Suspended in 2025/26
MC420 Half Unit
Identity, Transnationalism and the Media
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Myria Georgiou
Availability
This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Media and Communications, MSc in Culture and Society, MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and Fudan), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and UCT), MSc in Global Media and Communications (LSE and USC), MSc in Media and Communications and MSc in Media, Communication and Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: Priority will normally be given to students enrolled on Media and Communications degree programmes; however, course specific availability is indicated via the 'Availability' section of each individual course guide webpage. The number of students that can be accommodated is limited. If a course is oversubscribed, places will be allocated at the Department's discretion. Students are advised to have an alternative course in mind in case they are unable to secure their first-choice course selection.
A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on the Department's Course Selection and Videos webpage.
Students who have this course listed as compulsory are guaranteed a place and no written statement is required.
For all other students, places on these controlled access courses will be allocated via a random ballot process with priority given to students with the course listed on their programme regulations, followed by other Department of Media and Communications students, then students from elsewhere in the School. By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course that does not require a written statement.
Deadline for application: Students required to take this compulsory course will be automatically enrolled on LSE for You.
All other students must apply by 10am UK time on Friday 26 September 2025. No offers will be made before this deadline. Offers will be made after 10am and will continue until all places are filled.
For queries contact: Contact Media.MSc@lse.ac.uk with queries.
Please do not email the teacher with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place.
This course is 'controlled access', meaning that there is a limit to the number of students who can be accepted. If the course is oversubscribed, priority will be given to students who have the course listed on their Programme Regulations.
Requisites
Additional requisites:
There are no formal pre-requisites, but students are required to prepare a statement of no more than 100 words in response to the following question, which must be submitted when selecting this course on LSE for You: Why would you like to take this course?
Please do not email the teacher with personal expressions of interest as these are not required and do not influence who is offered a place.
Course content
This course examines the relation between identity and the media in the context of migration and transnationalism. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected – not least as a consequence of technological advances that enable information, people and things to move between places and across distances – questions are raised about the consequences of those changes for identity. More particularly, the course examines
- How those who move, but also those who don’t, develop a sense of self in an interconnected, mediated world;
- How digital communication connects or disconnects people within and across space and what those connections mean for collective identities, communities and nations; and
- How mediated communication raises or erases boundaries between people – locally, nationally and transnationally. Engaging with a range of theories, case studies and creative activities, the course invites students to develop a globally oriented and critical understanding of identity, media and transnationalism.
Teaching
10 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
All students are expected to complete advance reading, prepare seminar presentations, and submit a 1500 word case study.
Indicative reading
- Amin, A. (2012) Land of Strangers. Cambridge: Polity.
- Appadurai, A. (2006) Fear of Small Numbers, Duke University Press.
- Benjamin, R. (2019) Race after Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Coates, T-N. (2015) Between the world and me. Melbourne: TPC.
- Du Gay, P. et al. (eds.) (2000) Identity: A Reader, London: Sage.
- Hall, S. and du Gay, P. (eds.) (1996) Questions of Cultural Identity, Sage.
- Georgiou, M. (2006) Diaspora, identity and the media, Hampton Press.
- Gilroy, P. (2004) After Empire: Multiculture or Postcolonial Melancholia, Routledge.
- Smets, K., K.Leurs, M.Georgiou, S.Witteborn and R. Gajjala (2020) The Sage Handbook of Media and Migraiton, Sage.
- Yuval-Davis, N. G. Wemyss and C. Cassidy (2019) Bordering, Polity.
- Werbner, P. (2008) Anthropology and the New Cosmopolitanism: Rooted, Feminist and Vernacular Perspectives, Berg.
- Vertovec, S (2009) Transnationalism, Routledge.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3000 words)
The essay will be based on a case study of students' choice.
Key facts
Department: Media and Communications
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: Unavailable
Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills