University of Heidelberg

The M.A. Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University offers an interdisciplinary and trans-regional focus. It is based on the perspective that cultures are not contained within ethnically closed, linguistically homogenous and territorially bounded spheres, but that they are constituted through transformations and entanglements that follow from extended contacts and relationships. Forms of mobility and connectedness have been characteristic of cultures over centuries even before the advent of modern communication technologies and global capital. The courses of this programme address these issues by focusing on the changes which circulatory practices have undergone from past to present. Studying the dynamics of transcultural exchanges involves analyzing the agency of participants in these developments and shifts over longer as well as shorter time spans. The programme is designed to provide substantive knowledge and the methodological tools for this study. Particular attention will be paid to introduce students to the integrated study of different types of records – objects, texts of different genres, visual, audio or digital media, in order to remove the ways in which people in specific regional contexts perceive these shifts.  

Students are trained in the programme to critically evaluate research tools and methodologies from different disciplines in order to arrive at a set of methods and theories, which is framed according to the specific research question and material. While they continue to acquire expertise in the disciplines from which they have entered the programme, they are taught to adopt a distinctly interdisciplinary, transregional perspective in their studies, involving a high level of self-reflexivity. Linguistic competence is essential for transcultural studies, which involve a constant process of translating and negotiating concepts from one context to another, and writing about such diverse aspects in one language. 

Upon completion of the programme, students will be able to independently conceptualize a research question, identify relevant theories and methods from a number of disciplines, apply them to selected material and present their results according to academic standards.