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Research Master
Vergelijk
Cultural Analysis (Arts and Culture - research)

Study programme

The Research Master's in Cultural Analysis prepares participants for entry into a related PhD programme. The programme itself is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study and analysis of contemporary culture. It seeks to enhance analytical skills and to train students to explore a field of study and an object of inquiry that is not necessarily deducible from or reducible to disciplinary traditions.

The Research Master's programme Cultural Analysis comprises 120 ECTS credits: 90 credits for core courses, tutorials and electives, and 30 credits for the Master's Thesis and Research Project.

COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Objects of Cultural Analysis
    12

    Focusing on the object’s role in interdisciplinary cultural analysis, the course explores how objects interact with various contexts, how their boundaries are defined or questioned, and how object analysis relates to the broader issue of understanding the present.

  • Research MA Cultural Analysis Tutorial 1
    6

    Tutorials offer close engagement with specialist literature, archives, research methods, or current discussions in Arts and Culture. The content depends on your own interests and study plans, and the tutor’s expertise.

  • Concepts for Cultural Analysis
    12

    This course examines how people use the same concept in very different ways and moves towards positioning concepts in relation to research and ourselves. It asks what a concept enables us to analyse, make fuzzy, or take for granted.

  • Research MA Cultural Analysis Tutorial 2
    6

    Tutorials offer close engagement with specialist literature, archives, research methods, or current discussions in Arts and Culture. The content depends on your own interests and study plans, and the tutor’s expertise.

  • Free-choice electives
    18
  • Restricted-choice electives: National Research School
    6
COURSES SEM 1 SEM 2 SEMESTER 1 SEMESTER 2 EC
  • Research Seminar Cultural Analysis
    12

    This seminar prepares you for writing the Thesis in Cultural Analysis by drawing upon conceptual tools and methodologies from earlier modules. You will suggest materials reflecting the concepts, theorists, texts and problems that preoccupy you, from which seminar readings are selected and discussed in relation to your own research interests.

  • Research MA Cultural Analysis Tutorial 3
    6

    Tutorials offer close engagement with specialist literature, archives, research methods, or current discussions in Arts and Culture. The content depends on your own interests and study plans, and the tutor’s expertise.

  • Research Project Cultural Analysis
    12

    The research project is carried out in parallel with your thesis and constitutes either preliminary research or research not visible in the final version of the thesis. The format is determined in consultation with your thesis supervisor at the start of the supervision period.

  • Restricted-choice electives: National Research School
    6
  • Free-choice electives
    6
  • Research Master's Thesis Cultural Analysis
    18
Compulsory course
Elective
UvA Course Catalogue: Cultural Analysis

Courses

The core courses and electives all take the form of seminars devoted to the detailed study of texts, cultural objects, theories and methodologies in the field of cultural analysis. Tutorials are small groups of up to five students who work together under specialist supervision. They provide an intellectually challenging and stimulating context in which students can narrow their focus. The core courses, electives and tutorials provide the training and preparation necessary for writing the Master's thesis (which can also serve as the basis for future research, such as for a PhD).

Research activities

Students are encouraged to participate in additional ongoing research activities, including international workshops and conferences organised through ASCA. Recent ASCA guest lecturers have included: Anselm Haverkamp, Diane Crane, Judith Butler, Cesare Casarino, Szusa Baross, Geoffrey Hartman, Murray Pratt and Sam Weber.

Thesis

The Master's thesis reports on research carried out under the supervision of an academic staff member involved in the programme. The subject of the thesis must be mutually agreed upon by the student and the academic adviser. Researching and writing the thesis takes at least six months.

Internships

For more information about available internships and the experiences of other student interns, please follow the link.

Internships
Cultural Analysis is an interdisciplinary programme dedicated to the academic study of contemporary culture from a broad Humanities perspective. It trains students in the theoretically-informed close-reading of a wide range of cultural objects, including film, music, literature, visual art and new media, but also cultural phenomena, such as populism, precarity and posthumanism. Dr Niall Martin

Credit transfer

Students who show exceptional promise during a regular or professional Master's programme are encouraged to continue their studies in a research programme. Once students are admitted to the research programme, they can transfer credits earned during their previous course of study towards their Research Master's degree. The Examinations Board determines which courses qualify for transfer.