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Anthropological Research MA

Year of entry: 2025

Course length: 12 months Full-Time | 24 Months Part-time

About the course

Organisations in academia, government, business and the third sector are looking for researchers who can uncover genuine insight into how people live, work and think.

Our MA Anthropological Research course equips you with the critical, methodological and analytical skills that employers and funders value, including ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative and quantitative data collection, mixed-methods design, project management and persuasive communication. You will design and carry out your own research project from day one, guided by a specialist supervisor and supported by a second adviser. Through focused course units you will master participant observation, in-depth interviewing, survey design, digital and visual methods and the latest approaches to data analysis. Workshops on ethics, grant writing and public engagement ensure that your work is robust, fundable and impactful.

The course is ideal preparation for doctoral study, yet it also stands alone as an advanced qualification for professionals who want to deploy ethnographic insight in policy development, user-experience research, international development, education or media. Alumni have progressed to fully funded PhDs, research consultancies, NGOs, government departments and innovation labs, applying anthropological methods to real-world challenges.

This course is eligible for the 1+3 studentship offered by the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council North West Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership, offering a unique, fully funded route into postgraduate research. If your application is successful, you will be able to transition seamlessly from master’s level study to a PhD.

See the full course profile on our website >

Study at a university ranked top 10 in the UK and top 25 globally for Anthropology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025)

Join one of the top 10 departments in the UK for Social Anthropology research (Research Excellence Framework 2021)

Graduate from one of the UK’s most targeted universities by top employers (High Fliers, The Graduate Market Report 2024)

Compulsory Units

  • Independent Theoretical & Ethnographic Analysis I;
  • Issues in Ethnographic Research I;
  • Issues in Ethnographic Research II;
  • PG Research Seminar;
  • Qualitative Research Methods;
  • Introduction to Quantitative Methods.

Optional Units

  • Anthropology of Development and Humanitarianism;
  • Anthropology of Displacement and Migration: Why and how do people move?;
  • Anthropology of Human Learning: Childhood and Education;
  • Ethnographies and Adventures in Manchester;
  • Anthropology of Health and Wellbeing;
  • Independent Theoretical Ethnographic Analysis II;
  • Food and Eating: The Cultural Body;
  • Anthropology of Vision, Senses and Memory;
  • MA Ethnography Reading Seminar;
  • Key Approaches in Social Anthropology.

These are examples of units offered in 2024/25 and are subject to change.

See the full list of units and find out more on the full course profile >

Where will your degree take you?

Businesses, governments and charities urgently need researchers who can deliver real insight into how people think and act. On our MA Anthropological Research course you will sharpen in-demand skills in ethnographic fieldwork, mixed-methods design, critical analysis, project planning, data interpretation and persuasive communication.

Recent graduates have progressed to fully funded PhDs, government social-research units, user-experience teams, international NGOs, market-research agencies, cultural-heritage organisations and consultancy firms, where they apply anthropological methods to policy, product innovation and community engagement.

Professor Karen Sykes

Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of Postgraduate Research

Professor Karen Sykes’s research in Papua New Guinea and among Papua New Guineans in Australia shows how ethnography challenges anthropologists to rethink social theory. She argues that originality lies not in scholars’ accomplishments but in recognising the creativity of the people studied. As Director of Postgraduate Research, she supports work that highlights human inventiveness in making shared lives in a diverse world.

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School of Social Sciences

Faculty of Humanities

The University of Manchester