Connect humanities; reimagine research

Humanities Research

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Knowledge for society: from COVID-19 to climate change

The programme is designed to equip the next generation of humanities researchers with the tools to design innovative, imaginative research across disciplines. In close collaboration with highly acclaimed research groups, you’ll develop techniques to connect your research with current societal challenges, and to communicate the results to a broad audience. You’ll benefit from the extensive network our teams have built up with heritage institutions, research institutes, NGOs and business partners, for internships and embedded research projects.

Five tracks

Students in the Humanities (Research) Master specialise in one of five tracks: Critical Studies in Art and Culture; Environmental Humanities; Global History; Linguistics; or Philosophy. You will follow courses belonging to these tracks. On top of this, you will follow broad interdisciplinary courses on methodology and research practice. During the intensive curriculum you will get to know the theories, methods and techniques of your field, develop your research skills and your talent to pose innovative questions, and select research themes.

Original research thesis

The final goal of the degree is to produce an original research thesis (usually in English), which can become a solid base for an article that could be published in a respected scientific journal. As a part of preparing you for a career in academia, you will also be trained in formulating research questions in English, and in presenting and defending your own research.

Students in the Humanities (Research) Master have studied the language of sexual predators (Forensic Linguistics); or the link between empathy and the first-person perspective in movies, virtual reality, paintings and photography (Critical Studies in Art and Culture); or the history of forced labour and slavery in cooperation with researchers at the International Institute for Social History; or how people tell stories about the environment in nonfictional texts (Literature and Contested Spaces).

A Philosophy student spent a semester in the US; one Literature student was an intern at the China Cultural Centre in The Hague, and another one was an intern for the Winternachten Literary Festival. Students from different tracks have collaborated across faculties and with citizens in Amsterdam to solve neighbourhood issues in a Community Service Project.

Whichever track you choose, you’ll hone your critical-thinking and analytical skills, learn the tools of the trade, and have ample opportunity to explore your future career inside and outside academia, whether you want to become a researcher or an entrepreneur.

The start date of this programme is September 1^st.

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1st year

Which specialization do you choose?

Find out what the different possibilities are within the master's programme.

Critical Studies in Art and Culture
Environmental Humanities
Global History
Literature and Contested Spaces
Linguistics
Philosophy

Summary

Make the connection between visual art, architecture, design and media

The Critical Studies in Art and Culture track focuses on current developments within four main disciplines – visual arts, architecture, design and media – from both a theoretical and a historical perspective. In a globalised cultural world in which art, architecture, design and media are ever more closely integrated and packaged as ‘creative industries’, disciplinary boundaries are called into question and challenged. But a thorough grounding in older and newer disciplines such as art history, architectural history, design culture and media studies is a prerequisite for asking these questions.
In your study programme, you’ll focus on the analysis of visual objects: artefacts in various media that function (primarily or in part) as images. This ranges from landscapes, cities and buildings to artworks in various media, as well as film, television, design and games. Notions such as inter-, cross- and transmediality play an important role. Since artefacts, media and forms of intermediality can only exist in specific social, institutional, economical and ideological contexts and networks, Critical Studies in Art and Culture will equip you with the analytical and critical tools necessary for analysing these. Each of the four main disciplines bring specific theories and methods to the table, and the programme seeks to highlight their interconnectedness, with reference to their specific potential as well as their possible limitations.

As a student of Critical Studies in Art and Culture, you’ll be joining a highly dedicated international group of students, alumni, PhD candidates and staff members from various disciplinary backgrounds, who share a strong interest in the cultural sector. Within and beyond the programme, you’ll meet artists and researchers from around the world, exchange ideas about their research during our informal brunches, and visit exhibitions and cultural events. Many of our students and alumni are active with the VU Amsterdam affiliated journal Kunstlicht. Furthermore, both the Graduate School and our Interdisciplinary Research Institutes CLUE+ (Research Institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage) and the Network Institute offer a broad range of workshops, seminars, lectures and research groups to attend.

