12 monthsProgramme duration
18 Aug, 2027Application Deadline
SepStarting Month
Programme overview
Main Subject
Modern Languages
Degree
MA
Study Level
Master's
Study Mode
On Campus
Course summary
How do languages shape identity? What happens when people, stories and ideas move across borders? And how can culture help us make sense of a world defined by migration, globalisation and change?
If you want to explore languages, cultures and societies from a genuinely international perspective, MA Languages and Cultures is for you.
At Southampton, you’ll combine cultural and literary study with perspectives from history, ethnography and anthropology. Explore societies and texts across modern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
You’ll look beyond individual languages to investigate bigger questions around nation, culture, power, migration and identity. Develop the theoretical and research skills to analyse cultural material critically, compare different perspectives and understand how histories and societies shape the ways people communicate and see the world.
The programme gives you the flexibility to develop your own research interests. Alongside core study, you can choose options spanning history, film, linguistics, translation and creative writing, creating a route that reflects the subjects and regions that interest you most.
Your learning is connected to Southampton’s wider research community too. Events hosted by the multidisciplinary Centre for Transnational Studies bring together researchers working across cultures and borders, while other research groups explore areas including Global Englishes, modern and contemporary writing, and Jewish/non-Jewish relations.
Want to develop your language skills too? Through the Language Opportunity Programme, you can improve a language you already know or start learning a new one from scratch.
Languages and Linguistics at Southampton is ranked 10th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2026).
Find your place in a community that crosses languages, cultures and disciplines, and develop the insight to understand global societies from more than one point of view.
Key features of this course
**See culture from different angles.** Bring together literary and cultural analysis with history, ethnography and anthropology to understand how societies create and communicate meaning.
**Explore cultures across the globe.** Develop expertise across regions including Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
**Follow the questions that interest you.** Choose optional modules from areas including film, linguistics, translation, creative writing and history, allowing you to shape the programme around your own research ambitions.
**Investigate identity, movement and power.** Explore subjects such as migration, globalisation, language, nationhood and cultural identity, connecting individual experiences with wider social and political change.
**Join an active research community.** Engage with seminars, workshops and events through research centres and groups including the Centre for Transnational Studies, Centre for Global Englishes and Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
**Take your language skills further.** Use the Language Opportunity Programme to develop an existing foreign language or begin learning a new one at a level that suits you.
Your future career
In an interconnected world, organisations need people who can understand different cultures, communicate across boundaries and approach complex questions from more than one perspective.
You’ll graduate with skills in research, critical thinking, communication, creativity and independent working alongside specialist knowledge of global languages and cultures.
Graduates work across local and national government, museums, libraries, universities, schools and language education. Career possibilities can include translation, interpreting, journalism, digital content, editing, communications and teaching.
Southampton graduates from the programme have also progressed into roles including policy officer, business development consultant, communications project coordinator, data analyst, recruitment consultant and paralegal.
The MA can also provide a strong foundation for PhD research if you want to take your specialist interests further.
Wherever your next step takes you, you’ll leave Southampton better equipped to understand cultural difference, question assumptions and communicate ideas across languages, societies and borders.
Student support
You’ll work closely with academic tutors throughout the programme as you develop your individual research interests.
During your dissertation, you’ll be allocated a supervisor with relevant specialist expertise who can support you as you develop and complete your independent project.
Further information
This is a 1-year, full-time MA based at Avenue Campus.
In each semester, you’ll study specialist research-led modules in world cultures and societies alongside optional study from across the humanities.
Core study includes Approaches to Languages and Cultures, Language and Intercultural Communication, Nation, Culture, Power, Transnational Movement in the Age of Globalisation and Research Skills.
Optional modules can explore areas including Lusophone cultural narratives, French cultures and identities, German-Jewish writing, migration in contemporary Spain, historical memory in Latin America, sociolinguistics, publishing and new media, and sex, gender and desire.
During semester 2, you’ll begin preparing for your dissertation through intensive practical research skills training.
You’ll complete a 12,000-word dissertation during the summer, giving you the opportunity to investigate a topic within languages and cultures in depth.
Applicants normally need a 2:2 degree in a humanities or social science subject.
How do languages shape identity? What happens when people, stories and ideas move across borders? And how can culture help us make sense of a world defined by migration, globalisation and change?
If you want to explore languages, cultures and societies from a genuinely international perspective, MA Languages and Cultures is for you.
