Humanities – (M.A.)

Contents

The programme consists of 120 credits of taught modules, and a 60 credit research dissertation. There are two compulsory courses totalling 30 credits and students additionally take 90 credits worth of optional modules from either two or three of the contributing subject strands, in one of the following proportions:

• 60/30 (a major-minor split of sixty credits in one strand, thirty credits in another);
• 45/45 (an equal split of forty five credits in two strands);
• 30/30/30 (an equal split of thirty credits in three strands).

The subject strands are: English; History and Politics; Theology and Religious Studies.

Modules*

Core Modules

• Theories of Culture and Identity (compulsory - 15 credits): This module seeks to provide foundational knowledge and skills for postgraduate study and research in Humanities disciplines. It offers insight into a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to the analysis of culture and identity - topic areas of key importance across the Humanities. It also fosters the development of key academic skills, including the ability to identify, access and reference appropriate sources and the ability to write in a complex and critical manner.
• Dissertation Preparation (compulsory - 15 credits): This module prepares students to design and write a Dissertation proposal; it is undertaken as independent learning under the supervision of a tutor. It will introduce students to the nature of Master’s dissertations, and important skills such as the articulation of thesis statements, and the identification and evaluation of appropriate methodologies, theories and philosophies. The area of study should fall clearly into the remit of the student’s programme, and be approved by the Award Co-ordinator.

Optional Modules

English Modules: examples

• The Rise of the Novel (elective - 15 credit): The eighteenth century is usually described as the period which saw the birth of the novel in English. This module will explore the origins of the English novel as a form of popular literature, tracing the innovations in novelistic prose writing which took place between the late seventeenth and mid eighteenth centuries. It will explore the cultural and historical climate which shaped these works, examine the interaction between the novel and other forms of literary production such as life-writing and travel writing, and discuss the long tradition of critical and theoretical writing on the rise of the novel itself.
• The Art of the Graphic Novel (elective - 15 credit): The later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen the growth and rapid maturity of the graphic novel, an artistic form that straddles the region between the popular and the literary. The genre described by graphic novel auteur Art Speigelman as ‘writing with pictures’, has developed an aesthetic which displays a sophisticated approach to narrative storytelling. This module explores the emergence of this major new contemporary form and presents an opportunity for detailed close reading of a selection of important and influential texts.
• Science Fiction and Fantasy (elective - 15 credit): This module examines the nature of science fiction and fantasy, paying attention to issues of style, theme, ideology, philosophy and the debated question of generic boundaries. It will explore the relationship between speculative fictions and cultural contexts. It will also examine how conventions for characterization can tend towards the stereotypical while at the same time these genres offer potential for alternative and potentially subversive extrapolations.
• Print Journalism and Magazines (elective - 15 credit): This module presents an opportunity to investigate the characteristics of a range of written forms within the global media; particularly the magazine genre, including the deployment of visual images. An historical perspective will be taken to examine magazine production processes and to establish how text producers linguistically construct gender and sexual identities for readers. Magazines will be considered as a discourse type and methodological approaches will include the application of Critical Discourse Analysis with a view to revealing the underlying ideologies. Consideration will be given to Audience Reception Theory in order to establish the effects of magazines on their target audiences.
• Gothic Fictions (elective - 15 credit): Covering primarily eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic prose fiction, this course focuses on current debates in Gothic studies. By focusing on the development of the genre it considers issues of adaptation and cultural context as well as the relationship between canonicity and popular fiction.
• South Asian Popular Culture (elective - 15 credit): This course provides a holistic representation of South Asian culture with particular reference to popular culture. The ever increasing population of people from South Asian origin and the growing popularity of Bollywood films have created a renewed interest in Europe and America towards a better understanding of the region and its culture, which represents a delicate blend of a pluralist society transcending the boundaries of religion and native culture. This module covers a wide spectrum of cultural discourse in South Asia in multiple genres, which include history, religion, language, literature, music, and cinema through interactive lectures, seminars and workshops.

History & Politics Modules: examples.

