Mondragon University, together with collaborating entities the Basque Summer University and Eusko Ikaskuntza, presents the new Master’s degree program in Promotion of Basque Culture

Mondragon University, together with collaborating entities the Basque Summer University and Eusko Ikaskuntza, presents the new Master’s degree program in Promotion of Basque Culture

The presentation, which was held on the Eskoriatza campus, saw the participation not only of the Coordinator of the Master’s program, but also of representatives from the collaborating entities: Basque Summer University director Aitor Bengoetxea, and President of Eusko Ikaskuntza Ana Urkiza.

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On May 24, the new Master’s Degree Program in Promotion of Basque Culture was presented on the Eskoriatza campus; the program will be launched by Mondragon University in October of 2023. The presentation saw the participation of Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences Dean Nagore Ipiña, Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences professor, researcher and Master’s program Coordinator Eneko Bidegain, and representatives from the two entities that participate in and support the Master’s program: Aitor Bengoetxea, Director of the Basque Summer University (BSU) and Ana Urkiza, President of Eusko Ikaskuntza. The presentation also included the signing of a collaboration agreement between the BSU and the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences and the ratification of the existing agreement between Eusko Ikaskuntza and the Faculty.

 

 

 

Nagore Ipiña, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of Mondragon University, delivered the welcoming remarks. Ipiña thanked the BSU and Eusko Ikaskuntza for their support and underlined the importance of the collaboration among the three institutions.

For his part, Master’s program Coordinator Eneko Bidegain stressed the need to study Basque cultural activity in detail. According to Bidegain, “the revitalization of the Basque language does not depend solely on linguistic or instrumental competence, but rather it is the core of a linguistic community, and the culture supports that core.” Bidegain also stated that he considers it strategic to train cultural agents in order to promote cultural transmission and the experience of the Basque culture in the Basque Country. He added that this new Master’s program supports this strategic need.

BSU Director Aitor Bengoetxea, for his part, stated that, as Basque culture is the object of study in this Master’s program, it aligns perfectly with the objectives of the BSU, an organization that has focused on the creation of the country and the promotion of the Basque language since its inception, adding that this Master’s program “could serve as a precedent in the training of the agents that will disseminate Basque culture.”

The presentation continued with the participation of the President of Eusko Ikaskuntza. Ana Urkiza added that the promotion of the transmission of Basque culture is fully consistent with the central concepts of Eusko Ikaskuntza’s work. According to Urkiza, “Eusko Ikaskuntza will make different contributions to the Master’s program: it will provide a vision of territoriality, it will make the results of different Eusko Ikaskuntza projects available to the participants, it will act as a contrast team and will offer the opportunity to carry out End-of-Master’s Projects.”

To conclude, Eneko Bidegain added that, in addition to the BSU and Eusko Ikaskuntza, the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada at Reno will also participate in this new Master’s degree program in Promotion of Basque Culture.

Training cultural agents

The new degree program is aimed at graduates in Primary Education or Early Childhood Education, degrees related to communication (audiovisual communication, journalism, advertising), humanities and social sciences, Basque studies, translation, law. Of course, the Master’s program is also open to any other graduate profile that is interested in influencing Basque culture.

Contents of the Master’s degree program

The participants will work in depth on the various topics of the Master’s degree, using active methodologies. The training program will address the questions and problems of Basque culture: ways of metabolizing the global cultural impact, ways to combine transmission and openness, interpretative syntheses of our roots, foundations for understanding the position that language should occupy, the influences of technology, conditions for regenerating the community, the challenges of artistic areas, etc.

Thus, they will delve into aspects such as the organization of an effective transmission of cultural activity in both formal and informal education, the reconstruction of a network of municipal agents in the field of culture, the bases from which local public policies on Basque cultural activity are improved, communication work, and possible avenues of research. The Master’s degree program will revolve around the following three blocks of content:

1. Cultural action and transmission in education.
2. Cultural action: organization and configuration of the Basque Country.
3. Research project.

Cost and registration

Thanks to subsidization from the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, the Master’s degree program has a price of €4,800. Additionally, participants may be able to take advantage of a discount of 100% from FUNDAE. Registration for the Master’s program will open on March 1 and can be completed online: online registration.