English

This intensive, hands-on course teaches the use of audio as a medium to tell stories that explore the history, places, and people of Berlin. The course covers storytelling through sounds and interviews, with the goal of producing radio stories and podcasts. Students sharpen research and reporting skills, develop interview techniques, and learn or improve their editing and production abilities. Students engage with Berliners to uncover interesting pieces of the local society and tell captivating stories, learn about the role of radio storytelling in contemporary German society, and conduct on-location production experiences to improve audiocollecting skills. Opportunities are available to use equipment available on campus and acquire basic audio editing skills using dedicated software.

Museum Studies, sometimes called Museology, deals with the birth, development, and operation of the public museum as one of the key institutions of the modern world. Starting in the eighteenth century, museums became one of the instruments whereby nation-states created and democratized national pasts using a repertoire of images and objects that were displayed in purpose-built or adapted architecture (such as the British Museum and the Louvre). Musealization involves removing artworks and other objects from the original context of manufacture or use and re-installing them in a new order according to criteria such as chronology, school, genre, or theme. Since the inception of the public museum, ideas and practices of the exhibition (as well as storage, preservation, classification, and public education) have undergone continuous transformation. The course examines several approaches to key players – director, curator, patron, architect – through case studies, site and/or virtual visits, analyses, review-writing, and a practical exercise in curating. Part I departs from the concept of museum script to consider the agency of curatorship. Part 2 considers forms of agency exercised by modern patrons in public museums. Students research an aspect of curatorship for their term paper.

The course examines various topics in computer game design. The course begins with an introduction to game history and design; user interface, devices, and effect for game; and an industry visit. It then covers 2D and 3D game, platform and team, and software organization. Topics include: types of game, game platforms, design of game, 3D model and kinematics, rendering techniques, collision detection, project management, AI, UI, sound effects, and networking.

This course covers logic and philosophy of qualitative methodology in anthropology and other social sciences. The process of research design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of results and final write-up is elaborated with specific reference to research conducted in Egypt, the wider Arab and Middle Eastern worlds, and elsewhere. The course also discusses the politics and ethics of fieldwork, including protection of the rights of human participants in research projects.

As a sui generis system or system of its own kind, the European Union has been the subject of research and scholarship since its founding days in the 1950s. Not only did it develop from the Coal and Steal Community into a fully-fledged economic and partially political union, it also attracted ever more members to join over time, which is specifically true today: Following Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the EU showed unprecedented unity in standing up against Putin and opening its membership door to Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. In this course we focus on both developments: in the first part of the course, we examine they key historical stages to understand how the EU became an ever-deeper Union and learn about European integration theory, which can explain the deepening of integration to us. What does the EU regulate and how can we explain the expansion of competences under EU rule? The second part of the course covers different perspectives on the widening of EU integration – why, if at all, should the European Union enlarge? How does widening affect the deepening of EU integration? And how can EU integration support/impede the democracy and security of its candidate countries? Overall, the course combines perspectives on how the EU became what is it with discussions on the potential new Member States in order to allows students to understand the implications of new EU integration.

This course teaches students to use MATLAB for data processing, visualization, simulation, and analysis; apply probability models, estimate their parameters and test their fit to data; apply reliability theory to devices and networks; and perform predictive modelling tasks using regression and time series analysis.

This course is offered through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in Science (UROPS). The intent of UROPS is to formally involve undergraduate students in research activities under the supervision of faculty members in their respective fields of study. UROPS aims to enhance undergraduate students’ knowledge of, and acquire the skills required for, the intellectual process of inquiry. 

This studio course introduces the principles of painting and develops skills in composition, observation, and the use of color. The course includes sessions on technique, brushwork, color theory, and the use of different media.  During the first half of the course assignments concentrate on developing different skills and building techniques, using traditional and experimental approaches to painting. During the second half of the course, students use these skills to develop their own work. Students explore the history of art in Florence in the many galleries and museums and use this knowledge to inform their own work. The course covers the technical developments of the Renaissance, including the study of perspective, line, and form. Through guided instructional sessions, students cultivate their unique artistic styles and engage in individual research, which may involve integrating themes and techniques from both modern and contemporary art. This study is the basis for developing painting skills through engaging with, and responding to, the works and artists they study. The course also has a focus on developing skills for self and peer criticism to discuss the development of the work. Students create a final piece supported by an Artist's Statement, a research breakdown outlining the evolution of the project's concept, and technical development. 

This course primarily targets Masters students but also ambitious Bachelor students who want to get the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of specific wireless communication technologies. After completing this course, students will have deep knowledge about wireless technologies from the IEEE 802 protocol family (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth and ZigBee), technologies for adhoc/mesh networks and classical cellular networks. Additionally, during the labs, students will have the opportunity to study selected technologies or technology-oriented problems in hands-on exercises.