Bachelor's Study Programme Cultural History (admission from 2023/2024)

Programme description

Complex and multi-faceted contemporary socio-political and environmental processes (migrations, wars, climate change, populisms, poverty, suppression of the rights of vulnerable groups) require the development of humanities studies that will contribute to a holistic, critical and participatory understanding and development of local, national and transnational communities. In this context, at the University of Nova Gorica, School of Humanities, we redesigned the first-cycle study programmme Cultural History. It will offer future intellectuals the knowledge, competences, skills and research topics that will stimulate opportunities for critical evaluation and reflection on historical experiences and cultural practices in a local-global and intercultural perspective. The study programmme differs from the previous one in that it provides in-depth knowledge of concepts such as culture - multiculturalism, memory, heritage, migration, borders and related processes as well as practices of interpreting the past, which will be discussed in the revised curricula of compulsory subjects. At the same time, we pay more attention to subjects dealing with the development of historiography and the methodology of historical research. New compulsory courses (e.g. Cultural Heritage in Historical Perspective, Introduction to Diaspora Studies: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Memory Studies, Memory Studies) also include knowledge of research approaches of related humanities studies (ethnology, anthropology, sociology). We are also introducing a new subject Group project - skills of project research, writing and presentation, in which future intellectuals will acquire all the knowledge and competences for the preparation, writing and management of projects. Project work is often the first job opportunity for cultural historians.

The new first-cycle study programmme Cultural History thus covers all the content that is necessary for future experts in the field of humanities, so that they will be able to perform work in the field of research, culture, tourism, media and creative activities. Along with acquiring and understanding theoretical knowledge, students will enrich their horizons by solving, managing and presenting concrete and practical project tasks, cultural events and research topics, which are interesting both for understanding themselves, their local environment and the wider regional, national and international space. At the same time, the border area of the Goriška region, at the crossroads of the Slavic, Romanic and Germanic worlds, will offer them many opportunities for research, understanding and evaluation of intercultural contacts and difficult historical and political decisions. These still strongly mark, divide and connect local communities. At the same time, the study programme provides an important support for the Slovenian community living in the neighbouring countries.

The new and redesigned courses in the first-cycle study programmme Cultural History will also enrich the research of the Research Centre for Humanities (RCH), where researchers want more interdisciplinary research in the following areas: intercultural and historical contacts; interactions and exchanges between different social groups with a focus on gender; relations between the periphery and centers; cultural practices between tradition and modern creativity.

Admission requirements

Admission to this program is open to students who:

• have passed the secondary school-leaving exam (matura)
• had completed any secondary school program before June 1, 1995
• have passed the final examination following a suitable vocational secondary school (vocational matura) in the field of: Arts and humanities, Social Sciences, Journalism and Information Sciences, Business and Administration Sciences, Law and an exam in History as part of the general matura exam. If the candi­date passed the subject of History in the vocational matura exam, the candidate must also complete an exam in one of the matura subjects of Geography, Art history or Sociology.

If admission is subject to a quota, candidates with matura will be selected based on the following criteria:

• overall achievement at the matura (60% of points)
• overall achievement in the third and the fourth year of a secondary school (40% of points)

Candidates with vocational matura will be selected based on the following criteria:

• overall achievement at the vocational matura (60% of points)
• overall achievement in the third and the fourth year of a secondary school (30% of points)
• grade achieved in a selected matura subject (10% of points)

According to the transition criteria, candidates who have been awarded at least 46 ECTS points by the Academic Affairs Committee from exams already completed on other first-cycle programmmes in the field, whose content matches the content of the exams on the proposed study programmme, can enroll directly in the 2nd year.

Educational and professional goals

The fundamental goal of the study programme is to educate experts who will be able to take on jobs that require the mastery of cultural and historical knowledge and skills. The most important of them are those related to the protection, interpretation and development of tangible and intangible cultural heritage (archives, museology, documentary, etc.), the preservation and development of the cultural landscape in agrarian and urban environments and the creation of cultural content in the field of tourism, sustainable community development, cultural management, media and other creative professions. At the same time, experts will be equipped with fundamental knowledge in the field of migration, women's history and memory studies.

