Practice-oriented studies in the World Heritage city of Bamberg
Just like European Ethnology’ offices and seminar rooms, the branch library (Teilbibliothek 5) is located in the centre of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bamberg. The library is very well equipped and is constantly updated so that you can always access all the specialist literature you need. When you’re taking a break, you can enjoy yourself in the Old Town, at the river or in Hain Park.
Bamberg provides you with numerous historical and modern objects that you can research, study and discover in the context of the World Heritage Site. You can expect practice-oriented studies with in-depth insights into professional fields related to cultural studies. It is the perfect environment to carry out the practical course components right in the city centre: whether you’re conducting fieldwork on smartphone use in the Inselstadt area, carrying out a spatial exploration of the Bergstadt, doing an internship in the Gärtner- und Häckermuseum (Gardener and Vintner Museum) or in the Bamberg World Heritage Office, or working directly with Bamberg’s historical documents, you have a wide range of possibilities with European Ethnology.
Interdisciplinary networks and exchange
Close links to neighbouring disciplines and only short ways to their institutes and libraries enable you to become familiar with a wide range of perspectives and approaches and to develop and advance your own areas of interest.
You can benefit from cooperation with other disciplines firstly in the context of interdisciplinary seminars and secondly through the distribution elective component. You can also incorporate the classes offered by the Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern (e.g. classes on visual discourses and the module ‘Gender & Diversity’).
By attending conferences, you also have a good opportunity to familiarise yourself with different perspectives. This could be, for example, at the annual conferences organised by the Görres Society. In the meeting for European ethnologists, you’ll get to meet most of the contributors to the Jahrbuch für Europäische Ethnologie. You can also attend talks from other academic disciplines (e.g. sociology, education, history).
Subject internationality
The Jahrbuch für Europäische Ethnologie promotes the discipline’s internationality. This publication enables cross-regional comparisons with cultural research from other European countries. Field trips are also organised abroad within Europe, for example for conferences or field research periods.
Students can also choose to strengthen their intercultural skills with a stay abroad. In many places, it is also possible to incorporate material from cultural anthropology, European ethnology and other related subjects into your master’s degree programme. Please discuss the different options for having these credited with the subject advisory service.
Promoting diversity and cultural awareness
European Ethnology makes students aware of the variety of European cultures in their regional forms. Students learn how to see and interpret cultural, gender-specific, ethnic and religious phenomena. Correspondingly, classes are offered in which topics are discussed such as the relationship between the familiar and the unfamiliar, migration and home, enculturation and acculturation processes, sexuality, body and gender, racism research and inclusion.
Valuable contacts in the professional world
Your prospects of successfully entering the job market increase with practical experience. Through projects at the university and a mandatory internship, you can already network in the professional world during your studies.
Thanks to networking and cooperation beyond the university (for example through our lecturers), you learn from specialists during your studies who can support you, for example, in object analysis and inventory, project or cultural management, or in archival work. You can also establish professional contacts during your studies that prove valuable for an internship.
>>> Contacts for potential internships (in german)
"In our programme, you have the time and opportunities to select topics that interest you personally and allow you to progress – that is a privilege that you absolutely have to take advantage of!"
Susanne, programme graduate
