MA Humanitarianism and Conflict Response

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,700
• MA (part-time)
  UK students (per annum): £7,350
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £15,400

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students.
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

This module explores the complex relationship between ideas of security and their gendered and racialized logics. Drawing on contemporary feminist, critical race and postcolonial approaches to studying the world, this module serves to give students a deeper understanding of how security is represented, enacted, legitimated and experienced. Through a critical engagement with the concepts of security, race and gender, the module encourages students to reflect on and question what is ‘known’ about security and to challenge common sense presentations of the practices. By positioning both gender and race as topics of study as well as analytical lenses, the module will show that they are foundational and constitutive of our ideas about security and our responses to insecurity.

1. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and capacity to critically engage with a range of feminist and postcolonial approaches to the study of security.
2. Consider and show rigorous reflection on the ethical and methodological challenges of researching security from feminist, critical race and postcolonial perspectives.
3. Critically interrogate the gendered and racialized logics through which contemporary security is narrated, legitimized and resisted. 
4. Show understanding of and sensitivity to the ‘everyday’ nature of security practices and their uneven effects on gendered and racialized bodies.
5. Show appropriate understanding of and ability to contribute to debates on security, and its gender and race dynamics, through the development of analytical and presentation skills and independent learning and research skills.

The module will be delivered through 10 thematic teaching sessions, which will take the form of 45 minute lecture and a 1-hour seminar-style discussion of key texts, exercises to think through the implications of the topics under discussion. The classes will be supported by Canvas with all lecture and reading materials shared via the platform.

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Debates about gender and race as socially constructed categories which underpin ideas of security.
• Issues shaping debates about security and our responses to insecurity.
• The role of narrative and diverse forms of representation in shaping discourse about security.
• The historical and spatial dimensions of discourses of insecurity and how these map onto particular gendered and racialized bodies.

• Identify and evaluate different conceptual and theoretical perspectives.
• Critically analyse debates about the meanings of and constructions of security, race and gender.
• Investigate and analyse the role that race and gender have played in contemporary security issues and responses.
• Develop reflective practice on the ethical implications of the study and practice of security.
• Show the ability to connect the ‘everyday’ experiences of security and insecurity to broader global discourses through the application of appropriate theoretical lenses

• Research skills, including planning, prioritisation of tasks, identification and location of primary and secondary sources, evaluation of findings.
• Essay-writing skills related to the analysis of a specific question, construction of arguments, assessment and deployment of evidence, writing style.
• Applied analytical skills, built through an understanding of both academic and operational questions gender, race and security.
• Participation in seminar discussion and presentations in order to aid the research, analysis and presentation skills.

• Students will have the opportunity to develop interpretation and argumentation skills, both written and oral form, through assessed coursework and seminar presentations.
• Students will develop research and project management skills throughout the course.
• The course will foster an ability to move between different disciplinary approaches, promoting flexibility and adaptable working methods.

Assessment Task	Formative or Summative	Length	Weighting within unit
Source analysis	Summative	10 minute group presentation	30%
Essay	Summative	2,000 words	70%
Essay plan	Formative	500 words	N/A

Feedback method	Formative or Summative
Written feedback on assignments	Summative
Oral feedback in class	Formative
Oral feedback one-to-one during office hours	Formative/summative

Bhatia, Michael V. ‘Fighting Words: Naming Terrorists, Bandits, Rebels and Other Violent Actors’, Third World Quarterly 26:1 (2005): 5-22.

Mutua, M. 2001. ‘Savages, Victims, and Saviours: The Metaphor of Human Rights’, Harvard International Law Journal 42(1): 201-245. 

Mbembe, A. and L. Meintjes. 2003. Necropolitics. Public Culture. 15(1): 11-40

Stanski, K. 2009. ‘“So These Folks are Aggressive”: An Orientalist Reading of “Afghan Warlords”’, Security Dialogue 40(1): 73-94.

Enloe, Cynthia (2014), Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics, 2ndedition, London: University of California Press

hooks, bell (2000), Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre, London: PLuto

Kronswell, Annica and Erica Svedberg (eds.) (2013), Making Gender, Making War: Violence, Military and Peacekeeping Practices, Abingdon: Routledge

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade (2003), Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, London: Duke University Press.

Parpart, Jane L., and Marysia Zalewski (eds.) (2008), Rethinking the Man Question: Sex, Gender and Violence in International Relations, London: Zed Books

Shepherd, Laura J. (2013), Gender, Violence and Popular Culture: Telling Stories, Abingdon: Routledge

Sylvester, Christine (2013), War as Experience: Contributions from International Relations and Feminist Analysis, Abingdon and New York: Routledge

Khalili, L. 2011. ‘Gendered Practices of Counterinsurgency’, Review of International Studies 37(4): 1471-1491.

Welland, J. 2015. ‘Liberal Warriors and the Violent Colonial Logics of “Partnering and Advising”, International Feminist Journal of Politics 17(2): 289-307.

Medie, P. A. 2013. Fighting Gender-based Violence: The Women’s Movement and the Enforcement of Rape Law in Liberia. African Affairs. 112 (448): 377-397

Razack, Sherene. Dark Threats and White Knights¿: the Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New Imperialism . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.