Popular cultures - Master
The Master’s degree programme in Popular Cultures offers a research-oriented course of studies focusing on text, image, and media studies. The contemporary and history-related degree programme focuses on the dissemination of popular cultural artefacts, in particular in the modern era, but also traces popularisation effects into the pre-modern era.
Facts & Formalities
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Type of programme | Consecutive |
| Start of programme | Winter and summer semester |
| Standard period of study | 4 semesters |
| Language(s) of instruction | German, English, partly also French, Italian or Spanish |
| Fees and contributions | 161.10 € / Semester |
| Application procedure | Consecutive master’s programmes with access restriction |
| Application deadlines | Information about deadlines can be obtained after you have put together a degree program. |
| Part-time option | Yes |
| May be studied as a minor subject | Yes |
Course content
Students will first acquire theoretical, methodological, and application-related basic knowledge for analysing popular cultures of the past and present.
Courses focusing on popular cultural representations and performances, e.g., the reception of (canonical) art and literature in popular media, phenomena of everyday/popular cultures in public space, the popular and populism in language and communication, popular film genres and TV formats, star culture, or crime literature are added later on.
Students can choose courses offered by cultural practitioners (publishing, newspaper, theatre, creative writing courses) for their practical focus. However, they can also choose complete work placements and field trips and participate in project-oriented courses. Cooperative formats (e.g., poetry lecture, practical area of the Popakademie, the Heidelberg School of Education, or the theatre pedagogy department of the University of Education) are also available.
Course structure
There are two versions of the Master’s degree programme in Popular Cultures as a major subject: A more research-oriented approach of the degree programme is supplemented by a course variant with an integrated work placement/mobility option that promotes mobility as well as practice/professional orientation in the third semester.
- Choosing the major subject without work placement option comprises 90 out of the total of 120 credit points allocated to courses or modules attended during the programme and 30 credit points allocated to the final module with Master’s thesis (25 CP), research colloquium (2 CP), and oral degree examination in the form of a defence for the Master’s thesis (3 CP).
- Choosing the major subject with work placement option comprises 60 out of the total of 120 credit points allocated to courses or modules attended during the programme, while 30 credit points go towards the work placement module, and 30 credit points are allocated to the final module with Master’s thesis (25 CP), research colloquium (2 CP), and oral degree examination in the form of a defence for the Master’s thesis (3 CP).
Basic module (major subject with and without work placement option and supplementary subject): Introductory lecture, seminar with accompanying tutorial
Specialised modules (major subject with and without work placement option): Three compulsory modules “Intermediality & New Media”, “Popularity & Society” and “Genres & Formats”
Modules for practical and research orientation (major subject without work placement option and partly major subject with work placement option): Three “Practice” modules (major subject with & possibly major subject without work placement option), “Science Communication” (major subject with & without work placement option), “Research” (only major subject without work placement option)
Elective module (major subject with and without work placement option)
Work placement module (major subject with work placement option): Work placement (30 CP) in Germany or abroad or shortened work placement (25 CP) and practical module
Final module (major subject with and without work placement option)
Personal requirements
The interdisciplinary Master’s degree programme in Popular Cultures opens up a new, attractive study profile that takes account of social change and the growing economic potential in the cultural and media sector. It is, therefore, intended for B.A. graduates of the subjects involved in the degree programme who would like to expand their undergraduate discipline(s) through an interdisciplinary Master’s degree programme.
The admission requirements for the degree programme are open due to its interdisciplinary alignment: A Bachelor’s degree in one of the subjects involved or in related subjects (at least 50% or 70 CP) as well as German and English language skills at level B2 according to the CEFR are required. Additional (passive) language skills may be required for individual courses, e.g., in the area of Romance studies. These are, however, not admission requirements since the specifically required language skills depend on the students’ choice of courses. As part of the elective module, students also have the opportunity to take undergraduate courses from the individual disciplines that were not part of the Bachelor’s degree programme in order to align their knowledge.
Stays abroad/mobility
Stays abroad are strongly supported in the Master’s degree programme Popular Cultures. A semester abroad generally can be integrated into the study programme at any time. With the exception of the basic module, every course or module of the degree programme described here generally can also be completed and recognised at a foreign university.
Depending on individual study planning, the third or fourth semester is particularly suitable as a mobility window; at least the basic module and first specialisation courses should be completed before the stay abroad commences. The Erasmus partner universities of the participating subjects as well as Heidelberg’s partner universities within the 4EU+ and non-European networks are available to students as exchange destinations. Both kinds of stays abroad (as a study stay or work placement) and “internationalisation at home”, e.g., in the form of summer schools, are strongly supported, as is the increasing number of (digital) cooperative teaching formats, in particular (but not exclusively) within the framework of 4EU+.