Kingston University London - Philosophy and Contemporary Critical Theory MA

Kingston University London

Philosophy and Contemporary Critical Theory MA

The course comprises one core module, three optional modules, and a dissertation on a chosen topic. The core module examines the two main traditions of critical theory, the Frankfurt School and French anti-humanism, and the background of Kant, Hegel, Marx, and 19th-century European philosophy more generally.

You can attend and participate in a range of events, such as research with visiting international speakers, departmental lectures, workshops, and research seminars. You will have easy access to London's research libraries and other events.

Reasons to choose Kingston University

  • This course is taught by leading specialists at the internationally renowned Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP).
  • The course is distinctive through its study of contemporary critical theory traditions (including psychoanalytic theory, Marxism, feminist theory, and critical race theory) together with foundational texts in modern European philosophy, notably by Kant, Hegel, and Marx.
  • You will study key works by influential thinkers like Gramsci, Adorno, Butler, Agamben, Deleuze, Foucault, Spivak, and many others.

Entry Requirements

  • Applicants should normally hold a 2:1 or above honours degree in Philosophy or a related subject.

  • IELTS of 6.5 overall, with no element below 5.5.

Career Prospects


Course Details

The compulsory core module, 'Critique, Practice, Power' provides a historical and philosophical introduction to Frankfurt School and French anti-humanist conceptions of critical theory.

After introducing the field with reference to Kant's critical conception of philosophy on the one hand and Marx's critique of philosophy on the other, the module focuses on competing interpretations of the concepts of critique and emancipation in the work of figures like Lukács, Gramsci, Horkheimer and Adorno, Althusser, Foucault, Fanon, and other more recent thinkers.


Core Modules

Critique, Practice, Power
Philosophy Dissertation

Optional Modules

Art Theory: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Contemporary
Contemporary European Philosophies
German Critical Theory
Hegel and his Legacy
Kant and his Legacy
Kant and the Aesthetic Tradition
Nietzsche and Heidegger
Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
Planetary Aesthetics
Plasticity and Form
Political Philosophy
Recent French Philosophy
Recent Italian Philosophy
Topics in Modern European Philosophy

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