Study Sorbian at the TU Dresden! Sorbian study program starts in the winter semester 2024/25

From the winter semester 2024/25, students of Slavic Studies, German Studies and History (Bachelor, Teacher Program) as well as Digital Humanities (Master) at TU Dresden will be able to study Sorbian content continuously and in depth during their six semesters. Knowledge about the Sorbs is now a compulsory part of the introduction to Slavic studies.

"The close cooperation between the philologies in the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies also has a direct impact on teaching. The common interest in the intersecting fields of Slavic Studies, German Studies and Digital Humanities has a concrete result here: Sorbian Studies," says a delighted Prof. Dr. Christian Prunitsch, Dean of the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies at TU Dresden.

The Sorbian Studies track comprises four to five courses per semester (see below), which focus on the language, literature, history and culture of the Sorbs, as well as language training in Upper Sorbian up to B2 level. In addition, Sorbian content is increasingly integrated into the compulsory introductory courses of the Slavic studies degree programs. There will also be opportunities to specialize in the field of digital humanities: "We also want to interest students of other subjects in Sorbian topics, and our projects on the digitization of the diverse Sorbian-Wendish cultural heritage offer numerous theoretical and practical points of contact, especially for digital humanities," says Prof. Dr. Hauke Bartels, Director of the Sorbian Institute and Chair of Sorbian Studies at TU Dresden.

The Sorbian curriculum, which can now be studied, was developed in the Volkswagen Foundation-funded project"Integrated Digital Sorbian Studies" (IDSS), which has enabled intensive cooperation between the Sorbian Institute in Bautzen and Cottbus and the Institutes of Slavic Studies and German Studies at TU Dresden since 2022. In the spirit of the project and institutional networking, lecturers from TU Dresden as well as guest lecturers from the Sorbian Institute teach.

The Sorbian track will be launched in the winter semester 2024/25:

• Upper Sorbian language courses at levels A.1, B1.1 and B2.1 (Lubina Hajduk-Veljković),
• Seminar "Space and the Sorbian Narrative" (Dr. Willi W. Barthold),
• Seminar "Linguistics in and for minority languages (using the example of Sorbian)" (Prof. Dr. Hauke Bartels),
• Basic seminar "Sorbian literature at a glance" (Prof. Dr. Christian Prunitsch) and
• Basic seminar on Sorbian history (Dr. Friedrich Pollack, Sorbian Institute).

Read more: Volkswagen Foundation supports Sorbian Studies (press release on the project launch from 21.3.2022)

Note: The curriculum developed in the IDSS project is a specialization offer for the above-mentioned degree programs at TU Dresden, it is not a separate degree program. Teacher training in Sorbian Studies can still only be studied at Leipzig University.