Both the increasingly globalized job market and the continuous advancement of academia require graduates from research-focused master programmes with competencies in more than one culture and language. By guiding students towards independent, competitive research projects and by teaching exclusively in English, students’ intercultural competencies (esp. in terms of Anglophone Popular Culture) as well as their problem-solving skills are advanced and strengthened. Since organised thinking and theoretically informed approaches to complex problems  are necessary for both areas, the MA programme prepares students for a career in the academia as well as the job market beyond the university.

In our highly medialized and globalized world, we are inevitably and constantly confronted by and interact with a variety of popular culture texts, both privately (on the couch watching TV, surfing YouTube, consuming memes on the internet, reading popular fiction or playing video games) and in a professional capacity like, for instance, in web-based jobs (((Web)-Editor, Writer Pop Culture Magazine (Web, Print, Video), Platform Manager, Brand- / Publicity Coordinator, Content Curator, Content Communication Strategist, Media Analyst/Strategist, Media Coordinator and so forth) or in the context of marketing positions such as influencer marketing or campaign creator. At the same time, cultural discourses and cultural developments inevitably manifest in popular culture. The MA programme „Anglophone Popular Culture“ accounts for this reciprocity between social, economic and cultural phenomena and processes by sounding out the cultural critical potential of popular culture productions on the basis of a solid foundation in the theory of popular culture. Students become proficient in recognizing and analysing discursive processes in Anglophone culture through a variety of media and genres. Students can apply their knowledge to cultural criticism and diagnosis as well as productively and creatively in jobs in the media sector.

The introductory phase of the programme focuses on the theoretical foundation. Next, the study of various genre and media of Anglophone Popular Culture becomes central. Although an excellent command of English is a prerequisite at the start of the programme, the practical courses continue to develop language proficiency in English. All lectures and courses are taught exclusively in English.   

The following module are part of the MA programme:

Module I: Approaching Anglophone Popular Culture Studies

• Foundation in popular cultural theory and methodology.
• Exemplary survey of the application of a variety of approaches.

Module II: Focus on Genre and Media

• Familiarization with genres and media of Anglophone Popular Culture.
• Seminars specializing on specific genres and/or media forms of popular culture.
• Choice between in-depth investigation into one genre/media form OR diversify with analyses of different genre/media forms.

Module III: Cultural Criticism and Popular Culture

• Reading Anglophone Popular Culture as cultural diagnosis.
• Seminars investigating concrete links between Anglophone popular culture and broader cultural discourses such as politics, race, identity, gender,  globalization …

Module IV: Critical Perspectives in/on Anglophone Popular Culture

• Developing perspectives and an individual research focus in Anglophone Popular Culture.    
• Conduct an independent research project based in individual preferences in Anglophone Popular Culture.
• The project is conducted as guided research under the supervision of one of the lecturers in the MA programme.

Module V: Media Matters

• Master and professionalize media competence in and about Anglophone Popular Culture.        
• Practical courses teach the production, reception and evaluation of central text forms in Anglophone Popular Culture, such as reviews, commentaries, editorials, video-blogs, interviews and so on.
• Practical courses engage with professional approaches to the media of popular culture such as X, Instagram, TikTok …

The MA programme “Anglophone Popular Culture” can be combined with all other subject within the 2-subject Master programme (https://www.uni-due.de/humanities/courses.php). In addition, the MA “Anglophone Popular Culture” can also be combined with the options within the MA programme “Anglophone Studies” (“American Studies”, “British and Postcolonial Studies”, “English Linguistics”), effectively creating an exclusively English-speaking master programme.