Background, career pathway and development
The Master’s Degree in Languages and Interculturality, whose core is based on the relationship between language, society, and culture, is a program that brings together different areas of knowledge from Language Sciences and Social Studies. It also attempts to provide fourth-level training to promote research and critical reflection on current cultural phenomena.
This graduate degree program is designed to provide an answer to current problems in society. The strengthening of standardized, monolithic uniformity is promoted by globalization and its cultural homogenization practices with which value systems, economic models, lifestyles, and dominant languages are exported. This situation establishes the need to develop academic agendas to address cultural differences and diversity from a dynamic and procedural perspective. As Jamaican scholar Stuart Hall said:
The (identity) concept accepts that identities are never unified and, in late modern times, are increasingly fragmented and fractured; they are never singular but constructed in multiple ways across different, often intersecting and antagonistic, discourses, practices and positions. They are subject to a radical historicization, and are constantly in the process of change and transformation (2013:17).
Reflecting on current difficulties of interculturalism means to critically address the problem of the coexistence of different languages and of diverse and unequal practices, as well as to emphasize the identity politics studied from various dimensions. With this in mind, we should focus on studying issues related to the existing links between metropolises and suburbs, domination and subordination, and systems of "translation" of texts, discourses, and practices from different cultures. This should be done through situated knowledge that challenges places in which knowledge is produced as well as the epistemological positions that they involve.
In this context, interculturality is considered to be an epistemological and critical dimension that crosscuts program proposals as well as activities and practices. This suggests that it is not conceived as a topic or particular content, but as a historical process that, in the words of Alejandro Grimson, "allows revealing the manifold intersections between cultural configurations", as a concept that "does not presuppose groups in an ahistorical way, recognizing that they develop as such in real processes of interaction with others" (2011:191). Within this general approach, it is possible to recognize and study various theoretical proposals that address cultural encounters in terms of a number of disciplines. Thus, this masters' degree program provides a meeting point for discussing these proposals in order to foster critical analysis in relation to objects of study in which "languages" that question us allow us to rethink the socio-cultural heterogeneity in which we are immersed.
Since its creation in 2010—with already 3 classes completed—, this graduate degree program has been consistently in line with the studies and research carried out at the School of Languages, as the study of linguistic issues in relation to culture, as well as the critical reading of fictional and theoretical texts to analyze sociocultural conflicts of specific periods of time, are part of the undergraduate curriculum and require both strengthening and deepening.
In this context, we have successfully trained qualified experts who are now ready to teach and do research as well as develop curricula with an intercultural dimension.
Relevance and background
The School of Languages is the perfect academic environment to follow this program due to the multiple languages that are studied here (German, Spanish, French, English, Italian, and/or Portuguese Teaching, Translation and Licentiate programs), showing a multilinguistic approach. This diverse and multicultural section of language study already suggests the orientation underlying this recent curriculum. There is consistency in the topics developed in the undergraduate programs and this program’s curriculum that will also contribute to the academic training if the student pursues the Ph.D. Degree in Language Sciences offered at this School.
It should be added that, in addition to training professionals to the highest level, this program aims at training the kind of qualified experts with critical thinking needed to join undergraduate chairs, especially those of programs in which specialized professionals are needed, as well as research teams and any other group focused on developing new curricula.
Relevant background in this area of study is related to the research projects listed in the Research Center of the School of Languages (in Spanish, CIFAL) and to our School’s publications and scientific meetings.
Degree awarded
Master’s Degree in Languages and Interculturality
Student profile
Graduates from programs of Argentine or foreign universities, or from non-university higher education programs (minimum program duration: 4 years), whose contents are related to those of this program.
Duration
Students take the required courses within a period of two years.
They then have a period of one year to write and submit their dissertation.
Mode of delivery
On campus (80% compulsory attendance), at Blvd. Enrique Barros s/n, University Campus.
Academic body
Director: Miguel Koleff, Ph.D.
Academic Advisory Committee:
Liliana Anglada, Ph.D.
Mirian Carballo, Ph.D.
Graciela Ferrero, Ph.D.
Cecilia Luque, Ph.D.
Hebe Gargiulo, M.A.
Curriculum
1- Introductory Seminar: The Human Language as the Backbone of Intercultural Analysis (40 clock hours)
2- Intercultural Theories (40 clock hours)
3- Sociocultural and Intercultural Processes (40 clock hours)
4- Scientific Research Methodology: Intercultural Issues (Part 1 and 2) (60 clock hours)
5- Linguistics and Interculturality (40 clock hours)
6- Discourse Strategies Analysis (40 clock hours)
7- Intercultural Pragmatics and Speech Ethnography (40 clock hours)
8- Linguistic Policies (40 clock hours)
9- Interculturality and Education (40 clock hours)
10- Ecocriticism. Topic and Rhetoric (40 clock hours)
11- Literature about Journeys and Migration (40 clock hours)
12- Elective course (40 clock hours)
13- Workshop: Dissertation Writing (40 clock hours)
Rules and resolutions
Regulations on Master's Degrees.pdf (only in Spanish)
Tuition and fees:
Please write to: aranceles.posgrado@lenguas.unc.edu.ar or call at: (+54) 351 4343214, ext. 158
Contact information:
Miguel Koleff, Ph.D.
E-mail: direccion.mingles@fl.unc.edu.ar
Wednesday from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.
(+54) 351 4343214/18, ext. 145