Germany

This class is predicated on the neuropsychology of auditory phenomena. Processes of human response to aspects of daily life such as conversation and music are explored via the reading of detailed research papers and in-class discussion of relevant topics.

This course sets the basics for an understanding of multimodal communication between humans and multimodal interaction between humans and machines. The course begins with clarifying the basic principles of human-human communication and human-machine interaction. The course then describes the processes taking place in humans when perceiving auditory, visual, and tactile signals, as well as how these perceptions are integrated in order to form a multimodal perception. The signals can be generated and received by machines which are able to interact with humans in limited domains. The set-up of such machines is discussed, and limitations as well as potential solutions to overcome these limitations is explained.

Students discuss the relationship between far right politics and liberal democracy. Focusing on Europe, students examine questions such as: How do far right mobilizations reflect wider structural forms of marginalization in society? Are mainstream political actors complicit in the normalization of exclusionary populist discourse? Does structural racism and other forms of discrimination/domination provide opportunities to far right actors? At the end of the seminar, students work in groups on ideas for counter-measures and present these as a project.

The course provides a broad and theoretical overview of European legal traditions from social, political, economic, and comparative perspectives. Starting with Roman Law, its coverage ranges from discussing the authority of law in history, literature, economics, and religion, through the creation of the European legal frameworks up to the establishment of a human rights tradition. Focus is given to the wider scope of legal developments in history that have shaped the conceptualization of law in present-day Europe and beyond. The course is roughly divided into two parts. The first part encompasses a brief overview of European legal thought from Roman law to the development of the common and civil legal traditions. In the second half of the course, the course examines the more recent developments of European politics and law. The first session will be dedicated to how social aspects (i.e. geography and religion) influence European legal developments. The second session deals with the fascist tendencies leading to World War Two. The last two sessions are dedicated to European integration and the formation of European Union mainly as an answer to the two World Wars. The focus here is on the legal coverage of the Union’s economy and respect for human rights through supranational cooperation.

This course surveys and analyzes the interaction between Europe and America since 1945 in the fields of politics, economics, and culture. Special emphasis is placed on the roles of the United States, Germany, and the European Union. The first part has a time-line approach, discussing cooperation and divergence of  interests before, during, and after the Cold War and after 9/11. During the second part, the course focus on issues of common concern for the U.S. and Europe today and on challenges facing the transatlantic partnership during the era of globalization with its challenges to the common values of the “West.” Current events are discussed whenever they become relevant. The course includes a guest speaker and a visit to the German Foreign Ministry for a talk on German-American relations.