Topics for Composition and Discussion

• The difference between anthropology, cultural studies and culturology.

• The importance of studying culture.

• Cultural studies: a profession or a vocation (покликання)?

Text c. Getting a Degree in Culturology (Cultural Studies)

Established on September 10, 1929, the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture is one of the leading institution of higher education in Ukraine in the fields of cultural studies, arts and social communications. It offers degree programmes to students at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels. (An undergraduate is a student who has not yet taken his or her Bachelor degree; graduate students work for their Master’s degree; postgraduates are expected to write their PhD thesis. The PhD, or doctoral, degree is practically equivalent to the Ukrainian “кандидат наук”).

The process of education in the Academy is aimed at the formation of a creative attitude to the chosen major, to the development of practical skills which help graduates (тут: випускники) solve their professional problems in the most effective way. The main aim of teaching is to develop in future specialists the systemic approach to the solution of complex technical and social situations, strategic thinking, social and professional mobility, life-long striving for self-education and self-improvement.

Administratively, the Academy has 7 faculties (including the Faculty of Cultural Studies), 23 departments (кафедри), doctoral courses (leading to the Kandydat or Doctor degrees), an Internet-centre, a training TV centre, an audio recording studio, a library, several laboratories, student theatres. The teaching staff is represented by prominent scientists, artists; 70% of the staff are Candidates and Doctors of Sciences, Associate and Full Professors.

If you graduate from the Faculty of Cultural Studies you can work as teachers of general and specialized culturological disciplines, researchers in the field of culture, journalists, reviewers, experts, analysts, consultants on the issues of culture, as managers of creative and information work in cultural centres, travel and advertising agencies.

You can get your PhD degree in cultural studies at George Mason University. Based in Fairfax, Virginia, it is a dynamic, forward-looking institution that prepares students for a wide variety of professional careers. Cultural studies is a scholarly field that tries to understand and transform cultural practices. Some students with degrees in cultural studies will go on to academic work: in disciplines like English, History, Anthropology, or Sociology, and in interdisciplinary fields like Film and Media Studies or Gender Studies. Many graduates (тут: випускники) will do practical work: some with cultural institutions of various kinds, such as museums; others in advocacy groups, service groups, or non-government organizations.

Exercise 15.

Read Text C and answer the following questions:

• Did you know anything about the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture before applying (подавати заяву) to it?

• Why did you decide to take Culturology as your major?

• Where can graduates with degrees in cultural studies work?