As the graduate school of the entire Faculty of Arts and Humanities, a.r.t.e.s. covers all academic qualification levels from Master (through the Reserach Master) to doctoral work (in our Integrated Track) to postdoctoral research (through our Research Lab).

The core of a.r.t.e.s.' work focuses on the complexities of culture, emphasizing its linguistic, historical, anthropological, and ethical contexts. Of particular interest are hermeneutic and historically-contextualized models of knowledge that take into account not only the conditions under which knowledge is created and developed, but also the processes by which this knowledge is crossculturally received and transmitted. The ethical and anthropological preconditions of a given cultural context play a critical role in this research work. Research conducted at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School is summed up under the acronym a.r.t.e.s. (area studies and diversity, reception and transculturation, text – language – media, environment and agency, societies and social practices). This mirrors the entire spectrum of disciplines offered by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cologne.