Courses Spring 2023

Core Courses

IS104 Forms of Love

AY/BA1/Begin in Berlin Core Course

Module: Medieval Literatures and Cultures

Instructors: Tracy Colony, David Hayes, Geoff Lehman, Katalin Makkai, Hans Stauffacher, Andrea Ottone, E. Cameron Wilson

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 14:00-15:30

 "Love" is a word whose meanings seem to be known to all of us. It names a feeling, an experience, and a value whose importance appears incontestable. But did "love" always mean what we might consider it to mean today? How recent are ideals of romantic or sexual love? What kinds of prototypes did they have in earlier historical periods? To what extent is our word "love" equivalent to the terms used for it in the languages and cultures that have shaped European and so-called "Western" culture? This course explores the other meanings for the word "love" that contributed to our contemporary perspective or apparently diverge markedly from it. We focus on texts and ideas from the place and time that was foundational for the development of European societies, and yet seems distant and strange now: medieval Christendom. We look at the change that took place in the use of Ancient philosophical terms for love in Christian texts, and at the consequences (literary and doctrinal) of the condemnatory view of sexual and erotic love taken by Christian theology. Above all, we examine the ramifications of the primacy of the category of love in Christendom: how could this category become so all-important, and yet at the same time express such a hostility to the erotic and the sensual? The course looks at the norms, rituals and rhetoric that organized the idea of love in the medieval world, attending also to the relationship between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Syllabus

IS123 Academic Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences 

Module: Senior Core Colloquium

Coordinator: Ulrike Wagner

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 9:00-12:15

This seminar is a training in the methods of academic research. Focusing on representative contemporary research in the humanities and the social sciences, it supports students in their own individual research projects by focusing on the essential elements of independent scholarly work: the choice of a topic or object of study; the outline of the main components of an article or scholarly paper; finding, gathering, collating and interpreting the sources needed for the project; correct citation, attribution, and bibliographical documentation, and finally, the effective presentation of the final work in structure and style, as well as peer review and constructive feedback. Including the participation of thesis supervisors and other faculty members, this course accompanies the first semester of preparation for the thesis project.

Syllabus
Syllabus (week 6)

IS212 Early Modern Science (a cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

BA2 Core Course

Module: Early Modern Science

Instructors: Ewa Atanassow, Katalin Makkai, Ross Shields, Maria Avxentevskaya, Anastassia Kostrioukova

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time:

The course seeks to introduce the scientific advances of the early modern period (with particular focus on the seventeenth century): the developments that defined the principles, methods and frameworks of modern natural science as it exists today.  We not only explore the philosophical basis and conclusions of this historical development, but its experimental procedures, and come to an understanding of their practical form and the meaning of their results. In the first section, we concentrate on the new understanding of space, matter and motion deriving from the cosmologies and mechanical theories of this era (the basis of modern physics). In the second, we consider the remarkable advances in the life sciences at this period (examining anatomical and medical texts), and finally, attend to the emergence of what came to be called "chemistry" out of the mystical practice of alchemy. Included in the course are visits to exhibitions and collections in Berlin, which will help us to reflect on the way in which scientific practices and their discoveries have been historicized, and why we ought to enhance our critical awareness of such historicizing.

Syllabus

IS322 Modernism Core course - Global Modernisms

BA3-4/PY Core Course

Module: Modernism

Instructors:  James Harker, Jeffrey Champlin, Clio Nicastro

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: 
Modernism is generally thought of as a period characterized in literature and art by radical experimentation, by the invention and re-invention of new forms, and by an aesthetic that privileged the present, the modern, the new. As such, it also reacted to and reflected on the process of modernization and different notions of modernity. Modernism was, in fact, a complex constellation of phenomena that saw close interaction between the arts, literature, politics, philosophy, science and economics, and that questioned the most basic categories of aesthetic, political and philosophical thought. The course will focus on three related topics, which will be investigated in relation to each other through a variety of philosophical and theoretical texts, literature, artworks and architecture from across the globe: 1) theories of modernism, modernity and modernization; 2) the role played by cities as increasingly dominant cultural centers, hegemonic forces and the subject matter of modernist literature and the arts; 3) the increasing expansion of industry, colonization and global commerce, with a particular focus on literary responses to the perceived dehumanization brought about by technological advancement, bureaucracy and exploitation of the environment. 

Syllabus

Art and Aesthetics Foundational Modules

AH162 Modernism in the Visual Arts: Experiment, Conflict, and Crisis
 
Module: Art and Artists in Context / Approaching Arts Through Theory

Instructor: Aya Soika

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15
 
This class looks at the key works, movements and debates emerging from modernism and modern movements in the visual and plastic arts. Our survey addresses controversies that took place at the time when new works and techniques were first introduced, as well as later (post)modern criticisms. We will consider the “grand narratives” and alternative explanatory tools that seek to understand and theorize modernist artistic practice, such as, for example, Marxist theory, and also (a considerable contrast) formalist approaches. An important theme in our journey will be the modernist artists’ entanglement with colonialism, where the freedom they claimed for their own creative adventures was often barred to their subjects and absent from the contexts in which they sought new inspiration. Modernist artists and movements also have a complex relationship to the phenomenon of totalitarian regimes, with some embracing and some resisting the pull of dictatorship. Modernism was the moment in which the distinction between “high” and “popular” or “mass” culture first appeared, and we will look at the meaning of this fissure for modern art movements. Finally, we examine the role of new media—the revolutionary advent of film and photography—in modernist art production. Our case studies include the formative movements of the early 20th century, such as Expressionism, Dada, Bauhaus and Surrealism. The class ends with what we might call the "nervous breakdown" of modernism in the 1960s, when we witness the end of reigning concepts such as “originality” and “authenticity,” and encounter the rise of postmodernism. Throughout the seminar we will make use of Berlin’s wide-ranging and diverse modernist art collections. 

Syllabus

FA103 Found Fragments & Layered Lines: mixed-media techniques for drawing and collage

Module: Art Objects and Experience / Artistic Practice

Instructor: John Kleckner

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15

This studio art course explores contemporary and historical approaches to drawing and collage. Inspired by the Vorkurs of the original Bauhaus school, projects are designed to enhance aesthetic comprehension and expression through the creation of mixed-media drawings and collages. Course activities will ask students to: make analytical drawings of figures and object arrangements, develop conceptual approaches for generating compositions, make abstractions from nature by working outdoors, gather materials from Berlin's famous Flohmärkte (flea markets) to use in collages, work collaboratively on large drawings, and experiment with expressive combinations of text and imagery. A central focus will be exploring the potential to create new and surprising meanings and content resulting from the juxtaposition of found printed fragments and hand-drawn lines. The semester culminates in the creation of a body of original artwork that will be shown in a class exhibition. The majority of classes are studio work sessions. There will also be several group critiques, slideshow presentations, and artist studio / gallery visits. The ideal student is self-motivated, with a strong interest in studying and making art, and must be comfortable with presenting their creations during class discussions.
 
Studio work is the priority, this course will require a significant amount of time working outside of class sessions. Prospective students should email inquiries to the instructor directly at: j.kleckner at berlin.bard.edu

Syllabus

FA106 Beginners Black and White Photography Class: The Slow Photo

Module: Art Objects and Experience / Artistic Practice

Instructor: April Gertler

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

The Slow Photo is an introduction to Black and White photography. The class will focus on learning how to use a manual camera and finding one’s way in an analogue darkroom. Students will be exposed to the rich photographic history of Berlin through presentations, discussions and a historical walk through parts of Berlin. The historical component of the class will cover works by Berlin based photographers from Helga Paris to Michael Schmidt. Assignments throughout the semester will mirror various photo styles used in the historical examples discussed, from Portraiture to Street Photography. Camera techniques and black and white printing will be the fundamental basis of the class. Students will leave the class understanding the time commitment and concentration it takes to produce beautiful black and white analog images.

Syllabus

FA108 Beginners in Digital Photography - Your own point of view

Module: Art Objects and Experience / Artistic Practice

Instructor: Carla Åhlander

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 9:00-12:15

This course is an introduction to digital photography with a focus on artistic expression.  The course is aimed at those who want to learn digital photography at a basic level and develop their photographic work into a project.  The course includes in-class critiques and discussions on the choice of method, technique and subject matter, as well as possible forms of presentation. Parts of the course will consist of looking at works by contemporary and historical photographers, as well as introductions to the technical and theoretical tools you will need to work on your project. We will ask questions such as ”What is my own way of seeing something?” and”What is my own point of view?"

Syllabus

TH164 Critical Acts: Introduction to Performance Studies

Module: Artistic Practice / Approaching Arts Through Theory

Instructor: Nina Tecklenburg

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Thu, 9:00-12:15

This course offers a view of the world through the lens of performance studies. Since its emergence in the late 1970s, this interdisciplinary field – that has borrowed from theater studies, anthropology, linguistics and performance practice – has fundamentally challenged supposedly fixed concepts in the humanities and social sciences in the West. It has endowed scholars and artists alike with an understanding of culture as something that is done through embodied behavior. Concepts of performance and performativity allow us to think of subjects, gender, race and class as culturally constructed and therefore potentially variable. They enable us to analyze individual and collective habits, enactments, gestures or movements as historically informed, fluid entities that are both resistant to and constitutive of power relations and symbolic orders. In this course students will study performance and performativity as both object and (creative) method. Starting with the question, ‘What is a performance?’ we will engage with key texts (Austin, Goffman, Schechner, Taylor, Derrida, Butler, Johnson, Madison, Conquergood, etc.) through discussion and performative responses. We will explore different approaches to performance analysis such as performative writing or performance ethnography. We will uncover the politics of everyday life routines and undertake field trips to attend performances such as theater productions, public protests, religious services, or sporting events. Students will be asked to develop their own critical acts in response to performances studied. The aim of this course is to examine performance practically and theoretically as means of cultural production and as an artistic, political and critical mode of expression. It is open to students from all disciplines who are interested in deepening their understanding of (un)doing culture.

Syllabus
 
The following courses are cross-listed with Literature and Rhetoric:
 
FM217 How German is it? German Identity through Film

Module: Approaching Arts Through Theory / Art and Artists in Context
 
Instructor: Matthias Hurst
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30 + Weekly screening Mon 19:30-22:00

The premise of our course goes back to a contentious claim made by one of the founding theorists of film, Sigfried Kracauer, in his classic work From Caligari to Hitler (1947). Kracauer’s main argument was that the film production of the period immediately preceding the advent of Nazism reflected a yearning for authoritarianism that was to be fulfilled in Hitler’s takeover of power in 1933. Kracauer’s argument is a complex one, tracing film production from the late nineteenth century to the post-First World War era, and combining sociological, psychological as well as historical analysis. Ultimately though, it identifies general cultural features specific to one nation in individual cinematic works. Our question in this course will be the extent to which such general features and tendencies can be traced—with the help of other sources—in the landmarks of cinema. We will address not only the moment of deepest concern to Kracauer (himself later an exile from the Nazi terror), but subsequent key developments in German culture and society, including the effort to reckon with the authoritarianism of the past, and the emergence of violent reactions toward this past on the part of the younger generation in the 1970s. The films we will study include Nerven (1919, Robert Reinert), Der Untertan (1951, Wolfgang Staudte), Die bleierne Zeit (1981, Margarethe von Trotta), Stilles Land (1992, Andreas Dresen) and Wir sind jung, Wir sind stark (2014, Burhan Qurbani).

Syllabus

TH134  Introduction to Playwriting
 
(In collaboration with TH180: Rethinking Regie: An Introduction to Directing)
 
Module: Art Objects and Experience / Artistic Practice 

Instructor: Cory Tamler

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00
 
In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of writing for text-based theater. The course has a two-fold structure: First, writing exercises both within and outside of class, as well as readings from recent published play scripts by contemporary German playwrights, will introduce students to the basics of crafting dialogue, pacing, building dramatic tension, and the particular challenges and opportunities of storytelling for the stage. Students will learn about and try out different possibilities for the role of the playwright in the contemporary theater-making process, from solitary author to co-writer, from collaborator in a development process to interpreter of research material and beyond. Reading and responding to one another's work will provide students with a glimpse into how performers and directors might approach a playwright's text, strengthening their ability to write for performance. Second, students in this course will work together throughout the semester with students in the "Introduction to Directing" seminar, taught by Julia Hart.  In a workshop setting, students will form teams of directors, playwrights and actors to explore different forms of collaboration in the rehearsal room. Students will work on staged readings and short scenes that will culminate in a theater presentation in the Factory at the end of the semester.

Syllabus
 
TH180 Rethinking Regie: An Introduction to Directing

(In collaboration with TH134: Introduction to Playwriting)

Module: Art Objects and Experience / Artistic Practice

Instructor: Julia Hart

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00

This course will introduce students to the basics of directing theater in the context of contemporary German theater. The course has a two-fold structure: First, students will study different theater aesthetics and styles by looking at the work of directors currently working in Berlin and discuss the various definitions of the controversial term Regietheater or “director’s theater.” What does directing look like in Germany today and what is the role of the director in the rehearsal? Students will be introduced to basic directing techniques in class and learn exercises for staging text-based material. What are the steps a director in Germany typically goes through when directing a play? What are different ways of developing a conceptual approach to a piece and how can this affect your work with actors? Second, students in this course will work together throughout the semester with students in the "Introduction to Playwriting" seminar, instructed by Cory Tamler.  In a workshop setting, students will form teams of directors, playwrights and actors to explore different forms of collaboration in the rehearsal room. Students will work on staged readings and short scenes that will culminate in a theater presentation in the Factory at the end of the semester.

Syllabus

Economics Foundational Modules

EC210 Microeconomics

Module: Microeconomics

Instructor: Israel Waichman

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: 

Microeconomics is the study of how individual economic units (households and firms) interact to determine outcomes (allocation of goods and services) in a market setting. This course further develops principles and analytical methods introduced by the “Principles of Economics” and the “Mathematics for Economics” courses. The first part of the course deals with the consumer side. We will study the underlying assumptions about consumer preferences and behavior that lead to the creation of individual and market demands. The second part of the course deals with the theory of the firm (i.e., how production and costs create individual and market supply). The third part of the course deals with the market as a whole, combining consumer-based demand with producer-based supply. Here we also study issues related to the efficiency of markets and the workings of welfare economics. Finally, we will learn positive and normative characteristics of alternative market structures: perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. 

