Department of Cultural Studies

The Faculty of Philosophy of Saint-Petersburg State University can be rightly considered an outstanding research centre where the history and development of world culture are given profound scientific study. The philosophical faculty continues the traditions the Saint-Petersburg School of Historical and Comparative Cultural Studies.

The Department of Theory of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics was founded at the end of the 1980s. Since 1990 it has been known as the Department of Philosophy of Culture, Ethics and Aesthetics. Thus the Faculty was a pioneer in the foundation of cultural studies as a science and educational discipline in Russia. Its collaborators have studied the historical process, investigated the correlation between phenomena of the society’s spiritual life and material forms of existence.

In 1993 within the faculty there was established the Department of Cultural Studies and Philosophical Anthropology. This name expressed the important principle of the unity of human and cultural existence.

A new Department of Cultural Studies was founded in 1997. It allowed the development of a special cultural studies profile within the faculty.

Educational and scientific programmes are divided into two parts: Philosophy of Culture and Theory of Culture. The Philosophy of Culture studies different cultural and historical phenomena in the main philosophical trends and conceptions. The Theory of Culture is a system of historical disciplines, designed to give a historical picture of the human world.

There are about 45 optional courses offered at the Department, including ‘The History of Material Culture’ (relating to the works of architects, engineers, designers and the theoretical problems of applied art), ‘The Philosophy and Theory of Culture’ (comparing philosophical and cultural points-of-view), ‘The Philosophy of Values’ (examining the place of values in culture, the history of value consciousness and the role of values in contemporary human history), ‘Culture and Morale’ (studying the interrelation of culture and morale in history from the point-of-view of morality being the main determinant in cultural and historical processes), ‘Religion in the Context of Culture’ (considering contemporary perspectives of investigation into religion in cultural systems), ‘The History of World Culture’, ‘The History of Spiritual Culture’, ‘The History of Universal Art Culture’, ‘Sociology of Culture’, ‘Philosophy of Culture’, etc.

The training of specialists in cultural studies is also provided by the Department of Philosophy of Oriental Culture.

There are three cultural studies specialisations at the Faculty: Western Cultural Studies, Russian Cultural Studies and Oriental Cultural Studies.

The students gain training in the city’s greatest museums. They attend lectures in various cultural institutions of the city (museums, libraries, archives, and theatres) and learn authentic techniques of creating works of art. They also become acquainted with our ancient seats of culture such as Pskov, Velikiy Novgorod, and others.

Graduates of the Department have the opportunity to hold positions of consultants in a number of institutions of higher education, and a wide range of cultural centres.

Exercises:

I. Comprehension Questions.

1. When and how was the Department founded?

2. What are the parts of the educational and scientific programmes? What do they study?

3. Name some optional courses offered at the Department?

4. What are the three specializations offered at the Faculty?

5. What training can the students gain at the Department?

II. Word Study.

1. Translate into Russian.