Course details

Summary

In Cultural Studies, ‘culture' is understood very broadly, but with a strong emphasis on local everyday life. Cultural Studies does not follow traditional distinctions between ‘high' and ‘low' culture; a Lorde music video becomes a significant cultural text alongside, say, a classical opera.

Cultural Studies analyses many popular cultural forms: film and television, comics and graphic novels, advertising, art, new media, music, fashion, sport and leisure to name just a few. These domains are shown to be extremely powerful political forces in shaping our societies and our identities.

The contemporary theories of culture view it as something dynamic, living and changeable. This leads to questions of how culture is produced, how we interpret culture, how culture can be preserved or destroyed, and how do new commodity models, communications and information technology and globalisation affect our culture?

The Master of Arts (MA) degree consists of coursework followed by a thesis. It provides the opportunity to make a contribution to knowledge while also demonstrating understanding of the principles of research.

The programme specializes in four strands or pathways of study:

• gender and sexuality
• Aotearoa New Zealand studies
• popular and visual culture
• human-animal studies.

Each pathway has a student advisor associated with it who can be contacted for more information. However students may choose not to specialize and opt for a more diverse programme of study.

Qualification structure and duration

The Master of Arts degree consists of two parts:

Part I: Coursework

Part II: A thesis.

Honours may be awarded if the student completes within the timeframe indicated by the schedule. Distinction or Merit may be awarded if the student completes an MA by thesis-only in the timeframe indicated by the schedule and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours.

Further study

Doctor of Philosophy

Career opportunities

You can construct a degree that is quite generalised (perhaps suited for a teaching career) or relatively specialised (eg, film and media; sexuality and gender; places, spaces and technologies; bicultural studies; cultural identity and politics; environmentalism and human-animal studies).

Cultural Studies leads to careers in fields where a wide analytic grasp of contemporary culture is required eg, the media industries, journalism, publishing, writing, website design, advertising, museology, public relations, teaching and education, advocacy, policy analysis and arts management.

Because of the breadth and flexibility of a graduate's understanding of culture, they are also able to move among such fields easily.

Entry criteria

Normally the minimum requirement is a three-year bachelor's degree from a New Zealand university, or a qualification or combination of qualifications considered to be equivalent. If you gained your qualifications overseas, these will need to be assessed to make sure they are of an equivalent standard.

Other English language requirements: TOEFL PBT with a minimum score of 575 and TWE with a minimum score of 4.5; CCEL EAP Level 2 with a minimum B+ grade; CAE or CPE score of 176 with a minimum of 169 in reading, writing, listening and speaking; Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE with an overall score of 64 and no PTE communicative skills score below 58.