The goal of education according to the proposed programmme is to form a graduate as a professionally comprehensive personality who is able to understand and master the demanding questions of cultural history. We can expect the graduate to successfully study cultural-historical issues in relation to general and specific phenomena, which are particularly pronounced at the intersection of various cultural, national and transnational spaces. The graduate will be able to establish comprehensive and formative relationships between experts from various scientific disciplines, who must necessarily cooperate in solving practical and research problems. He will also be trained for independent application and project work.

General (generic) competences:

• knowledge of research methodology
• ability and autonomy for independent research work;
• independence in decision-making;
• the ability to recognize scientifically interesting topics from the field of cultural history;
• the ability to connect theory with practical examples from the local environment;
• professional criticism and responsibility in research work, use of historical sources and interpretation of results;
• the ability to engage in scientific work, write and present one's own scientific work;
• creativity;
• innovation in the interpretation and application of knowledge in practice;
• search for new sources of knowledge in the professional and scientific field;
• readiness for continuous (lifelong) improvement.

Subject-specific competences:

• in-depth knowledge of selected historical topics and cultural processes in the context of a broader understanding of events and changes within individual historical periods.
• knowledge of fundamental trends in the scientific study of historical topics and cultural processes;
• knowledge of the methodology of historical research in connection with the methodologies of other sciences and research (ethnology, literary science, art history, migration, etc.).
• knowledge and use of procedures for planning and conducting historical research with critical evaluation of historical sources and definition of key research challenges and dilemmas;
• development of skills for archival, field and theoretical research and creation of scientific text;
• familiarization with basic historical written and oral sources and the ability to use them critically in independent research work.
• the ability to analyze the treatment of historical and cultural phenomena from the point of view of their historical and cultural, as well as wider interpretation in the humanities;
• knowledge of the key problems of modern historical approaches and other professional and scientific discourses in the field of historical and (inter)cultural studies;
• interdisciplinary linking of the study of histories and cultures with related disciplines (ethnology, anthropology, literary science, sociology);
• understanding the situation of minorities, ethnic groups and migrants and their cultural practices and identification processes in a cross-border, ideological, national and transnational perspective;
• the ability to think critically about practices and presentations of cultural and linguistic diversity;
• broad treatment, understanding and placement of historical and cultural topics from local areas in the wider context of the region, the country, the European Union and global power relations in the humanities, with special emphasis on the approaches of historical and cultural studies;
• knowledge of the possibility of developing cultural spaces and practices between tradition and creativity in the context of taking into account historical experiences, mentalities, identification practices and cultural environments;
• understanding of the emotional (affective) relationship to the past, perception of changes and new social currents;
• knowledge of other cultures of small nations in South-Eastern Europe and national minorities in Slovenia;
• getting to know various socio-political and cultural processes and practices (eg women's movement, revolutions, heritisation) in a historical perspective;
• understanding and analytical applicability of the theory for researching cultural-historical phenomena for understanding the concepts of culture, nature, civilization, society, artefact;
• knowledge of the possibility of transferring cultural-historical and other knowledge in the humanities into practice;
• the ability to combine methodological starting points with the skill of interdisciplinary and critical analysis of historical and cultural phenomena and processes, which enables the creation of competent professional and scientific texts.

Subject-specific competences are written down in more detail in the attached lesson plans for individual teaching units, where educational assessments are listed for each subject.

Access to further studies

Graduates can enroll in postgraduate study programmes, in accordance with the recommendations set by the higher education institution, which announces a master's study programme in the fields of history, cultural studies, migration, heritage, ethnology, etc.

Assessment

The forms of testing and evaluating knowledge in individual subjects are as follows: written exams, oral exams, colloquia and seminar papers. Successful completion of assignments from practical work and seminar papers is a prerequisite for taking the exam. Male and female students complete their studies by defending their diploma thesis before a three-member committee.