The programme offers seven alternative pathways allowing you to focus on a particular area within the subject.

You take three taught modules and write a dissertation of 20,000 words in the final term on a topic of your choice relevant to the focus of the pathway chosen. 

Within all pathways of the African Studies MRes you will study the Research Skills and Methods in African Studies module. Each pathway then offers a selection of optional modules from which you choose to study two:

Pathways

• African and Caribbean Literature
  This pathway offers you the opportunity to study options in both African and Caribbean literatures and to work on an extended study within a comparative framework.
  Optional modules: Caribbean Poetry, Caribbean Fiction, Media and Popular Culture in Africa, African Fiction and its Critics
  
• African Literature and Post-colonial Critical Theory
  This pathway examines the development of African literature in English in the 20th century in the context of a survey of the ways in which that literature has been read over time, paying particular attention to responses to those critical theories by African writers themselves.
  Optional modules: Media and Popular Culture in Africa, African Fiction and its Critics, Reading African Poetry
  
• Gender Issues in Africa
  This pathway examines gender relations in African states and societies, particularly in the light of different strands of theoretical feminist work. Through examination of specific examples, it looks at the significance of gender as an axis for analysis in policy areas in African contexts.
  Optional modules: Advanced Perspectives in Africa, Contemporary Gender Issues in Africa
  
• History and Politics of Southern Africa 
  This pathway examines contemporary Southern African societies and politics in their 19th- and 20th-century historical contexts. The emphasis is on the emergence of modern South Africa's system of racial domination and its effects on government and economic development in the broader Southern African region.
  Optional modules: Advanced Perspectives on Africa, History and Politics in Southern Africa
  
• Media and Popular Culture in Africa 
  This pathway aims to provide you with the research skills necessary to undertake an interdisciplinary study of contemporary African culture, with a particular emphasis on media, performance and popular culture.
  Optional modules: Media and Popular Culture in Africa, Advanced Perspectives on Africa
  
• Atlantic Slavery 
  Composed of two complementary modules which run from 1500-18600, this pathway provides a thorough overview of some of the major themes involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
  Optional modules: African-European Relations and the Beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1500-1700;  West Africa and the Caribbean at the Height of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1700-1860

• Independent Study 
  This pathway allows students whose particular interests do not fall within any of the above pathways to develop a specialism in a chosen topic through guided reading, writing and discussion, subject to availability of supervision. 

We are a friendly, well integrated community. Staff and postgraduate students work together closely and discuss their research interests at regular meetings. There is also a regular programme of formal DASA seminars at which staff, postgraduate students and visiting scholars present papers and discuss their work-in-progress.

More personally, you will be assigned a personal tutor with whom you will meet to discuss your progress and seek help and advice when necessary. It is a University requirement that tutors meet with their tutees at least once a term, but you don't need to wait for a formal appointment: you are encouraged to contact your tutor whenever you need help or advice.

You will also have an academic supervisor once you are working on your dissertation and will have access to the expertise of other members of staff. As a graduate student at DASA you can expect to enjoy intensive, frequent and close interaction with your supervisor on a one-to-one basis as well as detailed, continuous supervision of written work.

You’ll also become part of – and contribute to – the vibrant international community of the College of Arts and Law Graduate School, which offers dedicated research resources, a supportive working environment and employability skills training. Our team of academic and operational staff are on hand to offer support and advice to all postgraduate students within the College.

The University of Birmingham has been ranked 9th in the UK and 55th in the world, for post-qualification employability in a global survey of universities commissioned by the International Herald Tribune.

Our African Studies graduates develop a range of skills including oral and written communication, analysis and evaluation, problem solving, independent working and research skills, which can be used in a variety of occupations. A snapshot of graduate destinations over a five-year period has identified a variety of career paths, from architecture, to lecturing, to paid research. Historically, over 91 per cent of African Studies students have been in employment or further study within six months of graduating.

Your degree will provide excellent preparation for employment and this will be further enhanced by the employability skills training offered through the College of Arts and Law Graduate School.