MA
MA Environmental Humanities
Take on this interdisciplinary MA and explore how research in the humanities can be applied to make a difference as we respond to the ever-growing global environmental crisis.
How to apply Apply via UCAS
Course details
Start date
Degree Type
MA
Program Code
V8K907
Course length
1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Typical offer
Tuition Fees
- Home (Full-time): £12,500 per year
- Overseas (Full-time): £27,500 per year
Overview
The MA in Environmental Humanities explores how research in the study of the humanities disciplines can be applied to make a difference and boost the effectiveness of our response to the ever-growing global environmental crisis. The course takes up elements from modules in departments including Anthropology, English Studies, Geography, History, Modern Languages and Cultures, Philosophy, and Theology and Religion to provide you with a firm grounding for either carrying out further research at a higher level or making a game-changing contribution to tackling environmental and climate issues. The course is centred around two core modules. Environmental Humanities: Frameworks and Debates introduces the relevant methodological approaches and explores the innovative ways in which the arts and humanities are able to join or challenge scientific and technological responses. The second module, the Interdisciplinary Dissertation, enables you to work one-to-one with a supervisor to explore a topic of your choice in depth, bringing together theories and concepts from modules across the course. You can structure the remainder of your course around your areas of interest. This includes further modules chosen from topics as varied as environmental philosophy, approaches to environmental history, cross-cultural understandings of nature, and religious understandings of living in a time of crisis, as well as the opportunity to take a language module and (timetable permitting) modules from other faculties in the university. Our intention is to serve the societies in which we all live by producing thoughtful, critical and engaged citizens who will contribute positively in a rapidly changing and complex world. We will provide you with the tools for analysis, interpretation and expression, tools to discuss and compare models of human life and its flourishing, and tools for imagining the future.
Course details
Start date
Degree Type
MA
Program Code
V8K907
Course length
1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Typical offer
Tuition Fees
- Home (Full-time): £12,500 per year
- Overseas (Full-time): £27,500 per year
What you'll study
Core modules
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Environmental Humanities: Frameworks and Debates
This 30-credit module introduces current, cutting-edge and emergent topics and debates within interdisciplinary research in the environmental humanities. It also enables you to understand how the histories of environmental degradation and climate change are interlinked with inequalities around gender, race and class.
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Interdisciplinary
Dissertation If you are studying part-time, this module would take place in year 2. For students studying the MA in Environmental Humanities, the Dissertation (your Major Research Project, 60 credits)) is carried out on a substantial topic in any discipline or disciplines represented in your programme of study. You will choose the topic under expert guidance, bringing together theories and concepts from modules across the course.
Optional modules
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90 credits
Finally, you will choose of elective modules from across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities or beyond, so that your total number of credits adds up to exactly 180. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of your programme, some modules will be specifically recommended to you by your Programme Director. Optional modules in previous years have included Subaltern Futurism: Ecology, Agriculture and World Literature (30 credits)The Nature of History: Approaches to Environmental History (30 credits)Science, Technology and the Remaking of Nature (30 credits)Current Issues in Environmental Philosophy (30 credits) Theology, Nature, Environment (30 credits)The Literatures of Slavery (30 credits)Science, Technology and Society: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives (30 credits)Engaging Policymakers with Humanities Research (30 credits)Power and Health (online) (30 credits) You may also choose one or more other elective MA modules from within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, provided the timetabling is compatible. MA or MSc modules taught in other faculties are also available, provided the timetabling is compatible. These include, for example: Planetary Health in Social ContextSociety, Energy, Environment & Resilience: Applied Environmental AnthropologyContext and Challenges in Energy and SocietyRisk, Science and CommunicationRisk FrontiersUnderstanding RiskSocial Dimensions of Risk and ResilienceClimate, Risk and SocietyGlobal Environmental Law For the MA you will need to take a total of 180 credits. If you wish, you may take an additional 20-credit language module offered by the University’s Centre for Foreign Language Study (CFLS), meaning that you would finish your course with a total of 200 credits. Not all CFLS language modules will be open to you: some of them may not be compatible with your timetable.
Learning
The course is delivered through a mixture of seminars, discussion classes, lectures and tutorials, with formal teaching sessions supported by your own preparatory study and independent reading outside the set contact hours. Core subject matter is delivered through the lectures with the subsequent group sessions all giving you the opportunity for further discussion and understanding. The academic environment for your learning experience is supportive and relaxed with the programme director available to offer academic advice and guidance. The course culminates in the interdisciplinary dissertation on a subject of your own choice. You will receive regular one-to-one guidance from a supervisor with subject expertise as you make progress.Assessment
Assessment involves a variety of evaluation methods that will measure your progress through the course. The methods used will depend on the modules you choose but will reflect the flexible nature of the course: for example, assessment may include group presentations, essays, short pieces of writing aimed at a public audience, or a short podcast. You will also be required to produce a dissertation of 15,000 words on a subject of interest to you.Entry requirements
Fees & Funding
Choose which fees you want to see:
Home / Island students
£12,500 per year
International / EU Students
£27,500 per year
Home / Island students
Part Time - £6,900 per year
International / EU Students
Part Time - £15,200 per year
The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and remain the same throughout the duration of the programme for that cohort (unless otherwise stated).
Find out moreDepartment Information
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From health and the human experience to responses to the environmental crisis, our flexible and accessible postgraduate qualifications are centred around areas that are highly relevant in the world today. These innovative qualifications in Environmental Humanities and Medical Humanities take a non-scientific approach to real-world challenges, considering them from a range of social, historical, ethical and anthropological perspectives. Our courses extend beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries, drawing on methods and insights from the arts, humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences to develop effective responses to climate and environmental crises and to health and wellbeing challenges. Students learn directly from many of the UK’s leading academic experts in these rapidly developing fields. Our team takes a collaborative approach that enables more effective communication across disciplines to address the intersecting nature of these problems. All of our courses, from postgraduate certificate through to MA, are designed to nurture thoughtful, critical and engaged graduates who are equipped with the academic knowledge and skills to make a meaningful contribution in a rapidly changing and complex world. For more information see our department pages.
Read moreFacilities
The interdisciplinary nature of our courses combined with the flexibility in modules gives our students access to a range of teaching and learning facilities across the wider University as well as the specialist archives and collections in arts and humanities. These facilities are located throughout Durham within easy access of the historic city centre with its castle and cathedral and beautiful riverside. We are home to a number of related research centres and institutes including the Centre for Culture and Ecology, a group of researchers who explore the effects of changing climate on the location, abundance, behaviour and physiology of populations and communities. The Institute of Medical Humanities is a pioneering research institute that explores the everyday experiences of health and illness from the emergence of symptoms to the cultural contexts and constructs of health.
Find out more -