Prerequisites:  Principles of Economics and Mathematics for Economics.

Syllabus

EC211 Macroeconomics

Module: Macroeconomics

Instructor:  Marcus Giamattei

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits 

Course time: Mon, 15:45-17:15 & Tue, 9:00-10:30

This course familiarizes students with the main models that macroeconomists use to analyze the way economies behave. The module begins by examining theories that seek to explain long-term economic growth. We then focus our attention on investigating economic theories that explain short run business cycles, the periods of recession and boom that occur on a regular basis. An important part of the course is to investigate the role of governments and central banks in stabilizing the economy. After an analysis of investment and inflation, we connect the building blocks to an integrated macroeconomic consensus model to explain the development of inflation, interest rates and GDP. We apply this theoretical knowledge to a range of current economic issues.

Prerequisite: Principles of Economics

Syllabus

MA110 Mathematical Foundations

Module: Mathematics

This course also fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students.

Instructor: Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30

This course focuses on the (basic) tools important for the study of political science and economics: analytic geometry, functions of a single variable, and calculus. The course will also be of interest for any student with a general interest in mathematics, or who does not intend advanced specialization in economics. This course is highly recommended for students who want to specialize in economics, but do not have a strong background in mathematics. In case of a strong math background, students can test out of this course at the beginning of the spring semester. After successfully completing this course (or testing out) they will take (the more advanced) Mathematics for Economics course in the fall semester.

Syllabus

MA151 Introduction to Statistics

Module: Statistics

This course also fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students.

Instructors: Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 10:45-12:15

The goal of this course is to introduce students to quantitative methods in political science and economics. The course covers the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics, including probability theory, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. To facilitate students’ ability to understand and critically engage with these methods, examples of quantitative social science research are discussed throughout the course. Classes are complemented with exercises to build students’ skills in applying independently the methods learned. Many of these exercises use data from public opinion surveys, which cover a wide range of social, economic, and political topics. Working with this survey data, students will also have the opportunity to explore research questions of their own. At the end of the course, students will be able to read and engage with the majority of modern quantitative research. They also will be well prepared to pursue a variety of more advanced quantitative research courses.

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Ethics and Politics Foundational Modules

HI125 Russian History through Photographs: from the 19^th Century to the Present Day

SO104 Field Research: Dilemmas and Possibilities  

Module: Methods in Social and Historical Studies

Instructor: Ayşe Çavdar

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 9:00-10:30

Ethnography, which has experienced a revival in recent decades, is understood as a way of ensuring that social science researchers develop a direct grasp of the motives, conduct and contexts of the human actors in a social group, through exchanges with and observation of these participants. In addition to learning about how ethnography works as a method, students will develop the capacity to recognize the role it plays in the results proposed by contemporary social science research. Our use and examination of ethnographic methods will also examine how those methods are informed by the researcher’s own perspective: ethical and political judgments, as well as disciplinary frameworks. The ultimate aim of the course will be to acquire a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and practical questions that arise in the application of ethnography. 

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Politics:

PL141 Play

Module: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

Instructor: David Hayes

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

This course is an inquiry into the origin, nature, and purpose of play. Questions to be considered will include: How do we know when something is playful? Is play the opposite of what is serious, of what is boring, of what counts as work? Are there important differences between animal and human play, or between the play of children and adults? What is a game? What are sports, and what value do they have? What are the connections between play and art, religion, mental health, love, and culture in general? In this course, special attention will be paid to the connection between play and education (In Greek, “paidia” = play; “paideia” = education). Would the best life be one spent “playing the finest games,” as a character in Plato’s Laws suggests? Or are there darker aspects to play that ought to make us cautious about it? Attention will also be given to what has happened to play in the modern world, “as more and more organizations, practices, products, and services are infused with elements from games and play to make them more engaging” (Walz and Deterding). Is this “gamification” of life a good thing? Can we distinguish such a “gamification” or “ludification” of culture from a play or “deep play” experience? Readings will include some of the major theoretical statements about play (Plato, Schiller, Huizinga, Winnicott), articles in contemporary sociology and philosophy, as well as expressions of play in literature, film, and visual art.

Syllabus

PL180 Marxist Social and Political Thought

Module: History of Political Thought

Instructor: Riaz Partha-Khan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 US credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 17:30-19:00

This course offers an introduction to Marxist and post-Marxist theories as a distinct tradition of political thought and action. Given the breadth of the subject matter, the course is organized around two overarching themes: the relations of state, society, and individual as seen through the lens of the affinity of theory and praxis in this tradition. In the first part, the course provides a brief overview of the conceptual development of Marx’s political theory in light of its encounters with German Idealism, French Revolution, and British political economy. We begin with early influences of Kantian critique, Hegel’s dialectic, and Feuerbach’s humanism in order to trace the philosophical methodology that grounds Marx’s works after 1857 in response to political and industrial revolutions. The second part constitutes the bulk of the course as we explore the diverse traditions of Marxist thought and politics in the twentieth century. We begin by examining the forms and critiques of organized Marxist-Leninist systems by exploring the works of European and non-European Marxists (V. I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, M. N. Roy, Li Dazhao). Next, we examine the conceptions of society, state, law, ideology, class, and individual in the works of Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, and Louis Althusser. In the final part of the course, we focus on the post-Marxist critical theories of Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler. The wide oeuvre of the traditions encountered here are tackled by focusing on critical snippets of original works grounded in the historical backdrop and legacies of the first three internationals, Bolshevik and Maoist revolutions, and post-war Eurocommunism.

Syllabus

PL277 Medical Ethics

Module: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

This course fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students.

Instructor: Sinem Derya Kılıç

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Thu, 10-13:00

The decisions taken in medical treatment are often the subject of complex philosophical and moral debate, drawing on concepts and principles that long predate new technological developments. This course addresses the ethical basis of medical research and practice, including distinct ideas of autonomy, health, well-being, and disease. We cover some of the most prominent and fraught issues that have arisen in the legal regulation of medical care, such as euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, cultural and historical differences surrounding questions of reproduction, and issues of information-flow, informed consent, privacy, truth-telling and confidentiality, as well as questions of medical racism, social justice and rights to healthcare, human research, genetic enhancement, and the ethical dilemmas that arise during global pandemics as we experience them today.

Syllabus

PS119 Nation-States and Democracy
 
Module: Political Systems and Structures

Instructor: Boris Vormann
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Why and how do political systems differ from one another? What processes have led to the formation of distinct political regimes? And how do these historical variations affect politics today? In addressing these questions in a wide set of contexts, this course provides an introduction to key theoretical approaches and concepts in the comparative study of politics. The focus will be on core topics in political development such as state and nation-building, the role of the state in the economy, its relationship to civil society and processes of democratization. We will also look at different types of political regimes, electoral and party systems—and the ways in which they affect the structure, functioning, and social role of political institutions. We explore these topics from a comparative perspective in combining theoretical texts with case studies. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand important topics in domestic politics, grasp the diversity of political systems and regimes, and analyze current political developments.

Syllabus

PS179 Postcolonial Politics  

Module: Political Systems and Structures

Instructor: Hanan Toukan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 10:45-12:15

While postcolonial scholars have had enduring impact on disciplines such as anthropology, history, art history and comparative literature, their influence on the study of political structures and political thought from and about the “Global South”, or the non-western world, has been less impactful. This opposition to postcolonialism as a theoretical and conceptual lens in the study of Comparative Politics is related to the endurance of Eurocentric perspectives on the Global South and the impact of their colonial histories. Dominant theories of democracy, development, violence and displacement, for instance, continue to be trapped in orientalist frameworks of analysis. Against this backdrop, this course has two central aims and is structured accordingly. The first is to encourage students to question the epistemological foundations of the study of postcolonial societies and politics so they learn to critically question the context in which the scholarly body of knowledge about non-western history, politics and society has been constructed and produced. The second aim of the course is to contextualize such theories by focusing on the region known as the “Middle East” with some cross-reference to Asia, Africa and the Americas in order to uncover the relationship between the political and the postcolonial. The course will run thematically and cover topics such as colonialism and decolonization, indigeneity, the post-colonial state, nationalism(s), the politics of gender and sexuality, the politics of culture, military states, development and humanitarian aid, oil, the “global war on terror”, and displacement and revolutions.

Syllabus

PS185 Introduction to Policy Analysis

Module: Political Systems and Structures

Instructor: Gale Raj-Reichert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 15:45-17:15

This course introduces students to policy analysis and policy-making. Public policies are courses of action undertaken by governments to solve societal problems by changing behavior. They include laws, regulations, incentives, and providing services, goods and information. It is important to remember that policies not only include what governments choose to do but also what they choose not to do. Policies by individual governments, groups of governments and intergovernmental organizations can impact outcomes for people, communities, industries, and the environment in different parts of the world. As an introductory course, during the first part of the course, we will spend time learning about and discussing what characterizes and defines a public policy, and how such policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. During the second half, we will apply these foundational concepts by examining and discussing real-world policy case studies addressing current policy problems within a domestic and global context. With this course, students will gain an understanding of a holistic approach to public policy and policy analysis. Students will also learn how to communicate about policy problems, options and recommendations verbally, visually, and in writing.

Syllabus

PS208 The Political Economy of Globalization

Module: Political Systems and Structures // (fulfills Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Gale Raj-Reichert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30

This course engages with the topic of ‘globalization,’ understood here as the interconnectedness of economic activity across borders since World War II. We will focus on understanding how powerful thinkers and domestic and global political institutions helped shape policies, practices and outcomes of different patterns of globalization. Organized in three parts, the course begins by chronicling the rise of Keynesianism and its strategy for reconstruction and economic development after World War II. Next, we turn to the shift towards neoliberal market economies during the 1980s, examining ideology and policies which became a cornerstone of the Thatcher and Reagan years and which were spread globally, in particular to the Global South, by the Bretton Woods institutions throughout the 1990s. Finally, we will focus on the rise of globalized industries which emerged as part of foreign investment practices by multinational corporations supported by liberalization-friendly regulations and the more recent shift, since the early 2000s, towards global outsourcing comprising global production networks.

Syllabus

SC204 Introduction to Feminist Science and Technology Studies

Module: Ethics and Moral Philosophy

This course fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students.

Instructor: Marianna Szczygielska

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 9:00-12:15

This course explores feminist science and technology studies (STS) as closely related to the disciplines of history and sociology of science, as well as to scientific practices in natural sciences and interdisciplinary approaches in social sciences. The explicit aim of this course is to give a comprehensive and historically contextualized overview of the key themes and debates within feminist STS scholarship and related disciplines like the actor-network-theory, postcolonial theory, and new materialism. Through readings, class discussions, and practical assignments we will explore feminist engagements with science through the lenses of gender, sexuality, race, and class. The course is structured in three parts. The first part grapples with feminist epistemologies and introduces key methodologies. The second part maps out the spaces and places of scientific practices from laboratories and fieldwork to the issues of colonial legacy of Western scientific endeavor. The third part focuses on the body and medicine, introducing the gendered themes of materiality. Students do not need to have backgrounds in feminist theory or scientific practice; the course is designed to work across disciplines.

Syllabus

Literature and Rhetoric Foundational Modules

LT120 Introduction to Critical and Cultural Theory

Module: Critical and Cultural Theory

Instructor: Clio Nicastro

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 9:00-10:30

This course will introduce students to key concepts and methodological approaches from different traditions of Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, including feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism, and black studies. The seminar will cover “canonized” as well as less well-known thinkers. By a close reading of a selection of texts and film excerpts (including fiction films, documentaries, tv and web series, videoart) we will mainly explore the question of human subjectivity and how it is constituted by social and historical circumstances, by ideas of what is “natural,” and by conditions imposed on speech and action. Readings are from Theodor Adorno, Sara Ahmed, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Rey Chow, Andrea Long Chu, Wendy Chun, Hélène Cixous, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Saidiya Hartman, bell hooks, Lisa Yun Lee, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Paul Preciado, Hortense Spillers, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Syllabus

LT165 Dystopian Fiction

Module: Close Reading / Literary History

Instructor: Sladja Blazan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 9:00-12:15

Dystopian fiction often imagines bleak, post-apocalyptic futures, in which themes of environmental and biological disaster, societal collapse, totalitarian control or the technological subjugation, dehumanization or enslavement repeat again and again. Why immerse oneself in images of such depressing futures? Why does dystopia seem to dominate past and present speculative fiction? In this class, we will examine the ways in which dystopias sought to address the social and political problems of their times. From George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) to Octavia E. Butler’s Parable Series (1993), Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005), Basma Abdel Aziz, The Queue (2013/1016) and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014), dystopian fiction has been understood (and used) as a politicized oppositional space. The extreme portrayal of contemporary problems in dystopian fiction makes these issues more visible and therefore intelligible. Throughout this class, we will discuss how the political potential of the dystopian imaginary manifests itself in literary and cinematic examples.

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Art and Aesthetics:

FM217 How German is it? German Identity through Film

Module: Critical and Cultural Theory
 
Instructor: Matthias Hurst
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30 + Weekly screening Mon 19:30-22:00

The premise of our course goes back to a contentious claim made by one of the founding theorists of film, Sigfried Kracauer, in his classic work From Caligari to Hitler (1947). Kracauer’s main argument was that the film production of the period immediately preceding the advent of Nazism reflected a yearning for authoritarianism that was to be fulfilled in Hitler’s takeover of power in 1933. Kracauer’s argument is a complex one, tracing film production from the late nineteenth century to the post-First World War era, and combining sociological and psychological with historical analysis. Ultimately though, it identifies general cultural features specific to one nation in individual cinematic works. Our question in this course will be the extent to which such general features and tendencies can be traced—with the help of other sources—in the landmarks of cinema. We will address not only the moment of deepest concern to Kracauer (himself later an exile from the Nazi terror), but subsequent key developments in German culture and society, including the effort to reckon with the authoritarianism of the past, and the emergence of strong reactions toward this past on the part of the younger generation in the 1970s. The films we will study include Nerven (1919, Robert Reinert), Der Untertan (1951, Wolfgang Staudte), Die bleierne Zeit (1981, Margarethe von Trotta), Stilles Land (1992, Andreas Dresen) and Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark (2014, Burhan Qurbani).

