African Languages and Cultures

On theAfrican Languages and Cultures programme offered at SOAS University of London supervision is provided for research leading to MPhil and PhD degrees within the broad general area of African studies.

Research topics such as the study of a language (from a descriptive, comparative, philological or textual point of view), or of literature (whether author-based, thematic or comparative), or of any of the performing arts, which falls within our own core expertise, are supervised entirely in the African Languages, Cultures and Literatures Department. However, there is great potential for extending the range of topics by means of joint supervision with colleagues from other departments and centres.

Why study African Languages and Cultures at SOAS?

• SOAS ranks 1st in London in the Complete University Guide 2021 for Middle Eastern and African Studies, and 6th in UK

• we are specialist in the studies of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia

• gain in-depth understanding of one these key world regions, grounded in the study of one or more languages of the region with this African Languages and Cultures programme offered at SOAS University of London .

• access SOAS’s comprehensive cross-regional expertise and gain an understanding of the interconnectedness of these regions in an increasingly globalised world.

Recent research theses:

• Lizzy Attree, ‘The Literary Response to HIV and AIDS in South Africa and Zimbabwe, 1990-2005’

• Mark Brogden, ‘The Culture of Exploration: British Expeditions to Northern Nigeria 1822–1827’

• Zoë Norridge, ‘Perceptions of Pain: Narratives of Hurt and Healing in Contemporary African Literature’

• Betty Sibongile Dlamini, ‘Women and Theatre for Development in Swaziland’