Program Overview

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Cultural and Critical Studies MA

Overview

The Cultural and Critical Studies MA is part of the Cultural and Literary Studies Suite, a cluster of four MAs that bring together academics, curators, and practitioners who share a commitment to investigating modern and contemporary culture from aesthetic, critical, literary, and experiential perspectives. You'll share classes with students from the Art and Visual Culture MA, the English Literature: Modern and Contemporary Fictions MA, and the Museum, Galleries, and Contemporary Culture MA, joining a fruitful and intellectually rigorous environment designed to facilitate interdisciplinary thinking.

Course Summary

The Cultural and Critical Studies MA offers you the rare opportunity to study contemporary critical and cultural debates across a wide range of fields. Exploring a variety of different visual, textual, and popular forms of culture, the course will particularly appeal to those with wide-ranging interests in the arts and humanities, as well as those interested in cutting-edge theoretical debates.

Attendance and Duration

• Part-time day - January 2026
• Full-time - September 2025
• Part-time day - September 2025
• Full-time - January 2026
• Full-time - September 2026
• Part-time day - September 2026

Duration: 2 years

Campus

Regent, Central London

Fees

• UK Fees: £4,850 *
• International Fees: £8,750 *

• Price per academic year

Alumni Discount

See details

Course Structure

The Cultural and Critical Studies MA is delivered in both full-time and part-time modes, with both September and January start dates. This means that when you start your course you will be joining a lively community of new and continuing students.

The course is modular, with each single module valued at 20 credits, and the dissertation at 60 credits. For the MA, you'll be required to accumulate the total of 180 credits over the course of your degree. Normally, full-time students take one core module and two options per semester and work on the dissertation in the summer. Part-time students would typically take one core module and one option module per semester in the first year and complete further two option modules and the dissertation in their second year of their MA.

Core Modules

Capitalism and Culture

Beginning with Marx’s famous account of the commodity in the first chapter of Capital, this module explores a range of theoretical accounts of capitalism and examines their significance to the analysis of different cultural forms.

Dissertation

Development, execution, and writing-up of an independent research project on a topic chosen by you. You'll attend regular research seminars. Individual supervision will provide topic-specific guidance.

Problems and Perspectives in Cultural Studies

This module offers an introduction to major theoretical approaches to the study of culture. You'll explore the historical development of the discipline of cultural studies and current developments in the field.

Option Modules

Digital Cultures

This module addresses one of the most urgent and, at the same time, elusive contemporary issues: the relationship between culture and the rise of digital media. It explores the cultural impact of digital technologies and considers how their emergence influences society, contemporary culture, and the relationship between the two.

Engaging the Archive

Through workshops and seminars, this module introduces you to practical and theoretical issues of using archives for the purposes of research or exhibition. With privileged access to the unique collections of the University of Westminster Archive, the module will enable you to examine: the principles of archival practice; how context, authorship, intentionality, and audience participate in the construction of meanings of archive documents; the politics of the archive, including curatorial and artistic intervention, and the creation of alternative histories; the impact of digitisation, and issues of copyright and authorship.

Queer Now

Focusing on the 1990s to the present day, this module examines the idea of the “queer”. Examining a range of theoretical, literary, and cultural perspectives on the topic, the module will investigate what queer means and how it has shaped our ideas about sexuality, identity, intimacy, desire, and representation.

Reading the Nation

This module explores how different literary and cultural forms have been used to construct and contest expressions of nationhood, nationality, and nationalism in diverse cultural and historical contexts from the Global North and South. You'll engage with writing from a variety of periods and genres to examine how writers have (re)imagined ideas such as sovereignty, citizenship, belonging, and statelessness.

Representing World Cultures

This module examines the issues and practices involved in presenting non-western cultures to a diverse audience through visual practices. You will look at how representation produces meaning, and consider the main frameworks that can help you understand how cultures are represented in a range of contexts.

Urban Cultures

Using a range of theoretical, historical, literary, visual, and other cultural texts, this module explores the idea of urban culture as it has developed since the mid-19th century. Focusing, in particular, on the distinctive concept of the modern metropolis, the module considers a variety of different representations of the city and critically examines the divergent ways in which they understand the specificity of urban experience itself.

Victorian Explorations

This module examines ways in which the world and 'other worlds' were formed through literary and cultural representation during the later nineteenth century. It focuses on themes such as mapping the Empire and the city, scientific views, the natural world, hauntings, sexology, and ideas of gender, and the life of the mind.

Work Placement in Cultural Institutions

This module aims to enable students to gain first-hand experience of working within a context relevant to their career objectives; to enhance the opportunities for translating theoretical and practical knowledge into professional skills, and to encourage students to make beneficial connections within a professional context.

Programme Specification

For more details on course structure, modules, teaching, and assessment, download the programme specification (PDF).