Syllabus

TH134  Introduction to Playwriting
 
(In collaboration with TH180: Rethinking Regie: An Introduction to Directing)

Module: Written Arts 
 
Instructor: Cory Tamler
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00
 
In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of writing for text-based theater. The course has a two-fold structure: First, writing exercises both within and outside of class, as well as readings from recent published play scripts by contemporary German playwrights, will introduce students to the basics of crafting dialogue, pacing, building dramatic tension, and the particular challenges and opportunities of storytelling for the stage. Students will learn about and try out different possibilities for the role of the playwright in the contemporary theater-making process, from solitary author to co-writer, from collaborator in a development process to interpreter of research material and beyond. Reading and responding to one another's work will provide students with a glimpse into how performers and directors might approach a playwright's text, strengthening their ability to write for performance. Second, students in this course will work together throughout the semester with students in the "Introduction to Directing'' seminar, instructed by Julia Hart.  In a workshop setting, students will form teams of directors, playwrights and actors to explore different forms of collaboration in the rehearsal room. Students will work on staged readings and short scenes that will culminate in a theater  presentation in the Factory at the end of the semester.

Syllabus
 
TH180 Rethinking Regie: An Introduction to Directing

(In collaboration with TH134: Introduction to Playwriting)

Module: Literary History

Instructor: Julia Hart

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00

This course will introduce students to the basics of directing theater in the context of contemporary German theater. The course has a two-fold structure: First, students will study different theater aesthetics and styles by looking at the work of directors currently working in Berlin and discuss the various definitions of the controversial term Regietheater or “director’s theater.” What does directing look like in Germany today and what is the role of the director in the rehearsal? Students will be introduced to basic directing techniques in class and learn exercises for staging text-based material. What are the steps a director in Germany typically goes through when directing a play? What are different ways of developing a conceptual approach to a piece and how can this affect your work with actors? Second, students in this course will work together throughout the semester with students in the "Introduction to Playwriting" seminar, instructed by Cory Tamler.  In a workshop setting, students will form teams of directors, playwrights and actors to explore different forms of collaboration in the rehearsal room. Students will work on staged readings and short scenes that will culminate in a theater presentation in the Factory at the end of the semester. 

Syllabus
 
The following courses are cross-listed with Ethics and Politics and Politics:

PL141 Play

Module: Literary History
 
Instructor: David Hayes

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

This course is an inquiry into the origin, nature, and purpose of play. Questions to be considered will include: How do we know when something is playful? Is play the opposite of what is serious, of what is boring, of what counts as work? Are there important differences between animal and human play, or between the play of children and adults? What is a game? What are sports, and what value do they have? What are the connections between play and art, religion, mental health, love, and culture in general? In this course, special attention will be paid to the connection between play and education (In Greek, “paidia” = play; “paideia” = education). Would the best life be one spent “playing the finest games,” as a character in Plato’s Laws suggests? Or are there darker aspects to play that ought to make us cautious about it? Attention will also be given to what has happened to play in the modern world, “as more and more organizations, practices, products, and services are infused with elements from games and play to make them more engaging” (Walz and Deterding). Is this “gamification” of life a good thing? Can we distinguish such a “gamification” or “ludification” of culture from a play or “deep play” experience? Readings will include some of the major theoretical statements about play (Plato, Schiller, Huizinga, Winnicott), articles in contemporary sociology and philosophy, as well as expressions of play in literature, film, and visual art.

Syllabus

Politics Foundational Modules

All courses are cross-listed with Ethics and Politics:

PL180 Marxist Social and Political Thought

Module: Moral and Political Thought

Instructor: Riaz Partha-Khan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 US credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 17:30-19:00

This course offers an introduction to Marxist and post-Marxist theories as a distinct tradition of political thought and action. Given the breadth of the subject matter, the course is organized around two overarching themes: the relations of state, society, and individual as seen through the lens of the affinity of theory and praxis in this tradition. In the first part, the course provides a brief overview of the conceptual development of Marx’s political theory in light of its encounters with German Idealism, French Revolution, and British political economy. We begin with early influences of Kantian critique, Hegel’s dialectic, and Feuerbach’s humanism in order to trace the philosophical methodology that grounds Marx’s works after 1857 in response to political and industrial revolutions. The second part constitutes the bulk of the course as we explore the diverse traditions of Marxist thought and politics in the twentieth century. We begin by examining the forms and critiques of organized Marxist-Leninist systems by exploring the works of European and non-European Marxists (V. I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, M. N. Roy, Li Dazhao). Next, we examine the conceptions of society, state, law, ideology, class, and individual in the works of Georg Lukacs, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, and Louis Althusser. In the final part of the course, we focus on the post-Marxist critical theories of Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler. The wide oeuvre of the traditions encountered here are tackled by focusing on critical snippets of original works grounded in the historical backdrop and legacies of the first three internationals, Bolshevik and Maoist revolutions, and post-war Eurocommunism.

Syllabus

PL141 Play

Module: Moral and Political Thought

Instructor: David Hayes

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

This course is an inquiry into the origin, nature, and purpose of play. Questions to be considered will include: How do we know when something is playful? Is play the opposite of what is serious? of what is boring? of what is work? Are there important differences between animal and human play? Between the play of children and adults? What is a game? What are sports, and what value do they have? What are the connections between play and art, religion, mental health, love, and culture in general? In this course, special attention will be paid to the connection between play and education (In Greek, “paidia” = play; “paideia” = education). Would the best life be one spent “playing the finest games,” as a character in Plato’s Laws suggests? Or are there darker aspects to play that ought to make us cautious about it? Attention will also be given to what has happened to play in the modern world, “as more and more organizations, practices, products, and services are infused with elements from games and play to make them more engaging” (Walz and Deterding). Is this “gamification” of life a good thing? Can we distinguish such a “gamification” or “ludification” of culture from a play or “deep play” experience? Readings will include some of the major theoretical statements about play (Plato, Schiller, Huizinga, Winnicott), articles in contemporary sociology and philosophy, as well as expressions of play in literature, film, and visual art.

PL277 Medical Ethics

Module: Moral and Political Thought

This course fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students

Instructor: Sinem Derya Kılıç

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Thu, 10-13:00

The decisions taken in medical treatment are often the subject of complex philosophical and moral debate, drawing on concepts and principles that long predate new technological developments. This course addresses the ethical basis of medical research and practice, including distinct ideas of autonomy, health, well-being, and disease. We cover some of the most prominent and fraught issues that have arisen in the legal regulation of medical care, such as euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, cultural and historical differences surrounding questions of reproduction, and issues of information-flow, informed consent, privacy, truth-telling and confidentiality, as well as questions of medical racism, social justice and rights to healthcare, human research, genetic enhancement, and the ethical dilemmas that arise during global pandemics as we experience them today.

Syllabus

PS119 Nation-States and Democracy
 
Module: Comparative Politics 
 
Instructor: Boris Vormann
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Why and how do political systems differ from one another? Which processes have led to the formation of distinct political regimes? And how do these historical variations affect politics today? In addressing these questions in a wide set of contexts, this course provides an introduction to key theoretical approaches and concepts in the comparative study of politics. The focus will be on core topics in political development such as state and nation-building, the role of the state in the economy, its relationship to civil society and processes of democratization. We will also look at different types of political regimes, electoral and party systems—and the ways in which they affect the structure, functioning, and social role of political institutions. We explore these topics from a comparative perspective in combining theoretical texts with case studies. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand important topics in domestic politics, grasp the diversity of political systems and regimes, and analyze current political developments.

Syllabus

PS179 Postcolonial Politics  

Module: Comparative Politics

Instructor: Hanan Toukan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 10:45-12:15

While postcolonial scholars have had enduring impact on disciplines such as anthropology, history, art history and comparative literature their influence on the study of political structures and political thought from and about the “Global South”, or the non-western world, has been less impactful. This opposition to postcolonialism as a theoretical and conceptual lens in the study of Comparative Politics is related to the endurance of Eurocentric perspectives on the Global South and the impact of their colonial histories. Dominant theories of democracy, development, violence and displacement, for instance, continue to be trapped in orientalist frameworks of analysis. Against this backdrop, this course has two central aims and is structured accordingly. The first is to encourage students to question the epistemological foundations of the study of postcolonial societies and politics so they learn to critically question the context in which the scholarly body of knowledge about non-western history, politics and society has been constructed and produced. The second aim of the course is to contextualize such theories by focusing on the region known as the “Middle East” with some cross-reference to Asia, Africa and the Americas in order to uncover the relationship between the political and the postcolonial. The course will run thematically and cover topics such as colonialism and decolonization, indigeneity, the post-colonial state, nationalism(s), the politics of gender and sexuality, the politics of culture, military states, development and humanitarian aid, oil, the “global war on terror”, and displacement and revolutions.

Syllabus

PS185 Introduction to Policy Analysis

Module: Policy Analysis

Instructor: Gale Raj-Reichert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 15:45-17:15

This course introduces students to policy analysis and policymaking. Public policies are courses of action undertaken by governments to solve societal problems by changing behavior. They include laws, regulations, incentives, and providing services, goods and information. It is important to remember that policies not only include what governments choose to do but also what they choose not to do. Policies by individual governments, groups of governments and intergovernmental organizations can impact outcomes for people, communities, industries, and the environment in different parts of the world. As an introductory course, during the first part of the course, we will spend time learning about and discussing what characterizes and defines a public policy, and how such policies are formulated, implemented, and evaluated. During the second half, we will apply these foundational concepts by examining and discussing real-world policy case studies addressing current policy problems within a domestic and global context. With this course, students will gain an understanding of a holistic approach to public policy and policy analysis. Students will also learn how to communicate about policy problems, options and recommendations verbally, visually, and in writing.

Syllabus

PS208 The Political Economy of Globalization

Module: International Studies and Globalization // (fulfills Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Gale Raj-Reichert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30

This course engages with the topic of ‘globalization,’ understood here as the interconnectedness of economic activity across borders since World War II. We will focus on understanding how powerful thinkers and domestic and global political institutions helped shape policies, practices and outcomes of different patterns of globalization. Organized in three parts, the course begins by chronicling the rise of Keynesianism and its strategy for reconstruction and economic development after World War II. Next, we turn to the shift towards neoliberal market economies during the 1980s, examining ideology and policies which became a cornerstone of the Thatcher and Reagan years and which were spread globally, in particular to the Global South, by the Bretton Woods institutions throughout the 1990s. Finally, we will focus on the rise of globalized industries which emerged as part of foreign investment practices by multinational corporations supported by liberalization-friendly regulations and the more recent shift, since the early 2000s, towards global outsourcing comprising global production networks.

Syllabus

SC204 Introduction to Feminist Science and Technology Studies

Module: Moral and Political Thought

This course fulfills the mathematics and science requirement for humanities students.

Instructor: Marianna Szczygielska

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 9:00-12:15

This course explores feminist science and technology studies (STS) as closely related to the disciplines of history and sociology of science, as well as to scientific practices in natural sciences and interdisciplinary approaches in social sciences. The explicit aim of this course is to give a comprehensive and historically contextualized overview of the key themes and debates within feminist STS scholarship and related disciplines like the actor-network-theory, postcolonial theory, and new materialism. Through readings, class discussions, and practical assignments we will explore feminist engagements with science through the lenses of gender, sexuality, race, and class. The course is structured in three parts. The first part grapples with feminist epistemologies and introduces key methodologies. The second part maps out the spaces and places of scientific practices from laboratories and fieldwork to the issues of colonial legacy of Western scientific endeavor. The third part focuses on the body and medicine, introducing the gendered themes of materiality. Students do not need to have backgrounds in feminist theory or scientific practice; the course is designed to work across disciplines.

Syllabus

Art and Aesthetics Advanced Modules

AH301 Vision and Perspective

Module: Aesthetics and Art Theory

Instructor: Geoff Lehman

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00

In this course, we explore the problem of painter’s perspective, as it emerged in the Renaissance, and its implications for picture making and for the understanding of vision in the Western tradition up until the present day. Through sustained attention to individual works of art, we will consider how the re-conception of painting as a window, through which we look upon a space that is both measurable and potentially infinite, gives rise to new ideas of subjectivity and objectivity and new modes of subjective experience, shapes the depiction of the human and of human (social, affective, and intellectual) interactions, and provided a structural basis for the expression of religious meaning and of (scientific) curiosity. Topics for the course include: subjectivity and the gaze; the origins of landscape painting and the mathematization of nature; embodied experience and the phenomenology of vision; and the relationship of perspectival representation to its alternatives, both inside and outside the Western tradition. The origins and development of photography, as a perspectival medium, and its role within modernity, as well as its relationship to digital mediums of the contemporary period, will be carefully considered. Among the artists whose work we will examine are Jan van Eyck, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruegel, Xia Gui, Nadar, Atget, Lawler, and Eliasson. Readings will focus on philosophical and literary texts (Alberti, Nicholas of Cusa, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Descartes, Merleau-Ponty) as well as art historical writing on perspective (Panofsky, Damisch, Belting). Visits to museums and sites to encounter works of art first-hand will be an integral part of the course.

