A masters programme in the Department of Anthropology, UCL

University College London is one of the highest rated universities in the world, coming fourth after Harvard, Cambridge, and Yale in the 2009 annual Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings.

The Dept. of Anthropology at UCL is the world's leading centre for the study of Material and Visual Culture. We publish The Journal of Material Culture and several relevant book series. We have nine specialist staff in material and visual culture, and currently supervise nearly fifty PhD students specifically in this field, including many with topics in Digital Anthropology.

The new MSc in Digital Anthropology–begun in the Autumn of 2009–is well positioned for becoming a world leader in research into the social and cultural dimensions of information technologies and digital media.

Digital technologies have become ubiquitous. From Facebook, Youtube and Flickr to PowerPoint, Google Earth and Second Life. Museum displays migrate to the internet, family communication in the Diaspora is dominated by new media, artists work with digital films and images. Anthropology and ethnographic research is fundamental to understanding the local consequences of these innovations, and to create theories that help us acknowledge, understand and engage with them. Today's students need to become proficient with digital technologies as research and communication tools. Through combining technical skills with appreciation of social effects, students will be trained for further research and involvement in this emergent world.

This MSc (nominally one year of full-time study) brings together three key components in the study of digital culture:

  1. Skills training in digital technologies, including our own Digital Lab, from internet and digital film editing to e-curation and digital ethnography.
  2. Anthropological theories of virtualism, materiality/immateriality and digitisation.
  3. Understanding the consequences of digital culture through the ethnographic study of its social and regional impact.

Bursaries
There is a £5,000 annual bursary shared between this programme and the MA in Material and Visual Culture, as well as 3 x £1,000 bursaries for all anthropology MA programmes. See here for further details on funding opportunities.

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