[Charlotte] My name is Charlotte Ross, I am based in the Modern Languages department at Birmingham
and I’m talking to you today because I have a couple of relevant roles. I’m head of the
postgraduate taught programmes in the School of Languages, Cultures, Art, History, and Music so
that's that acronym that you see there LCAHM and modern languages is based within that school.
And I’m also a programme convener for one of the MAs I’m going to talk about and contribute to a
couple of other programmes. And what I want to do is talk to you about the programmes that
we have that are based in the
Department of Modern Languages but they are also programmes that reach
beyond that so they don't necessarily presume a knowledge of modern languages and some of the
courses are quite interdisciplinary okay. So if you, for example, are very interested in gender
and sexuality studies and you're wondering why you're in a modern languages presentation the
reason is because that programme is housed in the department. So which programmes am I going to
talk about first of all?
So these are the programmes that we offer from within the department there's
an MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies, an MA in Comparative Literature and Critical Theories,
an MA in Translation Studies, and an MA in English Chinese Interpreting
with Translation. And these
are all programmes that can be taken in a variety of ways. Ft/pt that means either full-time or
part-time, so you can see that most of these courses you have the option of taking them full
time over one year or part-time over two years. DL means distance learning so that means that you
can apply to study without coming onto campus at all or possibly coming maybe once in the course
of the programme and that's just available as an option for the MA in Translation Studies. So what
I’m going to do is just briefly talk you through these different programmes,
what they involve, what
their focus on, how they are structured,
and then I’ll finish with a couple of points about the kind of support that we offer
to postgraduate taught students here at the university and particularly in our school,
and then some contact details if you have any follow-up questions that you want to ask.
So to begin with the MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies. First of all you may have
noticed that some programmes are called MAs and some have a different title. MRes
means Master of Research and it's a slightly different kind of programme from an MA as
I’ll be explaining in a moment in relation to the MA this has fewer taught components
so there's more of a focus on research and there is a longer dissertation that actually gets called
a thesis and there are also some differences in terms of fees which is worth you looking up
on the website. So what is this programme? Well it's an excellent foundation for potentially a
PhD, given the focus on independent research, or also for a range of different careers our students
go on and work for NGOs, for think tanks, doing research in all kinds of capacities.
But also some of them do go on to work as academics and take the academic career route
through a PhD. The course is as I said based in modern languages but it's actually incredibly
interdisciplinary and no knowledge of any language other than English is presupposed.
It's taught by a strong team of research active specialists from across the university so
tutors and supervisors are based in for example the Departments of English, History, Philosophy,
Social Policy, Sociology, of Health as well as Modern Languages, History of Art, Music
so there's a real range of different backgrounds and expertise coming together and looking at the
interdisciplinary area of gender and sexuality studies in some really interesting ways.
Some key theories and fields that the
course introduces and enhances students’ knowledge of include
feminism, gender studies, masculinity studies, sexuality studies, queer studies obviously
but the course also encourages students to think about these in a range of different contexts
from lived realities, socio-cultural contexts, to representation in media, film, or literature etc.
It's a really increasingly relevant programme to start thinking about a relevant area to
find out more about and the programme very much encourages students to think about the
developments in critical debates and knowledge on these particular areas for example the history
of feminist thought, but also to look at how these particular areas are fundamental as tools to
understand the changing world around us today. So for example the course encourages students to
engage with really contemporary debates like questions around the Me Too movement around
transfeminism and around Black Lives Matter as they pertain to gender and sexuality. So what does
the course look like? Well there are three taught modules so fewer taught modules than a standard MA
and then a longer dissertation which we call a thesis so it's 20,000 words. So there's
quite an emphasis on the importance of having a good thesis proposal when students apply. Entry
requirements are pretty standard for an MA, so a 2.1 undergraduate degree from a UK institution or
equivalent depending on where you've studied, and if your first language isn't English
then there is an English language requirement as specified there. So if you want more information
there's plenty of information that you can find on the website in the postgraduate prospectus
and I’m also happy to take questions afterwards when we move on to the Q&A session.
