Germany

This course introduces students to the grand challenges of today’s world (for example planetary boundaries) and the necessity for a “Great Transformation” toward a sustainable development of our societies. Students examine the systemic characters and the complex dynamics in today’s societies, including the individual, organizational, community, regional, national and international levels and their relations and interactions.

One of the major questions explored in the course is which social actors contribute to a transformation towards sustainable development and how - and in what way this happens, which inertias and obstacles stand in the way and could be overcome? What has the German government done, what is the German parliament doing, what is the function of business, sciences or civil society organizations – what happens in Berlin? The course considers the broadest possible spectrum of approaches, strategies and actors for a reflected change towards a Great Transformation in an exemplary manner, as well as thinking theory and practice together (in the sense of transformative science and shaping the future). Students examine the different national, regional and cultural systems and backgrounds for all this. Specific examples which are part of the pathway to sustainability are green taxes, renewable energy projects, cooperative housing, car-free streets and places, urban farming, or even eco-villages.

Additional topics include concepts like path dependency (path management), Multi-Level Perspective – MLP, social innovation, models of change, change agents, MAP – movement action plan. The course includes relevant sociological theories, i.e. social systems theory, practice theory and real utopias. These will give insights into societal factors for stability as well as for change.

This course introduces students to the methodology and major concepts and theories in the Political Science field of comparative politics. Students learn how to analyze and assess similarities and differences among political systems. Students study and compare the domestic politics, political institutions and conflicts of various countries and through time within single countries. Students learn how to identify and explain political similarities and differences among countries, in the process gaining a critical perspective on politics in the U.S.

The aim of this seminar is to enact the reality of creating an artwork when elements of the agency are taken out of one's hands and are mediated by an institution, budget and timescale. Students are asked to make an artwork in response to a fictitious curator‘s proposal for an exhibition. They are given details of why the curator has picked them and the themes the curator is working with, along with a time scale and budget. The instructor guides them through the process of responding to the curator’s emails along with making their work at the same time as keeping the curators concept and intentions in their head. The course is conceived in line with the art history department's mission of advancing the study of art history and one's understanding of art by way of an active engagement with artistic practice. The course therefore offers students of art history and related disciplines the rare opportunity of assuming the perspective of the artist. Complementing this approach, students are also offered the alternative option of taking on the role of curator.