Department of Film, Performance and Cultural Studies

The Department of Film, Performance and Cultural Studies at SOAS University of London offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Film Studies and Cultural Studies, alongside specialist teaching that enriches language and area studies programmes across the university. 

We are an interdisciplinary department committed to the study of cultural expression (film, art, music, literature, social media and more) across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Our open options are available to students across SOAS, including those from other colleges.

What is Film, Performance and Cultural Studies at SOAS?

The Department of Film, Performance and Cultural Studies at SOAS is an interdisciplinary department committed to research and teaching on all manner of cultural expression in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

At SOAS, this is studied from the ground up: we start with local contexts, grounded in specialist knowledge of world languages, and build outward. Our focus spans cinematic traditions from Bollywood to Nollywood, Chinese visual cultures, Japanese manga, urban text in Jerusalem, gender and sexuality in Southeast Asian cinema, and the decolonisation of African screen worlds – challenging Eurocentric narratives about what constitutes art and culture. 

We approach our subjects in ways that invite genuine engagement with cultures rather than objectifying them, embracing global perspectives that are rare in the study of film and the humanities more broadly.