Cultural and Media Studies BA

Course overview

You’ll explore cultural and media productions, practices and institutions in national, transnational and global contexts and across subject areas including philosophy, literature, sociology, art history, film, communication studies and digital humanities.

With a wide choice of modules, you’ll gain a real breadth of knowledge and be able to tailor your studies to focus on areas that interest you the most. You’ll examine issues such as conflict and its cultural mediation, migration and multicultural societies as well as utopian thinking and social activism in offline and online spaces. You’ll study difference across the globe, including race, class, gender, disability, the dialogue of analogue and digital technologies with our minds, bodies, ecologies, and other life forms, alongside the social effects of global communication networks.

The course is taught jointly by two distinctive departments (the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and the School of Media and Communication), who combine innovative approaches to studying, making, and displaying culture and the arts with critical examinations of how people share knowledge, values and beliefs through television, journalism, film, online media and beyond.

You’ll become a critical and agile evaluator of cultural materials and mediated practices across diverse contexts, thereby allowing you to become global citizens who actively engage with contemporary societal challenges.

Additional highlights

Innovative research centres, projects and initiatives based out of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies as well as the School of Media and Communication offer dynamic sites of engagement. A few notable highlights include:

• Centre for Critical Materialist Studies

• Centre for Cultural Studies (The internationally renowned journal parallax is edited from the Centre.)

• Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History (CentreCATH)

• Media Industries and Cultural Production

• MUSICSTREAM: Music Culture in the Age of Streaming

• Media Futures

Specialist facilities

The University Library offers online books, journals and databases, has a wealth of archive material in its Special Collections, including manuscript, archive and early printed material, and provides a range of spaces for individual study or group work. You’ll also benefit from access to Box of Broadcasts, an archive of over 2 million TV and radio broadcasts.

You can join various media production societies on campus and learn to use production/post-production equipment, software and facilities.

Over 16,000 courses are also available to you through LinkedIn Learning to complement your academic and professional portfolio.

The University campus also features wide range of museums, archives, galleries and makerspaces:

• The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery

• Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery

• Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

• Marks & Spencer Company Archive

• International Textile Collection

• Digital Cultures and Creativity Hub

• Library Makerspace

• HELIX learning innovation hub

Course details

On this course, you’ll develop concepts, competencies and knowledge that allow a nuanced understanding of how cultural and mediated artifacts circulate in contemporary society and across diverse global contexts. You’ll understand how people and social groups make meaning in everyday life through events, objects and language in physical, as well as web-based and computational, cultures.

You’ll take compulsory modules that provide you with a fundamental level of course-based knowledge and key, transferable skills such as researching, writing and communication. You’ll be able to develop these foundational skills, deepen knowledge in areas of interest and explore new topics through a range of optional modules. You’ll finish the course by completing a final written dissertation or a capstone project.

Year 1

You'll gain fundamental research, reading and writing skills for analysing and interpreting cultural and media objects and practices. Compulsory modules introduce essential theories and critical approaches and examine some of the significant factors that have shaped modernity and the contemporary world, such as:

• Industrialisation, Revolution and Globalisation
• War and Colonisation
• Cultural and political movements
• Networks, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence

You’ll have a diverse choice of optional modules that allow you to study a variety of exciting topics.

Year 2

You’ll deepen your understanding of key theoretical concepts in the study of culture, media and society. You also engage with methods and central questions in communications, broadcasting, journalism and digital media studies. Optional modules give you the chance to focus on topics that interest you including:

• Visual culture in Asia
• Cinema and culture
• The politics of utopia
• Gender and Issues of the (augmented) body
• Semiotics
• Power and social justice
• Journalism
• Employability and career preparation

Year 3
Optional: Study Abroad

Due to the course's interdisciplinary nature, you can apply for a place at a wide variety of international partner institutions. You’ll choose this option when in your second year, allowing you time to prepare with individual support and access to resources.

Studying abroad will extend your degree to four years. Find out more at the Study Abroad website.

Optional: Year in Industry

You have the option to apply for a work placement year with companies and organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK and overseas. This is a great way to gain valuable workplace and industry experience before you graduate. Choosing a Year in Industry will extend your degree to four years.