• Issues in Maritime and Colonial History (elective - 30 credits): This course examines key aspects of internal colonization within the British Isles and across the Atlantic, and the links between these complementary and contrasting forms of English expansion, during the formative period from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. It will explore the overlap between political, economic and social ambitions and activities, within a broader context of changing political identity. The consequences of these changes, for national/ethnic groups within the British Isles, North America and the Caribbean will be examined as part of English engagement with a wider colonial and maritime world.
• American Foreign Relations (elective - 15 credits): This course focuses on the foreign policy of the United States in the period from 1776 to the present day. It addresses the theoretical structures which underpin America’s foreign relations, the theories and practices which form intellectual thought on America’s foreign affairs and embraces practical case studies which examine America’s role in the world. It considers how doctrines have shaped America•s relations with its neighbours and with the international community.
• Ideas of Empire (30 credits): This course focuses on the models of empire that have characterised imperial powers from the late nineteenth century to the present, and considers the international and transcultural power structures these have created. Using selected case studies, it examines the theories and concepts that have been proposed since ca.1870 in order to understand and articulate empire as a historical, political, social and cultural phenomenon. It also considers ways in which empire has been represented, from literature and art to architecture and public spaces, analysing the impact ideas of empire have had on the modern world.
• The EU as an International Actor (30 credits): The course presents an analysis of one of the most original, important and influential international organisations in the contemporary world. Knowledge of the European Union and of how it engages in international affairs is crucial to understanding contemporary global politics. This course will examine the role played by the European Union in global politics, and will analyse the EU and the process of European integration from the perspective of international relations. It will look at the EU’s developing capacities in the areas of international trade, aid and development policy, foreign policy and security policy.
• International Peacekeeping (elective - 15 credits): The aim of the course is to examine the origins and development of international peacekeeping, including key concepts and the types of peacekeeping operations. This will include a consideration of UN peacekeeping: from early peacekeeping to post-cold war peacekeeping operations, focusing on a mix of case studies of successes and failures. The course will also look at the management and reform of UN peacekeeping, examining military and organisational issues. It will finally focus on contemporary developments and challenges facing UN peacekeeping in the twenty-first century, such as sub-contracting, transitional administration and preventing violent conflict.
• Liverpool and the Atlantic (elective - 15 credits): This course focuses on the diverse cultural and economic connections which developed between Liverpool, Africa and the Americas in the eighteenth century. The course examines a contentious aspect of recent historiographical debate by assessing the extent to which the port’s expansion was based on the profits of the transatlantic slave trade. This will involve a detailed study of the leading merchants engaged in the trade and how their wealth was reflected in the landscape of the port and its hinterland. The course will assess Liverpool’s development as a maritime community in a regional and national context, as well as its broader relationship to patterns of English colonial development.

Theology and Religious Studies Modules: examples.

• Religion and Gender (elective - 15 credits): The course considers the specific critique of religion formulated by the continental ‘French feminists’ Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. The potential of Irigaray’s female divine for women is critically evaluated, and the relation between Irigaray’s work and selected representative texts in feminist theology is examined.
• Religion and Migration (elective - 15 credits): Religion has always been influenced by migration. Both Islam and Judaism, for example, owe their origins to significant movements of people for either political or economic reasons. The course will explore the relationship between religion and migration, focusing on significant population movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In particular it will assess the impact of migration on religion and the influence of religion on diasporic communities.
• Religion in Politics (elective - 15 credits): This course examines the interplay between faith groups (especially Christians) and others in liberal democracies, and explores how conflicting views about controversial issues might be held in creative tension, for the sake of both citizenship and religious fidelity.
• Religion and Plurality (elective - 15 credits): The course will examine and critically explore how three faiths - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam - have and are approaching the doctrinal and practical questions that have emerged in situations of religious plurality in the contemporary world. It will assess both individual and corporate responses from the three faiths.
• Islam in Britain (elective - 15 credits): The course explores the origins, development and current controversies of the Muslim communities in Britain. Attention will be given to migration patterns, religious development, relation of religion, ethnicity and citizenship. Religious and ethnic diversity will be explored along with the impact of contemporary crises such as the Salman Rushdie affair, the Gulf Wars and the challenge of extremism.
• Buddhism in the Contemporary World (elective - 15 credits): The course will explore diversity and complexity within contemporary, global Buddhism through contextual and thematic studies. It will analyse both the factors causing change within Buddhist communities and the influence of Buddhism within different political, social and economic contexts.

Research Phase

• Research Dissertation (compulsory – 60 credits): The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to explore in depth an issue or question relevant to the programme, under the supervision of one of the department’s academic team. It comprises an independently completed thesis of 15,000 words in an appropriate area of the student’s own choosing.

Recent dissertation titles include:

• ‘“Islam by definition is a political religion: it presumes political duties for the believers.” To what extent is this statement true?’
• ‘Radclyffe Hall, Psychosexualism and The Novel.’
• ‘Socio-cultural and Religious Integration between Nigerian Immigrants and Local Community in Liverpool.’
• ‘Relationships and “Sisterhood” in the modern novel: A Comparison of Multicultural Life in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane and Meera Syal’s Life Isn’t all Ha Ha He He.’

Accreditation

Liverpool Hope University is a recognised body with degree awarding powers as sworn in by the UK Government.
Quality of UK universities is measured through the official Government agencies, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) which consistently judged Liverpool Hope University to be of highest quality.
Liverpool Hope University's Business School, that was ranked top quality, having secured a maximum excellent rating (24 out of 24) in the UK Governments QAA inspection.

In the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which is the official evaluation of the quality of research undertaken within UK higher education institutions, subject areas of Theology & Religious Studies, and Social Work & Social Policy, included work which ranked as of 4-star ‘world leading’. The subject areas of Computer Science and Informatics, Psychology, Education, English, and Music included work which ranked as 3-star ‘internationally recognised’, as was Politics and International Studies (including submissions from Business) and Drama ranked as 2*. For information on Liverpool Hope University’s RAE submission, go to www.rae.ac.uk

Funding details

Liverpool Hope University's fees for international students are amongst the most competitive within the UK university sector.

For 2011/12 intake, international tuition fee for Humanities is £7,120.

With an Overseas Scholarship this is reduced to £6,120.

With an Overseas Scholarship and Early Payment Discount this is reduced to £5,408.