MA Arts and Culture

The master's programme in Arts and Culture focuses on culture in the making. Culture can refer to the products of intellectual and artistic creativity, such as scholarly and literary texts or works of art. It also indicates the cultural practices that shape the everyday life of people and is expressed in their individual tastes and forms of association with one another. Finally, culture is at the heart of the processes through which people explicate and contest ethical, aesthetic, and political meanings and values. You will study how cultures change, and how these changes are related to societal problems and debates, as well as to global challenges such as climate change and increasing social inequalities.

The Master's programme Arts and Culture offers three specialisations:

• Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management, and Education/Kunst en Erfgoed
• Contemporary Literature and Arts: Cultural Interventions and Social Justice
• Modern Political Culture: Ideas and Discourses in Context

The Master's programme Arts and Culture focuses on how cultures change. We are interested in how these changes are related to societal problems and debates, as well as to global challenges such as climate change and social inequalities. To understand and practically address these issues and problems you develop a humanities perspective on cultural practices. Drawing on disciplines such as art and literature theory, history, philosophy, and anthropology, you will learn how humanities research is of fundamental importance in dealing with the issues faced by present-day societies. Examples include the ways in which history enables citizens to shape, preserve or challenge their national heritage and culture; how the arts can contribute to critical thinking and action; and how contested present-day political ideas are the result of long and intricate genealogies. The program addresses a broad scope of topics and approaches that not only draws on Western (i.e. European and North American) perspectives but reflect the global character of today’s societal issues and debates.

The Master's programme Arts and Culture has three specialisations. Each in their own way, they seek to demonstrate how the humanities and the qualitative social sciences provide a fundamental perspective for analyzing and understanding the most pressing questions of our own age.

Customise your programme

You will write your master's thesis on a topic of your choosing that is related to your specialization. You will receive supervision from our academic staff and will receive individual feedback on your work throughout the academic year. You will be further supported through a thesis course that will help you develop your academic skills as well as practice applying research designs and methodologies. You will also have the possibility to conduct an internship or extra-curricular internship.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) is one of the six faculties at Maastricht University . It was founded in 1994. There are approximately 240 employees and around 1800 students. The format of the education is, like at all the faculties of Maastricht University , based on the principle of Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The faculty is internationally oriented and most of the programmes are offered in English. Its students come from all over the world. The faculty is located in the centre of Maastricht, in two renovated buildings on the Grote Gracht: the ‘Hof van Tilly’ and the ‘Soirongebouw’.

Academic programmes

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences offers two three-year bachelors programmes: Cultuurwetenschappen/Arts and Culture; and European Studies, and eight one-year masters programmes: Kunst, literatuur en samenleving/Art, Literature and Society; European Studies; Globalisation and Development Studies;European Public Affairs; European Studies on Society, Science and Technology; Kunst, cultuur en erfgoed/Arts and Heritage; Politiek en samenleving/ Politics and Society and Media Culture. Furthermore, two two-year research masters are offered: Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology; and European Studies.

The faculty has a Graduate School with an intake of about 10 PhD students each year.

Research

The Research Institute for Arts and Culture encompasses all research of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences . The Research Institute comprises three programmes: 1. Politics and Culture in Europe, 2. Science, Technology and Society, and 3. Cultural Memory and Diversity. The research area overlaps both the humanities and the social sciences.