No I totally get you, and that’s my one worry with LSE, because if the theory and stuff ain’t radical enough I’m not gonna be happy lol.
That being said here’s my take on both degrees in how they relate to my personal interests:
Similarities:
So both seem to offer two compulsory modules to give a strong political and theoretical grounding to the field ‘(Gender Theories in the Modern World' and ‘Transnational Sexual Politics’ for LSE and ‘Gender theory and the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East’ and either ‘Queer Politics in Asia, Africa and the Middle East’/’Transnationalising Queer, Trans and Disability Studies’ for SOAS). Both schools have a really international outlook which is why they’re more attractive to me than let’s say UCL. By and large I slightly prefer the indicative reading lists at SOAS, but the LSE reading lists aren’t bad by any means.
With LSE:
So personally, I actually quite like the interdisciplinary overlapping. For example, I wanted to study film/cinema to some capacity, and modules like 'Screening the Present' and ‘Film Theory and Word Cinema' give a pretty good founding from a political and critical perspective. My fave module however is 'Bodies Culture and Politics' with how it's intersectional study of the body (through theory, practice, culture, politics and so on). Currently that module alone is swaying me top LSE. I’m also potentially thinking of doing 'Anthropology of South East Asia' as an external option instead of 'Film Theory', but we'll see.
With SOAS:
Firstly it's a shame you have to choose between 'Queer Politics in Asia, Africa and the Middle East' and 'Transnationalising Queer, Trans and Disability Studies' because both look awesome. Regarding optional papers, I’d definitely take ‘Gender and Sexualities in South East Asian Film’ as it hits on my interests in SO MANY ways. Then I think the Work Experience module is particularly valuable, not only in terms of skills and career but also in regards to applying theory to practice (!!!). Then I’d take a language (either Thai or Sanskrit).
Basically LSE would allow me to more widely explore my interests, whereas SOAS would probably give me a broader variety of skills (radical thinking, language and work experience etc.). However, I’m also able to take a language at the SOAS Language centre so… The other thing I would say though, is that I prefer the assessment style of LSE. I'm excited more by the idea of writing an in-depth 4,000/5,000 word essay per unit than lots of smaller ones. But that's just a personal thing.
What about you? Which are the modules from both courses that you like the look of?