Arts

Film Studies

Combining academic rigour with professional expertise, our Film Studies MA offers a film education for the 21st century. Taught by leading scholars, you will examine the historical, theoretical and cultural contexts of film.
The course also benefits from an advisory panel of leading directors and industry experts. Recent guest lecturers include screen writer and producer Steve Bishop, and Sian Habell- Aili, a consultant at the UK Film Council.
Students also have the opportunity to work on local projects, such as helping to organise the annual OXDOX
International Documentary Film Festival.

Interdisciplinary Arts

Renowned for its progressive outlook on creative practice, the department’s interdisciplinary arts programmes expand the possibilities of contemporary art. You will work alongside prominent artists and theorists, for example Shelley Sacks, an internationally renowned social sculpture artist. The work of our students is often characterised by social engagement and creative interventions in contemporary life. Oxford is home to a rich array of galleries and museums, including leading contemporary gallery Modern Art Oxford, where our Fine Art students have exhibited their work.

Music

Recognised as a centre of excellence in music teaching and research, the School of Arts offers postgraduate programmes in musicology and contemporary composition. Our staff members have a diverse range of expertise, with a particular focus on the 19th century to the present, spanning classical, popular and contemporary repertories. We have strong partnerships with music organisations such as Oxford Contemporary Music where many of our students have taken up work placements. Taking advantage of Oxford’s thriving music scene, our students take a critically engaged and often cross-disciplinary approach to the world of music and sound.

• A unified hub for the arts in the Richard Hamilton Building, with state-of-the-art technical facilities and 24-hour studio access.
• Innovative cross-disciplinary and socially-engaged creative practices, including internationally renowned programmes in sonic art and social sculpture.
• Research and teaching programmes linked to some of Oxford’s leading cultural organisations and experts, such as Modern Art Oxford, Oxford Contemporary Music, and the annual OXDOX International Documentary Film Festival.
• Specialist research units and interdisciplinary research clusters in areas including the nineteenth century and modernism.
• Opportunities for international study, with students recently visiting the United States, Europe and Australia.

To find out more please visit our research degrees page.

Offering unique opportunities for cross-disciplinary learning, postgraduate taught courses in the School of Arts provide students with sought-after skills for the creative industries as well as highly valued transferable skills that create opportunities in numerous fields of employment.

Interdisciplinary Arts Programmes

The four courses within this programme focus on creative strategies, allowing your abilities to develop through a
range of experimental, collaborative and reflective processes. Dialogue and collaboration is central with regular individual tutorials facilitated by tutors who are engaged internationally in experimental work. The programme is also enriched by groundbreaking work carried out by the Social Sculpture Research Unit and Sonic Art Research Unit. The interdisciplinary nature of the programme means that our students come from a range of backgrounds in addition to the arts.

Music

The MA in Music provides a thorough grounding in advanced musical studies and gives you the opportunity to undertake independent research.

There are four distinctive specialist pathways from which to choose:

• Music and Popular Culture
• Music on Stage and on Screen
• Contemporary Practice in
• Composition
• Music in 19th-Century Culture. Teaching is delivered by staff members who have produced internationally- recognised research and the MA can, where desired, pave the way to doctoral research.

Film Studies

You will study a broad range of topics from the history and theory of popular cinema to screenwriting, research methods and dissertation writing. There are also opportunities for work placement within the film industry, including the British Film Institute, Pinewood Studios, Sight and Sound and OXDOX Documentary Film Festival.

Facilities

The school features state-of-the-art technical facilities for photography, screen-based practice and sound, including industry-standard editing suites and top of the line HD equipment. For musicians, there are nine recently- refurbished practice rooms, two dedicated music studios, a music technology room and a drum room.

Across our 3D workshop, bookworks and digital media workshop, printmaking studio, and darkroom and photography suite, our fine arts facilities are of the very highest standard.

• Archaeological Illustration (at Swindon College) - MA / PGDip
• Composition and Sonic Art - MA / PGDip
• Contemporary Arts - MA
• Contemporary Arts and Music - MA / PGDip
• Film Studies: Popular Cinema - MA / PGDip / PGCert
• Fine Art: Drawing for Fine Art Practice (at Swindon College) - MA
• Music - MA / PGDip / PGCert
• Social Sculpture - MA / PGDip