Cultural and Critical Studies MA

Beginning with Marx’s famous account of the commodity in the first chapter of Capital, this module explores a range of theoretical accounts of capitalism and examines their significance to the analysis of different cultural forms.

Development, execution, and writing-up of an independent research project on a topic chosen by you. You'll attend regular research seminars. Individual supervision will provide topic-specific guidance.

This module offers an introduction to major theoretical approaches to the study of culture. You'll explore the historical development of the discipline of cultural studies and current developments in the field.

This module addresses one of the most urgent and, at the same time, elusive contemporary issues: the relationship between culture and the rise of digital media. It explores the production, circulation and cultural impact of digital technologies and considers how their emergence influences society, contemporary culture, and the relationship between the two. The module introduces key themes and debates in digital culture and explores ways in which digital environments impact how we produce, engage with, and thus understand, their cultural formations.

Through workshops and seminars, this module introduces you to practical and theoretical issues of using archives for the purposes of research or exhibition. With privileged access to the unique collections of the University of Westminster Archive, the module will enable you to examine: the principles of archival practice; how context, authorship, intentionality and audience participate in the construction of meanings of archive documents; the politics of the archive, including curatorial and artistic intervention, and the creation of alternative histories; the impact of digitisation, and issues of copyright and authorship.

Focusing on the 1990s to the present day, this module examines the idea of the “queer”. Examining a range of theoretical, literary and cultural perspectives on the topic, the module will investigate what queer means and how it has shaped our ideas about sexuality, identity, intimacy, desire and representation. Each week students will engage with some theoretical writing to complement and extend our engagement with the primary material.

This module explores how different literary and cultural forms have been used to construct and contest expressions of nationhood, nationality, and nationalism in diverse cultural and historical contexts from the Global North and South. You'll engage with writing from a variety of periods and genres to examine how writers have (re)imagined ideas such as sovereignty, citizenship, belonging, and statelessness. In so doing, you will consider the ways in which literature has shaped, resisted, and responded to seismic historical movements such as imperialism, postcolonialism, mass migration, globalisation, and contemporary neonationalism. These ideas and processes will be explored through readings of key theorists and commentators.

This module examines the issues and practices involved in presenting non-western cultures to a diverse audience through visual practices. You will look at how representation produces meaning, and consider the main frameworks that can help you understand how cultures are represented in a range of contexts. Key issues explored include: postcolonialism; globalisation; the relationship between photography and ideology; the ethics of representation; the birth of the museum; contemporary roles of western cultural institutions; and audiences as citizens and consumers. The module is run through seminars and workshops in London museums and archives.

Using a range of theoretical, historical, literary, visual and other cultural texts, this module explores the idea of urban culture as it has developed since the mid-19th century. Focusing, in particular, on the distinctive concept of the modern metropolis, the module considers a variety of different representations of the city and critically examines the divergent ways in which they understand the specificity of urban experience itself.

This module examines ways in which the world and 'other worlds' were formed through literary and cultural representation during the later nineteenth century. It focuses on themes such as mapping the Empire and the city, scientific views, the natural world, hauntings, sexology and ideas of gender, and the life of the mind.

This module aims to enable students to gain first-hand experience of working within a context relevant to their career objectives; to enhance the opportunities for translating theoretical and practical knowledge into professional skills and to encourage students to make beneficial connections within a professional context.