Social Anthropology MA

Year of entry: 2025

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

About the course

Study Social Anthropology at a university ranked in the UK top 10 and global top 25 for Anthropology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025) while sitting among the UK’s top 5 institutions for social sciences (Times Higher Education 2024) .

You will learn from researchers who are conducting global research everywhere, from the Arctic to the Amazon, and benefit from the resources of our world-leading Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, famous for blending theory with hands-on film, sound and photography practice.

The course invites you to question what people often take for granted. Through comparative ethnography and cutting-edge theory you will analyse how power, belief, kinship, economy and the environment shape lives in Western and non-Western settings. Specialist course units let you focus on more specific themes such as migration, health, heritage or digital culture while the research-methods core strengthens your skills required to design and carry out your own fieldwork.

Alongside deep subject knowledge you will develop transferable strengths in critical analysis, intercultural communication, qualitative and quantitative research, clear writing and confident presentation—skills that employers in policy, NGOs, media, heritage and international development prize. By graduation you will have developed an anthropological mindset and act as a versatile researcher ready for doctoral study or impactful professional roles.

See the full course profile on our website >

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

Join one of the largest Social Anthropology departments in the UK and one of the top 10 departments in the country for Social Anthropology research (REF 2021)

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

Compulsory Units

Images, Text, Fieldwork;
MA Ethnography Reading Seminar;
Key Approaches in Social Anthropology;
Contemporary Debates in Social Anthropology.

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;
Food and Eating: The Cultural Body.

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?

Global organisations are actively seeking graduates who can decode cultural difference and turn insight into action. On our MA Social Anthropology course, you will build skills employers prize: ethnographic and visual research, intercultural communication, critical analysis and clear storytelling. You will graduate ready to shape strategy for NGOs and development agencies, curate exhibitions and public programmes in museums and heritage bodies, produce documentaries and podcasts, steer user-experience research in tech firms, inform policy in think tanks or lead cultural consultancy for business. Our recent graduates have gone on to roles such as Cultural Analyst, UX Researcher, Documentary Producer, Curator, Policy Adviser and Project Manager.

If your ambition is a research career, this course offers a direct pathway to PhD study and academia, drawing on Manchester’s century-long legacy of pioneering anthropology.

Thomas Webb-Riley

Social Anthropology MA Graduate

"The lecturers always make time and seem really interested in having an honest academic conversation, I’ve had my viewpoints challenged and been set onto a more anthropological way of thinking. I feel very lucky to be here, I’ve really enjoyed both semesters and all my lecturers have been amazing."