Postgraduate Prospectus 2009

Social and political thought

• Research in social and political thought is interdisciplinary, bridging the conventional divides between social theory, political philosophy, and the history of social and political thought; and between empirical and normative analysis.
• The particular research strengths of the Social and Political Thought (SPT) Group are in the following areas:
  • social theory, especially Marxism, Hegel, hermeneutics and critical theory;
  • recent democratic, socialist and environmentalist thought and practice;
  • history of political, social and economic thought;
  • philosophy of social science and the sociology of knowledge;
  • contemporary political philosophy;
  • cosmopolitanism;
  • critical race theory.
• Many of our students have gone on to successful careers in research and teaching, the media, and NGOs. Over the last 30 years a substantial number of leading academics in the UK and elsewhere have passed through the programme.

Admissions requirements

For information on overseas qualifications that meet the admissions requirements, refer to Application and selection - International students.

MA

An upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in an arts or social sciences discipline.

MPhil and DPhil

A Masters degree, or its equivalent, in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. For more information and alternative English language requirements, refer to Application and selection - International students.

Research programmes

Research degrees may be pursued on either a full-time or part-time basis and may take the form of an MPhil or a DPhil. There is wide-ranging supervisory expertise available from faculty in the fields of politics, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, international relations, history, and English. We have a large and active body of research students from a variety of intellectual and national backgrounds.

Studies in Social and Political Thought is our own in-house journal. It is published by a group of students and faculty from the programme. It offers an ideal opportunity for our students to publish their work.

Centre for Social and Political Thought

The Centre is the organisational base for research associated with the Social and Political Thought programme. A major dimension of the Centre’s research is critical social theory. The ‘Europeanness’ of Social and Political Thought is an important part of its identity, as it is for the University of Sussex. The Centre is also the home of the European Journal of Social Theory. Currently one Marie Curie Post-Doctoral fellowship is based in the Centre.

Funding

Students with appropriate interests and qualifications can apply for AHRC awards. Refer to Fees and funding.

Coursework

Although our MPhil and DPhil degrees consist primarily of independent directed research, students often participate formally or informally in MA courses. If you do not already have a relevant MA or equivalent, we may require you to take one or more MA courses in your first year. We offer a wide range of research training courses for students. If you have not completed comparable research training elsewhere, you will be required to take some of these courses.

Recent and current thesis titles

• Intellectual origins of New Labour
• Justice, community and singularity
• Gender and the social construction of whiteness
• New forms of participatory democracy
• Communitarianism in current political discourse
• Darwinism, homosexuality and the left
• Marcuse and the new social movements
• Critiques of liberalism
• Political elites in Poland
• The liberal-communitarian debate
• Arendt and Foucault
• Justice, difference and feminism
• Sartre and political philosophy
• Benjamin and Kafka
• Models of social representation
• Regional modernities: UK and Denmark
• Paternalistic legislation
• Trotsky and the state
• Discourses of the extreme right
• Bureaucratisation and reformism in social democracy

Academic activities

The centrepiece of the SPT Group’s intellectual activity is the fortnightly graduate/faculty research seminar in social and political thought, at which internal and visiting speakers present papers. All MA and research students are welcome.

There is also a work-in-progress seminar run by research students, at which they present papers for discussion. We have other occasional seminar series, and a group of faculty and students edit the journal Studies in Social and Political Thought.

A number of SPT research students and faculty are among those associated with the Centre for Critical Social Theory, which brings together researchers at Sussex who are interested in the interactions between the explanatory, normative and ideological dimensions of social and political thought. The Centre has sponsored conferences on The Future of Critical Social Theory, Social Democracy: Current Ideological Directions, Environmentalism and Critical Realism, and Reconstructing Human Rights. SPT faculty and students have also organised conferences on The Good Life, The Direction of Contemporary Capitalism, Hegel: History and Politics, and The Life and Work of Edward Said, as well as graduate conferences every year since 2002.

The Centre has special links with the Social Theory Centre at Warwick University, with whom it organised a major series of seminars on Social Theory and Major Social Transformations and with whom it jointly publishes the journal Papers in Social Theory. Faculty have links with a variety of scholars in Europe and North America and often invite colleagues to give papers at Sussex.

For pre-application enquiries:

Student Recruitment Services
Sussex House
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RH
T +44 (0)1273 876787
F +44 (0)1273 876677
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

For post-application enquiries:

Postgraduate Admissions
Admissions Office
Sussex House
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RH
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk

Teaching term dates 2009-2010

Autumn term
5 October 2009 to 11 December 2009

Spring term
11 January 2010 to 19 March 2010

Summer term
19 April 2010 to 25 June 2010