MA Cultures of Migration, Diaspora and Exile: The University of Manchester

Cultures of Migration, Diaspora and Exile MA (Pathway of MA European Languages & Cultures)

Course description

The MA Cultures of Migration, Diaspora and Exile pathway provides students with a first degree in a modern European language or languages or in a related humanities discipline, with an in-depth knowledge of the culture, literature and cultural history arising from the historical and social processes of collective population movement and individual displacement. Some options explore economic migration experiences, exile writing, travel literature, or diaspora and refugee displacement through war and violence. These thematic issues are approached through a range of historically and regionally specific examples of migrant or diaspora culture (eg Islam in Spain, Turkish writers in Germany, Mexico and the USA, Portuguese Africa, Jewish culture in Germany), by way of focusing on a common core of theoretical concerns. These will include: language and identity, race and hybridity, the impact of globalisation and transnationalism, the gendered construction of nationhood, the significance of cultural memory and effects of trauma and shifting definitions of imagined community as mediated by culture.

The MA also provides a thorough grounding in critical theoretical approaches to literary and cultural studies, and makes students conversant with the methods of scholarly research in the humanities and with the resources necessary for that research.

Course aims

The course aims to:

• make students fully conversant with the methods of scholarly research in a humanities discipline and the resources necessary for such research.
• equip students for further study and research.
• provide graduates holding a first degree in a modern European language or languages with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the literature and culture of one or more areas where these languages are spoken.
• provide a thorough grounding in modern critical theoretical approaches to literary and cultural studies.
• provide for graduates without a first degree in a modern European language a programme of study that introduces them to the study of the literature and culture of one or more areas within Europe and/or Latin America, and to be familiar with key primary texts from these areas in translation.

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview: The normal requirement for admission to the MA is an Upper Second class Honours degree, or higher, or its overseas equivalent, in a suitable Humanities discipline.

English language: Students whose first language is not English require an overall IELTS score of 7.0 with 7.0 in the writing component or TOEFL 600 (paper-based test), 250 (computer-based test) or 100 (internet-based test).