Final year

During your last year of study, you’ll apply your analytical and critical skills to an independent final assignment which can be a researched written dissertation or a capstone project, which would be substantive research-based audio, visual and/or multimodal artifact on a topic area of your choosing. You can view a selection of previous dissertation titles here.

You complement and support this final project with one optional core and further optional modules. These may cover but are not limited to:

• Cultural and postcolonial theory
• Sexual difference, Feminisms, and Masculinities
• Posthumanism
• Representation of migration and diaspora
• Documentary
• Audience studies
• Politics and Cultures of Artificial Intelligence

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.

Year 1
Compulsory modules

Introduction to Cultural Analysis 1 (20 credits) - This module introduces ways of reading different aspects of culture. It should enable you to discuss the full range of cultural forms including film, television, popular literature and music as well as more canonical modes of culture such as opera, philosophy, art and architecture. This module will equip you with the skills to appreciate, criticise, and understand culture through intellectual approaches. This module covers questions of cultural studies, representation, authorship, meaning, close reading, ideology, race, sexual difference and psychoanalysis.

Networks, Environments and Cultures (20 credits) - This is a module that locates the interconnectedness of networks, its environments, and cultures as an analytic for understanding the contemporary world. You’ll address questions around identity formation, knowledge production and cultural institutions in the networked age, by analysing the social, political and aesthetic implications of user-driven and algorithmically mediated networks. We’ll provide emphasis to the historical trajectory that leads to the emergence of the world wide web, internet cultures, and current new media platforms. You’ll be encouraged to explore the role of networks in amplifying/mitigating divide(s)—both analogue and digital—as well as the role of networks in shaping our cultural consciousness and memory.

Introduction to Cultural Analysis 2 (20 credits) - This module introduces you to different methodological and critical approaches to the analysis and study of cultural production and consumption, in a range of different social, historical and political contexts. Week by week you are taken through a range of relevant questions, topics and themes relating to the critical and contextual analysis of culture and are shown the ways in which culture itself informs how it is theoretically interpreted.

And choose one of either:

Cultural History (20 credits) - This module maps social and cultural formations underscoring the history of ‘the West’ since the period known as the Enlightenment. We draw on events and developments to interrogate and challenge ideas and assumptions informing modernity and postmodernity. Texts you encounter range from academic writings to autobiography, fiction, cartography, paintings, memorials, photography and film. Contexts in which these are explored include rights, revolutions, enslavement, colonialism, the modern city, 20th-century war and questions around ‘the human’.

Studying Media (20 credits) -You’ll be introduced to a range of media and communication approaches, drawing on scholarship in media industries, texts, audience and histories. You’ll also examine critical perspectives on and debates regarding the production, circulation, and reception of media. This module will also guide you in developing independent research skills and critical analysis.

Optional modules

• Race Matters (20 credits)
• The History of Communication (20 credits)
• Introduction to Media and Communication Theory (20 credits)

Year 2
Compulsory modules

Keywords (20 credits) - Representation, Form, Context, Interpretation and Power are words you’ll hear often while undertaking your course. They are heard frequently because they are concepts used by teachers and scholars in these fields to analyse works of art and cultural practices whether realised as paintings, texts, buildings, actions or otherwise. What do these concepts mean; how are they used; when and why were they produced; what debates have they stirred? These are the questions that you’ll engage in this module. Through reading, writing and speaking you’ll become active and self-aware participants in the cultural history of the present.

Visual Communication (20 credits) - This module is designed to develop your visual literacy and enable you to read key visual texts, deploying a range of historical, critical and contextual approaches. You’ll look at dominant visual cultural forms such as photography, cinema, television and websites, developing the ways in which you try to understand these key modes of communication.

OR

Digital Cultures (20 credits) - You’ll explore the interactive leisure forms and practices of digital technologies such as gaming, modding, play, hacktivism and social media. We ask how seriously we should take these new forms of interactions, and the extent to which they are changing our understanding of culture today. You’ll explore a number of digital cultures and practices and consider a range of themes and issues that relate to them. We also address the contexts of these cultures, in order to develop your understanding of the political, economic, social and technical implications of what might seem like harmless and benign leisure activities.