At Southampton, you’ll combine cultural and literary study with perspectives from history, ethnography and anthropology. Explore societies and texts across modern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
You’ll look beyond individual languages to investigate bigger questions around nation, culture, power, migration and identity. Develop the theoretical and research skills to analyse cultural material critically, compare different perspectives and understand how histories and societies shape the ways people communicate and see the world.
The programme gives you the flexibility to develop your own research interests. Alongside core study, you can choose options spanning history, film, linguistics, translation and creative writing, creating a route that reflects the subjects and regions that interest you most.
Your learning is connected to Southampton’s wider research community too. Events hosted by the multidisciplinary Centre for Transnational Studies bring together researchers working across cultures and borders, while other research groups explore areas including Global Englishes, modern and contemporary writing, and Jewish/non-Jewish relations.
Want to develop your language skills too? Through the Language Opportunity Programme, you can improve a language you already know or start learning a new one from scratch.
Languages and Linguistics at Southampton is ranked 10th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2026).
Find your place in a community that crosses languages, cultures and disciplines, and develop the insight to understand global societies from more than one point of view.
Key features of this course
**See culture from different angles.** Bring together literary and cultural analysis with history, ethnography and anthropology to understand how societies create and communicate meaning.
**Explore cultures across the globe.** Develop expertise across regions including Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
**Follow the questions that interest you.** Choose optional modules from areas including film, linguistics, translation, creative writing and history, allowing you to shape the programme around your own research ambitions.
**Investigate identity, movement and power.** Explore subjects such as migration, globalisation, language, nationhood and cultural identity, connecting individual experiences with wider social and political change.
**Join an active research community.** Engage with seminars, workshops and events through research centres and groups including the Centre for Transnational Studies, Centre for Global Englishes and Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
**Take your language skills further.** Use the Language Opportunity Programme to develop an existing foreign language or begin learning a new one at a level that suits you.
Your future career
In an interconnected world, organisations need people who can understand different cultures, communicate across boundaries and approach complex questions from more than one perspective.
You’ll graduate with skills in research, critical thinking, communication, creativity and independent working alongside specialist knowledge of global languages and cultures.
Graduates work across local and national government, museums, libraries, universities, schools and language education. Career possibilities can include translation, interpreting, journalism, digital content, editing, communications and teaching.
Southampton graduates from the programme have also progressed into roles including policy officer, business development consultant, communications project coordinator, data analyst, recruitment consultant and paralegal.
The MA can also provide a strong foundation for PhD research if you want to take your specialist interests further.
Wherever your next step takes you, you’ll leave Southampton better equipped to understand cultural difference, question assumptions and communicate ideas across languages, societies and borders.
Student support
You’ll work closely with academic tutors throughout the programme as you develop your individual research interests.
During your dissertation, you’ll be allocated a supervisor with relevant specialist expertise who can support you as you develop and complete your independent project.
Further information
This is a 1-year, full-time MA based at Avenue Campus.
In each semester, you’ll study specialist research-led modules in world cultures and societies alongside optional study from across the humanities.
Core study includes Approaches to Languages and Cultures, Language and Intercultural Communication, Nation, Culture, Power, Transnational Movement in the Age of Globalisation and Research Skills.
Optional modules can explore areas including Lusophone cultural narratives, French cultures and identities, German-Jewish writing, migration in contemporary Spain, historical memory in Latin America, sociolinguistics, publishing and new media, and sex, gender and desire.
During semester 2, you’ll begin preparing for your dissertation through intensive practical research skills training.
You’ll complete a 12,000-word dissertation during the summer, giving you the opportunity to investigate a topic within languages and cultures in depth.
Applicants normally need a 2:2 degree in a humanities or social science subject.
Programme overview
Main Subject
Modern Languages
Degree
MA
Study Level
Master's
Study Mode
On Campus
Course summary
How do languages shape identity? What happens when people, stories and ideas move across borders? And how can culture help us make sense of a world defined by migration, globalisation and change?
If you want to explore languages, cultures and societies from a genuinely international perspective, MA Languages and Cultures is for you.
At Southampton, you’ll combine cultural and literary study with perspectives from history, ethnography and anthropology. Explore societies and texts across modern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
You’ll look beyond individual languages to investigate bigger questions around nation, culture, power, migration and identity. Develop the theoretical and research skills to analyse cultural material critically, compare different perspectives and understand how histories and societies shape the ways people communicate and see the world.
