MSc / MPhil in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology (VMMA)
The MSc and MPhil in VMMA offer students the chance to explore some of the most exciting issues in anthropology today. The programmes combine research strengths in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography with those at the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM), which houses more than 800,000 objects, photographs and manuscripts from all over the world.
Both the one-year MSc and the two-year MPhil degrees in VMMA focus on current themes and debates within visual anthropology, material culture theory, and museum anthropology, examining the distinct contributions of these fields, how they interconnect, and how they are transforming the discipline of anthropology itself. The programmes develop, from anthropological perspectives, critical approaches to the formation, histories, and politics of material and visual cultures, exploring their dynamic and diverse meanings and practices in a wide range of different and changing contexts, including online and digital environments.
The programmes in VMMA encourage students to think critically about the politics of knowledge-making, including the history and contemporary practice of anthropology; wider colonial histories; power dynamics and inequalities; relationships and hierarchies in wider ecologies of human and non-human life. Teaching is designed so that students carefully examine the ethics and wider social implications and potential impacts of anthropological studies.
An introduction from Course Director Dr Chihab El Khachab
A structured programme of lectures, classes, and tutorials runs from October to June in the first year, common to both the MSc and the MPhil, followed by individual study and the writing of a dissertation over the summer (MSc), or thesis preparation over the summer and writing in the second year (MPhil). In addition to courses on the VMMA programme, and the Pitt Rivers Museum VMMA research seminars, students also attend lectures in social anthropology, which enables them to situate their studies within broader contemporary trends in anthropological work.
Each student has a supervisor for the duration of their degree, to advise on their studies. In addition, all students have tutorials and/or classes with all of the core VMMA teaching team, encouraging students to engage with current research in each area of expertise.
In the MSc and first year of the MPhil there are four papers:
This paper focuses on core themes and debates in VMMA, including anthropological research on art and aesthetics; bodies and materials; colonialism, collecting and display; consumption and the lives of ‘things’; digital formations; historical and contemporary museum practices and relationships; film, photography, and forms of visual representation; tradition, modernity and authenticity; transnational cultural flows and the wider issues of cross-cultural investigation. Assessment of this paper is one essay of no more than 5,000 words.
Students choose an option (MSc), or two options (MPhil), from a wide range offered within the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. These include courses taught by members of the VMMA teaching team on art and anthropology, film, materials and different ways of knowing, and museum anthropology; courses with specific areas of geographical focus (e.g. Africa, South America, South Asia, Japan, and the Middle East), as well as courses on current anthropological themes (e.g. sensory experience, migration, and the environment). The list of available options in the School varies from year to year.
Paper 3b - a methods portfolio consisting of a report (including notes) on the trial of a research method in visual, material and/or museum anthropology. The word limit is 2,500 words for each part.
For Paper 3, students are introduced to a range of current and innovative research methods relevant to visual, material, and museum anthropology, during two terms of methods classes. These include often hands-on, practice-based methods, for example working with museum collections, photographs, sketching, film, and using digital research materials.
This paper draws together key concepts, theories, themes and debates in visual, material, and museum anthropology. This paper is assessed by two 2,500-word essays from a choice of questions.
Dissertations
MSc students have the three months over the summer to research and write a 10,000-word dissertation for submission in August. Those students who stay on for the second year of the MPhil do not write the MSc dissertation but spend the summer conducting preliminary research, and then over the second year of the degree they write a 30,000-word thesis.
MPhil
During their second year, MPhil students also write another examined essay during the year, and take another option paper, again selected from any of the options offered by the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography.
Teaching and the Pitt Rivers Museum
Teaching focuses on theoretical and analytical perspectives, along with a range of current and innovative anthropological research methods that are relevant to VMMA. The course also features film screenings followed by discussions. Students engage in anthropological approaches, debates, and methods both within museums and in wider material environments.
Much of the teaching for VMMA takes place in the Pitt Rivers Museum, and uses the collections and galleries of the museum to develop critical discussion.
Students on the VMMA course have opportunities to engage with activities at the Pitt Rivers Museum. In previous years students have: assisted with visits by indigenous researchers, catalogued and scanned photographs and manuscripts, researched the museum’s collections, and contributed to the curation of exhibitions and public events.
The University’s volunteering service also offers placements at the University museums, and internships at the Pitt Rivers Museum are sometimes available to VMMA students.
