Book History and Publishing Culture - 2012 entry

Course content

The MA consists of 180 credits. 60 credits are derived from the compulsory modules, 60 credits from elective modules and 60 credits from the dissertation.

Modules may change from time to time; an indicative list is shown below.

Compulsory modules

• Book History: Theories and Approaches (40 credits). Theoretical debates in the study of book history and introduction to research, including archival and primary research. Approaches to print and publishing culture with reference to a range of case studies in 20th-century publishing history.

• The History and Culture of Publishing (20 credits). Exploration of print history narratives; propaganda and censorship; publishing and the marketplace; colonialism, postcolonialism and publishing; feminist publishing; media concentration and globalisation in publishing; literary prize culture and the digital text.

• The Dissertation (60 credits) can cover any aspect of book history or publishing culture, as agreed with your supervisor.

Elective modules

• E-Publishing (20 credits) enables you to engage with the dynamic nature of a rapidly evolving part of the publishing industry. Through lectures, workshops, and talks from industry speakers, you are introduced to both the strategic and practical sides of e-publishing.

• Publishing and Language Issues (20 credits) examines how language issues are affecting the development of publishing in an international context. It looks at these issues from the perspective of publishing in world languages (eg English, French), in major national and international languages (eg Chinese, Arabic) and in more local languages (eg Finnish, Kiswahili, Bengali).

• Children's Publishing (20 credits) explores the development of the market sector, and the current shape and business practices of publishing for children and young adults. Topics include picture books, co-editions and translatability; the sector's links to other leisure industries, merchandising and content reuse; editing and censorship; age ranging and gatekeeping; literacy and reading campaigns; and promotion.

• Independent Study in Publishing (20 credits) offers you the opportunity to design a course of study to suit your own interests and concerns, to organise and carry out a work schedule set by yourself, and to determine a set of learning outcomes and assessment criteria in collaboration with the module leader and a supervisor.

• Romanticisms (40 credits). This module is designed to complicate understanding of the literary period known as 'Romantic' through a range of contrasting and contesting texts, contexts and positions emergent in Britain in the period 1780-1832.

• 20th-Century Texts (40 credits). This module covers a range of genres, writers and forms of the 20th century and provides the opportunity to consider some of the ideas central to 20th-century writing and culture.

• Modern and Contemporary Poetry (40 credits). This is a broad-ranging course, tracing the interconnections and negotiations between modernist and subsequent poetries, as well as addressing issues of gender and performance.

• Victorian Texts (40 credits). This module covers a range of genres, writers and forms of the Victorian period and provides the opportunity to consider some of the ideas central to 19th-century writing and culture. 

• Modern and Contemporary Fiction (40 credits). This module offers students the opportunity to engage with a number of texts written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

• Race, Empire and Colonisation (40 credits). This module will investigate the development and influence of concepts of race in Europe – chiefly Great Britain - and overseas colonies, and examine their relationship to imperialism.

• Britain and Europe 1950 - 1990 (40 credits). This module will examine Britain’s relationship with the ‘Common Market’/ EEC/ EC/ EU since the Second World War. Students will be given the opportunity to study the fundamental issues that have pre-occupied historians of international relations, politics, Anglo-American relations and the history of European Union integration.

Faculty

Faculty of Business

Department

Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies

Course length

Full-time: MA: 12 months, PGDip: 9 months
Part-time: MA: 24 months, PGDip: 18 months

Teaching location

Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane

Start date

September 2012

UKPASS code

044798

Entry requirements

If you wish to apply you should have a good honours degree or equivalent, in any subject, and be able to supply two references (for example, one academic reference, and one from an employer).

Exceptionally, if you have qualifications or experience (or both) which demonstrate that you have knowledge and capabilities at the required level, you may be admitted without the standard qualifications. 

Scholarships and funding

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Why Oxford is a great place to study Book History and Publishing Culture

Oxford is a global centre of publishing - local companies include Elsevier, Macmillan Education, Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley-Blackwell.  A large number of independent publishing organizations are also based in Oxford, including the African Books Collective, Berg Publishing, How to Books, Infinite Ideas, Osprey Publishing, Oxfam Publishing, and the Voltaire Foundation. 

Students have access to unique research resources: specialist publishing collections; André Deutsch Collection, African Publishing Collection; the Bodleian Library. Oxford Brookes is also the permanent home of the Booker Prize Archive.

The city of Oxford has something for everyone. A beautiful, historic city, it is famous for its writers, including J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Colin Dexter and Mark Haddon. The Oxford Literary Festival takes place each Spring. In 2011 we ran a speaker event with Victoria Barnsley, Chief Executive of HarperCollins, the author Marcus du Sautoy, and the Sunday Times journalist Cathy Galvin.

Oxford is a vibrant, student-friendly place with lots to offer, including a wide range of sporting venues, shops, pubs, cafes, clubs, cinemas, theatres and restaurants, with excellent transport links, it is ideally situated for exploring the rest of Britain and Europe. London is easily accessible by both coach and train.

How Brookes supports postgraduate students

Supporting your learning

From academic advisers and support co-ordinators to specialist subject librarians and other learning support staff, we want to ensure that you get the best out of your studies.

Personal support services

We want your time at Brookes to be as enjoyable and successful as possible. That's why we provide all the facilities you need to be relaxed, happy and healthy throughout your studies.

Departmental research highlights

The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies (OICPS) is one of the leading centres for publishing education in the world. Our staff and students contribute to a vibrant research environment that is interdisciplinary in emphasis and international in scope. We focus on areas such as book consumption and the life cycle of books, book trade and publishing history (especially 18th-21st centuries), museum publishing, serials publications, pedagogy and publishing education, and the future of the industry. Members of staff have published award-winning monographs, key pedagogical textbooks, and a range of scholarly articles and edited collections.

Students pursuing doctoral studies with us are investigating such topics as girls' magazines in the cultural and consumer marketplace, the future of university libraries, German publishing in the First World War, and marketing strategies for children’s literature in the Middle East. We also supervise students for the PhD by Publication. Most of our research students are based in Oxford, but a number work on their studies from a distance with regular contact in person and by email.

Research is supported by the resources of Oxford Brookes Library –especially its Special Collections featuring the Booker Archive, the Publishing in Africa Collection, the Rainbird Archive, and the Peter Stockham Collection of Children’s Books—as well as by other local and regional archives and university libraries. 

OICPS carries out independent research and training with the international publishing industry. Recent research and consultancy clients include the British Council, Hewlett Packard, the Society of Experimental Biology and Sports Books. 

If you have a topic relating to publishing that you would like to study at doctoral level, please contact us with a preliminary synopsis.
 

Research areas and clusters

The OICPS can offer PhD and MPhil supervision in the following areas:

• The Culture and History of Publishing: late 19th, 20th and 21st-century print culture, publishing and book history. Examples of specific research areas might include authorship, reading and literary sociology, contemporary fiction and literary prizes, and the impact of editorial and technological issues on culture and society.
• International, Strategy, Policy and Development: studies of contemporary publishing in local, regional and national contexts, issues of development and publishing. Geographical areas (outside the UK) where there is particular staff expertise include Africa, China and Europe.

Projects can also be co-supervised with the Department of English and Modern Languages, the Department of History, Philosophy and Religion, or the Business School.