Program Overview

Introduction to the Languages, Literatures and Cultures Program

The Languages, Literatures and Cultures program at the University of Calgary promotes intercultural communication within the global community. The program seeks to promote critical skills that will allow students to understand language and culture, in and beyond the academic context.

Key Features of the Program

• Core curriculum across language areas
• Broad opportunities for interdisciplinary research
• Proficiency in target language plus additional language
• Professionalization workshops
• Training in second language acquisition
• Training for academic and non-academic jobs

Specializations Available

The program offers five specializations:

French

The French graduate program provides a broad set of advanced research and communication skills. Students can gain specialized knowledge in the following areas:

• French Literatures (XVII to XX)
• Postcolonial Literatures
• Quebecois and Franco-Canadian Literatures
• Comparative Literature
• Travel Writing
• Gender studies
• Film
• Theatre
• Visual Arts
• French Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics and Second-Language Teaching Students will write their theses and dissertations in French.

German

German is studied most productively with interdisciplinary, international, or intercultural goals in mind. Students can gain specialized knowledge in the following areas:

• German intellectual history
• German literature
• German and Central European film
• Antisemitism
• The Holocaust
• The GDR
• 18th- and 19th-century European literature
• The acquisition of German as a second language
• German phonetics and phonology Research in German can be conducted in conjunction with Education, English, Film, Fine Arts, French, History, Linguistics, Music, Philosophy, and Spanish.

Spanish

The Spanish program embraces a vast range of subjects and theoretical approaches, with a strong interdisciplinary focus. Students can research:

• Cinemas of the Hispanic world
• Musical expressions in Hispanic cultures
• Language heritage and identity
• Exile literature
• Sephardic and gender studies
• Performance studies
• Textual criticism Students can deepen their knowledge, increase their intercultural competencies, and prepare for careers in academia and many other fields.

Transcultural Studies

The specialization in Transcultural Studies investigates the complexity and interaction of modern cultures represented in the linguistic and geographical areas studied by faculty in the Linguistics, Languages and Cultures, as well as French, Italian, and Spanish programs. Projects and courses in this specialization may address cultural works from the geographic areas where Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish are spoken.

Applied Linguistics

The Applied Linguistics specialization incorporates projects that may or may not be connected to one language only, focusing on language acquisition, language learning and teaching, and sociolinguistics. Students can undertake experimental studies in any of these areas and in any of the languages taught in the School.

MA and PhD Programs

The program offers a course of studies that invites cross-cultural and linguistic initiatives. Students can develop skills and deepen their investigation into an interest area of their choice. They can study texts and visual media from French, Spanish, and German-language communities in an international context, perform comparative research across these or other cultural traditions represented in the school, or pursue applied linguistics research in any of these languages.

Admission Requirements

All applicants must meet the minimum entrance requirements set by the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Specific program admission requirements can be found at the individual program pages.

Program Structure

The program offers the following structures:

• MA – Course-based
• MA – Thesis-based
• PhD

Funding and Support

The program provides funding to all students admitted to the thesis-based MA and the PhD. MA students may expect financial support during the first 20 months of their program, while PhD students may expect financial support for the first 44 months of their program. Funding levels depend on students making reasonable progress toward completion of their degree.