Optional modules

Cinema and Culture (20 credits) - The module’s themes and concepts are approached by looking comparatively at specific films and their remake(s). This approach enables us to note cultural, social and technological shifts over time, to discuss the possibilities and challenges of transnational remakes and to consider wider questions of inter-, para- and metatextuality in 20th-century cinema and our postcinematic age. Students engage with relevant discourses and make detailed analyses of screenings, readings and terminologies. The module also dedicates time to develop students’ writing and presentation skills. Techniques and strategies of how to construct a focused argument, find appropriate literature and read a film closely will be explicitly addressed and practiced in this module.

Absence, Representation, Violence (20 credits) - This module explores the significance of absences within cultural texts. By analysing how various scholars have explored the hauntings, opacities, and other absences in cultural texts, you will critically reflect on the links between representation and violence. The module will also encourage you to engage in a close reading of several cultural texts, including some of your own choosing, allowing you to generate surprising, imaginative insights into what absences can reveal.

The State of Utopia (20 credits) - This module offers students the opportunity to explore a multitude of different ideal cities and model communities from the sixteenth century to the present day. The tracing of the various forms utopianism has adopted since Thomas More will take us into the fields of architecture, art, literature, politics, philosophy, sociology, women's studies and religion. In parallel to this historical approach to utopian thinking, students will be encouraged to think critically and imaginatively about our contemporary society and to propose a theoretically informed utopia for the future. The study of dystopias (failed social experiments) will be an unavoidable component of this module.

Seeing in Asia (20 credits) - Are there fundamental differences between the ways you see objects familiar to you and those from Asia? Are there ways in which the power and meanings of 'seeing' change in an Asian context, so that even though we are 'seeing' the same object, we understand the object differently? How do cultural and historical values and standards shape the act of seeing and how we interpret images? By engaging with wide-ranging historical and cultural examples drawn from a range of specialities from art to science, this module addresses the age-old problem of `nature` versus `nurture` through the perspective of Asian culture.

Image, Music, Text: Reading Roland Barthes (20 credits) - This module offers a detailed encounter with the work of Roland Barthes, and provides, more generally, an introduction to structural linguistics, critical semiology, and its poststructuralist afterlife. Taking its cue from Barthes’ extreme attentiveness to language in the broadest sense of the word, the module explores important philosophical questions of thought, meaning, art, culture and human relations. At the same time, critical thinking and cultural analysis are for Barthes very clearly political, or proto-political gestures: if it’s true that culture is routinely passed off in our societies as nature, then being an able ‘mythologist’ is a prerequisite for anything approaching freedom or autonomy. The module follows the arc of Barthes’ work, from the rigour of his structuralist phase, with its eye-opening revolutionary insights into the structure of language and cultural systems, to his more personal and open-ended later writing, which both extends and critiques the strictly semiological approaches. Barthes’ work is in important ways inseparable from his life – notwithstanding his famous ‘death of the author’.

Bodies of Difference: Gender, Power and the Visual Arts (20 credits) - This module offers students the opportunity to explore a range of feminist, postcolonial and queer theories and cultural practices that think about the body, embodiment, and difference in all its intersectional complexity. Structured as a journey through the body, we address questions such as: What is a body? How are bodies marked as different, why and with what effect? How is subjectivity embodied? How can embodiment be figured and reconfigured in representation and cultural practices? How does difference structure both embodiment and subjectivity? How do concepts and practices address embodiment across interlocking axes of gender, ‘race’, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, language, location, ethnicity, and other unseen axes?

Year 3
Compulsory modules

Dissertation (40/60 Credits) - The final outcome of this module is a BA dissertation. The written dissertation should take the form of a coherently argued, thoroughly researched and carefully edited written work which is based on and clearly reflects the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the programme and the dissertation process.

Optional modules

Deconstruction Reading Politics (20 credits) - This module offers students the opportunity to explore a range of feminist, postcolonial and queer theories and cultural practices that think about the body, embodiment, and difference in all its intersectional complexity. Structured as a journey through the body, we address questions such as: What is a body? How are bodies marked as different, why and with what effect? How is subjectivity embodied? How can embodiment be figured and reconfigured in representation and cultural practices? How does difference structure both embodiment and subjectivity? How do concepts and practices address embodiment across interlocking axes of gender, ‘race’, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, language, location, ethnicity, and other unseen axes?

