MA Migration and Diaspora Studies

Our MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies is a broad-based degree for students who want to receive research training in migration and diaspora, as well as humanitarian and refugee Studies, including a relevant language as part of the specialisation.

The degree prepares you to proceed to advanced postgraduate research or to work as practitioners in fields related to migration, refugees and humanitarian relief.

The MA Migration and Diaspora Studies is a highly interdisciplinary program, taught from a Global South perspective and uniquely committed to anthropology and other disciplines' accountability towards the subjects they study.

The MA program is engaged and practice oriented and offers the possibility of creative assignments along with conventional assessment forms. It is enthused by the belief that knowledge and practice produced by diaspora and migrants' grassroots organisations, activists, practitioners and artists should be intertwined with academic knowledge, and validated as part of a real decolonising effort.

Students enrolled in the MA program have the unique chance to carry out internships while studying through the module From Theory to Practice and Back: Work-placements in Migration Research. The internships aim to bridge theory and practice in the fields of migration, diaspora and humanitarian practice.

The course is available exclusively to students enrolled in the MA Migration and Diaspora Studies. The course is organised in the form of internships and independent study projects, along with some class seminars in collaboration with the organisations, with whom we partner. Students have the opportunity to work with a broad range of organisations operating in areas as varied as migrants' support and refugees’ legal protection, activist and political campaigns and networks, as well as galleries and art collectives promoting diaspora and BAME cultures, identities, and arts.

The MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies is designed to those who:

• wish to know more of the transnational nature of the modern world
• wish to engage with critical theories to understand the management of mobility and the impact of humanitarian relief
• wish to understand the role of migration in the major political and cultural processes of the contemporary world
• come from other disciplines, such as Law or Politics, and now wish to incorporate an anthropological perspective on issues of migration and diaspora

The degree offers students a chance to pursue their specific areas of interest by selecting from optional modules;

• a broad-based perspective enhancing your knowledge in light of continuing contemporary research
• a specific area, allowing you to study diaspora and migration issues in depth in relation to a particular discipline or region

The MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies is considerably enriched by the SOAS Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies, which runs seminars, films and public lectures and also hosts a number of international scholars. The Centre is also a part of a migration research network of London colleges including LSE and UCL. Students on the programme therefore have unparalleled access to a critical body of scholars and scholarship on migration and diaspora related issues.