New course in Lat­in Amer­ic­an stud­ies at Pader­born Uni­ver­sity

German-Latin American culture mediation, with the focus on pop culture and science

Latin American pop cultures have found their way into a wide variety of media and customs around the world. They are particularly significant for low-threshold communication and rapid exchanges. How can they become a catalyst for cultural mediation, and how important are they for negotiating German and Latin American cultures? Anyone who wants to learn more about Latin America and its interrelations with Germany can take a new master’s course at Paderborn University: The ‘PopMediaCulture: German-Latin American Cultural Mediation’ course is scheduled to start in the coming winter semester and comprises a high proportion of practical research, media and music content. The languages of instruction are Spanish and German. The course is an open-admission course, with a standard period of study of four semesters. Prerequisites are a bachelor’s degree in the arts and humanities, social sciences or business administration and economics, as well as proficiency in Spanish at Level B2. Interested students can apply for a place on the master’s course from 1 June.

“In the 21st century, Latin America has become a key cultural area for Germany, with pop culture playing a major role as an essential discipline of cross-cultural negotiation processes – in comics, films, literature, music and theatre, for example,” explains Professor Sabine Schmitz from the Department of Romance Languages, who has devised the internationally oriented course in collaboration with Professor Annegret Thiem, also from the Department of Romance Languages, Professor Beate Flath, Professor Christoph Jacke and Professor Heinrich Klingmann, all from the Department of Music.  A key component of the course is a period of study abroad at a Latin American university, where students can gain first-hand experience of educational and, above all, cultural institutions that take an interdisciplinary approach to medial pop cultures.

Universities in Argentina (Buenos Aires), Chile (Santiago de Chile) and Colombia (Universidad de Caldas) currently participate in the study and exchange programme. In joint projects, students tackle issues relating to German-Latin American cultural mediation on the basis of scientific theories, under the supervision of German-Latin American teaching staff. The course leaders in both the Department of Romance Languages and Department of Music all have relevant expertise. Professor Christoph Jacke: "With research and teaching in popular music and media at the Department of Music – a field you won’t find anywhere else in Germany – we have some twenty years’ experience in integrative education in science, music, media and management.”

In addition to theoretical and methodological content, students also learn basic skills in the field of digital humanities, i.e. digital cultural studies. Graduates thereby find professional employment in the fields of cultural policy and mediation, the music, media and creative industries, journalism, PR/advertising and management, as well as in various cultural institutions such as galleries, museums, cultural centres and the theatre. Professor Flath is confident that “as facilitators, moderators and mediators within and between different cultures, actors and institutions, graduates have a wide range of exciting professional opportunities open to them, with promising prospects for the future.”

Paderborn University President, Professor Birgitt Riegraf, who has herself conducted research in Latin America, is looking forward to the launch of the new degree programme: “The introduction of this course constitutes an important building block in the internationalisation of Paderborn University. Latin America is home to more than 500 million people in over 20 Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries with world-class universities.”

Further information about the course can be found at: www.uni-paderborn.de/studienangebot/studiengang/popmediaculture-master