So the next programme is the MA in Comparative Literature and Critical Theories and I am the
programme convener for this one. So this can be taken either full-time or part-time again
it's a great foundation for a PhD or for a range of different careers depending on how you might
want to use the research skills and the knowledges you might gain. There's a focus on global critical
theories, on world literature, and on encouraging students to think about developing their own way
into the area of comparative literature. Comparative literature, world literature, global
literature these are all labels and areas that have been defined and redefined and questioned
for all kinds of important ideological and political reasons over the last century or so.
And we encourage students to engage with those debates and to think about how they want to
position themselves within the area. It's a course that is labelled as comparative literature
but we understand literature in a very broad sense, so it could mean the critical literature,
it could mean literature in the traditional sense as in fiction,
but it can also mean other forms of cultural texts.
So there are seminars on for example photography, on popular music,
on film, as well and we encourage
students to think about how different kinds of cultural texts speak to each other, speak across
different cultures. One distinctive aspect of the course here at Birmingham is that if students want
to, if they have the linguistic competence, they can study texts in the source language
and have supervision in that area, we can't cover every single language there's a list of languages
that we can cover and I’m very happy to speak to you about that if you have any questions,
but we don't presuppose any specific linguistic competence it's very possible to study everything
within English. Again like the Gender and Sexuality MRes this course engages very much
with the history of thought in this area
and with contemporary debates, so for example with the Black Lives Matter
movement or with the debates around decolonising the curriculum that are
currently ongoing in the UK and elsewhere so it's definitely a course which is on the cutting edge
of thought about these areas. Structure of the course, this is much more of a standard MA so
there are double the number of taught options that you get on the Mres, so three core modules one of
which is a Research Skills module and then three optional modules and the dissertation is
12,000 words so shorter than for the Mres. Again the entry requirements are quite standard for an
MA and you can find out more information on the postgraduate prospectus.
Now I’ll say something
about the programmes in Translation Studies. So these programmes do require linguistic knowledge
we offer the MA in Translation Studies full-time
part-time or distance learning. It is a course that I suppose is catering really to two
different main groups of students, so students who want to become
professional translators, and so they have a vocational ambition,
and the course needs to prepare them for that, and also students who are thinking of perhaps an
academic career in translation studies who might use this as a springboard for a PhD.
The syllabus is very industry informed
because we want to support the students who are seeking training as professional
translators. It's recognised by the major bodies in in the translation studies industry
and there's a lot of emphasis on employability skills, careers talks, we have a lot of close
contacts with people in the industry including our former students, and so it's very helpful
for our current students to get a sense of what a career in translation could be like.
We have really great facilities that we're very proud of that have just been recently upgraded.
So they're state of the art facilities and software some of the software that's used
includes Trados Studio and EZ Titles which are used by professionals in the field so students can
learn how to use them and get practice of doing that. There is also a choice of whether or not
to focus on one or two language pairings, and that depends on students' linguistic knowledge.
The languages we offer, here's a list here, it's possible to translate from other languages into
English but that's currently only available as a distance learning option and I would encourage
you to contact the programme convener Emma Tyler and I’ll give you her details at the
end of this presentation. So that's a list of the languages that we currently offer supervision in.
So what does the programme look like? There are four core modules and two options so
the same number of modules as on the MA in Comparative Literature but slightly less choice.
Plus then a dissertation or extended translation project of 15,000 words
so for the dissertation this is a long piece of critical reflection,
the extended translation project is a translation using one of the
language pairings that students have been working in, of 7,500 words plus a critical
commentary about the strategies adopted. The entry requirements are a little bit more specific so you
would need to have mother tongue competence for the language into which you want to translate,
and then also a 2.1 or equivalent degree for the languages from which you intend to
translate and obviously you might have specific life knowledge and not a qualification and we
can also take that into consideration so again more information is available on the website.
