Course description
This innovative and interdisciplinary programme is concerned with one of the key global issues of the 21st Century. Conflict, genocide, development, human rights abuses are some of the factors that precipitate refugee crises. This MA provides students with a theoretical understanding of the background and responses to forced migrants and draws on sociological, legal, political, international relations, policy, economic and anthropological analyses.
This programme is particularly relevant to those with a personal experience of forced migration as well as those who either work or would like a career working for statutory, NGO or community based organisations that work with refugees and other migrants. Students graduating from this MA will have the analytic and empirical skills necessary for a diverse range of employment opportunities in the expanding refugee sector.
Students on this MA have an opportunity to work on a range of substantive topics ranging from global responses to refugees, human smuggling, refugees and human rights, gender, displacement, humanitarian responses, refugee diasporas and community formation in different regional contexts. Within the department there is regional expertise on sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Europe, including the Former Yugoslavia, and South Asia.
The Department of Sociology has a strong concentration on issues linked to race and ethnicity, global mogration, refugee studies and human rights. These areas of specialism provide a focus for the work of the Centre for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (CSRE). The Department also houses the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK (ICAR)
Modules: MA Refugee Studies
Students complete six taught modules from a combination of three compulsory core and three elective options. Students also take part in a dissertation workshop and produce a dissertation over the summer period.
Core Modules – compulsory
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An introduction to refugee studies (SGM116)
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Refugee rights and refugee settlement (SGM117)
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Approaches to social research (SGM222)
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Sociology Dissertation (SGM111)
Elective Modules – choose three from this list
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International human rights law (SGM234)
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Globalisation: Challenges and transformations (SGM101)
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Global migration (SGM233)
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Human rights: concepts and issues (SGM106)
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Global human rights (SGM242)
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Rights. Multiculturalism and citizenship (SGM109)
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Media and human rights (SGM224)
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Crime and justice (SGM232)
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Media, crime and culture (SGM235)
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Surveillance studies: theories and concepts (SGM237)
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Surveillance studies: processes and practices (SGM238)
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Feminisms and the media: representation, technology and change (SGM239)
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Global conflict and security (IPM004)
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International organisations in global politics (IPM005)
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Development and international politics (IPM009)
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Political Islam in global politics(IMP010)
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Theories of international politics (IPM008)
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NGOs, human rights and UN system.(IPM006)
NB. Elective modules choices are subject to availability and timetabling constraints.
Mode of Study
Students may take the MA programme on a full or part time basis.
Duration
Teaching is delivered in the format of lectures, classes and seminars, taking place in the first and second academic periods (September-April).
Full-time students will normally attend for two or three days a week, and complete their dissertation in the third academic period.
Part-time students will normally attend for one or two days each week for two years. In the first year they will take two core modules in the first academic period and two optional modules in the second academic period. In the second year they will take one core module in the second academic period, one optional module in the second academic period and complete their dissertation.
Dissertation
The dissertation of 15,000 words carries 40% of the total marks towards the MA degree. Full time students should present their dissertations by September of the year following entrance.
The weighting of the marks is as follows:
Continuous assessment (coursework) 60%
Dissertation 40%
