Film Studies and Social Anthropology
Film studies and social anthropology are disciplines that share a deep preoccupation with culture, human experience, and the ways societies make meaning and represent themselves. Film studies uses critical, theoretical, and historical approaches to examine one of the most significant cultural and artistic forms of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, exploring how films construct meaning, how they reflect and shape social reality, and how cinema has developed across different national and international contexts. Social anthropology, meanwhile, takes the full diversity of human societies as its subject, using participant observation, comparative analysis, and theoretical frameworks to understand kinship, economy, religion, politics, and identity across cultures.
At the University of St Andrews, the MA (Hons) in Film Studies and Social Anthropology runs over four years in full-time mode, drawing on both disciplines through a combination of theoretical study, historical analysis, and ethnographic methods. A year abroad is built into the programme, providing the opportunity to spend a year studying at an international partner institution and gaining a directly experiential understanding of the comparative and cross-cultural dimensions of both subjects. St Andrews has a strong tradition in both disciplines, and the combination offers a particularly rich preparation for understanding contemporary global culture from multiple angles.
The skills this degree develops, close reading and analysis, cross-cultural understanding, critical writing, research design, and the ability to engage seriously with diverse perspectives, are valued across a wide range of careers. Many graduates move into film and media industries, arts organisations, cultural policy, journalism, documentary-making, and education. Others pursue careers in international development, humanitarian work, policy research, diplomacy, or the civil service, where anthropological thinking about culture and human systems is directly relevant.
Postgraduate study in film, anthropology, cultural studies, or media is a natural next step. The typical entry tariff is 184 points.