The programme gives you the flexibility to develop your own research interests. Alongside core study, you can choose options spanning history, film, linguistics, translation and creative writing, creating a route that reflects the subjects and regions that interest you most.
Your learning is connected to Southampton’s wider research community too. Events hosted by the multidisciplinary Centre for Transnational Studies bring together researchers working across cultures and borders, while other research groups explore areas including Global Englishes, modern and contemporary writing, and Jewish/non-Jewish relations.
Want to develop your language skills too? Through the Language Opportunity Programme, you can improve a language you already know or start learning a new one from scratch.
Languages and Linguistics at Southampton is ranked 10th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2026).
Find your place in a community that crosses languages, cultures and disciplines, and develop the insight to understand global societies from more than one point of view.
Key features of this course
**See culture from different angles.** Bring together literary and cultural analysis with history, ethnography and anthropology to understand how societies create and communicate meaning.
**Explore cultures across the globe.** Develop expertise across regions including Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
**Follow the questions that interest you.** Choose optional modules from areas including film, linguistics, translation, creative writing and history, allowing you to shape the programme around your own research ambitions.
**Investigate identity, movement and power.** Explore subjects such as migration, globalisation, language, nationhood and cultural identity, connecting individual experiences with wider social and political change.
**Join an active research community.** Engage with seminars, workshops and events through research centres and groups including the Centre for Transnational Studies, Centre for Global Englishes and Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
**Take your language skills further.** Use the Language Opportunity Programme to develop an existing foreign language or begin learning a new one at a level that suits you.
Your future career
In an interconnected world, organisations need people who can understand different cultures, communicate across boundaries and approach complex questions from more than one perspective.
You’ll graduate with skills in research, critical thinking, communication, creativity and independent working alongside specialist knowledge of global languages and cultures.
Graduates work across local and national government, museums, libraries, universities, schools and language education. Career possibilities can include translation, interpreting, journalism, digital content, editing, communications and teaching.
Southampton graduates from the programme have also progressed into roles including policy officer, business development consultant, communications project coordinator, data analyst, recruitment consultant and paralegal.
The MA can also provide a strong foundation for PhD research if you want to take your specialist interests further.
Wherever your next step takes you, you’ll leave Southampton better equipped to understand cultural difference, question assumptions and communicate ideas across languages, societies and borders.
Student support
You’ll work closely with academic tutors throughout the programme as you develop your individual research interests.
During your dissertation, you’ll be allocated a supervisor with relevant specialist expertise who can support you as you develop and complete your independent project.
Further information
This is a 1-year, full-time MA based at Avenue Campus.
In each semester, you’ll study specialist research-led modules in world cultures and societies alongside optional study from across the humanities.
Core study includes Approaches to Languages and Cultures, Language and Intercultural Communication, Nation, Culture, Power, Transnational Movement in the Age of Globalisation and Research Skills.
Optional modules can explore areas including Lusophone cultural narratives, French cultures and identities, German-Jewish writing, migration in contemporary Spain, historical memory in Latin America, sociolinguistics, publishing and new media, and sex, gender and desire.
During semester 2, you’ll begin preparing for your dissertation through intensive practical research skills training.
You’ll complete a 12,000-word dissertation during the summer, giving you the opportunity to investigate a topic within languages and cultures in depth.
Applicants normally need a 2:2 degree in a humanities or social science subject.
How do languages shape identity? What happens when people, stories and ideas move across borders? And how can culture help us make sense of a world defined by migration, globalisation and change?
If you want to explore languages, cultures and societies from a genuinely international perspective, MA Languages and Cultures is for you.
At Southampton, you’ll combine cultural and literary study with perspectives from history, ethnography and anthropology. Explore societies and texts across modern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
You’ll look beyond individual languages to investigate bigger questions around nation, culture, power, migration and identity. Develop the theoretical and research skills to analyse cultural material critically, compare different perspectives and understand how histories and societies shape the ways people communicate and see the world.
The programme gives you the flexibility to develop your own research interests. Alongside core study, you can choose options spanning history, film, linguistics, translation and creative writing, creating a route that reflects the subjects and regions that interest you most.
Your learning is connected to Southampton’s wider research community too. Events hosted by the multidisciplinary Centre for Transnational Studies bring together researchers working across cultures and borders, while other research groups explore areas including Global Englishes, modern and contemporary writing, and Jewish/non-Jewish relations.
