MA/MS in Contemporary Literature and Arts: Cultural Interventions and Social Justice

The specialisation Contemporary Literature and Arts: Cultural interventions and social justice offers you the opportunity to study 21st century literature and arts from an interdisciplinary perspective. You will examine how contemporary literature and arts intervene in issues of social justice, such as racial injustice, class and gender inequalities, climate justice, the rights of migrants and refugees, the discrimination of LGBTQ people, ageism and ableism.

In this specialisation you will start from a definition of social justice as the fair and equal access to wealth, opportunities and privileges in society, which includes socio-environmental justice. You will then learn to critically research and understand how contemporary literature and arts grapple with these—and other—ethical challenges. Debates about the ethics of aesthetics are at the heart of scholarly debate about literature and arts in the 21st century and the curriculum is guided by the knowledge that it is important to bring a humanities perspective to current societal debates and to global challenges such as climate change and increasing social inequalities. This specialisation asks how the humanities can make a difference in society.