MA Visual Anthropology / Course details

The final project is based on original ethnographic research that students will carry out over the summer and comprises of a media production (for example an ethnographic documentary film, or a photographic book, or an image and sound documentary, or other) and a written companion text. Through a series of one-to-one meetings and workshops, students will work together with their supervisors over the course of the year to discuss the planning of their final project and the writing of a research proposal. Students will be encouraged to draw on ideas or methods that they have encountered in the courses that they have taken over the two semesters, including not just the hands-on courses, but also Screening Culture, Vision, Memory and the Senses, and Images Texts and Fieldwork.

These include:

• An understanding of the use of bibliographic, filmic, and electronic sources in preparing a research project.
• An appreciation of how textual, visual, and sound media can be integrated in both the production and presentation of research.
• Ability to develop an audiovisual research project informed by anthropological analysis.
• A developed awareness of the personal and ethical issues inherent in social research involving visual, and sound media.
• An ability to present a proposal to a group of peers and the course instructor.
• The ability to produce a final audiovisual project, accompanied by a critical analysis, from conception to completion independently, with guidance from tutors and supervisors.
 

Lecture-based, practice-based learning, group and individual supervision meetings.

Students received consistent feedback on their research project work during supervision meetings and throughout the autumn and spring semester. Students also receive supervised peer feedback in groups meetings. Once they return from fieldwork, they receive supervision and feedback from their tutors and supervisors.