Journalism in Open Societies MA: Who teaches this course

• Staff teaching on this course

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences teaches this course. Students benefit from a lively study environment, thanks to the wide range of postgraduate courses on offer.

Programmes cover everything from English literature and music to human rights and politics.

The Faculty provides a vibrant and forward-thinking environment for study with:

• courses designed in collaboration with industry professionals – keeping you up to date with the latest developments;
• established connections with the London arts and media scene – with a range of guest speakers, professors and lecturers visiting the University; and
• committed and enthusiastic staff – many of whom are expert practitioners as well as leading academics and researchers.

The Faculty's combination of academics and practitioners makes it a unique environment in which to further your studies and your career.

Where is the Faculty based? Most students are based at the University's Penrhyn Road campus, with our music and education courses taught at the Kingston Hill campus.

Our staff

All our tutors are practising journalists with a wide range of experience in newspapers, magazines and online.

Professor Brian Cathcart

In almost 30 years in journalism, Professor Brian Cathcart has been a foreign correspondent, book reviewer, sub-editor, defence correspondent, leader writer, sports writer, investigative reporter, award-winning author and much else besides. After starting at Reuters international news agency, he joined the Independent when it launched, rose to be deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday and went on as a freelancer to contribute articles to everything from the Financial Times to The Big Issue. Today he writes the weekly media commentary in the New Statesman magazine. Brian teaches at all three levels in the journalism BA. "People sometimes ask whether good journalists are born or taught," he says. "I tend to reply that the best journalists never stop learning and the worst are the ones who think they know it all." Brian's best-known book is The Case of Stephen Lawrence.

Mary Braid

In 11 years at the Independent as reporter, feature writer and Africa correspondent, Mary Braid covered everything from the tragedy at Dunblane to the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. She started her career as a Thomson graduate trainee and worked on local evening and Sunday papers in Scotland before she got her break. Since leaving the Independent she has written for a wide range of publications, from the Guardian to the Daily Mail, but these days she writes regularly on employment issues for the Sunday Times. She also recently completed a second degree, this time in psychology, so she has a good idea of what it's like to be a student today. "I've been there very recently," she says. "I know the problems of essay deadlines, study and money, and I know how satisfying it can all be when you make it work."

Maurice Walsh

Maurice Walsh has an encyclopaedic CV as both foreign correspondent and academic. As a journalist, he has worked for the Irish Times, as a Central American correspondent for the Guardian, and as a BBC reporter in Zimbabwe, Chile and numerous other Latin American countries. He has also written for the New Statesman and the London Review of Books, and has an essay, 'The Lost Priests of Ireland', appearing in Granta shortly. As an academic, Maurice has served as a Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan, and in 2006 obtained a PhD from Goldsmiths College for a thesis on foreign correspondents and the Irish Revolution.