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Optional Modules

Through professional internships students gain both competence and connections within their professional field. The expectations and requirements depend on the type of internship chosen by the student, and whether they will be working within an NGO, a business, an international institute, or a research center.

This advanced module offers students the possibility to specialize in the field of historiography. The courses in this module analyze the relations with other regions of the world in terms of regional dynamics, processes of globalization, colonialism, dependence, and cultural contact. This module enhances the ability to apply historical theoretical approaches (such as a global systems approach, social history, conceptual history, postcolonial studies) and methods (historical hermeneutics, oral history) in the Inter-American context.

The courses included in this module are interrelated and focus on topics of world history. The historical context, the research on particular regions, and their connections to other regions of the world are always in focus. The seminar also serves to widen the approach to the problems of regional, trans-regional, theoretical, or environmental research.

The course "English in Context" focuses on the relationship of the English language with other languages of the world in different social and historical contexts. Students analyze various eras and usages of the English language, considering different historical and cultural backgrounds. In addition, the module addresses topics such as specific methods and theories of linguistics, applied in the research of diachronic and synchronic language contacts.

In "Dynamics of Language", students learn to observe the various aspects of the dynamics of language through specific examples, in order to evaluate and clarify the roles languages play. They also learn about monolingual variability, language diversity, its causes, forms, and recurring mechanisms. The course eventually reviews the relevance of this knowledge within linguistic typology and theory.

This module emphasizes the central importance of a wide variety of media that affect the design and production of cultural identities, especially when considering the growing importance of media communication in the Americas as a form of cultural representation. The module is based on the understanding of culture as a communicative process in constant negotiation. The corpus of this module consists mainly of documentary, film, video, television, and music.

"Cultural Communication" deals with the theory and practice of media, and cultural modes of communication, the impact of new communication technologies, and the differentiation of new forms of communication in the English-speaking world both past and present.

As an alternative, students can choose the seminar "Mediating Cultures", which deals with media representations of identities and the processes of contact between cultures in different forms of media, with special attention paid to linguistic and cultural heterogeneity.

"Theory and History of the Media in Latin America" focuses on the roles played by the media in Latin American modernism. Special attention is paid to the theory and history of the media in Latin America, while considering the role of communication media in the context of social and cultural changes in Latin American modernism and postmodernism.

In this module students specialize in the field of literary and cultural studies. They gain deeper insight into the literary and cultural production in the Americas. The main topics encompass representations of literary exchange in various forms of media, as well as in the context of everyday practice. In order to be able to analyze texts, films, and cultural works, cultural theoretical approaches (cultural materialism, gender studies, media studies, New Historicism, memory studies, cultural anthropology and semiotics, and intercultural communication, etc.), and literary-theoretical approaches (hermeneutics, New Criticism, structuralism, reception theory, postcolonial theory, etc.) are necessary, together with cinematographic criteria and scientific-media analysis. These approaches are applied from an intercultural perspective to the interpretation and analysis of texts, images, and films, as well as everyday practice.

 

This module explores the phenomenon of language in terms of its diversity. Here the focus is on the diversity of natural languages, the comparison of languages with no transparent or well-defined similarities, or indicators of cognitive social signs belonging to social communities. The courses allow students to extend their knowledge of the following topics: linguistic universals, world languages, and comparative grammar.

If global connections have formed “a global society”, the content of this module addresses the questions of the processes which gave rise to the formation of structural global relationships and, in turn, the way in which these relationships influence local and regional structures. 

The theoretical course of this module investigates the different approaches to the analysis of processes of globalization: For example, systemic and institutional theories, theories of the global system, or various approaches to globalization.

The empirical course explores the formation and transformation of transnational communities. These are analyzed based on several approaches from regional studies, local case studies, and systematic comparisons to national societies and states, which lead to the formation of global communication systems and the creation of social and public transnational forms. The mechanisms behind conflict resolution are also discussed.

This module focuses on the political and social aspects of transnational processes in our global society. It highlights the central link between global and transnational dynamics and the consequences transnationalization has on both individuals and groups.

The theoretical course addresses emerging governing structures beyond the nation-state and the conceptions of the global state. The empirical course focuses on the relationships between the private and the public, local and global, market and state. Conflicts between social groups and participation within the public sphere are also discussed. The course investigates global political structures in relation to social order, social inequality, and gender in our global society, taking into consideration global social policies and development.

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