Culture and change: Critical Studies in the Humanities is a two-year master’s program aimed at students interested in better understanding various cultural phenomena, both past and present. The program will encourage you to think expansively and creatively about how culture is produced and reproduced, and why it is still a contested terrain. We explore and ask questions about issues of power, representation, memory, silence, and place. The program will help you to bridge theory and practice and to develop research interests in collaboration with external stakeholders. If you have ever considered working in the arts, policy-making, cultural administration, or even pursuing a Ph.D., this might be the ideal program for you.
Culture is not just a set of texts, images, artifacts, and compositions that we experience or analyze. It is also a living medium through which we interact with the world and each other, as well as understand ourselves and the societies that we inhabit. Culture is constantly shifting and affects the way power is negotiated. In the post-truth, post-memory 21st century, it is still not clear how different perspectives and expressions of culture will continue to coexist. Questions that we need to face and tackle are: Who gets to speak and act, and who listens? Why do we produce knowledge, and what is it used for? And how can we ethically engage and participate in the work of making/doing “culture”?
What makes the program unique?
This is a two-year master’s program in Cultural Studies which is based in the humanities but also uses methods, theories, and approaches from other fields, such as participatory design, critical museology, and artistic research. A distinguishing feature of this program is the bridging of theory and practice. You will study culture in a broad sense and practically engage with different forms of cultural production as it takes place within institutions such as museums, theatres, and arts venues, and in dialogue with stakeholders such as artists, curators, activists, collectives, and small enterprises. An important part of this multidisciplinary program is to provide opportunities for you as a student to collaborate with cultural stakeholders and co-create your productions, as well as build a community of peers.