The Interdisciplinary Studies specialization of the Atlantic Studies/History, Culture and Society Master's degree program is based on a concept that is new in the German and international university landscape and deliberately transcends existing disciplinary boundaries. Against the backdrop of historical and contemporary globalization processes and migrations, it places interdependencies between the three continents around the Atlantic at the forefront of teaching and research and overcomes traditional nation-state perspectives. The Master's programme focuses not only on the interactions between Europe and North America, but also deals comprehensively with the relationships between Africa, the Americas (especially Latin America and the Caribbean) and Europe, the localization of global processes and the continuing peculiarities of developments in the various regions of the world. A particular focus is on the South Atlantic region, as Hanover has the unique combination of African history (one of five professorships in Germany) and Latin American history and expertise on both continents in the literary and social sciences.
Students learn to examine social phenomena from different perspectives and to work in an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and comparative manner. The current debate on globalization is strongly influenced by economic and political science approaches, which focus primarily on contemporary social macro-processes and the level of formal institutions. In contrast, the Master's in Atlantic Studies/History, Culture and Society combines a decidedly comparative and historical perspective with a stronger consideration of informal structures, processes at the middle and micro level as well as cultural patterns of interpretation of the actors.
Teaching content
- Relations between Africa, the Americas (especially Latin America and the Caribbean), globalization, locality and transcultural spaces up to the present, focus on the South Atlantic and Europe in global contexts and in a decidedly historical perspective
Interdisciplinary theoretical approaches (historical with a focus on global history and historical anthropology, sociological and cultural anthropology, linguistics, literature and cultural studies, religious studies), empirical research practice
- Compulsory modules Interdisciplinary Studies: Basic module Approaches to Atlantic Studies; Basic module Research Debates; Research Learning Module; Practical Module (internship with an international focus in Germany or semester abroad at an African, Latin American/Caribbean, Canadian or US-American, European university with an Atlantic/global focus), Master's thesis
- Compulsory elective modules for both specializations: Globalization, Locality and Transcultural Spaces; Inequality, Domination, Difference; Social, Religious and Cultural Movements; Violence Processes and Conflict Regulation; Cultural Anthropology