Course description
I loved Science, Magic and Expertise. We had a great lecturer, Penny Harvey
who had a great way of delivering complicated ideas, with a sort of raconteur-meets-mad-scientist-style, but all wrapped up in a warm and approachable manner.
Claire Moran / MA Social Anthropology student
Through a set of core course units, comprising about a third of coursework credits, you are provided with a comprehensive grounding in classical as well as contemporary debates in social anthropology and are introduced to the distinctive research methods and ethical positions associated with the discipline. You can select units of study from a good number of elective modules offered by staff working at the forward edge of their fields of study, and complete augment these by choosing from a broad range of units offered around the Faculty of Humanities.
Through these options, you apply the social anthropological theories and methods learnt on the core units to particular substantive themes and topics.
Diploma students complete their coursework in May and formally graduate in July. Over the summer holidays, MA students carry out research for a 15,000 word dissertation that is submitted in September; normally graduating in December.
Teaching and learning
You will take four 15-credit core course units to a total of 60 credits, including Key Approaches to Social Anthropology, Ethnography Reading Seminar, Contemporary Debates, and Image Text and Fieldwork, and a selection of optional units that you choose shortly after arrival.
Many elective units are worth 15 credits.
In total, you are required to achieve 120 coursework credits.
Over the Summer holidays, you are required to write a dissertation which is worth a further 60 credits.
Part-time students complete the full-time course over two years.
There are no evening or weekend course units available on the part-time course.
You must first check the schedule of the compulsory units and then select your optional units to suit your requirements.
Updated timetable information will be available from mid-August and you will have the opportunity to discuss your unit choices during induction week with your course director.
Coursework and assessment
Most units are assessed by means of an extended assessment essay. Typically, for 15 credit units, these will be 4000 words, whilst for 30 credit courses, they are normally 6000 words.
Certain options involving practical instruction in research methods, audio-visual media or museum display may also be assessed by means of presentations and/or portfolios of practical work. In addition, all MA students are required to write a 15,000 word dissertation.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
---|---|---|---|
Images, Text, Fieldwork | SOAN70452 | 15 | Mandatory |
MA Ethnography Reading Seminar | SOAN70691 | 15 | Mandatory |
Key Approaches in Social Anthropology | SOAN70811 | 15 | Mandatory |
Contemporary Debates in Social Anthropology | SOAN70822 | 15 | Mandatory |
Anthropology of Displacement and Migration: Why and how do people move? | SOAN60252 | 15 | Optional |
Anthropology of Human Learning: Childhood and Education | SOAN60372 | 15 | Optional |
Ethnographies and Adventures in Manchester | SOAN60382 | 15 | Optional |
Anthropology of Health and Wellbeing | SOAN60411 | 15 | Optional |
Food and Eating: The Cultural Body | SOAN60882 | 15 | Optional |
Elemental Media: Documentary and Sensory Practice | SOAN60992 | 15 | Optional |
Displaying 10 of 12 course units | |||
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