One of the finest, most interdisciplinary courses at The London School of Economics that invites students from varied walks and stages of life, disciplines, and areas is the course MSc Culture and Society. The biggest green flag of this course is that it is tailor-made for anyone who wishes to understand cultural processes and societal structures but in a way they wish to do so, with the kind of approach they want to take up during the duration of the course. MSc Culture and Society is not a mainstream cultural studies course – LSE offers more than just that. This course would give you the opportunity to develop expertise in the social study of cultural processes. The ethos of the course emphasises tight integration of leading-edge cultural theory, innovative methodologies and attention to the most significant cultural trends and practices, globally and locally.
London is a prime destination to study this course given how global, and cosmopolitan the city is – a Culture and Society classroom would have people coming in from different areas of work, parts of the world, ethnicities, cultures, families, and communities that only enriches the experience of being a part of this course.
This course, apart from offering compulsory courses on Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms, and Qualitative Social Research Methods, also offers a large number of elective courses that range from media-based, practical courses to theoretical, sociology heavy courses. Some of which include courses on Gender, Media, Representation, Gender theory, Concepts in Media and Communications, Audience in Media and Communications, Classical and Modern Social Thought, Human Rights and Post Colonial Theory. The number of options to choose from is huge, and that makes the course even richer and customisable as per each researcher’s interests.
My favourite bit of being a part of this programme is that I’m allowed to opt for courses from the subscribed list, or from a list of courses offered to people of other departments, which means that one can tailor-make a course of their choice, according to and suiting to their own research interests. People in this degree come in from all disciplines, including anthropology, languages, politics, sociology, media, journalism, arts, humanities, media studies – and leave this degree learning not only from the modules they’ve chosen but also from the people they meet.
In addition to the wide-ranging subjects, the School also offers unparalleled mentoring support – each student is allotted an academic mentor in the beginning of the session to help them navigate the course, think about possible research topics for the end of term dissertation, formative and summative assessments’ topics. Other professors – within and across departments have open office hours for students to discuss things in an academic capacity: questions, matters of relevance, subjects they’re interested in, research topics they might want to pursue; as well as personal capacity.
LSE LIFE, a centre devoted to the development of students’ skills, also offers multiple courses and office hours with mentors to help students improve their academic writing and learn how to approach assessment questions. Guidance counsellors are always at hand to help students discuss and navigate through academic issues.
LSE Library also has extensive resources including books, archives, journals and remains open during most times of the day for students to use and borrow. The library also has been designed as a space for students to study individually and collaboratively – making studying and researching for master’s students an experience to remember.
LSE Careers is a brilliant platform for students from the Department of Sociology to look for post-degree opportunities. MSc Culture and Society being an interdisciplinary course prepares students for prospective job opportunities: in sectors ranging from academia and research, public policy, non profit, corporate and government organisations. The programme is wired to prepare and equip students with transferable skills that are valued in all sectors of work – intellectual ability, communication, writing, qualitative and quantitative research skills, critical analysis, creativity, ability to deal with complexity, sensitivity and openness. Additionally, the programme prepares students for further research and a PhD in the wide range of areas related to cultural research.
The world class faculty that teaches this programme come from a varied range of disciplines and areas of work, including sociology, arts, fashion, media, photography, material culture, marketing, advertising – making it even more relevant for contemporary social research topics that students take up for their PhDs.
In a world that’s constantly changing and evolving, this programme helps in finding similarities and parallels with nuances of everyday life, and understanding cultural and social processes in a well rounded approach. Culture is something that is mostly an abstract concept otherwise; this degree is for people who are curious to learn about culture and social processes, and in developing a foundation in sociological approaches to cultural research – to understand life better and further contribute to debates on Cultural Studies as a discipline.
