What I liked the most was to learn!

Sabina Ivenäs, PhD student in literature at the Scandinavian Department at UC Berkeley, USA, and alumna from the Master's programme Language and Culture in Europe.

Sabina received her Bachelor's degree in comparative literature in 2007 and her Master's in Language and Culture in 2010, both at Linköping University. After her graduation Sabina made her debut as an artist and photographer and moved to the U.S. She then spent a year developing her art work through a distance course. She also spent a lot of time on her application to UC Berkeley.
Today Sabina is a PhD student in literature at the Scandinavian Department at UC Berkeley. Her doctoral position includes studying courses at postgraduate level and teaching, and right now she is also a librarian at the Scandinavian library.

"What I liked most during my education was to learn! I have learnt so many new things about culture, literature and language; I didn’t know all that much about these things when I started. It has opened up many new worlds for me where I can see how literature, culture, history and philosophy are in constant dialogue with each other," says Sabina.

Sabina felt really good when she found her main subject, comparative literature.

"I remember when I made my mind up and started studying the C course. The encouragement and support from my supervisors has been crucial to me. Another event was when I started my Master's thesis and I sat and waited to meet the professor who would instruct me. I was very nervous that he wouldn’t like my ideas and I thought: what am I doing? But it went well ..."

"What I appreciated the most about the Master's programme was that it broadened my knowledge both within literature and linguistics but also within anthropology", says Sabina. If you want to broaden your perspective and become more attractive on the labour market, it's a very good option to get a Master’s degree. I also enjoyed studying with my fellow international students a lot. Getting to know them opened up my eyes to new cultures, literatures and cultural contexts.

Sabina believes that there is a big difference between how you are treated by society in general and from the humanities departments at universities.

"Unfortunately, people in general have difficulties in relating to my education, but in academia, in particular in the humanities departments, you get treated very well. People take a look at your CV and they can see that you are well educated. That is what it is like both nationally and internationally."

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Last updated: Mon Jan 30 11:01:27 CET 2012