Germany

In this class on the B1 level according to CEFR, students learn to understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. They deal with most situations likely to arise while traveling to an area where German is spoken. Students learn to produce simple connected texts on topics that are familiar or of personal interest. They acquire skills to describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. The B1 level is split into two courses, the B1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B1.2 course covers the second half of the level.

The course approaches legacy of the settler colonialism in Germany and the U.S., and it critically explores the forms it takes such as hobbyism, Indianthusiasm, Indigenous identity theft, cultural appropriation, and environmental racism. It also provides space for Indigenous voices regarding the issues, thus bringing the decolonizing approach into practice. Participants are expected to create their own research projects approaching the central research question from more specific dimensions (historical, cultural studies, and decolonial perspectives).

This lecture analyzes the three basic factors that have influenced modern Jewish identity: enlightenement, anti-Semitism, and Zionism. It examines the changes of how Jewish identity is understood. A special focus is placed on the differentiation of cultural or national and religious identity with an emphasis on feminism and queerness. Gender relations are examined within their respective religious, cultural, and social contexts. Social history and the history of the common man is discussed and a special focus is placed on the active participation of Jewish women in society as well as the intellectual and artistic life within European nation states.

Modern nation-states rely on borders to govern mobility as “migration.” In the context of globalization, migration governance and the public debates and societal contestations around it have become increasingly salient. This interdisciplinary course addresses different phenomena of migration and borders, paying attention to the historical contexts and the complex and contested nature of migration governance. Drawing on social, legal, cultural, historical, and political perspectives, and engaging grassroots movements and audio-visual works, the course focuses on European and German policies, institutions, practices, and debates over migration and borders. Also the Berlin level is discussed, particularly by guests and in relation to local contestations. The course takes distance from the nation-state and borders as normative frames, introducing critiques of methodological nationalism and critical perspectives emerging from (everyday) practices of migration and antiracist movements. Borders are explored as complex, contested practices / relations at the intersection of race, law, gender, control of labor, international relations, and other factors, creating (global) social hierarchies and unequal access to mobility and other rights / resources.