Courses

Research Master Thesis Humanities, Critical Studies in Art and Culture
CAMS: Key Concepts
Critical Studies Tutorial 2: Research Paper
Methods of Design Analysis: The Meanings of Design
Seminar Contemporary Art
Seminar: Architecture and the Designed Environment
Entrepreneurship in Biomedical Physics and Technology
Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
Humanities Research Career Preparation
Methodologies
Core Module Imagining the Image
Digital Humanities
Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities
Critical Studies Tutorial 1: Literature Review

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Summary

This interdisciplinary research master track focuses on the entanglements of nature and culture. In our international and interdisciplinary classroom, we interrelate perspectives from within and outside the Humanities to understand and responsibly inhabit the more-than-human world.

The Environmental Humanities track is open to talented students from the Humanities as well as from related fields, who are looking for ways to analyse ecological questions in their full historical and cultural complexity.

The Humanities are vital

If questions of climate change, species extinction, pollution, or the exploitation of natural resources have in the past mainly been analysed from the perspective of the Natural Sciences, it is becoming more and more clear that humans and their cultural, economic and political systems play a major role in these issues. The Humanities are therefore vital in making sense of these complex problems.

In our courses, you study historical human-nature relations, explore how literature and art shape our perceptions of relations to non-human others, help us to imagine other futures and learn to read the biography of a landscape. You analyse the intersections of pressing ecological problems with issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class, and engage with theories such as critical theory, environmental ethics, queer ecology, sustainable development, new materialism, and more. In our core courses, we bring these humanities approaches into contact with perspectives from the Natural and Social Sciences, and engage with the views of artists and activists, to shape a transdisciplinary approach.

Complexity

The RMA specialisation aims to train a generation of students aware of the value of the humanities in addressing pressing environmental concerns. You acquire a deeper understanding of the complexity of terms driving current policy and practice, such as 'sustainability' or the opposition between 'nature' and 'culture.' In combining ‘traditional’ humanities skills (such as close reading, archival research, and hermeneutic reasoning) from various disciplines and backgrounds and exploring new forms of situated and collaborative knowledge production, you train to be an environmental humanities scholar who can think across disciplinary borders and beyond the boundaries of the campus.

First of its kind

The Environmental Humanities track is the first of its kind in The Netherlands, and draws on the wealth of research experience gathered in the Environmental Humanities Center (CLUE+), founded at VU Amsterdam in 2016. As a research master student, you will be able to participate in the Center's activities, and to be engaged with cutting-edge research in the Environmental Humanities at our Faculty.

Environmental Humanities courses

First year

In your first year, you develop a thorough grounding in the field of the Environmental Humanities. The first two core courses in this year help you to understand key concepts in the field and to develop your methodological toolbox for your own research projects. Electives and National Research School courses offer you the possibility to specialize in specific aspects of the Environmental Humanities.

In the final core course of your first year you approach a specific problem from a transdisciplinary perspective across the Humanities (both across Faculties and outside academia).

The curriculum inspires you to enlarge your own role in establishing transdisciplinary collaboration and synergy as the curriculum progresses and you start to occupy the role of interdisciplinary researcher.

Second year

In your second year, in the final core course of the program you can further hone your skills to conduct transdisciplinary, problem-based research in the field.

In a tutorial, internship, or an exchange with a university abroad, you specialize in the topics and approaches that feed into your final research project: the RMA thesis, which you write under the individual supervision of one of our lecturers.

Students specializing in the Environmental Humanities in our Research Master have conducted their individual thesis research on topics as wide-ranging as the role of literary devices in climate non-fiction; multispecies studies and the temporalities of the Anthropocene; traces of colonial and capitalist ecological extraction in Victorian Literature; the posthumanist body in contemporary art, art and oil in the time of hyperobjects.

The courses in Career Preparation as well as the possibility of doing an internship, help you to navigate possible career paths to follow after you graduate.