Syllabus

AR330 Global Visual Politics (OSUN cross-campus collaborative research and learning initiative)

Module: Artists, Genres, Movements / Aesthetics and Art Theory

Instructor: Hanan Toukan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 14:00-15:30

Film, photography, media, and art shape how we process and deal with political and social phenomena as diverse as war, disease, border violence, migration and displacement, the securitization of states, and global financial crises. While it is widely recognized that we live in a visual age, how we read our world visually and how our world shapes our visual reality are questions that demand we learn how to “read” the visual as a site of power, struggle, order, and change. As an interdisciplinary and collaborative cross-campus research and learning initiative, this course offers 1) a site of shared learning and collaborative knowledge-production between students across campuses and 2) a site of innovative learning that emphasizes skills based theoretical and practical learning that combines critical reflection on, and the employment of a range of technologies. The course will give students the tools and theoretical know-how to understand the ways in which institutions as diverse as governments, political and humanitarian organizations, the culture industry, and civil society shape what images people see and how they make sense of them. Bringing together the subjects of politics, global studies, postcolonial studies, visual art, as well as media and cultural studies, the course will introduce students to theories of race, empire, colonialism, nation, development, and sovereignty as well as the key tools of visual analysis.  In addition to the theoretical and conceptual visual language that participating students will learn, they will also be expected to intern or do research with cultural organizations, NGOs and other civil society initiatives that take image-making, circulation, and/or reception to be the core of their mission.

Syllabus

FA289 Practice-Based Sound Studies 

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques 

Instructor: Jeremy Woodruff

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 9:00-12:15

This course provides a theoretical basis in sound studies as a jumping-off point for empirical and artistic research in sound. The course culminates in the development of sound works, theoretical writing and presentations. Sound studies has been called the anthropology of sound – we will consider the significance of sound in history, film, music, media, science and technology, cultural studies, psychology, politics and sociology, disability studies, gender studies, post-colonial studies and more; how have developments in all these fields affected contemporary modes of listening? We will explore concepts behind sound sculptures, sound installations, sound art for the white cube, for public space or in performances and socially engaged art, to discuss the implications of embodied listening both for individuals and for the public. On the applied level, sonic worlds of objects and their resonant qualities will be experienced using contact microphones and transducers, through the inaudible worlds of electromagnetic waves, or through the propagation of sound through water and other mediums. From field recordings we will extend beyond the concept of soundscape and the aural environment to generate abstract sound textures and sonic fictions; investigating noise, low-fi, feedback and resonance, while learning methods how to work with “errors”, probability, and other intuitive approaches. This course is designed to introduce you to dealing at once both discursively and practically with sound to integrate theorization, new skills and knowledge into artistic practices through readings and hands-on experimentation.

Syllabus

FA290 Touch Screen: Contemporary Moving Image Practices

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques

Instructor: Sophie Lee

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 9:00-12:15

Daily life unfolds via the glow of the screen, wherein affect and consumption are complexly entwined. As the auto-fictive turn merges with the ascendance of the social media economy, we are all tasked with narrating our lives in real-time. Experience becomes content, subjectivity our cultural and social capital. What impact does this have on artists’ moving image practices? What new vernaculars emerge from the primacy of the screen, and how do new forms of distribution shape different encounters with video? In this course we will consider how video’s proliferation in everyday life imbues the medium with a particular urgency, and seek to find euphoric new ways of making accordingly. We will consider the use of autobiography and performance in moving image, looking here to the legacies of various queer and feminist filmmaking practices. This is a hands-on, participatory course: we will explore different fictional and documentary approaches through on-site workshops, as well as engage in costume, set and prop building. In addition to individual inquiry, we will explore radical modes of collaborative production aimed towards challenging hierarchies and traditional notions of authorship. We will look at works of contemporary artists working with moving image, and contextualize these within existing legacies of experimental filmmaking. We will also draw on a wide range of other sources including cultural theory, poetry, fiction, music videos and Hollywood cinema in our bid to give form to what it feels like to live now. The focus of this course will not be on technical instruction, but rather on providing students with the conceptual and aesthetic tools with which to develop their own artistic language, and to bring their own works from idea to realization.

Syllabus

FA304 Merging the Photo with the Book Form

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques  // (fulfills Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)
 
Instructor: April Gertler
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15
 
The historical relationship between the photograph and the book form stretches back to the origins of photography as a medium. This photography class will look at how the book form as a time-based structural format can support the photograph and the photographic sequence. A book is an object, and its very properties cannot be approached without considering its content. The two-part class will loosely explore the structures of 4-6 different book forms (including; the 8-fold, the single signature, the ‘Zine’, the perfect bind, and the accordion fold) while examining how a photographic sequence can use the form to its best advantage. Each student will leave the class with a mini-library of their very own artist books. Digital and vernacular photography will be the photographic focus. The course combines photo analysis and practical photo work. This is a critique-based class that will raise awareness of what constitutes a narrative, and how the meaning of a photograph is created. In addition to producing their own photo series, participants will become skilled at looking at, reading and talking about photographs. We will deal with issues such as subjectivity and objectivity, private and public, as well as technical matters like lighting. The workshop will include collaborations between students. Together we will explore a variety of aesthetic, practical and conceptual issues, asking questions like "What is my attitude to the topic?" and "Where does this narrative begin or end?" There will be spontaneous photographic assignments which are to be presented during the same class – for this, everyone needs to bring their own digital camera (a phone camera is acceptable). For their projects, each student must have their own camera. Students will also be given assignments to be executed within one week and presented in class. Each student will focus on and develop one larger project from around the middle of the semester until the end. They will also produce a written text that explores the process and concepts behind the work. The end of the semester will be marked with either a group show, "Open Studios", or another type of public presentation, e.g. online.

Syllabus

FA317 Advanced Painting: Illusionistic Surfaces

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques 

Instructor: John Kleckner

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This advanced studio course is designed to cultivate students’ technical and conceptual abilities within the realm of contemporary painting. A specific topic of interest will be illusionism and mimetic representation in paint. Taking Donald Judd’s quote, “…Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface,” as a point of contention and discussion, we will investigate techniques, possibilities, and problems of illusionistic representation. Students will develop and pursue their own creative projects while reflecting on mimesis as metaphor, exploring depth in pictorial space, scrutinizing specific textures, and experiencing the differences between using photographic references, direct observation, visual memory, and imagination. Artworks will primarily be done with oil and acrylic paints, but experimentation with other materials is encouraged. Weekly sessions will include slideshow presentations, readings, and class discussions, but the majority of time will be spent painting. Class size is limited to ensure each student has adequate studio space and a surplus of time with the instructor for individual feedback and support. Evaluations and critiques will occur at midterm and at the end of term. The semester culminates in a “Rundgang” / open house exhibition at the BCB Factory and a printed publication of student artworks. Studio work is the priority, this course will require a significant amount of time working outside of class sessions. 

Previous experience with painting required. Prospective students should email inquiries to the instructor directly at: [email protected]

Syllabus

FA324 Essay Film – As a Documentary Strategy
 
Module: Artists, Genres, Movements / Media, Practices, Techniques
 
Instructor: Emerson Culurgioni
 
Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits 

Course time: Tue, 14:00-17:15
 
There is some disagreement about what essay-film is or is not: it's also known as the non-genre. Derived from the literary genre of the essay, it carries the French word essai, meaning trying. The essay-film allows a certain blurriness in its form and content. Nevertheless, it can also be very precise in its point of view, often framed by a commenting authorial voice. Coming from the tradition of documentary-filmmaking, it has specific characteristics in the choice of material, form and content: i.e. the use of documentary-, found-, media-footage, and archive material. Its montage and dramaturgy are more constructive, dialectic or associative than the conventional continuity and determinism used in fiction films. It often has a personal, historical, or intellectual approach overlapping with the point of view. At its core is the work with the elements text, image and sound. However, it is not necessarily an experimental film, since the focus can lie on the content rather than on the formal experiment. As part of this course we will watch a selection of essay-films and analyze their form, dramaturgy, and montage in relation to their content. The focus will be on films that are dedicated to a materialist approach, as exemplified in the films of Harun Farocki, Alexander Kluge, Carmen Losmann, and Lisa Rave. Students in this course will then be asked to reflect on their own material interconnectedness with a globalized environment. On the practicing side, students will develop a film script in the first part of the semester and, in the second half, create their own short essay-film.

Syllabus

FA366 Game changers in 20th and 21st century Art

Module: Artists, Genres, Movements / Exhibition Culture and Public Space

Instructor: Dorothea von Hantelmann

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 14:00-17:15

The 20th century was not yet out of its teens. What was anyone to make of the porcelain urinal Marcel Duchamp submitted to a New York art exhibition? Fountain, with its signature R Mutt and the date 1917, was photographed and remembered. It became art, and so changed art forever. Every once in a while, artworks change how we define and talk about art. Through six guiding themes – “Material Culture”, “The here and now”, “Collapse of ‘high’ and ‘low’”, “Gender”, “Postcolonialism” and “Anthropocene” – we will discuss artworks of the 20th and 21st century that have set new standards within these discourses. Among the artists discussed will be Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Lygia Clark, Daniel Buren, Robert Smithson, Pierre Huyghe and Arthur Jafa. We want to understand how artworks can represent and simultaneously influence the cultural zeitgeist and discourse of their time. We also want to comprehend how the iconic status of an artwork can change over time: Is Duchamp still/again contemporary? Can we look at Duchamp differently when we see him through the lens of Jeff Koons? Or Andy Warhol? Or Kanye West? What characterizes an “iconic artwork” of today? Our discussions in class will be enriched by readings (authors will include Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Edouard Glissant and Bruno Latour) and accompanied by field trips to museums and exhibitions in the city of Berlin. Some of these field trips can take place on Saturdays and schedule changes may occur.

Syllabus

FM322 European Nightmares: Horror and the Fantastic in European Films

Module: Artists, Genres, Movements

Instructor: Matthias Hurst

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits 

Course time: Thu, 15:45-19:00 + Weekly screening Wed, 19:30-22:00

Horror, as well as fantastic, non-realist elements in films seem to come from and bring us into another world. As the history of cinema and film criticism shows us however, these kinds of genres and visual elements can have their roots in very real social anxieties, historical crimes, and everyday (or rather, normalized) forms of hierarchy, division, and exclusion. We will look at how the genre of horror and the fantastic has been defined (drawing for example on theories of the uncanny, or the return of the repressed) and on the history of modern European cinema and its contribution to a tradition now dominated by American and Asian examples. Our course will examine the historical legacies and contemporary themes that emerge in foundational, classic and recent instances of horror, and includes works from German- French- Italian- and English-language cinema such as  Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922, Friedrich W. Murnau), Dead of Night (1945, Basil Dearden and Alberto Cavalcanti), The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy), Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento), E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà (1981, Lucio Fulci), Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke), Haute tension (2003, Alexandre Aja), Calvaire (2004, Fabrice du Welz) and Låt den rätte komma in (2008, Tomas Alfredson).

Syllabus

TH384  Self-Instructions: Creating Autobiographical Performance with She She Pop

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques / Artists, Genres, Movements

Instructors: Nina Tecklenburg, in collaboration with She She Pop

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 15:45-19:00
 
She She Pop is an internationally renowned feminist performance collective based in Berlin. Over the course of their 27 years of collaboration, they have challenged established theater aesthetics and traditional hierarchies of theater-making. Their experimental and provocative body of work, for which they received Germany’s highest theater prize in 2019 (Theaterpreis Berlin), has been deeply influential and groundbreaking for many emerging theater and performance artists. Considering the private as deeply political, the inclusion of their own autobiographies has been a crucial element of their artistic practice. Rather than being the purpose of their work, however, autobiography is for them primarily a method. In this respect, She She Pop’s work is deeply rooted in conceptual performance art of the 1960s and 70s, particularly with regard to the use of (self)-instructions and tasked-based approaches. 

In this course we will practice and reflect on She She Pop’s particular approach to “autobiography as method.” Classes will be taught partly in weekly sessions and partly in four hour-long hands-on workshops with members of the collective. We will study She She Pop’s art-historical influences by conceptual (performance) artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, Marina Abramović, Valie Export, Chris Burden, Sophie Calle and Forced Entertainment. Investigating techniques of (self-)instructions, tasked-based performance art and conceptual rule-making for both rehearsal and performance, students will be asked to develop short autobiographical solo or group performances, which will be presented at the end of the semester. No previous experience in performance art or theater is necessary. 

Syllabus

UB250 Berlin Archipelago – An Introduction to Architecture and Urbanism

Through excursions, lectures, tutorials and studio time, this course aims to provide students with an introduction to architecture and urbanism in Berlin.
Over the last 100 years, Berlin has witnessed six different political systems that have each left their legacy – or scars – on its urban fabric. In this course, we will discuss prevailing controversies over the spatial planning of Berlin, from the post-GDR “critical” reconstruction of the historic center to innovative contemporary approaches such as cooperative urban development. We will visit the most important projects of recent years, such as Haus der Statistik, a socialist building complex at Alexanderplatz that has become a model project for grassroots initiatives engaged in art, politics and urban planning; or the Fluss Bad Berlin – a bottom-up project, planned to convert the Spree river canal into a public pool, which would run right through the World Heritage Museum Island.

The design brief will focus on a small spatial intervention in public space. Students will be required to develop, visualize and present an architectural concept. In the course of the semester they will become familiar with methods of spatial analysis, design, drawing and model making. 

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Ethics and Politics:

AR295 Politics of Modern Middle Eastern Art 

Module: Artists, Genres, Movements

Instructor: Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 15:45-19:00

In this course, we survey the political underpinnings of Arab art in the 20th century, and the socio-political conditions that shaped cultural production in the region. Whether it is under the Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq or under Egypt’s pan-Arabism championed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, painting and sculpture in addition to film and performance have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this widespread government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge the authorities through subversive movements and practices, which we will address at different moments in the semester. This course, through its focus on creative practices and strategic use of the arts, will attempt to shed light on an often neglected dimension of the modern history of the Arab World and other parts of the Middle East.

Syllabus

FA292 Animism. Nature as Self.

