Social Anthropological Research University of Cambridge

Overview

The Social Anthropological Research course from the University of Cambridge enables students to develop their knowledge of social anthropology to a high level of specialization within a short time. It is designed for postgraduate students who have a strong background in Social Anthropology, either on its own or as part of a joint degree; and who want to engage directly and more deeply than before with debates in contemporary social anthropology. The course provides specialist social anthropological training in a dynamic programme of research-led teaching and professional development.

In addition to individual supervision to support their dissertation and essay writing, students attend a core course seminar and seminars on specialist modules. The core course covers contemporary themes and concerns in social anthropology as well as professional and skills development. Specialist modules cover research methods and themes related to staff research interests, with topics that vary each year. A provisional list of planned modules can be found on the Department's website.

Students will develop a critical and well-informed understanding of the discipline of social anthropology that they can use as the foundation for focussed individual research, building their capacity for social anthropological research in academic and other professional contexts. For those who intend to go on to doctoral work the course will help them to acquire the requisite research skills and to prepare a well-planned and focussed PhD proposal.

Graduates of the course will have developed a deeper knowledge of key problems in anthropological theory, interpretation, comparison and analysis in relation to ethnographic practice and debates in the anthropological literature. They will have formed a critical view of a range of anthropological theories, and the application of those theories to bodies of ethnographic data, and acquired a conceptual understanding and critical perspective that enables the evaluation of current research and methodologies in the discipline.

The course offers training in the following transferable skills:

• ability to engage with and undertake critical analysis of complex issues;

• ability to write for both a general and an academic audience;

• ability to engage constructively in discussion in groups in which many different views are held, often passionately; and

• ability to design and undertake hands-on research.