Institute for Cultural Studies [EN]

The Institute for Cultural Studies is a research and educational unit linked to the Faculty of Arts at the K.U.Leuven, Belgium.

What is cultural studies in Leuven?

On the one hand, cultural studies refers to the study of cultural policy, at various administrative and political levels (local, regional, national, international). Cultural policies are anchored in legal texts and best practices, and the Leuven approach is strongly practice-based.
On the other hand, cultural studies refers also to a specific type of the scientific analysis and interpretation of culture. This approach of cultural studies is mainly indebted to the Anglo-Saxon sense of the word,  and the KU Leuven team has always participated actively in the shaping of the field. We have published various manuals that introduce the international research to a Dutch-speaking public and have published many books and articles in the field, e.g. in cutting-edge journals such as Critical Inquiry and Cultural Studies.
In our new manual, written in collaboration with researchers from the two Amsterdam universities (UvA and VU), cultural studies is defined as follows:

"Cultural studies distinguishes itself from other, traditional forms of cultural analysis for using a very broad concept of culture: culture is not restricted to ‘high' culture such as art, literature and philosophy, nor to cultural phenomena made by certain priviliged groups (the so-called ‘dead white men'). Moreover, cultural studies adopts a strongly committed social viewpoint on the phenomena that are analyzed and it criticizes the alleged neutrality of classic academic research". (cf. Jan Baetens, Joost de Bloois, Anneleen Masschelein & Ginette Verstraete, Culturele Studies: theorie in praktijk, Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2009)

This vision of cultural and cultural analysis determines the major topics of what cultural studies in Leuven is about:
(a)     The interaction between theory and practice
(b)     a broad interpretation of culture (vs culture as art)
(c)     the interest in the social and political stakes of culture
(d)     the emphasis on contemporary culture
(e)     the interdisciplinarity of our objects and methodologies (a combination of traditional artistic readings and insights borrowed from the social sciences)
(f)       the project-based aspect of the work

Master of Cultural Studies

The Institute offers an MA degree in 'cultural studies' corresponding to 60 ECTS points, which can be completed in one year (full-time) or two (part-time).

More information on the study programme and admission requirements can be found here.

For a preliminary list of internships open to English-speaking students click here.

Master's paper

What?

The master's thesis is a written study of a subject relevant to this degree. It has to count at least 45, maximum of 60, pages (excluding attachments). This corresponds to a maximum of 160,000 characters (including spaces and footnotes).

You will of course include a title page, a good bibliography and an obligatory abstract of 2500 characters in Dutch.

Your title page includes the title of your thesis, details of the K.U.Leuven and your thesis advisor, your name, the degree and the year in which you are taking this degree.
On the same page of your abstract, you need to mention the number of characters in the whole of the thesis (excluding attachments).

How?

Your completed work will need to be submitted both on paper (in triplicate) as well as electronically (in pdf format). You will find more information on the electronic version in the relevant course module on  Toledo.

Where?

The electronic version will need to be uploaded in the dropbox feature on Toledo. More information on how to do that can be found there.
The paper versions need to be handed in at the 'Onderwijssecretariaat Letteren'. They also request a separate copy of your title page.

When?

Submission deadlines are to be specified each academic year, but it is always the start of the June exams if you want to graduate in July, or the start of the exams in August if you want to finish your thesis over the summer.

Internship

Within the MA of Cultural Studies, you need to complete an internship.

Option 1 is an internship of 260 hours (counting for 12 credits), where you have to link it to your master's thesis.

Option 2 is a shortened internship of 140 hours, where a link with your master's thesis is not necessary, but you will have to take up one more course as this option only counts for 6 credits.

For both internships, you are free to browse through the offers in our internship database, the 'stagebank', where you can also find English vacancies. Even if the actual offer has expired, the organisations and projects are good examples of what you need to look for. You are free to contact any organisation or company with the request for an internship, as long as it fits within the profile of this degree.

DOCUMENTS

All documents related to the internship can be found here.

Use the first document - the timeline - as your personal guide throughout the internship.

The rest of the necessary documents can be downloaded, printed, and filled in consequently.