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques

Instructor: Andreas Weber

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15

Our worldviews are undergoing fundamental change. In the “Anthropocene,” boundaries between the human sphere and animals and plants, stones and waters, the atmosphere and the whole “earth system” are dissolving. There are many emerging work hypotheses trying to come to terms with this. One which is gaining particular traction in both humanities and the natural sciences is animism, the cosmology of indigenous cultures which believe the world is made of persons, not things, with whom humans must act in togetherness. The seminar will explore the prominent position of animism in anthropology, philosophy, biology and the arts. Students will engage with these viewpoints on theoretical, practical and artistic levels. We will discuss, among others, ideas of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Philippe Descola, Edoardo Kohn, Freya Mathews, Bayo Akomolafe, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bruno Latour, Francisco Varela and Karen Barad. In practical terms, we will experiment with animistic processes through guided embodied experiences and reflection, also in outdoor settings and in direct contact with the non-human living world. As for animistic cultures the human participation in the broader “society of being” needs to be expressed and enhanced through painting, sculpture, dance and song (all of which from a western perspective are called “art”), the participants will develop their own artistic ways of reflecting on the experiences and the content of the seminar. For mid-term and end-of-term grades, students can choose to either write an academic essay or devise open-media artistic projects (e.g. fiction and non-fiction narratives, paintings, videos, podcasts or visual essays).

Syllabus

HI255 Research-Creation: Developing Artistic Approaches to post- 1990 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in immigration societies in Germany, in South Africa, and in Colombia

Module: Media, Practices, Techniques

Instructor: Marion Detjen

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Thu, 14:00-17:15
 
This cross-campus class, taught in collaboration with Universidad de los Andes (Bogotà, Colombia) and University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) explores the way research-based art-making generates new kinds of knowledge about movement, migration and displacement as urgent global challenges. This semester, the “research” dimension focuses on the question of how, in post-conflict societies after 1990, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have failed or succeeded, and how they dealt with migration and racism in a globalized world, while they themselves were still attached to the nation-state principle. The class at BCB will work specifically on the German truth commissions in the 1990s, set up by the German parliament to examine the consequences of the GDR dictatorship that had just been overthrown. At this time, there were incidents of racist attacks across the country. In shared sessions with the Bogotá and the Johannesburg groups we will learn about Colombian and South African experiences with Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, listen to lectures and artist talks, and discuss individual student projects within a global perspective. In the “creation” part of the course, a team of young artists and BCB alums (Lena Kocutar, Victoria Martínez, Dachil Sado, and Tamar Maare) will, during a weekend-long workshop in March and in individual sessions, help students translate their research projects into artistic projects, in a medium of their choice. Projects from all three campuses will be presented in public exhibitions in Berlin, Bogotá and Johannesburg, and on the Research Creation website. The art production will be supervised, and the exhibition curated by BCB Professor of Art and Society, Dorothea von Hantelmann.  

Syllabus

Economics Advanced Modules

EC311 Experimental Ethics

Modules: Ethics and Economic Analysis

Coordinator: Marcus Giamattei

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 17:30-19:00 & Tue, 10:45-12:15

This course aims at highlighting how economics and ethics intersect in various ways: Is it legitimate to dump our trash in lesser-developed countries because it is, economically speaking, “efficient”? Should a company be allowed to bribe officials in foreign countries in order to do business there? Should we encourage markets for organs or blood if they are efficiently allocating “resources''? The course will discuss experimental studies from psychology and economics on the importance of morality for human behavior. These include intuition in moral judgments, diffusion of responsibility, self-serving bias, crowding-out, diffusion of responsibility, self-serving bias, crowding-out, replacement logic, pivotality, and others. Students learn how to deal with terminology and literature relevant to ethics and economics, as well as how to engage in independent, argumentation-based discussion. They reproduce experimental findings in class to allow for an experience-based, in-depth discussion of the results.

Syllabus

EC312 Cost Benefit Analysis 

Modules: Choice, Resources, and Development

Instructor: Israel Waichman

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 15:45-19:00

Did you ever ask yourself how economists make practical use of their studies in making real-life choices? Or how microeconomics is related to actual business and government decisions? This course deals with an important application of microeconomics theory to real-life decision making. Cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) is a practical tool used by governments, regulatory bodies and other agencies as an aid in devising public policy. CBA is a policy assessment method that quantifies the value of policy to all members of society in monetary terms. It is related to financial analysis or capital budgeting as done by private firms, but is distinct in that the goal is not to maximize profits but rather to seek the most beneficial course of action from a larger social perspective. Cost-benefit analysis is a legal prerequisite in several countries, including the U.S.A., U.K., Canada and Australia, before decisions are taken on projects related to the environment, health, transportation, etc. For instance, the question of whether or not to ban smoking in public places, or whether to build a new terminal in Heathrow airport. The goal of this course is to introduce students to cost-benefit analysis. We first study the microeconomic foundations of CBA. Then, we study particular issues in CBA (such as identification of costs and benefits, discounting, dealing with uncertainty, valuing intangible goods, shadow prices etc.). 

Prerequisites: Mathematics for Economics and Microeconomics.

Syllabus
 

Ethics and Politics Advanced Modules

The following courses are cross-listed with Politics:

PL320 Philosophy at the Limit: Friedrich Nietzsche

Module: Movements and Thinkers

Instructor: Tracy Colony

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

The influence of Nietzsche’s work upon later continental philosophy is perhaps unparalleled. In this advanced course we will read selections from his major works in order to introduce central themes of his philosophy such as the will to power, the eternal recurrence and the death of God. Reading chronologically, we will trace through the development of Nietzsche’s thought with special attention to Nietzsche’s understanding of metaphysics and his preparations for an alternative future for philosophy. Of particular importance will be the role which Nietzsche’s understanding of genealogy plays in these preparations. In this course we will also chart the history of the reception of Nietzsche’s philosophy and become familiar with seminal works in the secondary literature such as those of Heidegger, Deleuze, Derrida, and Malabou. All texts will be read in translation, however, parallel readings in the original German will be supported and encouraged. 

Syllabus

PL351 At Home in the Universe – On Cosmological Politics, Or What Place for the Human in Modern Cosmology?

Module: Movements and Thinkers

Instructor: Adrien De Sutter

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Fri, 9:00-10:30
 

PS306 The European Union: Its Institutions, Laws, and Citizens

Module: Law, Politics and Society

Instructor: Berit Ebert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00

Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the rise of populist movements, and a growing suspicion towards international organizations do not seem to offer a promising future for the European Union. Nevertheless, the concept of the European Union’s supranationality offers a unique history of international collaboration that was developed with clear goals by founding members. This course will examine this early context of the former European Community for Steel and Coal —the forerunner of the Union—and the bloc’s painstaking integration. It will also analyze the institutions that have developed over the more than 70-year history and major cases tried in the European Court of Justice (CJEU) that have shaped the Union’s political advancements. We will discuss the European Union’s “democracy deficit”, the debate about European public sphere, and look at political processes, including the European electoral-law reform and the reform of the judicial system in Poland, which sheds new light on the way the EU deals with gender and the rule of law. Court cases will lend insight into how the European Union’s citizens used—or tried to use—established mechanisms to advocate for their interests. We will also engage with original EU policy documents to provide with the skills of analyzing and interpreting them. Finally, the course will provide an understanding of the Union’s supranational characteristics in comparison with those of the nation-state and of traditional international organizations, enabling a clearer judgement regarding the future of the European project as well as a keener evaluation of broader political processes. The importance of civic engagement as a component of politics will be key in thinking about our own future and about how to shape our lives.

Syllabus

PS335 Poverty, Inequality and Social Policy in the United States 

Module: Law, Politics and Society

Instructor: Laura Kettel

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 9:00-12:15

How does the state ensure the welfare of its citizens? Who decides who gets what, and under what conditions? How are resources redistributed fairly to alleviate inequality? What can the state demand of its citizens in exchange for social welfare? These questions are at the heart of decisions concerning social policy and the welfare state. Social policy directly affects how individuals and groups fare, and how they perceive the role of governments, and their own role, in society. In considering these questions, this course will introduce students to the politics of social policy and inequality in the United States, and examine concepts of social control and poverty governance. The first part of the course provides an overview of U.S. social policy: we consider what policies fall under this umbrella, the role of the state in providing welfare to its citizens, as well as contestations over social rights and the provision of benefits. Further, we will engage critically with constructions of target populations, including (racialized) narratives of deservingness, concepts of paternalism and social control, and the role of spatial inequality. The second part considers three major social policy domains: housing and homelessness, healthcare, and cash assistance/poverty relief. We will explore what policies exist to respond to pressing social issues and how they have developed, and how the respective target groups and their perceived deservingness affects policy design and eligibility requirements. By the end of the course, students will be able understand important concepts in social policy and political science research, understand and discuss the political, economic, socio-cultural, and institutional factors shaping the development and the design of social policy in the United States, and critique coverage of social policy developments and narratives about poverty. 

Syllabus

PS355 War, Peace, and Mediation: Theory and Cases

Module: Law, Politics, and Society // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Nassim Abi Ghanem

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

How and why do violent conflicts erupt and how are they resolved? Why do some states help in resolving conflicts? When are conflict and war amenable to the possibility of being ‘managed’? When is intervention essential or a mediation by third parties merited? Why do attempts at conflict resolution have a mixed record of success? Why do contexts with peace agreements relapse into violent conflict? This course covers the basic concepts in conflict life cycles from prevention to reconciliation. The course also exposes students to theoretical and empirical conceptualizations of conflict management and mediation, featuring a combination of scholarly, policy and practitioner perspectives on international relations in conflict management contexts. Moreover, we will also explore how local civic engagement and mediation by civil society are becoming more prominent in intra-state conflict management processes. In doing so, we pay attention to issues in contemporary debates on the various post-conflict processes—such as disarmament and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR)—analyzing their relevance to creating sustainable and durable peace.

Syllabus

PS386 Governance and Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

Module: Law, Politics, and Society 

Instructor: Markus Schultze-Kraft

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 15:45-19:00

This course aims to build students’ analytical skills in understanding the relationship between governance and transnational organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping them to apply these skills to policy issues related to curbing violent criminal activities and addressing both criminal and crimilegal patterns of governance. From Mexico to Argentina, many regions and locales in the sub-continent are today immersed in a virtual vortex of criminal violence and insecurity. Though not the only cause and driver, organized criminal activities are typically identified as contributing significantly to citizen insecurity and bad governance. The global COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this situation across the region. The course builds on the lecturer’s long-time experience as an analyst of organized crime, violent conflict and crimilegal governance in Latin America and other parts of the global South and will follow a comparative approach, based on detailed analysis of a number of country cases. It will also be participatory, and small groups of students will share responsibility for analyzing the cases chosen for study.

PT328 When the People Rule: Popular Sovereignty in Theory and Practice

Module: Law, Politics and Society / Global Social Theory

Instructor: Ewa Atanassow (BCB), Thomas Bartscherer (Bard Annandale)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 15:45-19:00

Democracy, a Greek word, means the rule of the people. Yet what does it mean for the people to rule? This question is at the heart of many contemporary geopolitical battles, not least, the ideological and material war between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Western liberal alliance led by the United States. This question also has a long and complex history. Our aim in this course will be to interrogate popular sovereignty as a principle, examining its origins in antiquity; the philosophical arguments, both ancient and modern that have been advanced for and against it; and the relationship between this principle and the practice of self-governance in two particular cases: the early American republic, and modern Russia. 

Issues we address include: what constitutes “a people,” in what sense can it be regarded as sovereign, and how is inclusion within, or exclusion from, the sovereign people determined? How has the rule by the people been understood historically? Why has it been regarded as legitimate or good? How is the will of the people conceptualized and expressed? What is the relationship between “public opinion” and popular sovereignty? The course will encompass theoretical accounts as well as empirical and policy analysis, aiming to bring diverse discourses into conversation. 

This course will be taught simultaneously at Bard College Berlin and Smolny Beyond Borders, with occasional joint meetings and student collaboration across campuses. We will also host several guest speakers.

Syllabus

PT351 Civic Engagement

Module: Civic Engagement and Social Justice // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Kerry Bystrom, Faiza zu Lynar, Galina Yarmanova

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 15:45-17:15

Over the semester we will explore historical, philosophical and practical elements of civic engagement while also investigating the underlying question of what it means to be an engaged citizen in the early 21st century. Together, students will address issues r​elated to political participation, civil society, associational life, social justice, and personal responsibility, particularly in relation to the liberal democratic order (and its rupture). The class reflects a balance between theory and practice, exploring notions of civic life while supporting students to be active and thoughtful participants in the communities in which they are situated.  More specifically, we will begin to map the local community engagement landscape in Berlin (with all its fault lines) and connect this into theories of civil society and histories of citizen activism in Europe and globally. This work will feed into engaged student research, participation in local and global initiatives, hand-on project development trainings, and the crafting by each student of a project proposal aimed at improving their local communities (however defined). The course will feature seminar discussions, workshops on interviewing and organizing, and field trips to relevant sites, as well as guest lectures by scholars, activists, members of local NGOs, government officials and foundation representatives.

Syllabus

SE294 Social Justice & Transnational Feminism 

Module: Global Social Theory / Civic Engagement and Social Justice

Instructors: Cassandra Ellerbe and Aysuda Kölemen 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 10:45-13:45

This course acknowledges the importance of transnational feminism as a toolkit for social-justice activism. Transnationalism has been a key element of socialist and intersectional feminist movements from their very inception. In the early twentieth century, Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai worked closely together to advocate for the rights of women workers everywhere. African-American poet, teacher, and activist Audre Lorde connected with her peers across the world – including Black women in Germany – to jointly develop strategies for survival and battle sexual, racial, and class oppression. More recently, scholars and activists Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser, in their Feminism for 99%, have built on the accomplishments of the International Women’s Strike (2017) and mobilized for feminist solidarity across borders. Sudents will critically evaluate the subject of feminist inquiry and analyze case studies with focus on social justice. Students will also engage with the histories and uses of transnational feminism, identify some of the challenges for transnational feminism and develop tactics to overcome them. Designed jointly by scholars and educators from across the Open Society University Network (AlQuds Bard College in Palestine, American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, Bard College in the United States, Bard College Berlin in Germany, and University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa) and scholars affiliated with Off-University, the course is part of the Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice project. Through a series of shared readings and assignments, students will have a unique opportunity to engage with their peers and professors from OSUN campuses, build alliances locally and internationally, and experiment with forms of expression.

