Cultural Studies - Arthur Siol: Room for Accents

During the Corona pandemic, Arthur Siol began to paint. "I felt my hunger for art," describes the 21-year-old. He quickly found his own style and today creates abstract oil paintings that often play with language and address mental health. When the museums reopened in 2021, Arthur Siol was one of the first visitors. He is not only interested in art, but also in philosophy, literature and music.

After graduating from high school, the Bremen native began looking for a study programme that would accommodate his interests and wanted a university where he could get involved. He came across Leuphana: "The study model gives me the opportunity to combine the Major in Cultural Studies with the Minor in Philosophy." In the complementary studies programme, he sets further accents: "I am very grateful that I can also deal with literary theory and musicology in my studies," says Arthur Siol.

Students have the opportunity in complementary studies to sharpen an individual competence profile alongside their specialised studies. Another reason for choosing the University of Lüneburg was the Leuphana Semester. In the mostly interdisciplinary modules of the introductory programme, the first-semester students acquire the basics of scientific studies: "My expectations were met. We were introduced well to scientific work," says Arthur Siol.

In addition to his studies, the student is involved in the now student-managed Archipelago Lab, which is linked to the Vice Dean's Office for Research. Students from the faculties of Education, Cultural Studies, Sustainability and Political Science are invited to participate in the Lab. In its work, the Lab is interested in the transformative potentials of artistic, cultural and socio-political processes. "I curated the space there together with a fellow student," Arthur Siol reports. In addition, he works as a student assistant at the Faculty of Cultural Studies and helps with teaching: "I love this work and benefit from the exchange with academics and professors." Arthur Siol is on the financial board of the student initiative Kulturrausch: "We plan events in Lüneburg and support local cultural workers," explains the student.

In the coming semester, however, Arthur Siol's involvement at Leuphana will come to a halt: he is going to Aarhus University in Denmark as an Erasmus student: "I applied for the programme at Leuphana's International Office and will be supported with 600 euros a month," he explains. Denmark is particularly interesting for him as a place to study: "I can study art history and philosophy there and visit the fantastic museums."

Arthur Siol can imagine pursuing a career in curating or research-based cultural theory later on.