2019/20 Taught Postgraduate Programme Catalogue

MA Religion, Politics and Society

Total credits: 180

Entry requirements:

Normally at least Upper Second Class Honours in a relevant discipline – e.g. Theology & Religious Studies, Politics and Sociology.

Grade C or above in English GSCE or equivalent, or an overall IELTS score of 6.5 or above, with no less than 6 is each component.

School/Unit responsible for the parenting of students and programme:

School of PRHS

Examination board through which the programme will be considered:

PRHS Examination Board

Programme specification:

This programme studies the diverse ways that religious belief and traditions encourage, contest, facilitate, disrupt, or otherwise influence political and social change. Students will learn about the importance of religions to phenomena such as social movements, revolutions, terrorism, global development, gender, sexuality and race discrimination, migration and diaspora. They will also critically interrogate the concept of ‘religion’ in the context of different theories of politics, policy and social change, engaging with hotly debated and contested topics such secularisation and ‘post-secularism’, religious identity and representation, religion and the public sphere. The new core module, Religion and Social Change, will use elements of the existing core module Religion, Society and Public Life, with a renewed emphasis on the interaction of religion with dynamics of social and political transformation, critique, and resistance, from historical and contemporary perspectives: It will be team taught, drawing upon expertise across the School ranging from theological, philosophical, sociological and anthropological approaches to the topic.

The programme is nationally and internationally unique, and will appeal to a broad range of people with a keen interest in the place of religion in social political, social, and cultural dimensions of the study of religions and theology. It draws upon expertise from Leeds scholarship in the intersection of religions and public life from a range of global contexts and disciplinary boundaries, including: theological, sociological, anthropological, philosophical. Students may wish to use the programme as a stepping stone to further research; as a preparatory degree for work in the voluntary, advocacy, NGO, or policy sector; or to further their knowledge and literacy in this important area.

A distinctive feature of the programme is the option of designating a specialised pathway in one of two areas – ‘development’ or ‘gender’. Students who opt to take these are required to take an additional core module in the school of PRHS (respectively: Religion and Global Development, or Contemporary Issues in Religion and Gender), and are allowed to take an additional module from outside PRHS (respectively: School of Politics and International Studies and School of Sociology and Social Policy), allowing the student to benefit from a wider disciplinary range whilst allowing them to focus in greater depth on a particular context of justice, equality, and other facets of ‘social change’.

A further distinctive feature of the programme is the possibility of taking the new faculty wide external placement module, The Civic Researcher: Engaging the Modern City which allows students to work alongside, and undertake a piece of research for, a local charity or organisation of relevance to their degree. Examples may include (and already have formal or informal links with Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds) the West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum-Seeker Network; Leeds City of Sanctuary; Left Bank Leeds; Leeds Church Institute; Leeds Poverty Truth; Leeds branch of Citizens UK.

Year1 - View timetable

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]

Candidates are required to study and pass 180 credits.

Compulsory modules:

Candidates will be required to study the following compulsory module:

Optional modules:

All candidates will be required to study ONE of the following optional modules:

Candidates opting for the DEVELOPMENT pathway will be required to study the following optional module :

Candidates opting for the DEVELOPMENT pathway will be required to study AT LEAST ONE of the following optional modules:

Candidates opting for the GENDER pathway will be required to study the following optional module:

Candidates opting for the GENDER pathway will be required to study AT LEAST ONE of the following optional modules:

All candidates will be required to study their remaining credits from the following optional modules:

Last updated: 19/09/2019

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