The Master’s programme imparts profound knowledge of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology and offers specialist knowledge in focus areas within this subject.

Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology links internationally established research and teaching programmes in what is known as social or cultural anthropology with European ethnology, a subject that developed recently in Germany and emerged from the former folklore discipline. The research focus of the subject is on empirical research into cultural processes in contemporary societies. As an object of knowledge, culture includes the practices of groups or societies, artefacts, knowledge developments and communication conditions. Culture is revealed, for example, in differences in language, working methods, social institutions and moral and aesthetic orientations. The subject conceptualises culture in the anthropological sense as a precondition, process and product of human thoughts and actions.

The main focus of the subject is on cultural development in contemporary European societies. The European focus in research and teaching is on the cultural influence of the modern age. Europe is not seen as a geopolitical region but as a space constituted by global media links, trans-national culture and knowledge flows. At the same time, European monitoring and reflection is based on cognitive, communicational and cultural dimensions.

Modern cultures change in interplay with processes such as economic globalisation, accelerating media development, the increase in trans-national mobility and the change of industrial societies into knowledge societies. Studying Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology allows students to watch these processes and effects, discuss them using the right terminology and explore them using empirical research methods. Students also acquire the skills to analyse the European integration process and the emergence of European identity/ies.

This Master’s programme uses the methods of the subject to teach cultural analysis. Students learn to work academically while taking into account the social responsibility of science, and they acquire the ability to reflect critically on the methods obtained in the Bachelor’s programme (research skills), to deal with the theoretical concepts of the subject (ability to theorise) and to relate these theories to research developments (interdisciplinarity).

Information from the department
Study regulations

Master of Arts in Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology 

The standard length of study for the Master of Arts is 4 semesters. 

German 

The study programme starts at the beginning of the winter semester. 

• if you are not already enrolled at Goethe-University Frankfurt:
  university entrance qualification (e.g. A-Levels)
• Bachelor’s degree certificate
• if the Bachelor's degree has not yet been completed:
  - a transcript of records or equivalent document listing the content of the study programme and average grade
  - letter of recommendation from your supervisor
• Study exposé
• proof of English language skills
• if the first degree was obtained at an international higher education institution:
  certificate of German language skills. See here for more information about the required German language skills.
• you may need to submit other documents depending on your country of origin and your previous education; please see the general information about applying for a Master’s degree.

21 June