Want to develop your language skills too? Through the Language Opportunity Programme, you can improve a language you already know or start learning a new one from scratch.
Languages and Linguistics at Southampton is ranked 10th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2026).
Find your place in a community that crosses languages, cultures and disciplines, and develop the insight to understand global societies from more than one point of view.
Key features of this course
**See culture from different angles.** Bring together literary and cultural analysis with history, ethnography and anthropology to understand how societies create and communicate meaning.
**Explore cultures across the globe.** Develop expertise across regions including Europe, Latin America, Africa and the black diaspora, East and South Asia, and the Jewish diaspora.
**Follow the questions that interest you.** Choose optional modules from areas including film, linguistics, translation, creative writing and history, allowing you to shape the programme around your own research ambitions.
**Investigate identity, movement and power.** Explore subjects such as migration, globalisation, language, nationhood and cultural identity, connecting individual experiences with wider social and political change.
**Join an active research community.** Engage with seminars, workshops and events through research centres and groups including the Centre for Transnational Studies, Centre for Global Englishes and Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations.
**Take your language skills further.** Use the Language Opportunity Programme to develop an existing foreign language or begin learning a new one at a level that suits you.
Your future career
In an interconnected world, organisations need people who can understand different cultures, communicate across boundaries and approach complex questions from more than one perspective.
You’ll graduate with skills in research, critical thinking, communication, creativity and independent working alongside specialist knowledge of global languages and cultures.
Graduates work across local and national government, museums, libraries, universities, schools and language education. Career possibilities can include translation, interpreting, journalism, digital content, editing, communications and teaching.
Southampton graduates from the programme have also progressed into roles including policy officer, business development consultant, communications project coordinator, data analyst, recruitment consultant and paralegal.
The MA can also provide a strong foundation for PhD research if you want to take your specialist interests further.
Wherever your next step takes you, you’ll leave Southampton better equipped to understand cultural difference, question assumptions and communicate ideas across languages, societies and borders.
Student support
You’ll work closely with academic tutors throughout the programme as you develop your individual research interests.
During your dissertation, you’ll be allocated a supervisor with relevant specialist expertise who can support you as you develop and complete your independent project.
Further information
This is a 1-year, full-time MA based at Avenue Campus.
In each semester, you’ll study specialist research-led modules in world cultures and societies alongside optional study from across the humanities.
Core study includes Approaches to Languages and Cultures, Language and Intercultural Communication, Nation, Culture, Power, Transnational Movement in the Age of Globalisation and Research Skills.
Optional modules can explore areas including Lusophone cultural narratives, French cultures and identities, German-Jewish writing, migration in contemporary Spain, historical memory in Latin America, sociolinguistics, publishing and new media, and sex, gender and desire.
During semester 2, you’ll begin preparing for your dissertation through intensive practical research skills training.
You’ll complete a 12,000-word dissertation during the summer, giving you the opportunity to investigate a topic within languages and cultures in depth.
Applicants normally need a 2:2 degree in a humanities or social science subject.
Admission Requirements
120+
67+
92+
6.5+
You’ll need a 2:2 in a humanities or social science subject.
18 Aug 2027
1 Year
Sep
Scholarships
Selecting the right scholarship can be a daunting process. With countless options available, students often find themselves overwhelmed and confused. The decision can be especially stressful for those facing financial constraints or pursuing specific academic or career goals.
To help students navigate this challenging process, we recommend the following articles:
How to get a full scholarship
Looking for a fully-funded scholarship to see you into university? Find out how to boost your chances of getting one.
By Sabrina Collier
Updated Aug 27, 2026
1.0M
2256
Scholarships to study abroad
Find scholarships to study abroad with our lists of international scholarships – categorized by country, by subject, and by type of student.
By Staff Writer
Updated Aug 21, 2024
518.5K
791
Scholarship Applications: Frequently Asked Questions
Get answers to all your questions about scholarship applications, including tips on how to find scholarships and chances of success.
By Laura Tucker
Updated Aug 14, 2021
230.1K
338
More programmes from the university
Postgrad Programmes
567
Get closer to your dream programme
Your consent preferences have been set.
Time to start exploring.
Your account has been removed.
You can still browse the site or sign up again once you have parental consent.
Get closer to your dream programme