MA in Language, Culture and Translation

Head of the programme: Chief Assistant Evgenia Tetimova, PhD

e-mail: etetimova@uni-sofia.bg

Application:

After an oral interview in one of the Scandinavian languages. The conditions for application, the necessary documents, the procedures for conducting and evaluating the works, as well as the ranking and enrolment of the newly admitted students are regulated by the Regulations of Sofia University. The training ends with obtaining the educational qualification degree ‘Master’ and acquiring a professional qualification: Philologist-Scandinavian Studies. Specialist in Language, Culture, Translation.

Admission: from the winter semester, according to the Regulations for admission of students at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The programme is offered from the academic year 2012 and all students with a Bachelor’s degree in Scandinavian Studies can apply.

Academic staff

The academic staff includes highly qualified Bulgarian lecturers as well as guest lecturers from the respective Nordic countries. The Swedish Institute, Stockholm, and the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, Oslo, maintain regular lectureships in Swedish and Norwegian, which are undoubtedly important for the effective learning process in this field. Since 2018, there is also a guest lecturer in Danish language and culture, thanks to the Ministry of Higher Education and Culture, Denmark. More information about the academic staff is available here.

MA programme

Duration: two semesters

Form of education: full-time student, specialists

Aims:

The master’s programme in Language, Culture and Translation is designed for BA Scandinavian Studies graduates and has the following goals:

• to build up the knowledge acquired by students during the four-year Bachelor’s degree course of training;

• to give further and more diverse opportunities for specialization and realization of the BA Scandinavian Studies graduates;

• to form qualities and interests necessary for the development of independent projects and for more specific work in applied and theoretical scientific areas.

Curriculum

Compulsory courses:

They aim to deepen and upgrade text skills – comprehension, analysis, summarizing, restructuring, compiling, editing, as well as developing a number of technical skills and those for searching and finding information – effective use of tools and search engines, research, critical evaluation, archiving, etc:

– practical knowledge of the main language

– knowledge and skills for analysis and translation of emblematic works from the Nordic literature

– the knowledge and skills related to the professional realization as a translator, in the context of the needs of the national market of translation services.

– knowledge of some grammatical and lexical features of the Scandinavian languages in comparative terms

Elective courses:

– in the field of linguistics: related to the Scandinavian languages in comparative terms, deepening the knowledge of the second language

– in the field of literature: national literature and national identity, contemporary Danish and Norwegian literature

– in the field of methodology: methodology of foreign language teaching,

– translation: projections of the otherness in literary translation, digital resources for the translator, translation as a profession and industry, editing a translated text

– research methodology

Scholarships

The programme can be carried out with the cooperation with other universities within agreements with higher education institutions from the Nordic countries, as well as with those in other European countries. This enables the graduates of the MA programme in Scandinavian Studies to be sought after as specialists in the field not only in Bulgaria but also abroad.

Professional realization

The successful graduates of the MA programme in Language, Culture and Translation have excellent language skills in at least two Scandinavian languages, which they use in all aspects and stylistic levels. They also have a very good intercultural and thematic knowledge of the Nordic countries, know and use the relevant sociolinguistic dimensions of the Scandinavian languages.

The subject of the programme guarantees the opportunity for each student to develop professionally in the desired field of theoretical and practical linguistics, literary criticism or cultural studies, translation (from and to Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) of works of art and science, specialized literature or in the field of oral and written translation.