Program Overview

Cultural and Media Studies BA

Overview

The Cultural and Media Studies BA program at the University of Leeds is a three-year full-time course that explores cultural and media productions, practices, and institutions in national, transnational, and global contexts. The course is taught jointly by the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and the School of Media and Communication, offering innovative approaches to studying, making, and displaying culture and the arts.

Course Structure

• The course consists of compulsory and optional modules that provide a fundamental level of knowledge and key transferable skills.
• Students take compulsory modules in the first and second years, with optional modules available in the second and third years.
• The final year includes a dissertation or capstone project, which can be a researched written dissertation or a substantive research-based audio, visual, and/or multimodal artifact.

Compulsory Modules

Year 1

• Introduction to Cultural Analysis 1 (20 credits): This module introduces ways of reading different aspects of culture, enabling students to discuss various cultural forms and equip them with skills to appreciate, criticize, and understand culture.
• Introduction to Cultural Analysis 2 (20 credits): This module introduces different methodological and critical approaches to the analysis and study of cultural production and consumption.
• Networks, Environments and Cultures (20 credits): This module locates the interconnectedness of networks, environments, and cultures as an analytic for understanding the contemporary world.

Year 2

• Keywords (20 credits): This module explores concepts used by teachers and scholars to analyze works of art and cultural practices, such as representation, form, context, interpretation, and power.

Optional Modules

Year 1

• Cultural History (20 credits): This module maps social and cultural formations underscoring the history of 'the West' since the Enlightenment.
• Studying Media (20 credits): This module introduces students to a range of media and communication approaches, drawing on scholarship in media industries, texts, audience, and histories.
• Race Matters (20 credits)
• The History of Communication (20 credits)
• Introduction to Media and Communication Theory (20 credits)

Year 2

• Visual Communication (20 credits): This module develops students' visual literacy, enabling them to read key visual texts and understand dominant visual cultural forms.
• Digital Cultures (20 credits): This module explores interactive leisure forms and practices of digital technologies, considering how they change our understanding of culture.
• Absence, Representation, Violence (20 credits)
• The State of Utopia (20 credits)
• Seeing in Asia (20 credits)
• Image, Music, Text: Reading Roland Barthes (20 credits)
• Bodies of Difference: Gender, Power and the Visual Arts (20 credits)

Year 3

• Dissertation (40/60 credits): The final outcome of this module is a BA dissertation, which can be a written dissertation or a capstone project.
• Deconstruction Reading Politics (20 credits)
• Postcolonial Feminisms (20 credits)
• Humanity, Animality and Globality (20 credits)
• The Cultural Politics of Artificial Intelligence (20 credits)
• Cultural Diversity in Museum and Material Culture - Case Study (20 credits)
• Reading Sexual Difference (20 credits)
• Movies, Migrants and Diasporas (20 credits)

Learning and Teaching

The course uses a range of in-person and digitally enhanced teaching and learning methods, including lectures, seminars, screenings, and tutorials. Independent study is crucial, allowing students to develop and practice essential critical and research skills.

Assessment

Assessment methods include essays, exams, tests, and presentations, as well as small-scale research projects and the dissertation. The University's Skills@Library team offers training sessions and resources on topics such as exam technique, public speaking, and academic writing.

Entry Requirements

• A-level: ABB
• Other qualifications, such as Access to HE Diploma, BTEC, Cambridge Pre-U, International Baccalaureate, Irish Leaving Certificate, Scottish Highers/Advanced Highers, and Welsh Baccalaureate, are also accepted.
• International students must meet the English language requirements, with an IELTS score of 6.5 overall and no less than 6.0 in any component.

Fees

• UK: Ł9,790
• International: Ł26,500 per year
• Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year are reduced.

Career Opportunities

This course equips students with essential skills in research, analysis, presentation, and communication, making them valuable in diverse careers across various industries and roles, such as media, journalism, cultural and creative industries, education, politics, NGOs, and the public sector.

Study Abroad and Work Placements

Students have the opportunity to apply for a study abroad year or a work placement year with organizations across the public, private, and voluntary sectors in the UK or overseas.

Related Courses

• Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year BA
• Fine Art BA
• Fine Art with Contemporary Cultural Theory BA
• Fine Art with History of Art BA
• History of Art BA
• History of Art with Cultural Studies BA