Why study MA Politics of Energy, Infrastructure and Environment at Exeter?
Explore energy utilisation, the transition to sustainable energy sources and the impact of infrastructures on the environment through the unique lenses of the humanities and social sciences.
Focus on real world cases illustrating environmental and energy challenges, using the Middle East and its neighbouring regions to explore global issues.
Tailor your studies to your interests and career aspirations with a wide range of optional modules across disciplines, including optional internship modules in relevant sectors.
Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills for diverse career paths in policy, energy, environment or further academic research.
Choose a traditional dissertation or hone your skills in a specific area with an alternative capstone project.
3rd in the UK for African & Middle Eastern Studies
Top 15 in the UK for Politics
Top 100 in the world for Politics
QS World University Subject Rankings 2026
Top 3 for student satisfaction in six out of seven themes
National Student Survey 2025
Entry requirements
We will consider applicants with a 2:2 Honours degree or above in a social sciences* or humanities discipline. While we normally only consider applicants who meet these criteria, if you are coming from a different academic background which is equivalent to degree level, or have relevant work experience, we would welcome your application.
MA Politics of Energy, Infrastructure and Environment offers a multidisciplinary exploration of energy use, the transition to sustainable sources, and the environmental impacts of infrastructure and energy. Integrating perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, the course examines these critical issues with a particular focus on the Middle East, a region with paradigmatic struggles around environmental preservation and fossil fuel use.
Customise your Masters to suit your interests with a variety of optional modules, and choose between a traditional dissertation or a capstone project. The capstone project allows you to explore an area of interest through mediums such as curating an exhibition, engaging in artistic production like filmmaking, composing substantial grant proposals for NGOs, or drafting major policy reports.
You will graduate well-prepared for careers in policy, energy, environment, or further academic research, equipped with the knowledge and skills to actively contribute to the development of a sustainable society and economy in the 21st century.
The modules below provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.
Resource Fictions: Oil, Water and Conflict in the World-System
30
Global Challenges
15
Theory for Sustainable Transitions
15
Green Planet
15
Energy and Climate Policy
15
The Politics, Policy and Practice of Sustainable Development
30
Green Matters in Modern Languages and Cultures
15
Food and Sustainability: Economy, Society and Environment
15
Environments and Societies
15
The Ethics of Decision-Making
15
Fees
2026/27 entry
UK fees per year:
£12,650 full-time
International fees per year:
£25,550full-time
Scholarships
The 樱花动漫 offers a wide range of scholarships to support your education, with ?7 million available for international students applying to study with us in the 2026/27 academic year, including our prestigious Exeter Excellence Scholarships. We also provide awards for sport, music and other achievements, as well as regional and partner scholarships with organisations such as Chevening, The Beacon Trust and the British Council. For more information on scholarships and other financial support, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.
樱花动漫 Alumni Scholarship
We are pleased to offer the 樱花动漫 Alumni Scholarship, a scholarship for 樱花动漫 alumni beginning a standalone postgraduate programme in 2026/27 with us a scholarship worth 20% of the cost of your first year tuition fees.
The MA has a core module that runs all year and will be taught through a mix of lectures and seminars. The lectures will touch on the major political and social debates, histories, and contexts of the most urgent issues pertaining to energy, infrastructures and environmental degradation. The thematic arrangement (for example around desertification, energy transitions, green capitalism etc) allows for critical analysis of a range of important topics. Optional modules will similarly offer a mix of lectures and seminars. An optional internship module will allow students to work on career development.
Research
The core module and the capstone project or dissertation will all require research on subjects of significance to the student. Tutors will help guide you towards subjects on which they themselves have extensive expertise, and their own research will intimately inform the subjects they will teach.
Assessments
There are diverse assessments on the course to develop and evaluate your knowledge and skills. Assessments are specific to each module and may include tasks like essays, book reviews, reports and presentations. Additionally, you will choose between either a traditional dissertation or a capstone project in your final term. These varied assessments ensure you can critically analyse key issues, communicate effectively and apply your learning to real-world challenges, preparing you for success upon graduation.
Professor Laleh Khalili
Al Qasimi Professor of Gulf Studies
Dr Katie Natanel
Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies
Dr Allan Hassaniyan
Lecturer in Middle East Politics
Professor Laleh Khalili
Al Qasimi Professor of Gulf Studies
Laleh Khalili made her way to a PhD in politics by way of an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Texas and after working for some years as a management consultant in the US. She is compelled by and curious about the workings of transnational movements: of colonial forms of power and violence, of resistance, of ideas and practices, of people, and of hydrocarbons, capital, and cargo.
She has examined the representations and practices of violence in her first two books, (Cambridge 2007) and (Stanford 2013) as well as in a volume I co-edited with Jillian Schwedler, titled Policing and Prisons in the Middle East: Formations of Coercion (Hurst 2010). Her most recent books, (Verso 2020) and The Corporeal Life of Seafaring (Mack Books 2024) examine the role of maritime infrastructures as conduits of movement of technologies, capital, people and cargo. She is currently completing a book of essays on Extractive Capitalism (Profile, forthcoming 2025), and planning another major project, on the afterlives of oil and hydrocarbons, after their nationalisation in the Middle East.
