Germany

This course combines seminars and site visits to take students on a cultural, literary journey through the many layers of Berlin. The course takes a historical look at 1920s Berlin, the liberal republic and how the Fascist government came to be. It then goes on to post WW2, when it became a frontline of the Cold War. Students explore the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the birth of Berlin in a new era as a center of creativity. 

In this course, students gain insight into a variety of approaches to ensuring that children grow up healthy and with opportunities to become contributing members of society. The historical roots, current issues, and future challenges related to children’s well-being are addressed. Students gain diverse knowledge and form opinions on a broad spectrum of related topics, including family life, the influence of the turbulent 20th century on youth and education, regional and national differences in educational systems, preventive youth health care, public policy on social services and divorce support, parental leave, and day care provision. Students learn about alternative educational approaches, such as those developed by Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Célestin Freinet, and A. S. Neill. Site visits to relevant museums and exhibitions deepens students’ theoretical learning. The course incorporates guest talks in order to foreground the place of family, schools and child development across societies and cultures.

This course explores how some of the myriad constructions and representations of sex and gender that emerged during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), were performed in private, in public, and in the spaces where the two spheres intersected. Specifically, the course highlights how individuals and artists reacted to and expanded upon societal expectations concerning gender roles, during a period when Berlin became a global center of cultural innovation, artistic exploration, and scientific discovery. The stage and burgeoning film industry offer important documentation and a departure point to explore how German society grappled with the political implications of the First World War. In addition, both offer opportunities to explore how consumerism influenced the ways in which individuals chose to fashion their identities and the spaces around them.

This course examines different farm management and agribusiness management practices and approaches in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Drawing from multidisciplinary perspectives, the course provides students with understanding of the key approaches, issues and themes relating to strategic management in agribusiness (theories, planning), organization theory (explanatory approaches, design principles), interorganizational coordination (cooperation, chain management), fundamentals of innovation and knowledge management, basics of information and knowledge management, and business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

This course consists of an introduction to the major authors and debates in the history of post-45 art. The seminar lays the basis for to further studies and is meant to familiarize students with a set of basic texts that have helped shape and transform our discipline since the mid-20th century. Students read classical and more recent texts by art historians, critics and theoreticians, such as, Claire Bishop, Benjamin Buchloh, T.J. Demos, and Rosalind Krauss, as well as discuss such central concepts as institutional critique, site-specificity, post-modernism, relational aesthetics, post-coloniality and the environmental turn.

This course examines the comparative analysis of women's roles in politics and the challenges they encounter in attaining positions of power within the political arena. The seminar is split into two parts. The first part explores various aspects of women's involvement in politics, such as the historical struggle for women's suffrage, the gender gap in voting behavior, ideology, and political involvement, and their variation across countries and time. The second part focuses on various aspects of women's representation in political institutions, including the challenges they face when seeking public office, their portrayal in the media, their impact on political decision-making, and the relationship between their presence and corruption. Additional topics include the entry of women into politics and the degree of this transformation varying across different countries and regions. Questions covered include: what factors underlie these variations? Why have some political systems successfully integrated women into politics while others lag behind? Do men and women approach politics differently in terms of understanding and engagement? Is there a disparity in political involvement and aspirations between genders? Additionally, how has media coverage affected female candidates? Furthermore, once in power, do women govern differently from men? 

This course introduces both computer game design and development. It includes important computer design concepts and fundamentals to create electronic games using C# and Unity. Students manage paper and digital prototyping, design iteration, and user testing. They also use game scripting and programming, including computer graphics and animation. The audience for this course includes current and aspiring game designers and those interested in all principles of the game creation process. Students from different locations share observations for a multinational/multicultural perspective.

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the improvement of oral and written expression as well as grammar and lexical proficiency. The course covers selected topics on German politics and society within a historical context. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural topics in everyday situations and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the B2.2/C1.1 level according to CEFR, students consolidate their knowledge of grammar and study complex structures and do in-depth study of grammatical structures that are typical of academic writing and its application in text production and reception. The course includes exercises to improve oral and written communication such as doing research, structuring, presenting, and discussing. Writing skills are enhanced through different types of academic texts and handouts. Students critically analyze different types of texts and systematically expand their vocabulary (including abstract vocabulary) and stylistic ways of expression.