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Summary

Connect events, sites, bodies and stories across continents and ages

In the Global History track, you will learn to investigate the dynamics and long-term developments of the global flows of goods, ideas and people. You will also study the role of power, of religion and affects, and of human attitudes to nature in global connections.. In research-intensive courses, you’ll collaborate with renowned researchers and research groups in the fields of migration studies, history of capitalism, knowledge and religion, material culture and heritage, emotions and senses, and environmental and climate history. The programme has an interdisciplinary perspective that includes concepts and methodologies from the social, political and environmental sciences and from cultural and religious studies.. It also offers the opportunity to develop skills in digital analysis and reflect on the possibilities of emerging digital humanities techniques and e-humanities approaches.

In a globalised and highly digital world, long-term perspectives are needed to analyse the complex phenomena of our time: perspectives sensitive to deep-rooted mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. Disciplinary boundaries need to be questioned and challenged, and new methods explored. In order to rise to these challenges, we need researchers who are trained in finding and interpreting compelling source material, in critical reflection, and in detailed reporting. The Global History track gives you these skills and more. You will develop a critical attitude and learn to arrive at original lines of questioning based on profound knowledge of your research subject. You will develop your own, unique, expert knowledge, enabling you to start a successful research career.

You are encouraged to make use of the staff’s intensive networks with heritage and research institutions at the VU (Stevin Center, Environmental Humanities Center Amsterdam and the HDC Centre for Religious History) and outside the VU (International Institute for Social History, Huygens Institute for Dutch and Global history, and national museums and archives), governmental organisations and NGOs (e.g. UNESCO) and business partners (banks, creative industries), to set up embedded research projects that could act as a stepping stone for the next move in your career. The Global History track offers a dynamic international context where international and Dutch students exchange views, experiences and historical research questions. Taking part in exchange programmes with universities abroad for up to three months are encouraged, with financial support from the Graduate School of Humanities.

Courses

From Source to Public: The Historian's Flowchart
Key Works in Contemporary Historical Thought
Global History Tutorials
Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
Core Course RMA National Historiographies and Contested Heritage
History and Theory
Humanities Research Career Preparation
Methodologies
Digital Humanities OR Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Summary

Discover how literary texts represent and shape spaces

Novels, poems and plays shape our perceptions and affect our lived experience of spaces like nation, wilderness or the body. These spaces are contested in our current context, and have been for centuries. If you choose the Literature and Contested Spaces track, you’ll examine the roles that literary texts play in the representation and shaping of contested spaces. In your seminars, tutorials and individual research projects, you’ll explore how literary texts have played a role in forming our experience of such spaces. During your study programme, you’ll pursue the ways in which literary representations interact with real or imagined spaces, geographies and ecosystems. You’ll focus on literature and three kinds of contested space: the (trans)national, the environment and the body.

The track is ideal for students who are keen to hone their critical thinking and research skills in this area; you’ll get the chance to pursue your research interests under the guidance of specialists in the field. Plus, the track’s involvement in environmental humanities makes it unique in the Netherlands.

This track will not accept new admissions for 2023-2024. You might also be interested in our new track Environmental Humanities.

Courses

Research Master Thesis Humanities, Literature and Contested Spaces
Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
Core Course Contesting Spaces
Core Course General Linguistics
Research Master Seminar Sound Heritage
Core Module Critical Issues in the Cultural Industries
The Diasporic Experience
Theories of Storytelling

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Summary

Make sense of thought and reality through language

Are you looking for excellent expertise in linguistics, coupled with a challenging specialisation in newly developing research fields that are fundamentally relevant to today’s society? The Linguistics track trains you as a professional linguistic researcher, specialised in either Human Language Technology or Forensic Linguistics.

1. Human Language Technology

Human Language Technology is a young and rapidly evolving research field that holds a unique position between linguistics and computer science. Nowadays, a firm background in language technology and the ability to process large data sets are extremely valuable tools in linguistic research. As a student of this track, you’ll get acquainted with the essential large computational linguistic resources, learn programming in Python for linguistics, and develop skills in Natural Language Programming (NLP) and machine learning. Through this intensive research programme, you’ll become a true professional in human language technology.

