Social Anthropology (MRes) 2025 entry

Course information may change. Module information and course content, teaching and assessment may change each year and after you have accepted your offer to study at the University of St Andrews. We display the most up-to-date information possible, but this could be from a previous academic year. For the latest module information, see the module catalogue.

• Compulsory

  Core social science training modules are listed below. These may be required for recognition of the MRes by the ESRC as a doctoral pathway. They are optional for non-ESRC funded students.

  • Being a Social Scientist: focuses on how to design and produce a research dissertation and addresses issues of professional development (e.g., ethics, careers, grant writing).
  • Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences: introduces students to the basic theoretical approaches in the social sciences, covering the methodological and epistemological issues involved in conducting social scientific research.
  • Qualitative Methods in Social Research: offers both a theoretical and practical introduction to the collection, analysis and writing of qualitative social science research.
  • Quantitative Research in Social Science: provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of quantitative analysis - underlying principles, research design, sampling strategies, uncertainty and missing data, and some statistical approaches to data analysis.

  Non-ESRC funded students may substitute up to 30 credits from undergraduate Honours-level Social Anthropology modules, with the approval of the course coordinator.

• Optional

  • Anthropology, Art and Perception 1 or Anthropology, Art and Perception 2 : draw on themes from across the subject boundaries between art and anthropology to provide training for postgraduate research into the anthropology of human creativity and visual expression.
  • Methodological and Philosophical Issues in Anthropology: is specifically designed for students who have not studied anthropology before. It will outline the key methods, philosophical and theoretical ideas that have shaped the discipline.
  • The Anthropology of Connections: Interdisciplinarity as Methodology: examines the relevance of other disciplines for social anthropology by working with methodologies and concepts drawn from history, social science, philosophy, language and the arts.
  • Research Methods in Social Anthropology: examines the methodology of anthropological research through close attention to the relationship between method and fieldwork experience.

  Optional modules are subject to change each year and require a minimum number of participants to be offered; some may only allow limited numbers of students (see the University’s position on curriculum development).

• Dissertation

  Student dissertations will be supervised by members of the teaching staff who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation of not more than 15,000 words must be submitted by a date specified in August.

  If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for the MRes, there is an exit award available that allows suitably qualified candidates to receive a Postgraduate Diploma. By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MRes.