Social Anthropology - Humanitarian and Environmental Crises - MA

Teaching and assessment

We praise ourselves for assessing most modules with diverse and creative methods of assessment, which allow students to cultivate reflexive thinking and their personal analytical styles. There are no exams.

Programme aims

• enhanced understanding of how humanitarian intervention is shaped by political, social and cultural contexts;
• in-depth understanding of environmental politics and protest, including the climate emergency;
• advanced-level knowledge of the central theoretical and methodological issues in social anthropology today;
• advanced-level knowledge of different approaches to social science research in a multidisciplinary perspective, with special reference in qualitative, intensive research;
• intensive training for students preparing MPhil/PhD theses, or for employment involving the use of social science research; research design and strategy, including translating questions into practicable research designs and retrieving information in multidisciplinary and cross-national contexts.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

You will gain knowledge and understanding of:

• social anthropology as the comparative study of human societies with special reference to humanitarianism, social movements, environmental disputes, climate protest, and the politics of nationalism and ethnicity
• several ethnographic regions of the world, in particular Europe, the Middle-East, South America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Asia
• anthropological theory as applied to contemporary concerns;
• the application of anthropology to understanding issues of development, social and economic change, and violence and conflict throughout the world
• the relevance of anthropology to understanding everyday processes of social life

Intellectual skills

You develop intellectual skills in:

• criticism and analysis
• communication
• groupwork
• data retrieval, reviewing and summarising information
• project-writing
• presentation of research results

Subject-specific skills

You gain subject-specific skills in:

• understanding of people’s relation to environmental and humanitarian crises
• understanding major national and international events, namely in terms of aid provision, humanitarian intervention, and ethical concerns
• interpreting narratives and performances by locating them within appropriate cultural and historical contexts
• high-level competence in using anthropological theories and perspectives in the presentation of information and argument
• the ability to devise questions for research and study which are anthropologically informed
• an openness to make rational sense of perplexing cultural and social phenomena. 
• ethnographic research and analysis

Transferable skills

You will gain the following transferable skills:

• the ability to make a structured argument, analyse and reference scholarly data
• the ability to mine data bases, carry out interviews, and mobilise participant observation
• the use of information technology including computers and library research for qualitative research
• handling audio-visual equipment
• research writing and presentation skills
• the ability to exercise initiative and personal responsibility 
• independent learning ability required for continuing professional development.

Careers

The School has a very good record for postgraduate employment and academic continuation, 100% of our postgraduate students, who graduated in 2014, found a professional job within six months or continued on to a PhD, ranking Anthropology at Kent 1st in the sector. Studying anthropology, you develop an understanding of the complexity of all actions, beliefs and discourse by acquiring strong methodological and analytical skills. Anthropologists are increasingly being hired by companies and organisations that recognise the value of employing people who understand the complexities of societies and organisations.

Our Social Anthropology Master’s programmes is recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as having research training status, so successful completion of these courses is sufficient preparation for research in the various fields of social anthropology. Many of our students go on to do PhD research. Others use their Master’s qualification in employment ranging from research in government departments to teaching to consultancy work overseas.

Many of our alumni teach in academic positions in universities across the world, whilst others work for a wide range of organisations. Examples of positions held by our alumni include:

• Corporate anthropologist
• Campaign developer for War Child
• Project director for the Global Diversity Foundation
• Curator at Beirut Botanic Gardens
• Film producer for First German Television
• Project manager for Porchlight Homelessness Charity.

Hear more from MA Social Anthropology alumni Victor Fiorini who found employment as Detainee-Visitor Manager for Dover Detainee Visitor Group.

Study support

Postgraduate resources

The School has a lively postgraduate community drawn together not only by shared resources such as postgraduate rooms, computer facilities (with a dedicated IT officer) and laboratories, but also by student-led events, societies, staff/postgraduate seminars, weekly research student seminars and a number of special lectures.

The School houses well-equipped research laboratories for genetics, ecology, visual anthropology, virtual paleoanthropology, Animal Postcranial Evolution, biological anthropology, anthropological computing, botany, osteology and ethnobiology. The state-of-the-art visual anthropology laboratory is stocked with digital editing programmes and other facilities for digital video and photographic work, and has a photographic darkroom for analogue developing and printing. 

Kent has outstanding anthropology IT facilities. Over the last decade, the School has been associated with many innovatory projects, particularly in the field of cognitive anthropology. It provides an electronic information service to other anthropology departments, for example by hosting both the Anthropological Index Online and Experience-Rich Anthropology project. We encourage all students to use the Centre’s facilities (no previous experience or training is necessary).

Anthropology at Kent has close links with the nearby Powell-Cotton Museum, which has one of the largest ethnographic collections in the British Isles and is particularly strong in sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian material. It also houses an extensive comparative collection of primate and other mammalian material. Human skeletal material is housed at the Kent Osteological Research and Analysis Centre within the School.

Anthropology, together with the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) form the School of Anthropology and Conservation.

Global Skills Award

All students registered for a taught Master's programme are eligible to apply for a place on our Global Skills Award Programme. The programme is designed to broaden your understanding of global issues and current affairs as well as to develop personal skills which will enhance your employability.