The track is offered by the Computational Linguistics and Text Mining Lab, an internationally acclaimed research group in computational linguistics.

2. Forensic Linguistics

Forensic Linguistics is a new and exciting field, which has both a narrow and a broad definition. In its more specific sense, it’s about the use of linguistic evidence in the courtroom. In its broader sense, it refers to all areas of overlap between language and the law, including the language used in legal or quasi-legal settings by judges, lawyers, witnesses, police officers, interpreters and others. As a graduate of this track, you’ll have the theoretical background and practical casework experience to be able to analyse disputed texts, recognise a 'language crime' such as bribery or threatening communication, and identify participants in the police station or courtroom who are at a linguistic disadvantage, and therefore vulnerable to miscarriages of justice.

Take a look at the complete study programme in our Study Guide.

Courses

Research Master Thesis Humanities, Linguistics
Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
Humanities Research Career Preparation
Methodologies
Digital Humanities

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Summary

Explore human knowledge and morality

Are you looking for in-depth discussions of current issues in epistemology and moral and political philosophy, as well as their historical roots? Do you want to hone your research skills for a possible future PhD? Are you ready to apply historically informed analysis of the foundations of knowledge and morality to topical issues like the nature of fake news and conspiracy theories, climate scepticism, the relationship between freedom and equality, individual responsibility for collective outcomes, and the morality of markets?

The Philosophy track prepares you for a career as a researcher in philosophy. It focuses on central questions concerning human knowledge and morality, and allows you to specialise in different areas. Key features of the programme include the combination of historical and contemporary perspectives; the programme’s connection to the department’s internationally renowned research projects; a strong focus on research skills and preparation for an academic career; an international opportunity to spend a semester abroad; and the fact that the programme is embedded in a humanities research and education environment.

Courses

Research Master Thesis Humanities, Philosophy
Core Course: Knowledge in a Social World
Foundational Texts: Ancient B
Core Course: Moral Philosophy
Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
Research Projects 1A: Epistemology and Cognitive Science
Humanities Research Career Preparation
Foundational Texts: Modern B
Methodologies
Research Projects 2A: Moral and Political Philosophy
Digital Humanities
Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities

You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

Critical Studies in Art and Culture
Summary

Make the connection between visual art, architecture, design and media
The Critical Studies in Art and Culture track focuses on current developments within four main disciplines – visual arts, architecture, design and media – from both a theoretical and a historical perspective. In a globalised cultural world in which art, architecture, design and media are ever more closely integrated and packaged as ‘creative industries’, disciplinary boundaries are called into question and challenged. But a thorough grounding in older and newer disciplines such as art history, architectural history, design culture and media studies is a prerequisite for asking these questions.
In your study programme, you’ll focus on the analysis of visual objects: artefacts in various media that function (primarily or in part) as images. This ranges from landscapes, cities and buildings to artworks in various media, as well as film, television, design and games. Notions such as inter-, cross- and transmediality play an important role. Since artefacts, media and forms of intermediality can only exist in specific social, institutional, economical and ideological contexts and networks, Critical Studies in Art and Culture will equip you with the analytical and critical tools necessary for analysing these. Each of the four main disciplines bring specific theories and methods to the table, and the programme seeks to highlight their interconnectedness, with reference to their specific potential as well as their possible limitations.
As a student of Critical Studies in Art and Culture, you’ll be joining a highly dedicated international group of students, alumni, PhD candidates and staff members from various disciplinary backgrounds, who share a strong interest in the cultural sector. Within and beyond the programme, you’ll meet artists and researchers from around the world, exchange ideas about their research during our informal brunches, and visit exhibitions and cultural events. Many of our students and alumni are active with the VU Amsterdam affiliated journal Kunstlicht. Furthermore, both the Graduate School and our Interdisciplinary Research Institutes CLUE+ (Research Institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage) and the Network Institute offer a broad range of workshops, seminars, lectures and research groups to attend.
Courses
- Research Master Thesis Humanities, Critical Studies in Art and Culture
- CAMS: Key Concepts
- Critical Studies Tutorial 2: Research Paper
- Methods of Design Analysis: The Meanings of Design
- Seminar Contemporary Art
- Seminar: Architecture and the Designed Environment
- Entrepreneurship in Biomedical Physics and Technology
- Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
- Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
- Humanities Research Career Preparation
- Methodologies
- Core Module Imagining the Image
- Digital Humanities
- Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities
- Critical Studies Tutorial 1: Literature Review
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.
Environmental Humanities

