Study programme

Our programme comprises 60 EC and consists of two semesters, running from September until January and from February until June. A semester is divided into two study periods. 

Curriculum

The programme consists of compulsory courses, an elective, an internship and a Master's thesis. Check the study schedule (PDF). 

Semester 1 | Courses

• In Thinking Arts & Society, you build academic knowledge and explore concepts that will help you frame and analyse artistic projects.
• In Exploring Arts & Society, you explore various ways of mapping the cultural field and its dimensions, and engage in a series of exercises that will help you build your skills and knowledge as an arts-professional.
• In Curating Arts & Society, you participate in a hands-on project and learn curatorial skills, including researching, writing, and presenting, in a practical manner.
• In Researching Arts & Society I, you are introduced in several methods that can be used to conduct research within the domain of A&S.
• In Researching Arts & Society II you prepare your thesis proposal, supported by group meetings and feedback sessions with peers and supervisors.
• The elective offered by A&S (Arts & Society: fieldwork) focuses more exclusively on ethnographic research, exploring experimental forms of researching and reporting. You can also choose another elective offered by the Department of Media and Culture Studies.

Semester 2 | Internship and thesis

In the second semester, you will do your internship and work on your Master's thesis. It is highly recommended that the thesis be completed before students proceed to their internships. Examples of thesis titles:

• Crafting Protest Craftivism as Soft Feminist Activism
• Like a Bird: Art, Affect and Interspecies Encounters
• Curating Music: Understanding Material Relationality in Music Performance
• Smashing statues: the performative and archaeological dimensions of collective vandalism
• Arts festivals and cultural diversity policy: An insight in the tension fields between cultural policy and arts festivals

Educational methods

• lecture (10%)
• seminar (20%)
• practical (20%)
• group work (10%)
• self-study (20%)
• internship (20%)

Students usually spend most of the time outside of contact hours reading and preparing for class.

Individual research is encouraged so as to develop your personal trajectory throughout the MA. We encourage students to think about their research interests and to lay the groundwork for thesis research from the very beginning of the programme.

Due to the workload, we encourage students who need to work alongside their studies to opt for a 2-year part-time trajectory.

Examinations

• oral and audiovisual presentations
• portfolio
• peer feedback and assessment
• essays, reports and final thesis