BA Film Studies and Middle Eastern Studies / Course details

The Joint Honours in Film Studies provides you with a thorough grounding in film history and key theoretical approaches to studying film as well as the opportunity to develop specialist areas of interest alongside your study of Middle Eastern history, politics and culture. 

Film Studies  

• You will expand your experience of film through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world.
• You will study mainstream and non-mainstream films in order to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future.
• As you enhance your skills of close analysis, you will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium.
• The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production. 

Middle Eastern Studies  

• The course considers the fact that the study of the Middle East has grown into a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural academic phenomenon, attracting strong interest for political, cultural and social reasons.
• It takes on board academic developments in fields such as globalisation, cultural identity, diaspora and migration studies, gender studies, and post-colonial studies, all of which are based on techniques in the analysis of evidence across several Middle Eastern languages and uses original sources in English translation as well as secondary sources in English.
• The interplay of disciplines and skills involved in achieving a balanced view of the history, literatures, cultures, and religions of the Middle East is broad and complex.
• Language skills are useful in achieving an advanced understanding of this balanced view, but not the only route. This degree, therefore, allows the study of language(s) up to level 2, but does not make language study compulsory.
• The course will equip you, through core course units and a wide range of optional course units, with the ability to acquire a thorough and sufficiently specific, but language-independent understanding of the Middle East, alongside key contemporary methods in the study of culture, religion, literature and history.

• Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals, and build your external networks.
• Join The University of Manchester Filmmaking Society, which exists to provide a platform for aspiring filmmakers attending the university to meet, exchange ideas and create their own cinematic productions.
• Join The University of Manchester Drama Society, which is for anyone with an interest in drama, be that acting, directing, writing, filmmaking, costume, set building, stage managing or just watching. One of the largest in the Student Union, the society has links with many of Manchester's award-winning theatrical venues, including the Contact Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre. Each summer the society showcases at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

You will learn through lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical group projects.

There's emphasis on attending film screenings, which are designed to enable you to better understand the distinctive qualities of film as a medium.

There's also emphasis on close analysis which is designed to enable you to learn to interpret films and their discursive surround, including relevant paratexts (eg promotional material such as trailers and posters).

You will spend approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions. For every hour spent at University, you will be expected to complete a further two to three hours of independent study. You will also need to study during the holiday periods.

The individual study component could be spent reading, producing written work, revising for examinations or working in the University's Language Centre .

You will be assessed in various ways, including:

• written and oral examinations;
• coursework essays;
• research reports;
• practical tests;
• learning logs;
• web contributions;
• small-scale practical assignments;
• seminar presentations and participation;
• library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection.

Many course units are assessed through a mixture of techniques.

In your final year, you can choose to write a dissertation.

Our comprehensive facilities include the Martin Harris Centre - home to the 150-seater John Thaw Studio plus the John Casken Lecture Theatre, which is fitted with 7.1 surround sound system - and workshops and rehearsal rooms fully equipped with industry-standard sound editing and video editing suites.

Manchester also hosts several film festivals with specialisms ranging from animation and horror to Spanish-language cinema.

Manchester also has the second-highest concentration of theatres in the UK.

As well as making use of the wider University library network, you will have access to the University Language Centre , a modern open learning facility where you can study independently and make use of a library and audio-visual resources.

There are also language laboratories and multimedia facilities.

Learn more about facilities