Syllabus

SO202 A Lexicon of Migration

Modules: Global Social Theory / Law, Politics, and Society

Instructor: Zeynep Kivilcim

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30

As one of the most important features of today's globalized world, migration remains highly debated on local, national, and international levels. Migration is assigned various meanings and statuses (high-skilled and low-skilled, legal and illegal, documented and undocumented, forced and voluntary, restricted and unrestricted), which are, in turn, contested in multiple ways through grassroots activism, academic and artistic interventions, as well as the work of local and international NGOs. Today, migration affects everyone regardless of their own migratory status, and many contemporary societies – especially but not exclusively their urban centers – have been described as postmigrant or superdiverse. The course critically explores migration from global and local perspectives, emphasizing the postcolonial and neocolonial power geometries that produce specific forms of mobility. Drawing on a range of primary texts (UN documents, first-person narratives, poetry) and secondary texts from migration studies, cultural studies, anthropology, urban sociology, human geography, and philosophy, students will examine diverse social experiences of migration, as well as a range of related concepts such as belonging, border, citizenship, and solidarity, among others. The in-class discussions, guest lectures, off-campus visits, as well as group and individual assignments aim at deepening students’ understanding of migration regimes, migration discourses, and migrant infrastructures in various geographical and historical contexts. Designed by scholars and educators from across the Bard International Network (AlQuds University in Palestine, American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, Bard College in the United States, Bard College Berlin in Germany), as well as faculty and students from the Mellon-funded Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education (Vassar College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, Bard College, and Bard College Berlin), the course aims at advancing students’ understanding of migration both in the specific local contexts in which they study, as well as from international perspectives. Through a series of joint assignments, students will have a unique opportunity to engage with their peers and professors from other campuses.

Syllabus

SO285 Migration, Space, and Power

Module: Law, Politics, and Society / Global Social Theory/ (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor:  Agata Lisiak

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 9:00-10:30

This course is an invitation to radically rethink migration with the help of two exceptional scholars, teachers, and activists: Rosa Luxemburg and Doreen Massey. Both Luxemburg and Massey were economic thinkers who made long-lasting contributions to their respective disciplines, shaped the political movements they supported, and inspired new generations of scholars and activists. Both were staunch supporters of internationalism and critics of global capitalism. Both conducted research on and advocated for workers’ rights, and both left behind incisive reflections on the potential of solidarity. Rejecting neat, linear theories of development, both also repudiated binary models that juxtaposed the west and the rest, reform and revolution, global and local. Last but not least, both were women in spaces coded masculine – women who refused to conform to the heteropatriarchal gender norms of their social worlds. Considering that “there is no capitalism without migration” (Casas-Cortes et al. 2015), Luxemburg’s and Massey’s critiques of capitalism yield inspiring insights on migration because they engage with political and economic dependencies, colonial legacies, and what Massey called power geometry: the uneven positioning of different individuals and different groups within the global interconnectedness. In dialog with Massey’s notion of a global sense of place, Luxemburg’s theory of the accumulation of capital can help us reframe the sticky connections between migration and capitalism in its current neoliberal guise. Following Massey’s observation that “mobility, and control over mobility, both reflects and reinforces power” and Luxemburg’s insistence that we consider inequality globally and not just locally, we will examine the wide-reaching consequences of capitalism’s expansion into social activities hitherto unclaimed by the market as well as its enduring impact on both lived realities and popular perceptions of migration. In addition to selected texts by Luxemburg and Massey, we will also read a range of complimentary writings on migration, space, and power by Gargi Bhattacharyya, Avtar Brah, Stuart Hall, Katherine McKittrick, Walter Rodney, Edward Said, Harsha Walia, and Lea Ypi, among others.

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Art and Aesthetics:

AR295 Politics of Modern Middle Eastern Art 

Module: Movements and Thinkers

Instructor: Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 15:45-19:00

In this course, we survey the political underpinnings of Arab art in the 20th century, and the socio-political conditions that shaped cultural production in the region. Whether it is under the Baathist regimes of Syria and Iraq or under Egypt’s pan-Arabism championed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, painting and sculpture in addition to film and performance have been employed by various governments as a tool of soft power to propagate their policies to the public not only in their respective states but throughout the region and beyond. Despite this widespread government patronage of the arts, many artists have chosen to challenge the authorities through subversive movements and practices, which we will address at different moments in the semester. This course, through its focus on creative practices and strategic use of the arts, will attempt to shed light on an often neglected dimension of the modern history of the Arab World and other parts of the Middle East.

Syllabus

FA292 Animism. Nature as Self.

Module: Movements and Thinkers

Instructor: Andreas Weber

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15

Our worldviews are undergoing fundamental change. In the “Anthropocene,” boundaries between the human sphere and animals and plants, stones and waters, the atmosphere and the whole “earth system” are dissolving. There are many emerging work hypotheses trying to come to terms with this. One which is gaining particular traction in both humanities and the natural sciences is animism, the cosmology of indigenous cultures which believe the world is made of persons, not things, with whom humans must act in togetherness. The seminar will explore the prominent position of animism in anthropology, philosophy, biology and the arts. Students will engage with these viewpoints on theoretical, practical and artistic levels. We will discuss, among others, ideas of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Philippe Descola, Edoardo Kohn, Freya Mathews, Bayo Akomolafe, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bruno Latour, Francisco Varela and Karen Barad. In practical terms, we will experiment with animistic processes through guided embodied experiences and reflection, also in outdoor settings and in direct contact with the non-human living world. As for animistic cultures the human participation in the broader “society of being” needs to be expressed and enhanced through painting, sculpture, dance and song (all of which from a western perspective are called “art”), the participants will develop their own artistic ways of reflecting on the experiences and the content of the seminar. For mid-term and end-of-term grades, students can choose to either write an academic essay or devise open-media artistic projects (e.g. fiction and non-fiction narratives, paintings, videos, podcasts or visual essays).

Syllabus

HI255 Research-Creation: Developing Artistic Approaches to post- 1990 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in immigration societies in Germany, in South Africa, and in Colombia

Module: Global Social Theory / Law Politics and Society 

Instructor: Marion Detjen

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Thu, 14:00-17:15

This cross-campus class, taught in collaboration with Universidad de los Andes (Bogotà, Colombia) and University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) explores the way research-based art-making generates new kinds of knowledge about movement, migration and displacement as urgent global challenges. This semester, the “research” dimension focuses on the question of how, in post-conflict societies after 1990, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have failed or succeeded, and how they dealt with migration and racism in a globalized world, while they themselves were still attached to the nation-state principle. The class at BCB will work specifically on the German truth commissions in the 1990s, set up by the German parliament to examine the consequences of the GDR dictatorship that had just been overthrown. At this time, there were incidents of racist attacks across the country. In shared sessions with the Bogotá and the Johannesburg groups we will learn about Colombian and South African experiences with Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, listen to lectures and artist talks, and discuss individual student projects within a global perspective. In the “creation” part of the course, a team of young artists and BCB alums (Lena Kocutar, Victoria Martínez, Dachil Sado, and Tamar Maare) will, during a weekend-long workshop in March and in individual sessions, help students translate their research projects into artistic projects, in a medium of their choice. Projects from all three campuses will be presented in public exhibitions in Berlin, Bogotá and Johannesburg, and on the Research Creation website. The art production will be supervised, and the exhibition curated by BCB Professor of Art and Society, Dorothea von Hantelmann.  

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Literature and Rhetoric:

GM362 The German Public Sphere

Module: Civic Engagement and Social Justice // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate and Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Michael Thomas Taylor

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This course engages pressing debates in German media today, asking about the issues and forms of discourse that shape German politics and social life. It is structured around visits to cultural sites, events, and organizations in Berlin, along with topics chosen from current media by the participants in cooperation with the instructor. These may include visits to museums, political parties, NGOs, or media producers. Reflecting the ongoing shift of public life to online venues, we will also examine the virtual presence of these traditionally site-based forms of publicness in relation to old and new media. In addition to the study of current public debates and civic engagement, the purpose of this course is to refine and advance your ability to articulate yourself verbally and in writing through constant vocabulary building.

Students taking the class should have a B2 proficiency level in German or higher. 

Syllabus
 

Literature and Rhetoric Advanced Modules

LT212 Advanced Fiction Writing Workshop

Module: Producing Literature

Instructor: Clare Wigfall

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time:

With over seventeen years’ experience of teaching creative writing, British author Clare Wigfall has developed a method that aims to break down the barriers that inhibit so that the creative process can come naturally. Under her gentle guidance, you will develop a body of new work, learning craft organically through practice and exposure to great writing. The carefully-structured workshops are a springboard, designed to stimulate ideas and encourage experimentation; one or two might even move off campus – how might a museum prove a source of inspiration, for example? A park? The city we live in? Focus will be given to new genres you might not yet have considered, such as fantasy, or magic realism, or how you might weave myths and legends into your work. Also explored will be the subject of how our own experience can shape our fiction, while also considering the issue of how writing fiction can give us scope to imagine places and experiences we’ve never lived in our own lives. You have already begun to develop a voice that is uniquely your own, and will take this further now with opportunities to share your work with a group of fellow writers who you can trust to give you invaluable critique. Alongside this, the reading element of this course will be key; from writers such as Toni Morrison to Carmen Maria Machado, or Katherine Mansfield to Neil Gaiman, the selected reading will cast the net wide to throw you in to the literary sea, also introducing you to writing about writing from authors such as Zadie Smith and Alexander Chee. With a proven track record of inspiring her students to produce award-winning, publishable writing, Clare will talk with you about how to submit work to literary journals. Plus, there’ll be a chance to share new work with the world with a public reading.

Open to students who have already taken a foundational fiction workshop, as well as new students with some writing experience under their belt. You are very welcome to make contact with Clare before registration to introduce yourself and ask any questions.

SyllabusA
SyllabusB

LT289 The Neoliberal God: Ireland in Eight Novels
 
Module: Theories of Literature and Culture 

Instructor: Catherine Toal

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00
 
The last decade has witnessed a new 'renaissance' in Irish literature, characterized by a revived experimentalism in the novel, and the emergence of high-quality forums for the publication of fiction, poetry and criticism. For the first time, there is no gender disparity in literary culture. These developments have been linked to a rediscovery of the value of the arts in the aftermath of the economic boom of the 1990s and early 2000s, and to the putative "liberalization" of Irish society, represented by the outcomes of two landmark referendums, on marriage equality in 2015, and on abortion rights in 2018. The official resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998 prepared the basis for exchanges between writers of different backgrounds from both sides of the border. Familiar themes from the past still surface in the present, such as the impact of religion and of political conflict arising from the legacy of imperialism. New motifs emerge with historical echoes: migration, in a country depleted by large-scale population decline; race and racialization, in a former colony that benefits from its identification as “European.” In stylistic terms, contemporary Irish writers continue to grapple with the influence of the groundbreaking Modernist icons in their tradition of literature in English, and to transfigure the varieties of social realism developed since independence. This course explores what is new and old in the forms and subject-matter of contemporary Irish literature, focusing on the most significant works from recent years by, among others, Anna Burns, Eimear McBride, Donal Ryan, Kevin Barry, and Jan Carson. 

Syllabus

LT304 “Borderless and Brazen”*: a Comparative US-German Literary Perspective on the Black Radical Tradition 

Module: Literary Movements and Forms

Instructor: Kathy-Ann Tan

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This course is being offered as an OSUN online course and will include students joining from other OSUN universities.
 
*This is the English translation of the title of Afro-German poet May Ayim’s poem, “grenzenlos und unverschämt – ein gedicht gegen die deutsche scheinheit“ (1995)
 
In this course, we will trace the trajectory of the Black radical tradition through a comparative US-German literary perspective. Our point of departure will be its early beginnings as charted out in W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1903 essay, “The Souls of Black Folk”, and we will continue with the New Negro/Harlem Renaissance and Black Arts movements of the 1920s and 1960s respectively. We will acknowledge the transatlantic dimension of the Black radical tradition by exploring the poetic and essayistic writings of Black German scholars such as Maisha Eggers, Ika Hügel-Marshall and May Ayim, as well as Audre Lorde, a central figure whose work was highly influential on both sides of the Atlantic. We will examine how the Black radical tradition is significant not only as a body of critical thought that seeks to bring about a restructuring of political, economic, and social relations, but also as a literary movement that carves out a space of memory, acknowledgement, empowerment and freedom by way of the poetic imagination.Texts will include: Ika Hügel-Marshall, Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany (1993 in English), Maisha Eggers, “Knowledges of (Un-) Belonging - Epistemic Change as a defining mode for Black Women's Activism in Germany. Remapping Black Germany” (2016), May Ayim, Blues in Black and White (2003 in English), Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (1984), W.E.B. Du Bois,“The Souls of Black Folk” (1903), Alain Locke, The New Negro (1925), Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1952), Fred Moten, In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition (2003).

Syllabus

LT333 German Literary History

Module: Literary Movements and Forms

Instructor: Martin Widmann

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 9:00-12:15

This course is designed to give students a broad and comprehensive understanding of German literary history, from the emergence of German as a written language to the present day. Through readings of representative works from formative periods such as Enlightenment, Romanticism and Modernism, and literary movements such as Naturalism and Expressionism, we will explore the evolution of aesthetic ideas within their historical contexts. We will also consider how the writing of national literary histories establishes and reflects ideas about national identity at a given time. Our survey will pay attention to canonized writers such as Lessing, Goethe, Kleist, Heine, Droste-Hülshoff, Rilke, Thomas Mann, Bachmann or Herta Müller. To complement these readings, we will also consider historically marginalized voices and outsiders, and engage with renegotiations of established narratives through seminal texts of literary theory like Deleuze/Guattari’s concept of “minor literature” or Sylvia Bovenschen’s Imaginierte Weiblichkeit. Conversations with guest speakers from the literary world will offer contemporary perspectives on selected key texts.

Reading material and discussions will be in German and English. Students should have at least German B1 competence. Throughout the course, students will develop specialist vocabulary and skills enabling them to write about and discuss literary works in German.

