MA Media Studies: Digital Cultures

Digital technologies have transformed the ways we share and distribute information, understand the past, interact with each other and spend our leisure time. The digital world has changed the terms of engagement with areas as diverse as politics and culture: while it can function as a force for good in democratizing participation, production, and sharing, it can also be exploitative, introducing new forms of control and surveillance. As the digital world pervades all aspects of our lives, traditional media and analog culture are being reshaped in new and complex interrelationships. The master's programme in Media Studies: Digital Cultures (short MS:DC) combines theory and reflection with praxis and making. It will provide you with a wide skill set in digital tools and research methods to become both a media researcher and an active player in a wide range of industries and cultural and heritage organizations in today’s digitally-mediated world.

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.