MA Film and History at SOAS | University of London

Overview

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Convenor

Minimum Entry Requirements: 2-1 (2-2 may be considered along with strong letters of recommendations)

Start of programme: September intake only

Mode of Attendance: Full Time or Part Time

This MA programme provides students with the opportunity to acquire expert knowledge of film in historical context as a means of mastering transferable analytical skills and so prepare students for a variety of professional or research careers. The program can be adapted to meet a wide range of interests. Its bi-directional focus on the disciplines of film and history also provides students with a flexible series of modular units from which to choose. The core course examines the representation of history in film, and film in history by placing filmic representations of the societies and diasporas of/from/between Asia and Africa into historical context. Students will critically evaluate a range of issues relating to the reliability of film as the grounds for making inferences about the national and transnational histories of Asia and Africa, and the criteria for the critical evaluation of film as a source for, and product of, the historian’s accounts of the past.

Email: christopher.gerteis@soas.ac.uk

Phone: Chris Gerteis

English language requirements: Those whose mother tongue is not English must take the English test run by the British Council (IELTS) and obtain a score acceptable to the School.

Structure

Students must take taught courses totalling three units and one unit dissertation.

Core course Film as History (one unit).
Dissertation in Film and History (one unit).
One course (or two half courses) from the list of "Approved Courses in Media & Film Studies" below.
One course (or two half courses) from the list of "Approved Courses in History" below.

Programme Specification

Programme currently subject to approval.

Option Courses

Approved Courses in Media & Film Studies

Africa

Aspects of African film and video 1 - 15PAFH006 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1

Near and Middle East

Iranian Cinema - 15PMSH010 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Arab Cinemas - 15PMSH013 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
Film and Society in the Middle East - 15PNMC230 (1 Unit) - Full Year

Approved Courses in History

Comparative/Global

The International History of the Contemporary World - 15PHIH021 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
History of Environment and Globalisation in Asia and Africa - 15PHIH023 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2

Africa

Social and Cultural Transformations in Southern Africa Since 1945 - 15PHIH003 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
Colonial Conquest and Social Change in Southern Africa - 15PHIH002 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
Culture and Practice of Warfare in Pre-Colonial Sub-Saharan Africa - 15PHIH004 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2 - Not Running 2011/2012

Near and Middle East

The End of Empire in the Middle East & the Balkans - 15PHIC004 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Modernity and the Transformation of the Middle East 1839-1958 - 15PHIC019 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Envisioning the Past: Arabic Perspectives On History - 15PHIH005 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
Outsiders in Medieval Middle Eastern Societies: Minorities, Social Outcasts and Foreigners - 15PHIH006 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
The Middle East, the Mongols and the Silk Road to China - 15PHIC067 (1 Unit) - Full Year

South Asia

Islam in South Asia - 15PHIC042 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012
Body, Power and Society in Early India - 15PHIC020 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012
Problems and Debates in the Social History of Modern South Asia - 15PHIC064 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012
Lineages of the Medieval: Texts and Histories in the South Asian World I - 15PHIH008 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
A Seascape in Transformation: Themes in Indian Ocean History - 15PHIC066 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012

East Asia

Japanese Modernity I - 15PHIH013 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Japanese Modernity II - 15PHIH014 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Knowledge and Power in Early Modern China - 15PHIH024 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Nationhood and Competing Identities in Modern China - 15PHIH022 (0.5 Unit) - Term 2
Sex and Gender in the 20th Century: Contemporary Japan - 15PHIH010 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012

South East Asia

Society and Politics in Late Colonial South East Asia - 15PHIC037 (1 Unit) - Full Year - Not Running 2011/2012
The State and the Art: Photography and Nation Building in Burma - 15PHIH015 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
State and Culture in Mainland South East Asia in the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries - 15PHIH016 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1 - Not Running 2011/2012
World War II, Cold War, and the "War On Terror": the United States and South East Asia - 15PHIC059 (1 Unit) - Full Year
Histories of Ethnicity and Conflict in South East Asia I - Making States and Building Nations - 15PHIH011 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1
Histories of Ethnicity and Conflict in South East Asia II - Non-National Perspectives - 15PHIH012 (0.5 Unit) - Term 1

Methodology

Research Methods in History With Special Reference to Asia and Africa - 15PHIC033 (1 Unit) - Full Year

SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Department of History