North-American Culture Studies

Degree programme objectives

The programme combines literary and linguistic instruction and provides a broader cultural overview of the countries in North America, combining both Anglophone and Francophone and Spanish-speaking regions, from Canada to the United States through Mexico and the Caribbean. The programme is designed so that the students gain an overview of each of the two cultural areas at the same time and are instructed on their mutual linguistic, literary, and cultural influences. For this reason, the programme is structured in a modular manner. The mandatory part of the curriculum consists of core courses that have a methodological section in which students learn the basic theoretical approaches toward the concept of identity of oneself, of the other, and of various social groups, and focus on the concept and its various manifestations in literature, linguistics, and culture. The core section is followed by a variety of in-depth courses in which students gain an orientation in the specific cultural phenomena in the Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone worlds.

The advantage of the North American study programme lies in the fact that it offers excellent material for the study of some highly topical issues of today’s world: otherness, migration, immigration, and cultural and linguistic phenomena associated with integration in areas where different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures interact. In this respect, North America represents a model laboratory allowing us to study the processes that increasingly confront European and Czech society.

Study plans

North-American Culture Studies

full-time, single-subject

Studies

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Objectives
The programme combines literary and linguistic instruction and provides a broader cultural overview of the countries in North America, combining both Anglophone and Francophone and Spanish-speaking regions, from Canada to the United States through Mexico and the Caribbean. The programme is designed so that the students gain an overview of each of the two cultural areas at the same time and are instructed on their mutual linguistic, literary, and cultural influences. For this reason, the programme is structured in a modular manner. The mandatory part of the curriculum consists of core courses that have a methodological section in which students learn the basic theoretical approaches toward the concept of identity of oneself, of the other, and of various social groups, and focus on the concept and its various manifestations in literature, linguistics, and culture. The core section is followed by a variety of in-depth courses in which students gain an orientation in the specific cultural phenomena in the Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone worlds.

The advantage of the North American study programme lies in the fact that it offers excellent material for the study of some highly topical issues of today’s world: otherness, migration, immigration, and cultural and linguistic phenomena associated with integration in areas where different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures interact. In this respect, North America represents a model laboratory allowing us to study the processes that increasingly confront European and Czech society.
Learning Outcomes
After successfully completing his/her studies the graduate is able to:
- have practical language and cultural knowledge relevant to the English-speaking culture of North America;
- have practical language and cultural knowledge relevant to the French-speaking and/or Spanish speaking cultures of North America;
- have the basic theoretical tools to critically analyze the cultures in question
- have the basic theoretical tools to critically analyze the languages in question
- gain a comprehensive understanding of the linguistic, literary and cultural phenomena at the intersection of two North American Cultures North America;
Occupational Profiles of Graduates
Graduates can work wherever good bilingual skills and critical thinking are needed and where attention is paid to issues of cultural relations, such as the issues of otherness, social and cultural exclusion, migration, and immigration.
Practical Training
One semester of at least 15 hours per week of practice in a public institution or a private company dealing with some aspect of North American space is required. These organizations include the American Corner at the Moravian Library, Brno Expat Centre, and the Central European Association of Canadian Studies, based at the Faculty Arts.
Goals of Theses
A minimum scope of a Master's thesis is no less than 125,000 characters including footnotes, annotations and references (excluding title pages, contents, acknowledgements and appendices). A Master's thesis has the character of an independent empirical research. Students can work with already published texts and data accessible for secondary analysis. The aim a Master's thesis is to demonstrate the student's ability to work critically with professional texts, process the concepts and theories discovered there, and find relevant answers to the given research question.
Access to Further Studies
After completing the Master’s degree study programme, it is possible to continue further studies in a doctoral degree study programme in English Language, Literature in English, Romance Literatures, or Comparative Literatures.