldsmiths, from opportunities for practical work experience to learning from the experiences and insight of our guest speakers. Practical experience is built into the content of the course which allows you to apply your theoretical and strategic knowledge to real events, honing your planning, organisation and marketing skills. You’ll work with an arts organisation or events manager to put on an event that meets their needs and there will also be opportunities to support the running of festivals like Wilderness.