Visual and Popular Cultures (Online) (Taught)

Earn a recognised postgraduate qualification in visual and cultural studies. Study online, flexibly, at your own pace.

Join us online to investigate how comics, cinema, music, popular culture, and subcultures shape societies, express identities, and respond to global crises. In this flexible postgraduate certificate (PgCert), you’ll explore visual and popular cultures from a uniquely international perspective.

You’ll join experts from across disciplines to:

• learn about important concepts in the fields of media studies and cultural studies

• apply these concepts to global visual media, music, cultures, and subcultures, and

• develop your skills in comparative visual and cultural analysis.

You’ll also become a more confident communicator, learning to engage diverse audiences through effective and dynamic written and oral communication.

Fascinating topics
You’ll explore a vibrant range of visual and popular cultures from around the world and across historical periods, including:

• New German Cinema

• Spain’s countercultural Movida Madrileña

• Scottish Gaelic song and fairy tales

• Victorian music hall, and

• contemporary popular music, from blues and K-pop to Eurovision.

You’ll also examine transnational hip-hop scenes, comic journalism, migration narratives in comics and cinema, and creative responses to crisis, including pandemic comics.

Through their diversity, these forms offer you rich, interconnected insights into contemporary cultural and transcultural discourses and expressions.

Interdisciplinary teaching
You’ll learn from an interdisciplinary team, drawing together expertise and methodologies in modern language studies, English, film, and music.

You’ll acquire a global outlook and transferable skills across different subject areas to support your learning or career aspirations in a globalised world.

Who is this online cultural studies programme for?
If you’re interested in exploring diverse popular cultures, subcultures, music, visual media, and cultural analysis, this PgCert is designed for you.

The knowledge and skills you’ll gain are particularly valuable for career progression within education, broadcasting, journalism and the media, as well as preparing you for further postgraduate study.

You’ll work through two 30-credit courses to earn your PgCert. You can start your studies in September or January and progress at a pace that suits you. It takes a minimum of eight months to complete the PgCert, studying part-time. You can take a maximum of 30 credits per term. In this flexible PgCert, you can also take breaks between courses.

This PgCert is assessed online. You’ll be assessed throughout your studies via methods including:essays, projects, and your contributions to discussion boards.