Postcolonial Feminisms (20 credits) - This is a module in feminist theory and politics as these have developed in the context of the period of decolonization and its wake. Emphasis will fall on theoretical formulations concerning sexual difference and the social division of gender as these have been produced by women writing to or from former European colonies. Attention will also be given to questions posed by and for feminism within postcolonial metropoles, including the question of theory as such.

Humanity, Animality and Globality (20 credits) - Crucial for thinking what and how “we” are and could become as a “humanity”, is the thinking of “our” difference and similarities with other life forms. This module therefore engages with theories and practices of animality so as to interrogate the category of The Human. A wide range of material- literary and philosophical texts, films, paintings and installation projects- will be considered that reflect how our notion of “species” is subject to ongoing change.

The Cultural Politics of Artificial Intelligence (20 credits) - Crucial for thinking what and how “we” are and could become as a “humanity”, is the thinking of “our” difference and similarities with other life forms. This module therefore engages with theories and practices of animality so as to interrogate the category of The Human. A wide range of material- literary and philosophical texts, films, paintings and installation projects- will be considered that reflect how our notion of “species” is subject to ongoing change.

Cultural Diversity in Museum and Material Culture - Case Study (20 credits) - Crucial for thinking what and how “we” are and could become as a “humanity”, is the thinking of “our” difference and similarities with other life forms. This module therefore engages with theories and practices of animality so as to interrogate the category of The Human. A wide range of material- literary and philosophical texts, films, paintings and installation projects- will be considered that reflect how our notion of “species” is subject to ongoing change.

Reading Sexual Difference (20 credits) - Crucial for thinking what and how “we” are and could become as a “humanity”, is the thinking of “our” difference and similarities with other life forms. This module therefore engages with theories and practices of animality so as to interrogate the category of The Human. A wide range of material- literary and philosophical texts, films, paintings and installation projects- will be considered that reflect how our notion of “species” is subject to ongoing change.

Movies, Migrants and Diasporas (20 credits) - This module is dedicated to migration and diaspora in Europe as reflected in the cinema. It introduces students to the work of filmmakers with, for example, German Turkish, Black or Asian British, Maghrebi French, Roma or Jewish backgrounds, productions made by transnational Eastern European practitioners and films about migration and diaspora created by non-migrant/diasporic writers and directors.

Learning and teaching

We use a range of in-person and digitally enhanced teaching and learning methods to help you benefit from the expertise of your instructors and make the most of your strengths and abilities. Delivery methods include lectures, seminars, screenings and (online) tutorials that emphasise inclusive, active learning and student inputs. Independent study is also crucial to the degree, allowing you to develop and practise essential critical and research skills and form your own ideas.

In addition to engaging with your module tutors, you receive one-to-one support from your academic personal tutor and, as a finalist, from your dissertation supervisor. You can attend extracurricular talks by industry professionals, visiting artists and academic speakers, as well as workshops, conferences and exhibitions both on and off-campus.

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

We use a variety of assessment methods, allowing you to build different skills. Usually, these include essays, exams, tests and (group) presentations, as well as small-scale research projects and your dissertation. Assessment is led by principles of relevance, fairness and inclusivity, and the development of vital skills beyond university, such as problem-solving, adaptability, self-reliance and reflexivity

Depending on your module choices, you may also be asked to submit reflective logs, short answers, a portfolio, photography, a personal digital story or other forms of digitally curated content.

For each year of study, the University’s Skills@Library team offers training sessions and resources on topics such as exam technique, public speaking, literature search and academic writing.

Entry requirements

A-level: ABB

Other course specific tests:

Where an applicant is undertaking an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), the School may make an alternative offer that is one A level grade below that of our standard offer – on the condition that the applicant achieves a grade A in their EPQ (e.g. ABB at A level / alternative offer BBB plus grade A in EPQ).

NB: An EPQ is optional and not a requirement of application.

Alternative qualification

Read more about UK and Republic of Ireland accepted qualifications or contact the School’s Undergraduate Admissions Team.

