Masters Degrees in European Studies, Ireland

This is an interdisciplinary course which provides an overview of European intellectual and cultural history, looking at Europe and its history from a range of disciplinary perspectives. It focuses on constructions and representations of identity, the emergence of the idea of Europe, political symbolism and nationalism, symbolic geographies and so on. The course builds on the inclusive, interdisciplinary approach of Trinity's undergraduate European Studies programme, but with a higher level of intellectual sophistication and breadth.

Course Content

The course consists of a compulsory two-semester module (carrying 20 ECTS credits), a number of optional one-semester modules (two per semester taken, each carrying 10 credits), and a dissertation (worth 30 credits). Each taught course module runs for an 11 week period within the 12-week semester, and meets once a week for a two-hour lecture or seminar. Teaching is spread over 22 weeks from September to the following April.

The compulsory (core) module, 'Europe and its Other(s): Ideas, identities and symbolic geographies in Europe', introduces a number of theoretical approaches to European intellectual, cultural and political history. Four optional single-semester modules are chosen from the lists below; these encourage students to apply and develop these approaches, with a focus both on distinct national or regional cultures and histories on the one hand, and/or specific issues and problems in European history and culture(s) on the other. A student may apply to the Course Committee, through the Course Director, for permission to take a relevant taught course module in another M.Phil. programme offered by the University. Not more than two modules from outside the European Studies M.Phil., and not more than one module from outside the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, will normally be permitted.


Core component: 'Europe and its Other(s): Ideas, identities and symbolic geographies in Europe' (two semesters, 20 credits)

Optional modules

Figurations of European National Identities

Cultures of Memory and Identity in Central Europe

Representations of the Other Europe: Cinema in Communist and Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe

Spain's European Identity

Intellectuals and Commitment


Optional modules available in other SLLCS programmes (subject to availability):

Literature and Exile

Moving between Cultures (second part)

The Aesthetics of Response: Ekphrasis and the Sublime


Optional modules available in graduate programmes in other schools (subject to availability):

Classics and European Identity (Department of Classics)

Government Institutions (Department of Political Science)

Government and Politics of the EU in conjunction with EU Policies (Department of Political Science)

Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Modern Europe (Department of History)

History, Memory and Commemoration (Department of History)

Gender, Identity and Authority in Eighteenth Century France (Department of History)

Assessment

Assessment is by a submitted essay (3500-5000 words) in each course; each optional module will account for 10% of the overall programme mark. Students who meet the requirements and decide that they wish to continue for a research degree will be facilitated in registering in the September when they have submitted their M.Phil. dissertation, thus creating the possibility of moving straight on to the PhD register.

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This course explores the relationship between textual and visual forms of apprehension and expression in the modern world and their impact on European culture post-1900. The focus of the core module is on the graphic arts (poster, postage stamp, typography), photography and cinema, and on contemporary digital-based media. Various theoretical approaches will be explored in relation to the word/image problematic which will be situated in a number of European cultural traditions. Course options focus on specific media (photography, cinema) or themes (the city, avant-gardes).

The aim of the course is to bring students to a high level of theoretical and practical awareness of the text-image relation in cultural expression, equip them to analyse and evaluate the various forms text/image interaction takes, and to provide them with a training that will enrich their practice in other areas of study or professional engagement.

The course consists of one core module stretching over two semesters and four one-semester modules (from a choice of 5 or 6). The first core module focuses on Word/Image relations in graphic design, ranging from posters and postage stamps to typography and logotype. The second core semester focus on word/image relations in photography, cinema and the digital media. The one-term options, two of which are followed each semester, include Text and Photography, Figuring European National Identities, Figurations of the European City, the Russian Avant-Garde and East European Cinema. A dissertation on a subject of the student's choice is prepared over the summer months.

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The MA in German Language and Culture in Europe is a new jointly taught programme by German Studies experts at both Mary Immaculate College and the University of Limerick. The design of the course responds to the demand for plurilingual European citizens and reflects Ireland’s increasing integration into a constantly changing European Union in which Germany represents a crucial economic, political and cultural force. By positioning German culture firmly within an EU and broader European context, the programme explores its relationship with Europe, the cultural dimensions of the European integration process and the inter-relationship of German and neighbouring cultures. Alongside comparative cultural knowledge the programme intends to provide graduates with high-level language competence in order to equip them with both the linguistic and conceptual skills to operate in an increasingly multicultural environment in Ireland and abroad and function effectively as cultural mediators between Ireland and the German-speaking countries. Designed to prepare students for leadership roles in cross-cultural contexts both within Ireland and for the EU, this programme is also attractive to existing and future teachers of German in secondary schools, where a progressive Europeanisation of the curriculum will be one of the features of educational reforms, and to students interested in evolving employment prospects in the tourism sector or multi-national companies.

The programme will enable students to:
• Analyse and interpret German-language culture within a broader European context, including the inter-relationship between Ireland and Germany, Switzerland, Austria
• Handle a wide range of communicative situations in the foreign language and communicate in oral and written German with a high degree of accuracy and confidence
• Function as plurilingual European citizens with both the linguistic and conceptual skills to operate in a future increasingly multi-cultural environment in Ireland and abroad and function effectively as cultural mediators between Ireland and the German-speaking countries
• Fulfil leadership roles in cross-cultural contexts
• Conceptualise larger research projects (e.g. in preparation for further study towards a PhD degree) and participate in a broader intellectual community of postgraduate research and learning.

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