New Degree Schemes - 2012 Entry

Connectivity

This Masters degree scheme in Connectivity will provide Master's students with the opportunity to study one of the most significant and dynamic features of the 21st century: the ways in which the combined force of the internet, digital technology and multiple media platforms have come to shape not only the nature of individual lives and communities but also the architecture of economies, societies and cultures. The involvement of a range of departments from across all three faculties in the university will enable students to explore implications of this new stage in modern communications from different disciplinary perspectives, while the core module for the degree scheme will provide a more holistic approach to understanding the impact of web-based technology and media. This programme will comprise a key component of a new initiative by Aberystwyth University to create a high-profile centre of teaching, research and dissemination and to establish a focal point of commercial and public outreach for exploring the impact of the "information revolution" on modern life.

This degree scheme will be taught by eight departments across all three faculties at Aberystwyth University.

Critical International Politics

This programme brings together critical social and political theory, postcolonial politics, international relations, environmental politics and security studies to inquire into the origins of prevailing global power relations, how they are sedimented and reproduced. The programme aims to explore the conditions that give rise to contemporary forms of political activism and their potential for bringing about resistance and/or emancipation. Rather than accepting existing social and power relations as natural and unmoving, the programme places them in the socio-historical context of their emergence and aims to make apparent their ideological and subjectifying functions. It does so in a situated manner by discussing the possibilities for transformation of given power and social relations in global politics in relation to specific sets of practices such as development, security, conflict, environmental regulation and the global regulation of movement and goods. It does not, however, neglect the important role that critical reflection and critical thought play in informing the analysis of practice. In this regard, the programme will engage current debates on the nature of politics, justice, the structure of global regulation, the relationship between man and nature, development and political violence taking place across these different sub-fields in an attempt to provide students with the necessary critical skills.

Politics, Media and Performance

This Masters degree scheme builds on longstanding research collaboration between the Department of International Politics and the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies and develops the synergies that have emerged in the course of that work. It offers graduates in the humanities (Performance Studies, Fine Art, Film, Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Literature or Media) and in the social sciences (Politics, International Politics, Sociology, Anthropology) the opportunity to work together at the intersection of performance, media and politics to develop an advanced understanding of cutting-edge contemporary thinking in critical international and postcolonial politics, performance, film studies and media.

This programme will be jointly taught by International Politics and Theatre, Film and Television Studies staff and administered by the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies within the Faculty of Arts.