MA Film Studies
The MA in Film Studies focuses on the importance of film within an ever-changing global environment. As a student, you will be encouraged to investigate the ways in which technologies and social changes have impacted, and continue to impact upon different aspects of film, including filmic representation and the ways in which film has been taken up within broader cultural contexts. You will also receive a thorough grounding in key theoretical traditions and research methods within film studies, and will be alerted to the historical developments that have marked film as a medium, focusing on historical case studies in order to think about changes and continuities throughout film history. While you will be introduced to a broad array of filmmaking traditions, you will focus particularly on the interrelations between Hollywood and European cinemas.
The MA will introduce you to different ways of understanding film: as entertainment, as art, as an industry, and as a cultural medium through which identities, histories and ideologies are both represented and negotiated. You will be taught by active researchers in the field of film studies, with a broad array of expertise and knowledge particularly in British and Hollywood cinemas, film history and representation, and film genre,star and reception studies. As such, the MA aims to enrich your knowledge of film’s importance through different methodological and theoretical approaches to the subject, and to sharpen your own research and study skills in the process.
Course Team includes :
Dr Kate Egan, Dr Merris Griffiths, Dr Paul Newland, Dr Sarah Thomas and Dr Kate Woodward.
[For information on staff research visit: http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/tfts/staff/]
Why study the MA Film Studies at Aberystwyth?:
- one of the largest film and television departments in Britain
- a vibrant postgraduate community and research culture
- great spectrum of teaching interest and expertise (including in: film history, classical Hollywood cinema, film censorship, British cinema, film stardom, acting and performance, audience and reception studies, horror and cult cinema, space and place in the cinema, film and soundscapes, modernism and postmodernism)
- taught by scholars of international standing
- regular visiting international speakers and research events (recent speakers include: Duncan Petrie, Sarah Street, Warren Buckland, Justin Smith, Dave Rolinson, Helen Hanson, John Sedgwick and Matt Hills)
- focus on essential skills and aptitudes for career progression, either in the media industry or in academia (three students who have previously completed the MA Film Studies course are now undertaking PhDs in the department, two with funded scholarships)
- access to a university library with an outstanding selection of Film Studies books and journals
- access to the National Library of Wales, which includes the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales
- WOW Wales One World film festival and Abertoir Horror film festival, held annually on campus at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
and much more…
For an informal discussion and further information about the course, please contact the course coordinator: Dr Kate Egan, kte@aber.ac.uk
For more detailed information about the scheme MA in Film Studies
For more detailed information about how to apply please see How do I apply?