Prospective students
BA in Transculturality – What to expect
We take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to historical and current cultural entanglements between individuals, groups, and societies. We examine how these are formed and conveyed through material and immaterial forms of expression, including image and text media, as well as diverse practices reaching beyond language or physical objects.
Therefore, the focus is not only on the temporal and spatial dynamics of transcultural interrelationships, but also on their conditions, conflicts, and limitations. Transcultural studies are particularly well suited to critically questioning outdated, static, but socio-politically influential modern notions of cultures as homogeneous, nationally conceived entities and to better understanding the social, ethnic, linguistic, economic, media, and aesthetic complexity of cultural phenomena.
Transculturality is thus a key concept for understanding complex historical and contemporary constellations. Such constellations require an understanding of culture that draws on the expertise of the humanities but cannot be represented within the framework of single disciplines alone.
What does the program convey and how?
The three-year interdisciplinary program innovatively combines the diversity of humanities research and teaching at HHU. It introduces students to theoretical and empirical knowledge from different, complementary subject areas. Using a multi-perspective approach, it imparts knowledge from the fields of history, art history, literature and linguistics in German, English, Japanese, Yiddish, and Romance languages, as well as media and cultural studies. Students are free to select from further subjects.
Which skills do students acquire?
Step by step, students develop their own areas of focus by independently pursuing research on topics and presenting their own contributions at one of the BA forums.
In this way, the program conveys various skills, including communication techniques, multilingualism, empirical and interpretative methodological skills. These are prerequisites for a distinguished transition to further academic education, while at the same time opening key qualifications for numerous professional fields.
BA in Transculturality – What distinguishes the degree?
- A multiperspectival approach on a broad, interdisciplinary basis
- Flexibility to tailor your studies to your own interests
- Internship and mobility windows with full credit recognition
- Practical training of profession-related competencies in two student forums
- Training in inter- and transcultural communication
- Acquisition of broad methodological knowledge across different disciplines
- Seminars conducted in topic-oriented working groups
What does the degree look like in practice?
The programme is structured into compulsory, restricted elective, and free elective components.
First year of study
The first year introduces, through three compulsory modules, the phenomena and theories of transculturality, as well as the methodological foundations of academic work and systematic knowledge organisation. The restricted elective area comprises further professionally relevant disciplinary methodologies from media and cultural studies, sociology, and philosophy (logic and argumentation), as well as two language modules drawn from a range of seven languages. In the free elective area, you may take modules from 11 disciplines within the faculty. This entry phase thus also allows you to orient yourself and explore your own aptitudes and interests in shaping the further course of your studies.
Second year of study
The specialisation phase in the second year is characterised by a broad elective area and the continued pursuit of your personal interests. In the compulsory area, the Transculturality Forum is scheduled, in which students apply the theoretical and methodological knowledge they have acquired to a self-chosen topic or case study from one of the participating disciplines and deliver a presentation in the forum.
Third year of study
In the final phase of the programme, students are expected to complete, in the fifth semester, a period of study abroad or a work placement of up to six months. The credit points and/or professional achievements obtained can be recognised up to the value of one semester (30 CP). In the final semester, alongside writing the B.A. thesis, you will participate in the concluding forum, in which the thesis topic is presented and discussed with the aid of a short, self-produced film. If needed, remaining modules/courses may be selected to reach the required total of 180 credit points (CP).
Who is this degree for?
This degree program is a good fit for you if you have a fundamental interest in human society and enjoy engaging critically with both your own and other cultures and languages. For the program’s empirical data-collection methods, you will need a basic level of numeracy. You enjoy reading and presenting, and you are curious and motivated. Ideally, you are interested in several of the subjects included in the programme.