Germany

Climate change, environmental pollution, waste of resources and the decline of biodiversity clearly show mankind that processes of change are necessary. On a policy level, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris climate agreement and the Green New Deal are setting the stage, at the corporate level, standards such as environmental social and governance (ESG) reporting, supply chain integrity and voluntary certification, and diversity are critical to long-term business success. How are companies innovating towards more sustainability today? What are the criteria, the success factors and the strategic approaches to tackle consumer, policy, employee and societal demand for more sustainability? This course looks at current sustainability frameworks, sustainable companies and sustainable innovation. Students get to know and to apply collaborative tools to be better prepared for a business environment. One focus is on the development of a sustainable business model or project, based on which students learn and try out modern methods such as the Sustainable Business Canvas, Design Thinking, Effectuation and the Blue Ocean Strategy.

This course explores the laws governing and/or related to the Internet and various forms of technology and spans numerous interrelated topics such as free speech, privacy, reproductive technologies and other medical and technological “wonders.” While the course draws extensively upon Anglo-American scholarship, legal texts, and case studies, it also introduces different philosophical foundations of free speech and other relevant concepts as various as privacy, property, and personhood, with the goal of providing conceptual tools for students to examine the laws and case studies in their home jurisdictions.

Practical work with standard software for geographical information systems (e.g. ArcGIS Pro): architecture, components, and functionality, principles of thematic modelling (thematic layers, object classes, etc.), geographical data models and data structures, spatial and topological relations, data acquisition and digitization, methods for geospatial analysis, cartographic theory, elements and principles of cartographic visualization, spatial reference systems and map projections, map design, symbolization, topographic and thematic maps, cartographic information systems, cartographic abstraction and generalization, multimedia cartography, spatial decision support systems, multi-criteria decision analysis.

This course examines the history of Berlin during the Cold War, with a specific emphasis on the Berlin Wall. Literary texts, historical documents, photographs, and films are used to analyze this period of time. The course explores perspectives from both sides of the wall on the two cultural, social, and political societies that existed in Berlin during the Cold War. The course discusses whether at this point in time the “wall in the head” (Peter Schneider) has degraded completely or persists in contemporary Berlin. Students actively participate in class and attend a number of excursions in the city.

The city's relationship to water will be considered in a number of different contexts from hydrogeology, engineering, and urban planning to cultural production. Water has been the subject of many films, paintings, and literary texts. We will explore this angle extensively, looking for concrete as well as symbolic and mythological meaning. Through student presentations, we will explore individual bodies of water, discover water infrastructure and research the city's current water management. Swimmers are encouraged to "sample" various bathing sites and report on their experience. The instructor will offer one or two city excursions outside the regular course times. Can I take this course? Yes, if you are interested in history, literature, and culture, and willing to explore the city in ways that go beyond the usual tourist experience.

The course considers the literature of nuclear disaster from 1986 to the present, comparing Chernobyl to selected literary responses to the Fukushima accident of 2011, and attempt to show some major tendencies in these works. Some questions the course may ask as the texts are read: How do writers capture the invisible threat of radiation? What is the larger political context they operate in? What forms can literature take in the face of disasters that are both local and global, and whose consequences exceed normal human temporality?

The course focuses on mapping and listening to acoustic territories in Berlin. It allows academic research for exploring and understanding the city by sensing aural environments. Structured in theory and practice, the central questions of the course are: Which sonic elements can we encounter in navigating historical and contemporary maps? Which methods of research and practices exist in the act of mapping with sound? How can we generate sound maps? From a transdisciplinary approach, the course reflects the city‘s cultural, social, and political dimensions through analyzing and creating maps by listening. It aims to allow students to explore auditory territories, gain strength, and develop knowledge and individual perspective on cultural studies and urban studies. The mapping methods are practice-based on field recordings, soundwalk, and sound diagramming exercises. The academic readings and discussions introduce the student to the field of sound studies.

This course introduces Bachelor students to the evolution of African literary canons from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Emphasis is laid on acquainting students to central debates that have preoccupied African writers and how these debates have unmasked the complexities of African societies before and at the dawn of colonialization. In exploring the texts, developing basic skills such as reading, interpreting, analyzing, and critiquing novels, short stories, drama, and poetry is a major objective of the seminar. Further, debates regarding the historical and cultural contexts of the literary productions shall be engaged in the course of the seminar. To have a better appreciation of African literatures, texts, and critical discourse from the African Diaspora shall be part of the literary corpus. The course also discusses major theoretical approaches to literature such as, structuralism, narratology, new historicism, and African feminist critical perspectives. The postcolonial theory is, however, a major critical discourse in the seminar.