Syllabus

 
The following courses are cross-listed with Ethics and Politics and Politics:
 
GM362 The German Public Sphere

Module: Theories of Literature and Culture / Writer and World // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate and Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Michael Thomas Taylor

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This course engages pressing debates in German media today, asking about the issues and forms of discourse that shape German politics and social life. It is structured around visits to cultural sites, events, and organizations in Berlin, along with topics chosen from current media by the participants in cooperation with the instructor. These may include visits to museums, political parties, NGOs, or media producers. Reflecting the ongoing shift of public life to online venues, we will also examine the virtual presence of these traditionally site-based forms of publicness in relation to old and new media. In addition to the study of current public debates and civic engagement, the purpose of this course is to refine and advance your ability to articulate yourself verbally and in writing through constant vocabulary building.

Students taking the class should have a B2 proficiency level in German or higher. 

Syllabus

Politics Advanced Modules

PS369 Critical Geopolitics
 
Module: Advanced Topics in Global and Comparative Politics

Instructor: Boris Vormann

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Coures time: Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30

As a field of study, geopolitics examines the spatial dimensions of interstate power relations. Modern thinking about geopolitics emerged at the turn to the 20th century, as the British Empire unraveled and new colonial and hegemonial disputes erupted. After World War II, geopolitics lost much of its analytical lure, due to the fact that the Nazi regime had built many of its political claims on such geostrategic considerations (Lebensraum). After the fall of the Iron Curtain, new transportation and communication technologies seemed to make distance and space irrelevant categories for political thinking and action, given the plummeting of transaction costs and globalization processes. Climate change and depleting resources, renationalization tendencies, large-scale infrastructural development projects and resurfacing territorial conflicts have all led to a reinvigoration of geopolitical thinking and practice in the very recent past. What potential futures does this imply for cooperation and for conflict? This course critically engages conceptual and theoretical texts in geopolitics, examines historical examples, and explores three of today’s most pertinent geopolitical relationships: China’s one-belt-one road initiative, Russia’s territorial ambitions, and the reinvention of transatlantic relations.

Syllabus

SO324 Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences 

Module: Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences

Instructor: Nassim Abi Ghanem

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 14:00-15:30

Why do people vote the way they do? Why does violence erupt in some states while in other states it does not? Can development aid improve democratization and development? One way of answering these questions is through effective analysis of quantitative data. This course focuses on the different strategies of quantitative statistical analysis. We explore how to read, understand, and critically assess quantitative research. Students will engage in quantitative research design, testing hypotheses, unpacking causal mechanisms, and applying probability and regression analysis tools. Finally, students will learn how to present the interpreted data logically and systematically in research output. In this course, students will also learn the basics of R software to conduct statistical analysis. Towards the end of the course, we will also briefly explore social network analysis (SNA) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as alternative quantitative social science methods. 

Syllabus

The following courses are cross-listed with Ethics and Politics:

PL320 Philosophy at the Limit: Friedrich Nietzsche

Module: Philosophy and Society 

Instructor: Tracy Colony

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

The influence of Nietzsche’s work upon later continental philosophy is perhaps unparalleled. In this advanced course we will read selections from his major works in order to introduce central themes of his philosophy such as the will to power, the eternal recurrence and the death of God. Reading chronologically, we will trace through the development of Nietzsche’s thought with special attention to Nietzsche’s understanding of metaphysics and his preparations for an alternative future for philosophy. Of particular importance will be the role which Nietzsche’s understanding of genealogy plays in these preparations. In this course we will also chart the history of the reception of Nietzsche’s philosophy and become familiar with seminal works in the secondary literature such as those of Heidegger, Deleuze, Derrida, and Malabou. All texts will be read in translation, however, parallel readings in the original German will be supported and encouraged. 

Syllabus

PL351 At Home in the Universe – On Cosmological Politics, Or What Place for the Human in Modern Cosmology?

Module: Philosophy and Society 

Instructor: Adrien De Sutter

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Cosmologies tell the story of the universe. They speak of its beginnings, its evolution, and our place with it. They are stories of order out of chaos, the coming together of the Earth and the stars, and the structure of the heavens. Yet even tales of cosmos have their story of origin – their time and their place. Over age and distance, the practice of cosmology –that is the activity of thinking the world in its totality– has long provided a sense of orientation, order, meaning, and belonging. However, the last centuries have seen the rise of the modern physical cosmos that some interpreters describe as “indifferent” and even “pointless.” Taking this perspective as our point of departure, the course asks what, if anything, risks being lost from our modern cosmology? From the scientific to the anthropological, the indigenous to the philosophical, the literary to the mythological, and from antiquity to (post)modernity, our aim will be to explore the many meanings of “cosmology” and to reflect on its possible purpose. Working towards an understanding of the cosmos and of the human’s shifting place with and within it, the course has three parts. In a first part, we will explore the rise of a modern cosmology seeking to understand its particular characterisation of nature. In a second part, in response to recent currents in science studies and anthropology, we will aim to problematize this modern cosmology by revealing the inevitable political dimensions that underpin it. Finally, in a third part, we will explore and engage with several cosmic variations, cosmologies otherwise described as feminist, communist, and/or material/spiritual.

PS306 The European Union: Its Institutions, Laws, and Citizens

Module: Public Policy / Advanced Topics in Global and Comparative Politics

Instructor: Berit Ebert

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 15:45-19:00

Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the rise of populist movements, and a growing suspicion towards international organizations do not seem to offer a promising future for the European Union. Nevertheless, the concept of the European Union’s supranationality offers a unique history of international collaboration that was developed with clear goals by founding members. This course will examine this early context of the former European Community for Steel and Coal —the forerunner of the Union—and the bloc’s painstaking integration. It will also analyze the institutions that have developed over the more than 70-year history and major cases tried in the European Court of Justice (CJEU) that have shaped the Union’s political advancements. We will discuss the European Union’s “democracy deficit”, the debate about European public sphere, and look at political processes, including the European electoral-law reform and the reform of the judicial system in Poland, which sheds new light on the way the EU deals with gender and the rule of law. Court cases will lend insight into how the European Union’s citizens used—or tried to use—established mechanisms to advocate for their interests. We will also engage with original EU policy documents to provide with the skills of analyzing and interpreting them. Finally, the course will provide an understanding of the Union’s supranational characteristics in comparison with those of the nation-state and of traditional international organizations, enabling a clearer judgement regarding the future of the European project as well as a keener evaluation of broader political processes. The importance of civic engagement as a component of politics will be key in thinking about our own future and about how to shape our lives.

Syllabus

PS335 Poverty, Inequality and Social Policy in the United States 

Module: Public Policy 

Instructor: Laura Kettel

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Wed, 9:00-12:15

How does the state ensure the welfare of its citizens? Who decides who gets what, and under what conditions? How are resources redistributed fairly to alleviate inequality? What can the state demand of its citizens in exchange for social welfare? These questions are at the heart of decisions about social policy and the welfare state. Social policy directly affects how individuals and groups fare, and how they perceive the role of governments, and their own role, in society. In considering these questions, this course will introduce students to the politics of social policy and inequality in the United States, and examine concepts of social control and poverty governance. The first part of the course provides an overview of U.S. social policy: we consider what policies fall under this umbrella, the role of the state in providing welfare to its citizens, as well as contestations over social rights and the provision of benefits. Further, we will engage critically with constructions of target populations, including (racialized) narratives of deservingness, concepts of paternalism and social control, and the role of spatial inequality. The second part considers three major social policy domains: housing and homelessness, healthcare, and cash assistance/poverty relief. We will explore what policies exist to respond to pressing social issues and how they have developed, and how the respective target groups and their perceived deservingness affects policy design and eligibility requirements. By the end of the course, students will be able understand important concepts in social policy and political science research, understand and discuss the political, economic, socio-cultural, and institutional factors shaping the development and the design of social policy in the United States, and critique coverage of social policy developments and narratives about poverty. 

Syllabus

PS355 War, Peace, and Mediation: Theory and Cases

Module: Public Policy // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Nassim Abi Ghanem

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue & Thu, 17:30-19:00

How and why do violent conflicts erupt and how are they resolved? Why do some states help in resolving conflicts? When are conflict and war amenable to the possibility of being ‘managed’? When is intervention essential or a mediation by third parties merited? Why do attempts at conflict resolution have a mixed record of success? Why do contexts with peace agreements relapse into violent conflict? This course covers the basic concepts in conflict life cycles from prevention to reconciliation. The course also exposes students to theoretical and empirical conceptualizations of conflict management and mediation, featuring a combination of scholarly, policy and practitioner perspectives on international relations in conflict management contexts. Moreover, we will also explore how local civic engagement and mediation by civil society are becoming more prominent in intra-state conflict management processes. In doing so, we pay attention to issues in contemporary debates on the various post-conflict processes—such as disarmament and reintegration (DDR) and security sector reform (SSR)—analyzing their relevance to creating sustainable and durable peace.

Syllabus

PS386 Governance and Transnational Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean

Module: Public Policy

Instructor: Markus Schultze-Kraft

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 15:45-19:00

This course aims to build students’ analytical skills in understanding the relationship between governance and transnational organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping them to apply these skills to policy issues related to curbing violent criminal activities and addressing both criminal and crimilegal patterns of governance. From Mexico to Argentina, many regions and locales in the sub-continent are today immersed in a virtual vortex of criminal violence and insecurity. Though not the only cause and driver, organized criminal activities are typically identified as contributing significantly to citizen insecurity and bad governance. The global COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this situation across the region. The course builds on the lecturer’s long-time experience as an analyst of organized crime, violent conflict and crimilegal governance in Latin America and other parts of the global South and will follow a comparative approach, based on detailed analysis of a number of country cases. It will also be participatory, and small groups of students will share responsibility for analyzing the cases chosen for study.

PT328 When the People Rule: Popular Sovereignty in Theory and Practice

Module: Philosophy and Society

Instructor: Ewa Atanassow (BCB), Thomas Bartscherer (Bard Annandale)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Tue, 15:45-19:00

Democracy, a Greek word, means the rule of the people. Yet what does it mean for the people to rule? This question is at the heart of many contemporary geopolitical battles, not least, the ideological and material war between Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Western liberal alliance led by the United States. This question also has a long and complex history. Our aim in this course will be to interrogate popular sovereignty as a principle, examining its origins in antiquity; the philosophical arguments, both ancient and modern that have been advanced for and against it; and the relationship between this principle and the practice of self-governance in two particular cases: the early American republic, and modern Russia. 

Issues we address include: what constitutes “a people,” in what sense can it be regarded as sovereign, and how is inclusion within, or exclusion from, the sovereign people determined? How has the rule by the people been understood historically? Why has it been regarded as legitimate or good? How is the will of the people conceptualized and expressed? What is the relationship between “public opinion” and popular sovereignty? The course will encompass theoretical accounts as well as empirical and policy analysis, aiming to bring diverse discourses into conversation. 

This course will be taught simultaneously at Bard College Berlin and Smolny Beyond Borders, with occasional joint meetings and student collaboration across campuses. We will also host several guest speakers.

Syllabus

PT351 Civic Engagement

Module: Civic Engagement and Social Justice // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Kerry Bystrom, Faiza zu Lynar, Galina Yarmanova

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 15:45-17:15

Over the semester we will explore historical, philosophical and practical elements of civic engagement while also investigating the underlying question of what it means to be an engaged citizen in the early 21st century. Together, students will address issues r​elated to political participation, civil society, associational life, social justice, and personal responsibility, particularly in relation to the liberal democratic order (and its rupture). The class reflects a balance between theory and practice, exploring notions of civic life while supporting students to be active and thoughtful participants in the communities in which they are situated.  More specifically, we will begin to map the local community engagement landscape in Berlin (with all its fault lines) and connect this into theories of civil society and histories of citizen activism in Europe and globally. This work will feed into engaged student research, participation in local and global initiatives, hand-on project development trainings, and the crafting by each student of a project proposal aimed at improving their local communities (however defined). The course will feature seminar discussions, workshops on interviewing and organizing, and field trips to relevant sites, as well as guest lectures by scholars, activists, members of local NGOs, government officials and foundation representatives.

Syllabus

SE294 Social Justice & Transnational Feminism 

Module: Global Social Theory / Civic Engagement and Social Justice

Instructors: Cassandra Ellerbe and Aysuda Kölemen 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, 10:45-13:45

This course acknowledges the importance of transnational feminism as a toolkit for social-justice activism. Transnationalism has been a key element of socialist and intersectional feminist movements from their very inception. In the early twentieth century, Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai worked closely together to advocate for the rights of women workers everywhere. African-American poet, teacher, and activist Audre Lorde connected with her peers across the world – including Black women in Germany – to jointly develop strategies for survival and battle sexual, racial, and class oppression. More recently, scholars and activists Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser, in their Feminism for 99%, have built on the accomplishments of the International Women’s Strike (2017) and mobilized for feminist solidarity across borders. Sudents will critically evaluate the subject of feminist inquiry and analyze case studies with focus on social justice. Students will also engage with the histories and uses of transnational feminism, identify some of the challenges for transnational feminism and develop tactics to overcome them. Designed jointly by scholars and educators from across the Open Society University Network (AlQuds Bard College in Palestine, American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, Bard College in the United States, Bard College Berlin in Germany, and University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa) and scholars affiliated with Off-University, the course is part of the Transnational Feminism, Solidarity, and Social Justice project. Through a series of shared readings and assignments, students will have a unique opportunity to engage with their peers and professors from OSUN campuses, build alliances locally and internationally, and experiment with forms of expression.