Alternative entry

We’re committed to identifying the best possible applicants, regardless of personal circumstances or background.

Access to Leeds is a contextual admissions scheme which accepts applications from individuals who might be from low income households, in the first generation of their immediate family to apply to higher education, or have had their studies disrupted.

If you live in a neighbourhood where there is low participation in higher education, we may be able to give priority to your application.

Find out more about Access to Leeds and contextual admissions.

Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

This course is designed for students whose backgrounds mean they are less likely to attend university (also known as widening participation backgrounds) and who do not currently meet admissions criteria for direct entry to a degree.

The course will give you the opportunity to be taught by academic staff and provides intensive support to enable your development of academic skills and knowledge. On successful completion of your foundation year, you will progress to your chosen degree course. Find out more about the Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

International

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. Contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office for more information.

International Foundation Year

International students who do not meet the academic requirements for undergraduate study may be able to study the University of Leeds International Foundation Year. This gives you the opportunity to study on campus, be taught by University of Leeds academics and progress onto a wide range of Leeds undergraduate courses. Find out more about International Foundation Year programmes.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English
If you're an international student and you don't meet the English language requirements for this programme, you may be able to study our undergraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

Fees

UK: To be confirmed

International: To be confirmed

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
The fee for UK undergraduate students is decided by the Government and may vary if policy changes. The fee may increase in future years of your course in line with inflation, and as permitted by law.

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 will be £9,535.

The tuition fee for the following programmes with an integrated foundation year is £5,760 for the foundation year, and £9,535 for subsequent years of study:
•    Business Studies with Foundation Year BSC
•    Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year BA
•    Interdisciplinary Studies with Preparation for Higher Education BA
•    Social Science (foundation year) BA
 

Tuition fees for international undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
Tuition fees for international students for 2025/26 are available on individual course pages.
 

Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year
If you take a study abroad or work placement year, you’ll pay a reduced tuition fee during this period. For more information, see Study abroad and work placement tuition fees and loans.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There is help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more in our Undergraduate funding overview.

Applying

Apply to this course through UCAS. Check the deadline for applications on the UCAS website.

Read our guidance about applying.

International students apply through UCAS in the same way as UK students. Our network of international representatives can help you with your application. If you’re unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Contact us

School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies Undergraduate Admissions

Email: finadm@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:

Career opportunities

This course equips you with essential skills in research, analysis, presentation and communication, as well as in critical audio-visual and cultural awareness.

All these qualities are valuable in diverse careers across a wide range of industries and roles such as the media, journalism, cultural and creative industries, education, politics, NGOs and the public sector.

A number of our graduates go on to postgraduate study at Leeds or another institution.

Graduate destinations on the job market include: positions in research, secondary and higher education, (digital) communication, PR and marketing roles in businesses, media, arts and cultural organisations, management and policy development in local government and the public/third sector more broadly. Among our graduates we also have radio presenters, curators, writers, singer-songwriters, solicitors and consultants.

The School is committed to helping you achieve your career ambitions. You work closely with staff in the School and careers advisers to source opportunities to gain experience, develop your skills and build networks. Our students are among the top 5 most targeted by top employers according to The Graduate Market 2022, High Fliers Research.

I'm interested in a career in media, similar to an internship I had writing for a magazine in London, which I got thanks to support from the School.

- Rose Mason, BA Cultural and Media Studies

Careers support

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

Leeds for Life is our unique approach to helping you make the most of University by supporting your academic and personal development. Find out more at the Leeds for Life website.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate.

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.

Study abroad and work placements

Study abroad

On this course you have the opportunity to apply to spend time abroad, usually as an extra academic year. We have over 300 University partners worldwide and popular destinations for our students include Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Latin America. 

Find out more at the Study Abroad website.

My year in industry has been absolutely invaluable. I feel so much so secure now, knowing that I will have a year of work experience under my belt, once I leave university.

- Madeleine Birks, BA Cultural and Media Studies

Work placements

Practical work experience can help you decide on your career and improve your employability. On this course you have the option to apply to take a placement year module with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.

Find out more about work experience on the Careers website.

Practical work experience can help you decide on your career and improve your employability. On this course you have the option to apply to take a placement year module with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.