Summary

This interdisciplinary research master track focuses on the entanglements of nature and culture. In our international and interdisciplinary classroom, we interrelate perspectives from within and outside the Humanities to understand and responsibly inhabit the more-than-human world.
The Environmental Humanities track is open to talented students from the Humanities as well as from related fields, who are looking for ways to analyse ecological questions in their full historical and cultural complexity.
The Humanities are vital
If questions of climate change, species extinction, pollution, or the exploitation of natural resources have in the past mainly been analysed from the perspective of the Natural Sciences, it is becoming more and more clear that humans and their cultural, economic and political systems play a major role in these issues. The Humanities are therefore vital in making sense of these complex problems.
In our courses, you study historical human-nature relations, explore how literature and art shape our perceptions of relations to non-human others, help us to imagine other futures and learn to read the biography of a landscape. You analyse the intersections of pressing ecological problems with issues of gender, sexuality, race, and class, and engage with theories such as critical theory, environmental ethics, queer ecology, sustainable development, new materialism, and more. In our core courses, we bring these humanities approaches into contact with perspectives from the Natural and Social Sciences, and engage with the views of artists and activists, to shape a transdisciplinary approach.
Complexity
The RMA specialisation aims to train a generation of students aware of the value of the humanities in addressing pressing environmental concerns. You acquire a deeper understanding of the complexity of terms driving current policy and practice, such as 'sustainability' or the opposition between 'nature' and 'culture.' In combining ‘traditional’ humanities skills (such as close reading, archival research, and hermeneutic reasoning) from various disciplines and backgrounds and exploring new forms of situated and collaborative knowledge production, you train to be an environmental humanities scholar who can think across disciplinary borders and beyond the boundaries of the campus.
First of its kind
The Environmental Humanities track is the first of its kind in The Netherlands, and draws on the wealth of research experience gathered in the Environmental Humanities Center (CLUE+), founded at VU Amsterdam in 2016. As a research master student, you will be able to participate in the Center's activities, and to be engaged with cutting-edge research in the Environmental Humanities at our Faculty.

Environmental Humanities courses

First year
In your first year, you develop a thorough grounding in the field of the Environmental Humanities. The first two core courses in this year help you to understand key concepts in the field and to develop your methodological toolbox for your own research projects. Electives and National Research School courses offer you the possibility to specialize in specific aspects of the Environmental Humanities.
In the final core course of your first year you approach a specific problem from a transdisciplinary perspective across the Humanities (both across Faculties and outside academia).
The curriculum inspires you to enlarge your own role in establishing transdisciplinary collaboration and synergy as the curriculum progresses and you start to occupy the role of interdisciplinary researcher.
Second year
In your second year, in the final core course of the program you can further hone your skills to conduct transdisciplinary, problem-based research in the field.
In a tutorial, internship, or an exchange with a university abroad, you specialize in the topics and approaches that feed into your final research project: the RMA thesis, which you write under the individual supervision of one of our lecturers.
Students specializing in the Environmental Humanities in our Research Master have conducted their individual thesis research on topics as wide-ranging as the role of literary devices in climate non-fiction; multispecies studies and the temporalities of the Anthropocene; traces of colonial and capitalist ecological extraction in Victorian Literature; the posthumanist body in contemporary art, art and oil in the time of hyperobjects.
The courses in Career Preparation as well as the possibility of doing an internship, help you to navigate possible career paths to follow after you graduate.
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.
Global History
Summary