And then finally the MA in English Chinese Interpreting with Translation. This programme
is specifically for Chinese native speakers and is at the moment only available on campus. It
is possible to work into other languages for the translation element of it
but not for the interpreting element. Again we have excellent state-of-the-art facilities
and software that allow students to practice both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting,
and there's also a real
focus on employability and helping students see their way into a career after the end of the of
the course. It's a very similar structure to the other programmes, four core modules plus
two options, and then a dissertation or extended translation project and there are the details
about the entry requirements as I explained it's really aimed at Chinese native speakers.
We hope in the future to be able to branch out but at the moment that's the specialised supervision
that we can offer. So those are the programmes I just want to say something briefly about
what's distinctive about Birmingham, why you might want to choose to study here.
Obviously you might be thinking specifically about the courses,
you might also want to think about the
institution as a whole, so as you probably know Birmingham is a very well established
university that was founded in 1900 and is part of the Russell Group of universities
which is very well regarded in the UK. Internationally it's also in the top 100
for Modern Languages specifically and that's from the university world rankings from 2019
and we're also very proud to have that what's called the TEF gold certificate, the teaching
excellent framework certificate which is the best you can get which means that there's really
excellent teaching that is offered for these programmes. Another thing to be aware of when
making your choices about where you might like to apply is the kind of support that we can offer
outside the specific teaching hours connected to the programme that you might sign up for. So if
a student's first language is not English, then we offer a lot of very tailored support through the
Birmingham international academy, which is part of the university, that offers support sessions all
the way through the year and they're free to any student who's registered on courses. So they might
cover issues such as how to write a postgraduate essay in English,
how to intervene effectively in
seminars, how to engage with your supervisor,
how to write a dissertation, so a range of different
issues that are dealt with over the course of the year. There are also
all kinds of advice and tutorials for students whose first language is English
to make sure that you are doing the best work of which you're capable at this level.
So tutorials on the difference between an undergraduate and a
postgraduate essay for example, how do you make the jump, how do you make sure
you're using citations effectively in your in your writing, and there are plenty of online
support materials about how to do for example,
very careful and thorough bibliographical searches, how to
devise your own question for a dissertation
with the appropriate kind of scope, those kind of things.
It's also a very dynamic research environment for postgraduate students, at the moment it's all a
bit different because a lot of it is happening online, but there are regular seminars, there are
opportunities to hear doctoral students and staff from the university, as well as external speakers
present their work, and there are opportunities for Masters students to start presenting their
work and think about either developing their presentational skills, or looking forward
to a career in academia. And one final thing to mention is just the excellent employability rates
of these courses. For some of the courses we have an employability rate of over 90%
which means that six months after graduating, over 90% of the students from that course
are in work or further study, which is a pretty impressive achievement in the current climate.
We think that's partly because students learn a lot of really helpful transferable skills,
research skills, analytical skills, presentational skills,
that can be used in a variety of environments.
So those are some of the things that you might want to be aware of when thinking about making
your decision of where to apply. Now that's all I’m
going to say at the moment apart from a list of key contacts so if you're
interested in taking any of these issues forward if you can stay for the Q&A now,
myself and Fernando will try and answer the questions that you have. If you have specific
questions about the programme that I may
not be able to answer or you want to contact the convener
here is a list of who you would need to get in touch with and these details are also on
the web. So I’m at the bottom as a contact for Comparative Literature and Critical Theories.
Then we also have Elliot Evans who is the convener of Sexuality and Gender Studies,
Xiaohui Yuan who is the convener of Interpreting and Translation, Emma Tyler who's the convener of
Translation Studies, and I’ve also put there the contact details of colleagues in Music,
and Art History Curating and Visual Studies. Now those departments are in the same school
with modern languages, and we do share some modules, we do share some optional modules
and there are quite strong intellectual links between the different programmes.
It's possible that somebody might for example want
to study sexuality and gender studies with a particular emphasis on history of art,
somebody might be interested in comparative literature and
want to look across fiction and photography. And we can offer supervision across these
different areas because we have this sort of close network of
colleagues working in these cognate areas.
So it may be that you are potentially thinking about looking across different disciplinary
areas and if you are then do please get in touch and see what kind of supervision we can offer.