Syllabus

SO202 A Lexicon of Migration

Modules: Advanced Topics in Global Comparative Politics 
 
Instructor: Zeynep Kivilcim

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30

As one of the most important features of today's globalized world, migration remains highly debated on local, national, and international levels. Migration is assigned various meanings and statuses (high-skilled and low-skilled, legal and illegal, documented and undocumented, forced and voluntary, restricted and unrestricted), which are, in turn, contested in multiple ways through grassroots activism, academic and artistic interventions, as well as the work of local and international NGOs. Today, migration affects everyone regardless of their own migratory status, and many contemporary societies – especially but not exclusively their urban centers – have been described as postmigrant or superdiverse. The course critically explores migration from global and local perspectives, emphasizing the postcolonial and neocolonial power geometries that produce specific forms of mobility. Drawing on a range of primary texts (UN documents, first-person narratives, poetry) and secondary texts from migration studies, cultural studies, anthropology, urban sociology, human geography, and philosophy, students will examine diverse social experiences of migration, as well as a range of related concepts such as belonging, border, citizenship, and solidarity, among others. The in-class discussions, guest lectures, off-campus visits, as well as group and individual assignments aim at deepening students’ understanding of migration regimes, migration discourses, and migrant infrastructures in various geographical and historical contexts. Designed by scholars and educators from across the Bard International Network (AlQuds University in Palestine, American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan, Bard College in the United States, Bard College Berlin in Germany), as well as faculty and students from the Mellon-funded Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement, and Education (Vassar College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, Bard College, and Bard College Berlin), the course aims at advancing students’ understanding of migration both in the specific local contexts in which they study, as well as from international perspectives. Through a series of joint assignments, students will have a unique opportunity to engage with their peers and professors from other campuses.

Syllabus

SO285 Migration, Space, and Power

Module: Advanced Topics in Global and Comparative Politics / (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Agata Lisiak

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 9:00-10:30

This course is an invitation to radically rethink migration with the help of two exceptional scholars, teachers, and activists: Rosa Luxemburg and Doreen Massey. Both Luxemburg and Massey were economic thinkers who made long-lasting contributions to their respective disciplines, shaped the political movements they supported, and inspired new generations of scholars and activists. Both were staunch supporters of internationalism and critics of global capitalism. Both conducted research on and advocated for workers’ rights, and both left behind incisive reflections on the potential of solidarity. Rejecting neat, linear theories of development, both also repudiated binary models that juxtaposed the west and the rest, reform and revolution, global and local. Last but not least, both were women in spaces coded masculine – women who refused to conform to the heteropatriarchal gender norms of their social worlds. Considering that “there is no capitalism without migration” (Casas-Cortes et al. 2015), Luxemburg’s and Massey’s critiques of capitalism yield inspiring insights on migration because they engage with political and economic dependencies, colonial legacies, and what Massey called power geometry: the uneven positioning of different individuals and different groups within the global interconnectedness. In dialog with Massey’s notion of a global sense of place, Luxemburg’s theory of the accumulation of capital can help us reframe the sticky connections between migration and capitalism in its current neoliberal guise. Following Massey’s observation that “mobility, and control over mobility, both reflects and reinforces power” and Luxemburg’s insistence that we consider inequality globally and not just locally, we will examine the wide-reaching consequences of capitalism’s expansion into social activities hitherto unclaimed by the market as well as its enduring impact on both lived realities and popular perceptions of migration. In addition to selected texts by Luxemburg and Massey, we will also read a range of complimentary writings on migration, space, and power by Gargi Bhattacharyya, Avtar Brah, Stuart Hall, Katherine McKittrick, Walter Rodney, Edward Said, Harsha Walia, and Lea Ypi, among others.

Syllabus

The following course is cross-listed with Art and Aesthetics:

FA292 Animism. Nature as Self.

Module: Philosophy and Society

Instructor: Andreas Weber

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 14:00-17:15

Our worldviews are undergoing fundamental change. In the “Anthropocene,” boundaries between the human sphere and animals and plants, stones and waters, the atmosphere and the whole “earth system” are dissolving. There are many emerging work hypotheses trying to come to terms with this. One which is gaining particular traction in both humanities and the natural sciences is animism, the cosmology of indigenous cultures which believe the world is made of persons, not things, with whom humans must act in togetherness. The seminar will explore the prominent position of animism in anthropology, philosophy, biology and the arts. Students will engage with these viewpoints on theoretical, practical and artistic levels. We will discuss, among others, ideas of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Philippe Descola, Edoardo Kohn, Freya Mathews, Bayo Akomolafe, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Bruno Latour, Francisco Varela and Karen Barad. In practical terms, we will experiment with animistic processes through guided embodied experiences and reflection, also in outdoor settings and in direct contact with the non-human living world. As for animistic cultures the human participation in the broader “society of being” needs to be expressed and enhanced through painting, sculpture, dance and song (all of which from a western perspective are called “art”), the participants will develop their own artistic ways of reflecting on the experiences and the content of the seminar. For mid-term and end-of-term grades, students can choose to either write an academic essay or devise open-media artistic projects (e.g. fiction and non-fiction narratives, paintings, videos, podcasts or visual essays).

The following course is cross-listed with Literature and Rhetoric:

GM362 The German Public Sphere

Module: Civic Engagement and Social Justice // (fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate and Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement)

Instructor: Michael Thomas Taylor

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This course engages pressing debates in German media today, asking about the issues and forms of discourse that shape German politics and social life. It is structured around visits to cultural sites, events, and organizations in Berlin, along with topics chosen from current media by the participants in cooperation with the instructor. These may include visits to museums, political parties, NGOs, or media producers. Reflecting the ongoing shift of public life to online venues, we will also examine the virtual presence of these traditionally site-based forms of publicness in relation to old and new media. In addition to the study of current public debates and civic engagement, the purpose of this course is to refine and advance your ability to articulate yourself verbally and in writing through constant vocabulary building.

Students taking the class should have a B2 proficiency level in German or higher. 

Electives

FA107 Ceramics I (Group A)
 
Instructor: Joon Park
 
Credits: 8 ECTS Credits, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Mon, 15:45-19:00
 
This studio course covers the broad ceramics-making techniques at the foundational level. It explores a variety of ceramic materials and methods for the production of functional ware and ceramic art objects. Students learn basic skills of clay preparation, clay recycling, wheel-throwing, hand-building, slip casting, glazing, and applying decorations. The selected works will be glazed and fired in collaboration with the Ceramic Kingdom in Neukoelln. 
 
Please note there is a fee of €50 for participation in this course to cover material expenses and firing processes. For registration, please send a brief statement of interest to Joon Park ([email protected]).

Syllabus

FA107 Ceramics I (Group B)
 
Instructor: Joon Park
 
Credits: 8 ECTS Credits, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Thu, 09:00-12:15
 
This studio course covers the broad ceramics-making techniques at the foundational level. It explores a variety of ceramic materials and methods for the production of functional ware and ceramic art objects. Students learn basic skills of clay preparation, clay recycling, wheel-throwing, hand-building, slip casting, glazing, and applying decorations. The selected works will be glazed and fired in collaboration with the Ceramic Kingdom in Neukoelln. 
 
Please note there is a fee of €50 for participation in this course to cover material expenses and firing processes. For registration, please send a brief statement of interest to Joon Park ([email protected]).

Syllabus

FA157 Dance & Community Building—Utopian Practice in the 21st Century

Instructors: Jacalyn Carley & Prof Ingo Reulecke
 
Credits: 8 ECTS Credits, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Wed, 9:00-12:15
 
What makes a more perfect society? Plato and Socrates began the discussion—and went so far as to provide detailed plans for a utopian community that included a specific number of sheep, liberating women to do soldiering, finance rules, and insisted that dance (‘beautiful movement’) was absolutely necessary. Here, the history of Community Dance begins. In the last 25 years, Community Dance has become a major force in education and European arts. It removes the ‘elite’ from modern dance without compromising artistic integrity while helping, by offering purpose and support, to establish and even redefine ‘community’ for populations in migration, prisons, inner city schools, and conflict zones. From Addis Ababa to Berlin, from Ireland to Iran, Community Dance practice includes performance, film, and other mediums. In this course, the ‘Everyone Can Dance’ idea becomes lived information as classes are divided between hands-on movement workshops and academic lectures providing historical context. Students will be given time, space, and mentoring to create their own Community Dance work presented at the end of the semester. The lectures draw a timeline from the first utopian communities in the early 1900s through Nazi Germany, East Germany to many examples of the expanding notion of Community Dance – including hip-hop – today. No dance experience necessary.

Syllabus

FA188 The Art of Making Videos

Fulfills Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement

Instructor: Janina Schabig

Credits: 8 ECTS Credits, 4 U.S. Credits

Course time: Mon, 15:45-19:00

This beginners’ introduction course teaches the technical foundations of video making. You will be introduced to different kinds of cameras, learn all about your camera and how to use its manual settings, work with natural and studio lighting, record and design your own sound and learn how to edit in Adobe Premiere. We will look at feature films, documentaries, as well as experimental video art and vlogging to examine a range of different creative shooting styles and will use that for inspiration in hands-on workshops and small assignments throughout the semester. We will work on individual as well as group projects and will create a body of work ranging from short sound pieces to full videos. The goal of this course is to give you an understanding of the various creative choices within the art of making a video and the technical knowledge to help realize your visions.

Syllabus

IS331 Berlin Internship Seminar: Working Cultures, Urban Cultures

Fulfills Civic Engagement Certificate requirement 

Instructor: Florian Duijsens, Asli Vatansever

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits (in combination with an internship)

Course time: Thu, 14:00-15:30

Students enrolled in the Bard College Berlin Internship Program are required to complete the Berlin Internship Seminar, an interdisciplinary course designed to accompany the internship experience. We will meet on a weekly basis and discuss contemporary ways of living and working in Berlin and beyond: What do we mean when we talk about work? Do we need to love what we do? What renders work in/visible? How is work gendered and classed? How is work organized temporally and spatially and how does it, in turn, affect the city and its residents? What distinguishes the spaces in which we live and work today? Which new forms of work have recently emerged in Berlin? Which of them seem to thrive? How do Berlin’s art institutions and citizen-activist organizations operate? Besides in-class discussions, invited lectures, and off-campus visits, the seminar offers a platform for the exchange of observations, reflections, and comments on individual internships.

Students must already be in the process of arranging an internship with the Careers Office before registering. If a student has arranged their own internship, they should contact [email protected] to register your internship before enrolling in the course.

Syllabus
 

Language Courses

GM101 German Beginner A1 (Group A)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Instructor: Ursula Kohler

Syllabus

GM101 German Beginner A1 (Group B)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Instructor: Ursula Kohler

Syllabus

GM101 German Beginner A1 (Group C)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 15:45-17:15

Instructor: Ariane Faber

Syllabus

GM150 German Conversation

Credits: 8 ECTS, U.S. credits

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30

Instructor: Ulrike Wagner

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group A) 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Instructor: Tabea Weitz

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group B)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Instructor: Aleksandra Kudriashova

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group C)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Instructor: Tabea Weitz

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group D)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Instructor: Christiane Bethke

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group E)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30

Instructor: Julia Gehring

Syllabus

GM151 German Beginner A2 (Group F)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 15:45-17:15

Instructor: Julia Gehring

Syllabus

GM201 German Intermediate B1 (Group A) 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Instructor: Christine Richter-Nilsson

GM201 German Intermediate B1 (Group B)

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30

Instructor: Christiane Bethke

Syllabus

GM251 German Intermediate B2 (Group A) 

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:30

Instructor: Florian Scherübl

Syllabus

GM251 German Intermediate B2: Über die Kunst zur Sprache: Talking and Writing about Art

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 14:00-15:30
 

GM301 German Advanced C1

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 15:45-17:15

Instructor: Ulrike Harnisch

GM351 German Advanced C2

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Mon, Wed & Fri, 10:45-12:15

Instructor: Ariane Friedländer

GM150 German Conversation

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Instructor: Ulrike Wagner

Course time: Mon & Wed, 14:00-15:30

The course is designed to help students boost their speaking skills and communicate in German with ease and confidence. Understanding and responding to what people speak on the street and in everyday situations poses challenges for many language learners; the course will tackle these challenges hands-on and from multiple angles, always with an eye toward what is most useful for students stepping beyond the “English language bubble” on campus. Classes will be structured around topics of student interest and combine vocabulary building and pronunciation exercises with the creation of various speaking scenarios where students practice expressing themselves spontaneously and explore dialects, accents and modes of intonation. The course is open to students who have completed A1 or have at least a basic understanding of the German language; the objective of the course is to create a comfortable speaking environment for beginners to advanced learners.

GM362 The German Public Sphere

Fulfills the Transnational Media and Journalism Certificate requirement

Instructor: Michael Thomas Taylor

Credits: 8 ECTS, 4 U.S. credits

Course time: Fri, 9:00-12:15

This course engages pressing debates in German media today, asking about the issues and forms of discourse that shape German politics and social life. It is structured around visits to cultural sites, events, and organizations in Berlin, along with topics chosen from current media by the participants in cooperation with the instructor. These may include visits to museums, political parties, NGOs, or media producers. Reflecting the ongoing shift of public life to online venues, we will also examine the virtual presence of these traditionally site-based forms of publicness in relation to old and new media. In addition to the study of current public debates and civic engagement, the purpose of this course is to refine and advance your ability to articulate yourself verbally and in writing through constant vocabulary building.

NB: Students taking the class should have a B2 proficiency level in German or higher.
 
All Bard College Berlin language courses address the development of skills in reading and listening comprehension, conversation and writing within the context of the European Framework of Languages from level A1 through C2.

Beginner German A1
Emphasis on familiar vocabulary building, listening comprehension and speaking with gradual introduction to grammar and writing skills. 

Beginner German A2
Continued emphasis on listening comprehension and routine communication. Students read and write short, simple texts. 

Intermediate German B1 
Emphasis on communication skills including comprehension of standard speech and descriptive reading passages, topical conversation and simple, descriptive composition. 

Intermediate German B2 
Continued emphasis on communication skills including comprehension of extended speeches and lectures, reading of newspapers and general periodicals, spontaneous conversational interaction with native speakers and writing clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects. 

Advanced German Language C1
Development of listening and reading comprehension levels to include extended speech and some literary texts. Emphasis on conversational and writing skills to express ideas and opinions and present detailed descriptions expressing points of view. 

Advanced German Language C2 
Development of comprehension skills to allow for understanding of all forms of spoken language and written texts. Emphasis on communication skills for the fluent expression of ideas and argument both orally and in written form.