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Area of Concentration: Cultures

Learning Objectives

Students

  • have acquired intercultural competence through learning about and developing an interest in world regions beyond (Western) Europe;
  • are able to apply an integrative and comparative analysis of global entanglements, dependencies and mobilities;
  • are able to think critically about difference, diversity and culturalisation.

This area of concentration supports students in becoming world citizens: knowledgeable, critical and conscious of their positionality. To achieve this, the area of concentration offers courses in relation to three aspects: learning about the world (intercultural competence), thinking relationally and comparatively (integrative and comparative analysis), and being critical of dominant discourses (critical thinking). The area of concentration firstly aims to enhance students’ intercultural competence beyond the Eurocentric gaze. It offers the space to deepen their knowledge, acquire new perspectives and extend their interests in diverse world contexts. Zooming in on local, regional and global configurations, practices and histories, a variety of topics (e.g. markets, mobility, commodities, climate change, urbanisation etc.) are examined in depth. Secondly, the courses in the area of concentration encourage students to analyse the entanglements of local, regional and global developments, practices and discourses. They support and strengthen students’ analytical skills in exploring connections between topics related to their core subjects (economy, politics, law etc.) and socio-cultural processes, power relations and cultural representations. Students thereby develop the ability to understand the complexity and dynamics of our contemporary world in a holistic and integrative way. Finally, the courses in this area of concentration support students in cultivating and practising reflexivity and critical thinking about socio-cultural differences and diversity. In this way, students learn to identify diverse forms of cultural representations and “othering”, e.g. (cultural) racism, xenophobia, orientalism etc. across societal fields and critically explore their manifestation in the political realm.

Bachelor: The focus is on students opening up to different world regions and their connections and dependencies.

Master: The focus is on deepening reflection and critical thinking.

Key Topics:

  • Cultural Formations and Connections
  • Mobility and Migration
  • Encounters and Othering
  • Narratives and Representations
  • Religions and Postcoloniality

Coordination

Jelena Tosic

Prof. Dr.

Professor / Senior Lecturer for Migration Studies

SHSS-HSG
Büro 51-6038
Unterer Graben 21
9000 St. Gallen

Rita Kesselring

Prof. Dr.

Associate Professor of Urban Studies

SHSS-HSG
Büro 52-6208
Müller-Friedberg-Str. 6/8
9000 St Gallen
north