Germany

This course considers travelling artists and artworks in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and the way in which people and objects interacted, thus shaping different local cultural contexts and places around Europe. Through the study of iconic travels such as those by Albrecht Durer, Raphael, Lorenzo Lotto, Martin van Heemskerk, El Greco, Sofonisba Anguissola, Federico Zuccari, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Pieter Paul Rubens, as well as the travel of major artworks within Europe, the course addresses the dynamics and forms of cultural encounters, their narratives, and meaning for today’s art history and its methodologies. Visits to the collections of Berlin museums (depending upon pandemic restrictions) allow students to study in depth specific artifacts and to learn how to look closely at works of art.

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the introduction and consolidation of basic grammatical structures, as well as on the continuous development of a basic vocabulary. Student develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills for specific everyday situations, work on oral and written exercises, and are introduced to independent learning methods. They work with and reflect on cultural topics in everyday situations in Germany, in Berlin, and at the university. In this class at the A1 level according to CEFR, students review and learn basic grammar points and are systematically introduced to basic vocabulary. All four skills are developed and applied to everyday situations and some study-related situations.

This course provides an introduction to linguistics. The theoretical focus is on the core areas of the discipline: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Students apply theoretical concepts when analyzing concrete linguistic data, primarily from English, with a focus on North American varieties.

In this course, students investigate how music influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Students study foundational methods, concepts, and theories of music psychology and critically debate empirical studies. Students get an overview of the wide range of topics in the subject, and they carry out independent literature research on a music psychological issue, to create experimental designs and to be able to assess experiments.

This class examines a major part of fluid mechanics: gas dynamics. It covers concepts such as combustion, compressible flows, normal and oblique shocks, and detonation. In addition, the course also focuses on applying the concepts of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics to propulsion systems such as a pulsejet and a rotating detonation combustor.

How do our unconscious biases impact the way we view people within the African Diaspora? This course explores intersectional inequalities of citizenship and the politics of Belonging and how our unconscious biases impact the way we view (Black) Africans and people within the African Diaspora. The relationship between migration, social cohesion, and national German identity has become an increasingly contentious political issue. Historically, the settlement of migrant groups and the formation of minority ethnic groups have changed the socio-cultural, political and economic fabric of receiving societies. The course explores the relationship between racial and ethnocultural diversity. Students are encouraged to the intentional notion of undoing – unlearning and dismantling unjust practices, assumptions, and institutions – as well as persistent action to create and build alternative spaces and ways of knowing, particularly concerning the Black (African) Diaspora. Berlin is used as a case study for themes covered, however, students are encouraged to reflect on their own identities and the expressions of various identities around the city.

This course is intended for students with limited prior knowledge of German. The course extends beyond simple communication, focusing instead on the ability to report in structurally more complex sentences about family, friends, future plans, and aspects of the past. Students learn the declension of adjectives and practice reading and listening techniques. They also improve their pronunciation by means of special phonetic exercises and compose their first more formal texts. This course is at the A1.2/A2.1 level according to CFER.