MSc in Arab World Studies

The MSc in Arab world Studies is intended to provide rigorous, research-driven, interdisciplinary, masters-level education and training. It is committed to providing a supportive learning environment that seeks to combine critical and practical reasoning so as to attain the following aims:

• The program is designed to establish a cadre of exceptional researchers, qualified at the Masters's level, with skills and knowledge sufficient for the conduct of research in and on the Arab World.
• To recruit students of high caliber who have not previously completed any substantive research training and who have few or no Arabic language skills.
• To provide generic training in research methods and methodologies to provide a foundation in a broad range of social science research methods as well as basic research and transferable skills that all students in the social sciences require as deemed appropriate for ESRC recognition.
• To provide subject-specific training in research methods and methodologies in Politics, relevant also to International Relations and International Studies.
• To provide language instruction in the Arabic language, such that the student develops appropriate and sufficient competence to utilize the language in their subsequent research or employment in the Arabic-speaking world.
• To develop the knowledge, skills, and understanding which will prepare students to undertake research for a doctoral degree in Politics, International Relations or International Studies, and which may be required of a professional researcher in these fields of the social sciences.
• To develop the student's knowledge of the range of existing disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary research on the Arab World.

Course Structure

Year 1

• Core modules to the value of 70 credits
• Optional modules to the value of 30 credits.

Year 2

• Core modules to the value of 40 credits
• Optional modules to the value of 75 credits, plus
• Dissertation 60 credits.

Core Modules

• Arabic Language 1B
• Perspectives on Social Research
• The Contemporary Politics of the Middle East
• Arabic Language 2B
• Dissertation.

Optional Modules

Optional modules in previous years have included:

• Statistical Exploration and Reasoning
• Quantitative Methods in Social Science
• Applied Statistics
• Qualitative Methods in Social Science
• Fieldwork and Interpretation
• International Relations and Security in the Middle East
• The Political Economy of Development in the Middle East
• America and the World: The Making of US Foreign Policy
• Contemporary Socio-Political Issues in Muslim Religious Thought.