Interim Head of Department: Univ.-Prof. Mag. phil. Eva Maria Stadler
Cross-Disciplinary Strategies (CDS) takes up key issues in education and the arts, as well as the challenge of participating
in and helping to shape society in the early 21st century. Established in 2017 at the Institute for Art and Society, the English
language programme offers Bachelor's and Master's education.
The programme aims to prepare graduates
for an independent role in mediating or translating between global interest groups with different specialist backgrounds.
Artistic strategies equip them to intervene in a wide range of contexts, not only artistic settings. Using practical, artistic
and theoretical learning models, connections between knowledge, experience and politics are worked out and developed, in order
to meet the complex social challenges of the present day. Epistemology, methodology and the history of science comprise the
foundation to which the specific issues of art, natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, economic history, and current
social and political developments are related. In this process, artistic strategies and approaches to art are our common disciplinary
language. We aim to achieve an independent cross-disciplinary practice in tackling urgent global issues such as migration,
digitalisation, work, growth, the environment and nutrition.
In its introductory year, the CDS
Bachelor covers the principles of programming, statistics, academic work in the form of research and text production, as well
as the principles of human rights, the structure of international organisations, artistic practices and current discourses
in social sciences and humanities.
In subsequent years of the programme, the curriculum is structured into the study
areas science and technology, economics and politics, and artistic strategies on annual topics that deal with global challenges.
Students apply the content theoretically and practically in cross-disciplinary annual projects.
The
CDS master’s programme is designed as a complementary course for graduates of all disciplines, giving the opportunity to go
into topics in more depth. It is project-oriented, strongly practice-based and offers the individual student the opportunity
to shape their course of study. In particular, the programme promotes work on transdisciplinary projects on sustainable social
change and a cross-disciplinary approach to digital technologies and the resulting transformation processes. Students learn
to locate their topic issues in a wider social context and in addition, to communicate them using different methods and artistic
strategies, and to apply them in cross-disciplinary participative projects. For these projects, the programme promotes and
supports dialogue and collaboration with actors in the fields of civil society, art, academia, politics, and the economy.
In
the winter semester of 2021, CDS has established a studio in the former Postsparkasse building. The CDS Studio is a protected
space for experimentation and critical cross-generational theoretical and practical exchange. Students are encouraged and
supported by faculty and visiting coaches from a variety of disciplines in developing independent, cross-disciplinary practice,
whether individually or in teams, through the use of various media and forms of expression. In addition, CDS Studio works
in close overlap with other departments and workshops of Angewandte.
CDS has built a growing network
of
Erasmus partner universities.
Visiting students from other international universities are welcome. Their fresh and critical view gives us a new perspective
on our work.