Dr Katie Natanel
Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies
Dr Natanel is interested in micro-politics, or the politics of everyday life, and psycho-social dynamics of life in the Middle East and beyond. These themes are reflected in her first book project, Sustaining Conflict: Apathy and Domination in Israel-Palestine (2016, University of California Press), which was awarded the 2017 Feminist and Women's Studies Association (UK & Ireland) Book Prize.
Since 2017, she has worked closely with students and comrades to challenge what ‘counts’ as knowledge, insisting on the significance of aesthetic and embodied expression – as ways of knowing that reach and move people. Examples of our praxis can be seen in her most recent publications (in Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research, special issue on 'Anticolonial Feminist Imaginaries') and ‘Steps toward a decolonial feminist ecology’ (forthcoming in Creative Ruptions for Emergent Educational Futures, Palgrave Macmillan).
Her work on pedagogies is part of a larger shift to focusing on decolonisation – as a material practice and knowledge project oriented toward justice, liberation and self-determination. She is currently developing a research project on decolonial feminist ecologies, which is grounded in local land-based initiatives. As of autumn 2023, she also has worked with as the coordinator of the (BAIN). In spring 2024 the network will launch ‘A Framework for Environmental Justice’, developed with the UCL Sarah Parker Redmond Centre and other Network partners.
Dr Allan Hassaniyan
Lecturer in Middle East Politics
Dr Hassaniyan is the author of published by Cambridge University Press. The book focuses on the evolution of the Kurdish national movement in Iran in its relation to the Iranian state and its relation to the Kurdish movement in Iraq since the second half of the 20th century until 2017.
His forthcoming book (project) is an investigation of Iran’s environmental and ecological challenges, inspired mainly by the civil society organisations. What distinguishes this project is the move away from the traditional focus on the state and the centre, to the environmental movement and ecological struggle of non-Persian people and communities (i.e. the Kurds, Arabs, and Baluchis) in Iran. This movement is conceptualised as the environmentalism of the subaltern, and it produced counterhegemonic discourses to the Iranian state’s discourse of ‘security’, ‘identity’ and ‘development’.
Careers
Employer valued skills
The MA Politics of Energy and Infrastructure course will equip you with a versatile and highly sought-after skill set, preparing you for an impactful career. As a graduate, you will possess a deep understanding of critical issues surrounding energy, infrastructure and the environment.
Career paths
After graduation, you’ll be well-prepared to step into policy, community and corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) jobs, drawing on a deep understanding of global energy and environmental issues. Your exposure to critical and political approaches to energy security, infrastructure development and environmental concerns will also mean you have a valuable skill set ideal for advancing to doctoral programmes in this rapidly expanding field of study.
Career support
As a 樱花动漫 student, you will also have access to the Career Zone, providing invaluable support and tailored guidance to help you prepare for your career after university.
Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Creative Futures
You are invited to consider taking Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Creative Futures as an optional module in your course. It's available in two formats: 15 credits (EFPM838) or 30 credits (EFPM839).
Our Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Creative Futures module will give you the competitive career advantage of understanding how to bring your disciplinary knowledge into active dialogue with students and staff from other disciplines in order to tackle global sustainability challenges.
This module is taught by staff from across the 樱花动漫 and is grounded in the University's School of Education research, which shows that the best way to tackle complex real-world challenges is to creatively collaborate across disciplines and with stakeholders.
The challenges will come from external University strategic partners, ensuring issues are current, cutting edge and relevant, whilst supporting employability. The module aims to teach you how to collaboratively, and critically, produce original ideas, and think innovatively about the future through research-based activities, fieldwork and creative workshops that blend the arts, sciences, social sciences, humanities and business.
Using appropriately innovative assessment techniques, the module will equip you to respond to the global complexity and uncertainty that you will inevitably encounter when you graduate. You will be taught using pedagogical innovations, working in transdisciplinary teams with facilitation through cutting edge Creative Pedagogies and Design Thinking.
This module is particularly appropriate for international students seeking insight into UK business, creative industries and cultural contexts and employment possibilities.
Feedback from students who have taken this module highlights its value and the additional skills it helps them develop:
"This module has changed my perspective and transformed my vision. I now have a new understanding of how educational processes and practices should be designed so that learners can acquire skills such as problem-solving, collaborative working, critical and creative thinking in a transdisciplinary way." - Canan, MEd TESOL
"This module has made me more deeply understand the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation. This diversity is also a key reason why I chose this course. I hope to interact with people who have different viewpoints and come from different fields to help me look at problems from various perspectives." - Joey, MA Creative Arts in Education
"Taking this module is one of the best things I've done as part of my studies at Exeter. This is the most exciting and creative course I have ever attended." - Linh Le, MEd TESOL
"I would definitely recommend this module, not only can students learn by means of interdisciplinary cooperation through group cooperation, but also can expand the scope of communication, promote international students to know more about local culture, and promote the communication between international students and other students, which is really very good." - Sherry, MA Creative Arts in Education
The majority of students are based at our Streatham Campus in Exeter. The campus is one of the most beautiful in the country and offers a unique environment in which to study, with lakes, parkland, woodland and gardens as well as modern and historical buildings.
Located on the eastern edge of the city centre, St Luke's is home to Sport and Health Sciences, the Medical School, the Academy of Nursing, the Department of Allied Health Professions, and PGCE students.
Our Penryn Campus is located near Falmouth in Cornwall. It is consistently ranked highly for satisfaction: students report having a highly personal experience that is intellectually stretching but great fun, providing plenty of opportunities to quickly get to know everyone.