Top Reasons to Study with Us

• Our course offers a rare opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary study of textual, visual, and popular forms of culture in light of cutting-edge theoretical debates.
• You'll be taught by experts in cultural and literary studies, critical theory, and philosophy, archival practice, urban studies, art, and visual culture, and museum studies.
• You can enjoy studying in the heart of London and benefit from close links with cultural institutions such as the Photographers’ Gallery and the Museum of London.

Careers

Graduates from this course have gone on to pursue a wide variety of careers both within the educational, cultural, and creative sectors and beyond.

Prepare for a Career in the Cultural Sector

On our interdisciplinary course, you'll study textual, visual, and popular forms of culture in light of cutting-edge theoretical debates.

Experience Cultural London

Based in the heart of central London, you'll be ideally placed to explore the city's cultural institutions and immerse yourself in London's arts scene.

Employers Around the World

The University’s Careers and Employability Service has built up a network of over 3,000 employers around the world, helping all our students explore and connect with exciting opportunities and careers.

Work Experience

Study our Work Placement in Cultural Institutions module to gain industry experience and develop your professional or freelance profile.

Recent work placements on the module have taken place at institutions including:

• British Film Institute
• British Museum
• Film London
• Jessica Carlisle Gallery
• Museum of London
• Wellcome Trust

Graduate Employers

Graduates from this course have found employment at organisations including:

• BBC
• Plan International
• Queen Mary University of London
• Stonewall
• United Nations Development Programme

Job Roles

This course will prepare you for a variety of roles, including:

• Editor
• Educator
• Journalist
• Digital content producer
• Museum, gallery, library, or archive professional
• Public relations or communications professional
• Researcher

Westminster Employability Award

Employers value graduates who have invested in their personal and professional development – and our Westminster Employability Award gives you the chance to formally document and demonstrate these activities and achievements.

The award is flexible and can be completed in your own time, allowing you to choose from a set of extracurricular activities.

Activities might include gaining experience through a part-time job or placement, signing up to a University-run scheme – such as mentoring or teaching in a school – or completing online exercises.

Course Leader

Dr Elinor Taylor

Dr Elinor Taylor is a senior lecturer and the course leader for the English Literature: Modern and Contemporary Fictions MA and the Cultural and Critical Studies MA. She studied at the University of Manchester (BA in Philosophy) and the University of Salford (MA in Literature, Culture, and Modernity; PhD in English). She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Taylor’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the relationships between cultural production and political commitment, with particular interests in Marxism, modernism, and realism; the theory of the novel; culture and antifascism; and working-class cultural production. She has published two books, The Popular Front Novel in Britain (2018) and The 1930s: A Decade of Modern British Fiction (2021), and contributed to several essay collections and journals such as Key Words and Twentieth Century Communism.

Course Team

• Professor John Beck - Professor
• Dr Lucy Bond - Head of the School of Humanities
• Dr Georgina Colby - Reader in Modern and Contemporary Literature
• Alison Craighead - Reader
• Professor David Cunningham - Professor
• Dr Sara Dominici - Senior Lecturer
• Dr Kate M. Graham - Senior Lecturer in English Literature (Theatre)
• Dr Alexa Wright - Reader
• Dr Matthew Charles - Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Critical Theory

Entry Requirements

UK

• A minimum of a lower second-class honours degree (2:2) in a relevant discipline.
• If your first language is not English, you should have an IELTS 6.5 with at least 6.0 in all components.

International

• A minimum of a lower second-class honours degree (2:2) in a relevant discipline.
• If your first language is not English, you should have an IELTS 6.5 with at least 6.0 in all components.

Funding and Scholarships

• UK tuition fee: £4,850 (Price per academic year)
• International tuition fee: £8,750 (Price per academic year)
• Alumni discount: See details
• Funding: There is a range of funding available that may help you fund your studies, including Student Finance England (SFE).
• Scholarships: The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students.

Teaching and Assessment

• Teaching methods: Lectures, seminars, workshops, problem-based and blended learning, and where appropriate practical application.
• Learning time: Scheduled hours (13%); Independent study (82%); Placement (5%).
• Assessment: Practical (10%); Coursework (90%).

Research Groups

• Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture

Supporting You

• Study support: Workshops, 1-2-1 support, and online resources to help improve your academic and research skills.
• Personal tutors: Support you in fulfilling your academic and personal potential.
• Student advice team: Provide specialist advice on a range of issues including funding, benefits, and visas.
• Extra-curricular activities: Volunteering opportunities, sports and fitness activities, student events, and more.

Course Location

• Regent Campus, composed of three sites, situated on and around Regent Street – one of the most famous and vibrant streets in London.

Related Courses

• English Literature: Modern and Contemporary Fictions MA
• English Language and Literature MA
• Art and Visual Culture MA