MA Disability Studies

Year 1

(Award available for year: Master of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:

- demonstrate an advanced understanding of Disability Studies, its connections to disability activism, range of theoretical perspectives and field-specific methodologies;
- display an advanced understanding of how Disability Studies perspectives are re-orientating ‘knowledge’ in fields as diverse as medicine and healthcare, gender studies, education, law, architecture and design, transport studies, media studies and geography;
- demonstrate a critical understanding and working knowledge of a range of methodological perspectives and research methods within social sciences;
- display the ability both to design and conduct their own research and to evaluate the research they encounter during the course of the programme and beyond;
- demonstrate the ability to analyse and investigate social and cultural phenomena from a Disability Studies perspective in a way that appreciates that are a range of disciplinary and intersectional perspectives within this field;
- display an understanding of the ways in which key issues within Disability Studies manifest across different global contexts;
- demonstrate the ability to work proactively and self-reflectively, and to develop professional relationships with others;
- display an understanding of Disability Studies’ key challenges, issues and questions in ways that resist the separation of the theoretical from the applied or the dominance of the theoretical over the applied;
- demonstrate the ability to conduct a piece of individual research using appropriate conceptual frameworks and methods, on an aspect of Disability Studies.

Transferable (key) skills

Masters (taught) students will have had the opportunity to acquire the following abilities, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- the skills necessary to undertake a higher research degree and/or for employment in a higher capacity in industry or area of professional practice;
- evaluating their own achievement and that of others;
- self direction and effective decision making in complex and unpredictable situations;
- independent learning and the ability to work in a way which ensures continuing professional development;
- to engage critically in the development of professional/disciplinary boundaries and norms.

Assessment

Achievement for the degree of Master (taught programme) will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:

- evidencing an ability to conduct independent in-depth enquiry within the field;
- demonstrating the ability to apply breadth and/or depth of knowledge to a complex specialist area;
- drawing on a range of perspectives on an area of study, including their international and intersectional implications;
- critically evaluating received opinion;
- making reasoned judgements and arguments whilst understanding the limitations of those judgements.