MSc Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
Duration: one year full time; two years part time
General Information
This programme uses comparative political science models and methods to analyse patterns of conflict and settlement, with a focus on internal violent conflicts, past and present. Internal conflicts are among the most important factors destabilising entire regions, and affecting wider international relations. Equally of course international and global developments – from global economic trends, to climate change, to the rise and fall of empires and states – affect the likelihood of internal conflict.
One key set of topics is concerned with different models of conflict and settlement, from consociationalism to federalism to partition and the role of international interventions. Another looks at the ways in which oppositional categories and groups in conflict are formed. While internal conflicts are often fought in the name of nationalism and conflicting groups see themselves as ethnic descent groups, the very character of nationalism and ethnicity are complex. This course allows analysis of the different ways that religion, ethnicity and inequality combine to generate violence. Examples range widely, and change from year to year: some of the core texts are concerned with countries from Estonia to India, from Transylvania to Cyprus and from Northern Ireland to the Basque Country.
The wide range of expertise in SPIRe feeds into the programme, with its specialist resources in the study of theories of ethnicity, identity, conflict; comparative ethnic conflict; Northern Ireland, Western Europe and relevant cognate specialisms in civic republicanism, justice and human rights, international security, European politics, and development studies.
The programme is designed to provide participants with a rigourous understanding of the character, causes and consequences of processes of conflict and settlement and with a range of skills to enable them to continue on to further study (including at PhD level), in particular through the acquisition of substantive skills in research design and methodology. Funded doctoral and post-doctoral research on conflict in the Global Irish Institute and the Institute for British Irish Studies creates a lively intellectual environment. Students are often offered special topics courses related to research projects and specialist workshops and conferences.
Structure
The MSc in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict is a 90-credit programme. Full time students must take three 10-credit modules and a 5-credit Dissertation Design module in the first semester, and three 10-credit modules in the second semester. Students must also submit a thesis worth 25-credits. A list of core modules is presented below.
Part time students take a total of 90-credits over the two-year duration of the part-time programme. As the Dissertation Design module is provided to support students writing their thesis, it must be taken in the second year of study. It is advisable for students to take the core modules in Year 1.
Admission Requirements
Each application is considered on its individual merits. The applicants should have earned an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject such as political science, international relations, social science, sociology, history, geography, economics, global studies, public policy, development studies, EU studies, law/international law etc. with at least Upper Second Class Honours, or its equivalent (an overall GPA of 3.0 (B) or higher in the American system). Relevant professional experience will also be taken into account.
Note that meet the requirements do not guarantee admission. Applicants in their final year of undergraduate study may be admitted conditional on satisfactory completion of their undergraduate degree.
Career Prospects
International bodies, NGOs and state agencies commonly seek professionals with academic backgrounds provided by programmes such as this. Graduate students who specialise in this area while developing their research skills are well positioned to enter a range of research positions, and for further study in this or other fields. Several of our students in this field are now teaching in Queens University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and farther afield. It is also a key area for those wishing to work or research in policy-making and conflict resolution: the civil service, security forces, or aid organisations.
