Structure

The programme consists of 180 credits: 90 credits of modules and a dissertation of 15,000 words at 90 credits.

All students are expected to take the core and compulsory modules listed below and must participate in the Research Training Seminar.

All students are required to take 30 credits from the Anthropology and Sociology list.

The remaining credits can be selected the Department of Anthropology and Sociology list or relevant options from other departments or a language module.

Dissertation

All students are required to take the compulsory dissertation module worth 60 credits.

• Dissertation in Anthropological Research Methods (90)

Taught Component

• Research Methods in Anthropology
• Research Training Seminar

and

All students are required to attend the Epigeum - Statistical Methods for Social Sciences. This will not count towards your 180 credits.

and

Guided Module(s) from the Anthropology and Sociology list below, OR modules from the Postgraduate Open Options List, to the value of 60 credits.

List of Modules (subject to availability)

Anthropology and Sociology

• African and Asian Diasporas in the Contemporary World: Cultures of Resistance and the Dissolution of Boundaries
• African and Asian Diasporas in the Contemporary World: Migration, Space, Identities
• Anthropology of Development and Sustainability: Global Challenges and Alternative Futures
• Anthropology of Development and Sustainability: History, Politics and Culture
• Anthropology of Food: Diet, Society and Environment
• Anthropology of Food: Politics, Place and Mobility
• Body politics: the anthropology of "race", gender and desire
• Culture and Society of East Africa
• Culture and Society of Near and Middle East
• Directed Practical Study in the Anthropology of Food
• Issues in Anthropology and Climate Change
• Issues in Anthropology and Film
• Issues in Mind, Culture and Psychiatry
• Medical Anthropology: Bodies and Cultures
• Medical Anthropology: Global Perspectives

Learn a language as part of this programme

Degree programmes at SOAS - including this one - can include language courses in more than forty African and Asian languages. It is SOAS students’ command of an African or Asian language which sets SOAS apart from other universities.

Important notice

The information on the programme page reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session.

Our Anthropology Department is ranked 5th in the UK and 13th in the world in the 2020 QS World University Rankings

Aims and Outcomes

The MRes is designed to train students in research skills to the level prescribed by the ESRC’s research training guidelines. It is intended for students with a good first degree (minimum of a 2.1) in social anthropology and/or a taught Masters degree in social anthropology. Most students would be expected to progress to PhD registration at the end of the degree. By the end of the program students will:

• have achieved practical competence in a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools
• have the ability to understand key issues of method and theory, and to understand the epistemological issues involved in using different methods

In addition to key issues of research design, students will be introduced to a range of specific research methods and tools including:

• interviewing, collection and analysis of oral sources, analysis and use of documents, participatory research methods, issues of triangulation research validity and reliability, writing and analysing field notes, and ethnographic writing
• social statistics techniques relevant for fieldwork and ethnographic data analysis

Discipline-specific training in anthropology includes:

• ethnographic methods and participant observation
• ethical and legal issues in anthropological research
• the logistics of long-term fieldwork
• familiarisation with the appropriate regional and theoretical literature
• writing-up (in the field and producing ethnography) and communicating research results; and
• Language training

Employment

Students of the MRes Social Anthropology develop a wide range of transferable skills such as research, analysis, oral and written communication skills.

Many MRes students go on to do successful PhD research, either within our department or at other leading universities. Others apply their knowledge of research methods in employment in international institutions, NGOs, government, and business, both within the UK and overseas. Recent SOAS career choices have included commerce and banking, government service, the police and prison service, social services and health service administration.