Connect events, sites, bodies and stories across continents and ages
In the Global History track, you will learn to investigate the dynamics and long-term developments of the global flows of goods, ideas and people. You will also study the role of power, of religion and affects, and of human attitudes to nature in global connections.. In research-intensive courses, you’ll collaborate with renowned researchers and research groups in the fields of migration studies, history of capitalism, knowledge and religion, material culture and heritage, emotions and senses, and environmental and climate history. The programme has an interdisciplinary perspective that includes concepts and methodologies from the social, political and environmental sciences and from cultural and religious studies.. It also offers the opportunity to develop skills in digital analysis and reflect on the possibilities of emerging digital humanities techniques and e-humanities approaches.
In a globalised and highly digital world, long-term perspectives are needed to analyse the complex phenomena of our time: perspectives sensitive to deep-rooted mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. Disciplinary boundaries need to be questioned and challenged, and new methods explored. In order to rise to these challenges, we need researchers who are trained in finding and interpreting compelling source material, in critical reflection, and in detailed reporting. The Global History track gives you these skills and more. You will develop a critical attitude and learn to arrive at original lines of questioning based on profound knowledge of your research subject. You will develop your own, unique, expert knowledge, enabling you to start a successful research career.
You are encouraged to make use of the staff’s intensive networks with heritage and research institutions at the VU (Stevin Center, Environmental Humanities Center Amsterdam and the HDC Centre for Religious History) and outside the VU (International Institute for Social History, Huygens Institute for Dutch and Global history, and national museums and archives), governmental organisations and NGOs (e.g. UNESCO) and business partners (banks, creative industries), to set up embedded research projects that could act as a stepping stone for the next move in your career. The Global History track offers a dynamic international context where international and Dutch students exchange views, experiences and historical research questions. Taking part in exchange programmes with universities abroad for up to three months are encouraged, with financial support from the Graduate School of Humanities.
Courses
- From Source to Public: The Historian's Flowchart
- Key Works in Contemporary Historical Thought
- Global History Tutorials
- Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
- Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
- Core Course RMA National Historiographies and Contested Heritage
- History and Theory
- Humanities Research Career Preparation
- Methodologies
- Digital Humanities OR Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.
Literature and Contested Spaces
Summary

Discover how literary texts represent and shape spaces
Novels, poems and plays shape our perceptions and affect our lived experience of spaces like nation, wilderness or the body. These spaces are contested in our current context, and have been for centuries. If you choose the Literature and Contested Spaces track, you’ll examine the roles that literary texts play in the representation and shaping of contested spaces. In your seminars, tutorials and individual research projects, you’ll explore how literary texts have played a role in forming our experience of such spaces. During your study programme, you’ll pursue the ways in which literary representations interact with real or imagined spaces, geographies and ecosystems. You’ll focus on literature and three kinds of contested space: the (trans)national, the environment and the body.
The track is ideal for students who are keen to hone their critical thinking and research skills in this area; you’ll get the chance to pursue your research interests under the guidance of specialists in the field. Plus, the track’s involvement in environmental humanities makes it unique in the Netherlands.
This track will not accept new admissions for 2023-2024. You might also be interested in our new track Environmental Humanities.
Courses
- Research Master Thesis Humanities, Literature and Contested Spaces
- Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
- Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
- Core Course Contesting Spaces
- Core Course General Linguistics
- Research Master Seminar Sound Heritage
- Core Module Critical Issues in the Cultural Industries
- The Diasporic Experience
- Theories of Storytelling
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.
Linguistics
Summary

