Justicia y desigualdades: Estudios comparativos culturales (M.A.)

“Justicia y desigualdades: Estudios comparativos culturales” is a consecutive interdisciplinary Master’s degree programme with a cultural studies focus. It is taught entirely in Spanish on campus (some online sessions are possible) and has an international profile.

Providing access to justice or overcoming injustices and reducing historically persistent intersectional inequalities are global issues for the future. They are also included in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, where its 17 Sustainable Development Goals address the three dimensions of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. Our Master’s degree programme focuses on this subject area, and, in addition, addresses North-South asymmetries and discusses postcolonial perspectives. It qualifies graduates for senior employment opportunities in social transformation processes in one of the world’s largest language areas. This orientation is our programme’s unique selling point since other degree courses on justice usually focus on individual or specific perspectives.

Target Group

The programme is directed at students from all over the world, primarily Latin America, North America and Europe, especially Spain and Germany. It welcomes all students who are interested in its thematic orientation and have appropriate language skills (non-native speakers should have C1-level Spanish). In terms of academic, geographical, social and cultural background and professional experience, the programme is open to students who are at different stages of their lives, either directly after they have completed their Bachelor’s degree or after several years of professional activity.

Course Content

We offer students an interdisciplinary programme on a highly relevant subject area which explores the interface between the cultural, social and legal sciences and such thematic areas as peace and conflict research, global health, gender studies and development research as well as sustainable development.

The programme focuses on justice and inequalities, analysed from different perspectives in the following fields:             

• representations of justice, social inequalities and human rights violations       
• social policy (work, education, health, pensions, transport, housing, social rights) and the transformative potential of law in contexts of extreme social inequalities  
• political economy of development processes, alternative concepts of development and alternatives to development;
  glottopolitics and social justice, discourses of justice, the role of language in social participation and in the democratisation of access to social resources  
• intersectionality, gender studies and struggles for social justice;           
  democratic participation mechanisms and authoritarian movements;
  human rights violations and their treatment by transitional justice or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and collective memory processes
• North-South asymmetries and global solidarity;                                                                               
• extractivism, Just Energy Transition, socio-ecological conflicts and climate justice;
• social, political and cultural determinants of health, as well as the interactions between health, equity/justice and sustainable development.
  
  

Objectives of Programme and Competence Profile

The international, interdisciplinary and theoretically and methodically pluralistic nature of this Master’s programme enables students to reflect on key issues of justice of our time from multiple perspectives and in their respective cultural contexts and to present their own points of view in a scientifically sound manner. They learn about political and social means of promoting different aspects of justice and they critically discuss the political and social feasibility of these options. They also acquire the skills to formulate solutions relevant to practical policies but also to make (constructive) criticism. Students learn about theoretical and conceptual approaches, but they also improve their methodological skills, analyse current empirical case studies as well as apply and reflect on the knowledge they have acquired in the context of a compulsory internship.

In addition to academic training, emphasis is placed on the development of intercultural competencies, various soft skills (academic presentations; writing different types of text; preparing work for a broad target audience) and on the transfer of professionally relevant knowledge (event organisation; project management; didactics of adult education). The degree programme enables students to focus on research as well as prepare for careers in a wide range of professional fields (science, development cooperation, international organisations, NGOs, ministerial bureaucracy, political education, cultural work, etc. ). The heterogeneous nature of the student body and integration of teaching staff from partner universities or with practical backgrounds enable students to build international and transdisciplinary networks that benefit their future academic and professional careers. This is enhanced by active alumni work.

Further Information

All applicants need to present English skills at B2 level. For students whose first language is Spanish, a buddy programme is being piloted to provide support in all administrative processes (consultation, enrolment, registration for courses and examinations).