Cultural Encounters focuses on the study of cultural identities and symbolic representational and interpretational forms through an international, cross-cultural and global perspective. It is particularly concerned with problems related to processes where cultural identities and representations interact and are exchanged. As such the study programme reflects a cultural interface resulting from the intensified processes of globalisation and internationalisation.

The humanities and the social sciences have in the 20th century and particularly post-1980 experienced what has become known as 'the linguistic turn', i.e. a general acceptance of the fact that language does not simply mirror society, but plays a constitutive role in the social practice by structuring experiences of reality, identities, ideologies and politics. Therefore, the linguistic dimension is both a natural and necessary element in any general cultural studies programme.