Make sense of thought and reality through language
Are you looking for excellent expertise in linguistics, coupled with a challenging specialisation in newly developing research fields that are fundamentally relevant to today’s society? The Linguistics track trains you as a professional linguistic researcher, specialised in either Human Language Technology or Forensic Linguistics.
1. Human Language Technology
Human Language Technology is a young and rapidly evolving research field that holds a unique position between linguistics and computer science. Nowadays, a firm background in language technology and the ability to process large data sets are extremely valuable tools in linguistic research. As a student of this track, you’ll get acquainted with the essential large computational linguistic resources, learn programming in Python for linguistics, and develop skills in Natural Language Programming (NLP) and machine learning. Through this intensive research programme, you’ll become a true professional in human language technology.
The track is offered by the Computational Linguistics and Text Mining Lab, an internationally acclaimed research group in computational linguistics.
2. Forensic Linguistics
Forensic Linguistics is a new and exciting field, which has both a narrow and a broad definition. In its more specific sense, it’s about the use of linguistic evidence in the courtroom. In its broader sense, it refers to all areas of overlap between language and the law, including the language used in legal or quasi-legal settings by judges, lawyers, witnesses, police officers, interpreters and others. As a graduate of this track, you’ll have the theoretical background and practical casework experience to be able to analyse disputed texts, recognise a 'language crime' such as bribery or threatening communication, and identify participants in the police station or courtroom who are at a linguistic disadvantage, and therefore vulnerable to miscarriages of justice.
Take a look at the complete study programme in our Study Guide.
Courses
- Research Master Thesis Humanities, Linguistics
- Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
- Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
- Humanities Research Career Preparation
- Methodologies
- Digital Humanities
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.
Philosophy
Summary

Explore human knowledge and morality
Are you looking for in-depth discussions of current issues in epistemology and moral and political philosophy, as well as their historical roots? Do you want to hone your research skills for a possible future PhD? Are you ready to apply historically informed analysis of the foundations of knowledge and morality to topical issues like the nature of fake news and conspiracy theories, climate scepticism, the relationship between freedom and equality, individual responsibility for collective outcomes, and the morality of markets?
The Philosophy track prepares you for a career as a researcher in philosophy. It focuses on central questions concerning human knowledge and morality, and allows you to specialise in different areas. Key features of the programme include the combination of historical and contemporary perspectives; the programme’s connection to the department’s internationally renowned research projects; a strong focus on research skills and preparation for an academic career; an international opportunity to spend a semester abroad; and the fact that the programme is embedded in a humanities research and education environment.
Courses
- Research Master Thesis Humanities, Philosophy
- Core Course: Knowledge in a Social World
- Foundational Texts: Ancient B
- Core Course: Moral Philosophy
- Humanities Career Preparation i-CSL
- Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning: Defining Challenges In a Multi-Stakeholder Context
- Research Projects 1A: Epistemology and Cognitive Science
- Humanities Research Career Preparation
- Foundational Texts: Modern B
- Methodologies
- Research Projects 2A: Moral and Political Philosophy
- Digital Humanities
- Philosophical and Historical Aspects of the Humanities
You will find the study programme in our studyguide.

On completing this Master’s programme, you’ll have strong expertise in your own discipline, as well as the ability to collaborate with other experts outside the university in an international context. You’ll have all the skills needed to work as a researcher inside and outside academia – making you a great candidate for a PhD position or a job in the industry.

Digital Humanities prepares you for a (research) career in the fast-growing area of digital humanities, or for a position in science journalism, data analytics, digital collection management and so on. Environmental Humanities equips you for a career in one of the most important areas of our age: environmental research.

Explore your future prospects

Two men sit in a gigantic black spider web (sculpture by Tomas Saraceno)

Humanities Research

First year

Second year

Connect events, sites, bodies and stories across continents and ages

Critical Studies in Art and Culture

Environmental Humanities

First year

Second year

Global History

Connect events, sites, bodies and stories across continents and ages

Literature and Contested Spaces

Linguistics

Philosophy

Year 1

Year 2

Questions about the Critical Studies in Art and Culture specialization?

Interdisciplinarity and problem-based curriculum

Career perspectives

Additional admission requirements

Year 1

Year 2

Questions about the Global History specialization?

Year 1

Year 2

Extracurricular activities

Questions about the Literature and Contested Spaces specialization?

Human Language Technology

Forensic Linguistics

Career options for the different tracks

Questions about the Linguistics specialization ?

Year 1

Year 2

Questions about the Philosophy specialization?

Change your future with the Humanities Research programme

Change your future with the Humanities Research programme

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